A Call of Duty Operator skin is making players immune to cheats

Cheating has long been one of the primary issues facing any new Call of Duty title and all integrations of Warzone. Since 2020, the problem has become rampant, and despite Activision's best efforts with its RICOCHET anti-cheat software, cheaters still fill lobbies in both MW3 and Warzone.

However, it appears that Activision might have fixed the cheating problem without even meaning to do so. According to members of the community, a certain Operator skin for Ghost messes with aimbotting cheat software. The skin almost entirely mitigates aimbotting, forcing cheaters to actually hit their shots instead of having AI do it for them.

The skin that stops aimbotting is called "The Rook," and it's available in two different variants for Ghost. However, players have recommended that you only use the base skin and not the BlackCell variant of The Rook.

You can change your Operator skin by going to the "Operators" tab at the top of the screen in MW3 or Warzone. Here, find Ghost on the Specgru side, click on his icon, and then scroll down your available list of Operators until you find The Rook. The Rook was originally a Battle Pass skin unlockable in Season 5 of MW2. As such, if you did not unlock it in MW2, it won't be available for you to use.

Luckily, there is a Store bundle that features The Rook's base skin. The bundle is called "MW2 Battle Pass Season 5 & 6 Collection." Unfortunately, the bundle costs 2,400 CoD Points and is not in the store at the time of writing. It's possible the bundle will return soon, though.

For anyone that only plays multiplayer in Call of Duty, it's not recommended you purchase the bundle if you plan on playing Black Ops 6. There is no "carry forward" from MW3 to BO6, so you won't be able to use The Rook skin in BO6. If you're a Warzone player, however, there is carry forward in the battle royale, so The Rook skin will be usable when BO6 integrates with Warzone at the end of 2024.

Apparently, The Rook skin has been able to stop aimbotting ever since it was released way back in Call of Duty: MW2. However, it's only recently become public knowledge. YouTuber NukeJesus was the first to publicize The Rook's skin extra powers, as they published a YouTube video showing exactly how it works.

In the video, NukeJesus joins a lobby with a cheater using aimbot and showcases just how many shots the cheater misses when they are using The Rook skin. The skin doesn't completely stop aimbotting, especially at close range, but if you're standing far away and behind any cover when using The Rook, aimbotters won't be able to lock onto you.

Instead, the cheaters have to guide their cheats themselves, which is essentially like them trying to shoot you without any cheats enabled. Basically, The Rook skin has a different kind of hitbox that helps to negate aimbotting.

The Rook has become such an issue for cheat manufacturers and users that cheating Discords have been selling accounts with The Rook on it. Cheaters themselves are now forced to use the skin to stop other cheaters from using it against them in matches.

Many players in the Call of Duty community have pleaded with Activision to use whatever model The Rook uses on other Operators. That way, players can use whatever skin they want and still gain the benefits of stopping aimbotting. However, Activision has yet to comment on The Rook skin and confirm or deny if it actually does stop cheating.

So, for now, if you want to play Call of Duty, especially Warzone, then using The Rook skin is your best defense against cheating.

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