Apex Legends PC trick fires Hemlok full auto – but is it ‘cheating’?

An Apex Legends trick enables players to fire the Hemlok Assault Rifle – a three-round burst or single-fire weapon – in a fully automatic state, but is it fair or should it be considered cheating?

Despite its obvious popularity, Apex Legends has suffered from its share of bugs and glitches.

This Hemlok ‘exploit’ has been known about since early 2019, but debate has been reignited over whether or not it’s fair, as some users claim it should be considered cheating – and subsequently a bannable offense.

The Hemlok is one of stronger ARs in terms of damage output, balanced by its burst-fire and slower handling mechanics. However, with its impressive DPS, the idea of a fully automatic Hemlok is something players will shudder at. 

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But, by simply binding the mouse wheel up to the ‘fire’ command and switching to single-fire mode, players can basically reproduce an automatic weapon’s rate of fire with the Hemlock. 

SIngle-fire mode is available on a number of full-auto weapons in Apex Legends, but the trick does cause the Hemlok to fire much faster than intended. While nowhere near the fire rate of some weapons – like the R-99 – the combined effect can make the Hemlok even more deadly. 

However, should the exploit be considered cheating? The glitch has been in the game for a while, suggesting that Respawn are not too concerned about patching it. 

It is clearly not the way the weapon was intended to be used, but many will argue that the absence of a Respawn response, and the fact that it only requires a keybind change, means it should not be considered ‘cheating’. 

Many games have glitches that enable players to manipulate mechanics, but are not considered cheating. For example, Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s advanced movement system saw players manipulate the game’s jet packs to ‘G-Slide’ – a move that propelled players forward significantly faster than should have been possible. 

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This quickly became integrated into the professional scene as the most efficient way of traversing the maps, before developers Treyarch patched it. However, it was not considered cheating, despite it being due to a glitch within the game.

We’ll have to wait and see what Respawn make of the glitch, as community attention is drawn once again to what could be considered an unfair exploit. You can stay up to date with all the glitches Respawn are monitoring via their Trello board.