Do Cheats Disable Achievements? It Depends on the Game
Steam does not check whether you cheated. It records an achievement when the game tells it to, and the game tells it whenever its own code decides. So the answer lives inside each game, and it differs wildly: Crusader Kings 3 locks achievements the moment its console is enabled, Palworld has no lockout at all, and Red Dead Redemption 2 turns off saving as well. Here is how the mechanism works and what the games we cover actually do.
Takeaways Three kinds of games, three answers
- Trainer changes nothing No lockout Palworld, Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, Fallout Shelter. The game has no cheat flag, so achievements unlock as usual.
- Built-in cheats cost them Lockout by the game's own console Crusader Kings 3, Bannerlord, Satisfactory. Enable the console or cheat mode and that save stops earning achievements. A trainer bypasses the flag.
- The strictest case Lockout plus no saving Red Dead Redemption 2. Any active cheat code turns off saving and achievements for the session.
Steam is not the referee
An achievement on Steam unlocks when the game says so. The Steamworks documentation describes the mechanism from the developer’s side: when an achievement is earned, the game calls the API to set it and then stores the stats. Nothing in that flow asks Valve whether the player used a trainer, a console command or a mod. The unlock logic lives in the game’s code, and only there.
That is why the question has no single answer. Two games on the same store, both with cheats, can behave in opposite ways, and both are doing what their developers chose.
Games that lock, and how
The lockout is always a flag. The game notices that you opened its console, enabled its cheat mode or activated a code, marks the save, and stops calling the achievement API for that save. The interesting part is what sets the flag, because a trainer usually does not.
Crusader Kings 3 opens its console only with the -debug_mode launch option, and a campaign started with it earns no achievements. The console commands guide goes through the commands; the trainer has a switch that opens the console without the launch option, which is the whole reason that switch exists.
Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord ties the lockout to config.cheat_mode 1. Type it and the campaign stops earning achievements, even if all you did afterwards was unlock the smithing parts. The parts stay unlocked if you switch cheat mode off again; the achievements do not come back.
Satisfactory puts its cheats in Advanced Game Settings, formerly Creative Mode, and enabling them is permanent for that save and disables achievements. The newer game modes with cost multipliers keep achievements, which the Satisfactory guide sorts out.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is the strictest of the lot. Activate any of its 37 cheat codes and the game stops saving and stops counting achievements for the session. Enter the codes, save, then switch them on for a run you do not intend to keep.
Hearts of Iron 4 and the other Paradox titles follow the CK3 pattern: the console is a launch option away in some and open by default in others, and Ironman mode is the one that counts for achievements. The HOI4 command list has the details.
Games that do not care
The other half of the catalogue has no flag at all. Palworld has no achievement lockout tied to cheats. Cyberpunk 2077 has no lockout for mods or memory editing, which the Cyberpunk guide states plainly. Hogwarts Legacy and Fallout Shelter have nothing to trip. In these games a trainer, a table or a save edit makes no difference to the trophy list, because there is no code checking.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a special case worth knowing: mods normally disable achievements, but the community Script Extender re-enables them by default, as the BG3 guide explains. Honour mode is the exception, by design.
Where a trainer sits in this
A trainer changes values in memory. It does not open the game’s console, it does not set the cheat-mode variable, it does not activate a code. So in games that lock achievements through those mechanisms, a trainer changes the same numbers without setting the flag. That is not a loophole anyone hid; it is simply that the flag watches the game’s own cheat system, and the trainer is not part of it.
The Palworld trainer is the everyday example: 54 switches, no flag in the game to trip.
Two honest caveats. Some games check the values themselves rather than a flag, and a health bar that never moves can trip a sanity check in a game built to notice. And none of this applies online: achievements in a multiplayer game are the least of what an anti-cheat takes away, which the guide on bans covers.
The practical rule
Before you cheat in a game you want the achievements from, look up which mechanism it uses. If the lockout hangs on the console or a cheat mode, keep a clean save from before you enable it, or use a trainer that leaves the flag alone. If the game has no lockout, there is nothing to plan. And if it is Red Dead Redemption 2, save first, every time.
Infographic Three kinds of games, three answers Click to enlarge Does Steam disable achievements if you use cheats?
No. Steam records an achievement when the game calls the Steamworks API to unlock it. There is no check on Valve's side for trainers, mods or console use. Whether cheating blocks achievements is decided inside the game.
Which games lock achievements when you cheat?
Among the games covered here: Crusader Kings 3 when debug mode is on, Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord when cheat mode is on, Satisfactory when Advanced Game Settings are enabled, and Red Dead Redemption 2 whenever a cheat code is active. Each flag is set by the game's own cheat system.
Does a trainer disable achievements?
Usually not, because a trainer changes values in memory without touching the flag the game uses to mark a save as cheated. In games without any lockout it makes no difference. In games with a console-triggered lockout, a trainer is the way to change values without setting the flag.
Can I get achievements back after cheating?
Only by loading a save from before the flag was set, in games that flag the save. In Crusader Kings 3 that means a save started without debug mode. In Red Dead Redemption 2 you load a save made before the cheat was activated.