StarCraft 2 Cheat Codes Officially Revealed

News
By Kevin Parrish
published

Blizzard cleared the air in regards to using official StarCraft 2 cheat codes in the single-player campaign.

Friday Blizzard cleared the air in regards to using the official cheat codes in StarCraft 2's single-player campaign. Previously gamers received conflicting messages from Blizzard, with Customer Services admitting that it's banning players using cheat codes in the single-player mode while another representative claimed that players can use them safely.

The problem with using cheats-- whether they're programmed by Blizzard or offered by a 3rd-party application-- is that they affect the user's achievements and overall score. Blizzard wants gamers to earn their scores and achievements honestly, however there seems to be some understanding that sometimes players need God Mode or Instant Victory. With that said, Blizzard has released a list of official cheat codes sanctioned for use in StarCraft 2.

But there's a catch.

"Before using cheat codes it’s important to understand that using them will prevent additional achievement gains you might have earned through normal play until either a new campaign is started or a prior save is loaded (one from before the use of the first cheat)," the company said Friday. "All of these cheat codes have been added deliberately to the game and unlike third-party hacks or cheats won’t flag an account for suspension."

So there you have it: official Blizzard cheat codes can be used "safely," but they can't be used to officially move the campaign forward. According to Blizzard, cheat codes can only be used in single-player mode by pressing the enter key within the game and typing in the codes within the console. To access the entire list, head here.

As you'll see, the list contains 16 major cheat codes, 5 story mode cheat codes, a custom maps cheat code, and an Easter egg cheat code. The actual codes bounce everywhere in the entertainment industry, referring to Star Wars, Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings and even Star Trek. Fun stuff.

Kevin Parrish
26 Comments Comment from the forums
  • notrace
    Black Sheep Wall
    Reply
  • f4nt4sm4
    The Gathering!!
    Reply
  • gr33nf00t
    No Secret Cow Level reference? FOR SHAME Blizzard!
    Reply
  • Ramar
    Well congrats Blizzard, you caught up with how everyone else has been doing it for almost a decade.
    Reply
  • Hunter_Killers
    You know they've had cheat codes in every game to date except for WoW and maybe Diablo right?
    Reply
  • carlhenry
    My life for Aiur!!
    Reply
  • machvelocy
    wth? i got these codes from gamefaqs four months ago
    Reply
  • tpi2007
    Like Ramar said, but somehow it seems some companies sometimes unlearn what has been done by other companies for years.

    Anybody recall Half-Life 2 godmode; noclip, etc; they don't give you achievements, but it can be a lot of fun to browse the scenery in ways you otherwise couldn't.
    Reply
  • nottheking
    So wait, Blizzard originally forgot to design StarCraft II to properly handle its own cheat codes? Sounds like a colossal failure of thought. I really hope that's not been the case. In either way, even allowing the media to THINK that players would be banned for cheating in single-player is troublesome. Worse so that, given the draconian DRM the game uses, banning a player means effectively bricking their copy of the game, which is patently illegal under the First Sale Doctrine. That's the same sort of thing Amazon got in trouble for earlier with deleting customer's Kindle books; EULAs cannot change that.

    As for how everyone else has been doing it, it's been MORE than a decade; I recall the first Descent Freespace game, which has been out for near 13 years, (March 1998) doing a similar thing: using any cheat code on a mission would let you get to the end of it, but the mission debriefing would decry you as a cheater, and refuse to let you advance; you had to re-do the mission. And even earlier, the original Descent game, (Feb 1995, ~16 years ago) would let you play through with cheats... But your score would be automatically locked at zero as soon as you used one.

    Perhaps 6 years of nothing but WoW HAS drained their ability to think of anything but. Or, more likely, it's that not only does Bobby Kotick (CEO of Activision-Blizzard) doesn't play THEIR OWN games, perhaps he doesn't play any games at all, and hence has absolutely zero understanding of the subject whatsoever.
    Reply
  • BlueFireAngel
    What's really funny is that people still don't understand this. This is the same line that Blizzard's been running the whole time. From what I understand they haven't changed positions, they haven't made a mistake in the game. They created cheat codes in the game just like they've done for years. Those are fine to use. They've said that over and over again.
    What they don't want is third party hacks, cheats, etc. being used because, in theory (if not in practice), that allows a player to earn achievements with an unfair advantage over other players. Since the game is tied to online play and, therefore, global rankings, if those kinds of cheats were allowed, there would be no possible way to accurately determine player rankings.
    What Blizzard has done, makes sense. What's unfortunate, is that people jump to conclusions and then promote hype and hysteria rather then evaluating what actually has been said. Read, think, then speak.
    Reply