An anticheat for a PvP server has to reliably catch combat cheats — KillAura, Reach, Velocity, AutoClicker, AimAssist, TriggerBot — without banning honest players on high ping. Minigames like BedWars and SkyWars add building and movement cheats on top: Scaffold, Tower, FastPlace, Speed and Blink. Below: what each one does, who checks it and how to set up your defence.
Combat cheats
KillAura hits targets by itself, Multi-aura hits several in one tick. Reach hits beyond reach, HitBox enlarges hitboxes. AimAssist aims for the player, TriggerBot hits the instant the crosshair lands on a target, AutoClicker clicks by itself.
The second group bends the physics of a fight: Velocity ignores knockback, KeepSprint keeps sprint after a hit, Criticals lands crits without a real jump. These are sneaky: a player with Velocity just looks “steady”, and without a check he can go unnoticed for weeks.
| Cheat | DGuard | GrimAC | Vulcan | Polar | Intave | Matrix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KillAurahits targets by itself | partly: no dedicated check — only indirectly, via Reach and packet order | |||||
| Multi-auraseveral targets in one tick | partly: exists, but experimental — off by default | partly: not named — only a generic cloud 'combat heuristics' | partly: no dedicated check — only a general attack cap, never punished | |||
| Reachhits beyond reach | ||||||
| HitBoxenlarged hitboxes | partly: not named — only the hit-distance check | |||||
| AimAssist / Aimbotaims for the player | partly: only two rotation artifacts: a 360° snap and a repeated look | partly: not named — only a generic cloud 'combat heuristics' | ||||
| TriggerBothits the instant the crosshair lands | partly: not named — only the generic combat-automation heuristic | |||||
| AutoClickerclicks for the player | ||||||
| Criticalscrits without a real jump | partly: no dedicated check — only the generic on-ground check | partly: not named — only the ground-spoof check | partly: no dedicated check — only the generic on-ground check | |||
| Velocityignores knockback | ||||||
| KeepSprintsprint isn't reset after a hit | partly: not named — only the generic movement simulation | partly: no working dedicated check — only the generic movement simulation |
The gap shows even among well-known names. GrimAC is free and strong at movement, but it has no KillAura, Aim or AutoClicker checks — they're placeholders in its config. None of the five anticheats in our comparison has a full TriggerBot check. DGuard ships 20 combat-behaviour rules plus aim, reaction and autoclicker checks out of the box, with no experimental toggles.
Cheats in BedWars, SkyWars and other minigames
In minigames, combat is only half the game. In BedWars and SkyWars the winner is whoever bridges to an island fastest and reaches the bed or the middle first. That brings its own cheats:
- Scaffold bridges under the player without looking down — faster and safer than any manual bridging.
- Tower pillars up faster than a human, FastPlace places blocks too often.
- Speed moves faster than the game allows: first to the middle, first to someone else's bed.
- Blink holds packets and teleports the player: to everyone else he vanishes and reappears on another island.
- FastBreak breaks through bed defences faster than the tool allows.
| Cheat | DGuard | GrimAC | Vulcan | Polar | Intave | Matrix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scaffoldbridges without looking | ||||||
| Towerpillars up faster than a human | partly: no dedicated check — only the generic jump simulation | partly: not named — only the Scaffold check | partly: not named — only the generic placement analysis | |||
| FastPlaceplaces blocks too often | partly: only several blocks in a tick, via an experimental check | partly: not named — only a right-click CPS limit | partly: only with timing checks on — off by default | |||
| Speedfaster than the game allows | ||||||
| Blinkholds packets, then teleports | partly: no dedicated check — partly, via the experimental BadPacketsR | |||||
| FastBreakbreaks faster than possible | partly: not named — only a generic block-interaction check |
Duels and arenas are closer to pure PvP: the combat cheats from the first table decide them. In modes like Sumo, where you win by pushing the other player off the platform, Velocity decides everything — you simply can't knock a player using it off.
