Elder Scrolls Blades hacks explained: what do cheats and mods do and what are the risks?

Blades can be grindy, so it's no surprise Elder Scrolls Blades hacks and cheats exist for people looking for… less legitimate ways to progress. These are hacks that modify your game to speed up progress or make quests much easier. In this Elder Scrolls Blades hacks guide we’ll go through the kind of cheats that exist and why you should probably avoid downloading them onto your phone.

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What are Elder Scrolls: Blades hacks?

Elder Scrolls Blades has only been in Early Access for a matter of months, but there’s already a boatload of hacks touching nearly every aspect of the free-to-play game. You can find hacks for unlimited gems, unlimited chests, unlimited gold, God Mode, damage boosts and more advertised online, mostly through player forums and YouTube videos. Some players have also reported being approached by hack creators on both Reddit and Discord via private messages, offering free gems.

Some hacks promise all-in-one “mod menus” for both Android and iOS, and some users are downloading programs that let them bypass the cost of in-app purchases.

Most of the hacks require you to root your Android phone or jailbreak your iOS device first, then download a variety of files on a PC and transfer them to your phone. The hacks might change data within the Blades app to, for example, avoid the usual purchase verification process. Others will create a duplicate version of the app.

We’ve also seen tools that don’t appear to modify any data on your phone - rather, they ask you to input your Bethesda.net account information and claim to simply transfer as many gold and gems to your Blades game as you desire, providing you’re using a VPN. This is a bad idea for obvious reasons. 

Will Elder Scroll: Blades hacks get you banned?

Yes, most likely, as it violates the game’s terms of service. Players have already reported that they have been banned for downloading hacks, and this appears to be happening in waves. Some have shared emails they’ve received from Bethesda, in which the studio says the ban relates to “third-party tools” and unauthorized software.

Bethesda hasn’t said anything about banning players directly, so we have no idea how many players have been banned.

Some hacks claim to have specific “anti-ban features” that will help players avoid detection. As you’d expect, their creators haven’t been keen to share how they work, and there’s no way of knowing whether their claims are true. Even if you use such a hack and do not get banned, that doesn’t mean you won’t be locked out of the game in a future ban wave. 

Hacking and banning is always a bit of an arms race, so the ways in which hackers try to avoid detection, and the way Bethesda tries to root them out, will likely change over time.

What are the dangers of using hacks?

The primary danger is being banned, as mentioned above. If you are caught using hacks, it’s likely you won’t be able to play Blades again, at least on the linked Bethesda.net account. You could create a new Bethesda.net account to play Blades, but there’s no guarantee it won't happen again. 

However, another danger of using hacks relates to the source you’re downloading them from. For a lot of pages we’ve seen offering the downloads, it’s hard to verify the contents of any files or the output of hyperlinks before you click on them. 

A lot of these pages also contain link spam - and clicking on random links in forums, particularly ones that seem to be generated by bots, is always a bad idea. Some pages also appear to contain fake comments (“Wow this is awesome tool, thanks received my gems and gold!”).

Will you be able to hack in Blades’ PvP?

It’s hard to say, but PvP will certainly increase the appetite for hacks, and likely result in Bethesda stepping up its effort to ban players. Currently, hacks are just a way of speeding through the game. If you’re somebody that supports Blades with real-money purchases, you might feel it’s unfair that other players are able to cheat their way to the end-game, but at least it doesn’t change your experience. 

Hacks in Blades’ PvP Arena mode - which we know is coming at some point to The Elder Scrolls: Blades - would be a different matter. As we’ve seen in other multiplayer games on various platforms, including mobile, hackers can ruin the experience for others in a competitive environment by cheating their way to the top.

Unfortunately, it’s inevitable that these higher stakes will attract more hacks. We’d expect Bethesda, in turn, to step up its attempt to detect and ban hackers so that the rest of the player base can have as fun as time as possible.