"Anti-cheat" sounds like one thing, but it is really several detection methods layered together. Understanding the layers explains why some cheats are caught instantly and others survive for months.
Signature scanning
The oldest method: the anti-cheat keeps a database of known cheat code and scans memory and files for matches. It is fast and reliable against known threats, but useless against a cheat it has never seen — which is why cheat developers constantly rewrite their code.
Memory and code integrity
Anti-cheats verify that the game's own code and memory have not been altered. If a cheat patches the game to see through walls or remove recoil, the modification itself is the evidence. Kernel-level anti-cheats do this from a privileged position the cheat cannot easily hide from.
Behavioural and heuristic analysis
Instead of looking for known code, this layer looks for impossible behaviour: aim that snaps with inhuman precision, reactions faster than human reflexes, movement no real input could produce. It does not need to recognise the cheat — only the result.
Server-side statistics
The server sees every player's actions and can analyse them at scale. Hit rates, accuracy curves and win patterns that fall far outside the human range get flagged. Because this runs on the server, no client-side cheat can hide from it.
Why bans sometimes arrive late
Combining these layers takes time. A new cheat may evade signature scans until it is studied; behavioural and statistical systems need enough data to be confident. That is why ban waves exist — confirmed cases are batched so cheat developers cannot instantly see which detection caught them.
The takeaway
No single method catches everything. Modern anti-cheat is signature scanning, integrity checks, behavioural analysis and server statistics working together — and a cheat has to beat all of them at once to survive.