Why combat is judged on evidence, not a single hit
A false ban in PvP is expensive: ban a strong player and his friends leave with him. And combat is the noisiest place for an anticheat. On high ping the server sees the opponent's position late, so an honest hit can look like Reach. A lag spike delivers a burst of packets at once, which looks like an autoclicker or Blink.
So a single trigger shouldn't ban. In DGuard every trigger is evidence with a weight: VL × the rule's weight. Evidence halves every day, and a ban comes only when the player reaches 400 points across three separate episodes.
There's also something lag can't fake. The DGuard team took the Minecraft 1.21.11 client apart down to the packet: an honest client sends packets in a strict order within a tick, and KillAura breaks it — for example, it turns before the hit. Lag delays packets but never reorders them. DGuard's combat model is trained on real cheaters on a live server with 500+ online, and any new bypass gets closed within a couple of days.
Every ban comes with a report breaking down the evidence. If a ban turns out wrong, send the report to support — they'll break the fight down tick by tick and fix the rule. More in false bans.
DGuard runs its aim and TriggerBot rules in its cloud check. The plugin sends game measurements there — camera turns, positions relative to a random point with no world coordinates, clicks and hits — under random session numbers; they're kept only in memory and deleted after 10 minutes of silence. That's why the server needs outbound HTTPS to the DGuard site.
AI Combat: DGuard's combat neural network
If PvP is your server's main mode, combat needs more than a set of rules. That's what DGuard's AI Combat is for: its own AI combat model, trained on billions of gameplay data points collected while working with and testing on the most popular PvP servers. Today it is the strongest AI model in anticheats, and it already works in DGuard's cloud check together with the aim rules and TriggerBot analysis.
The neural network reads a fight tick by tick — camera turns, hits, clicks, movement around hits — while DGuard's checks cover every other front: movement, packets, inventory, building and the world. For BedWars that matters: Scaffold, Blink and Speed aren't combat cheats. It's all one plugin and one subscription — AI Combat comes with DGuard on every plan. More on the AI Combat page.
Strictness for PvP and minigames
In a minigame a cheater ruins the match for everyone else, so it pays to react faster than on survival. Decide what earns a kick and what earns a ban: in DGuard that's set per cheat feature, with evidence weights and thresholds in the config, from a soft mode to zero tolerance. Ready config.yml files for PvP and BedWars from other owners are in the config store, and the rules generator writes the rules for your players.
Versions and older clients
DGuard runs on Paper and Leaf 1.21–26.3. The main version is 1.21.11: DGuard is tested on it and runs on production servers; the others are supported but haven't been checked on production servers yet. Players join from 1.21–26.x clients via ViaVersion and are checked the same way.
If your PvP is built around 1.8 clients, keep in mind that DGuard is built for 1.21.11, not 1.8, and checks players on 1.21–26.x clients. How to pick an anticheat for your mode — in how to choose an anticheat.
FAQ
What's the best anticheat for BedWars?
One that checks building and movement as well as combat: Scaffold, Tower, FastPlace, Speed and Blink. DGuard has a check for each of them, and combat is also read by AI Combat, DGuard's own combat neural network.
Does an anticheat ban players for high ping?
It shouldn't. DGuard never bans on a single trigger: a ban comes when the player reaches 400 evidence points across three separate episodes. And lag can't fake a broken packet order within a tick.
Does DGuard catch TriggerBot and AimAssist?
Yes, DGuard checks both; their rules run in DGuard's cloud check. In our comparison, none of the five popular anticheats has a full TriggerBot check.
Do I need a second anticheat for PvP if I run DGuard?
No. DGuard already has AI Combat — its own AI combat model, trained on billions of gameplay data points from the most popular PvP servers — and checks on every other front. There's no need for a separate combat anticheat.
Does DGuard work with 1.8 clients?
DGuard is built for 1.21.11, not 1.8: it checks players on 1.21–26.x clients joining via ViaVersion. 1.8 clients fall outside that range.