Every gamer has been there: staring down a boss that seems impossible, dying for the hundredth time, wondering if the developers hate their players. But sometimes, the gaming community finds a third option between "git gud" and "give up" — they break the game in the most creative ways possible.
Cheese strategies, glitches, and unintended mechanics have become as much a part of gaming culture as speedruns and achievement hunting. These exploits represent the beautiful collision between player creativity and game design, often resulting in moments that are simultaneously hilarious and brilliant.
The Hall of Fame Cheeses
1. Elden Ring's Margit Skip
Fromsoftware's latest masterpiece gave us one of the most iconic cheese moments in recent memory. Players discovered they could use Torrent to leap over Margit entirely, skipping the tutorial boss that was meant to teach proper combat mechanics. The irony? Many players found this harder than actually fighting Margit properly.
2. World of Warcraft's Saurfang Door Boss
During Wrath of the Lich King, raiders discovered they could exploit line-of-sight mechanics to make Deathbringer Saurfang reset his abilities. What should have been an intense encounter became a patient waiting game as players hid behind pillars, turning one of the expansion's most dramatic fights into a comedy of errors.
3. Dark Souls' Capra Demon Firebomb Strategy
Before even entering the boss arena, clever players realized they could lob firebombs over the fog gate to kill the Capra Demon without ever facing those terrifying dogs in the cramped arena. It's cheese so legendary that speedrunners still debate its legitimacy.
4. Skyrim's Shadowmere Cliff Drop
Players discovered that the invincible horse Shadowmere could be used to cheese nearly any dragon encounter by leading them to specific cliff edges. The dragons would get confused by the terrain and essentially defeat themselves. Todd Howard probably didn't see that one coming.
5. Baldur's Gate 3's Explosive Barrel Symphony
Larian's masterpiece is built for creative problem-solving, but players took it to extremes by pre-positioning dozens of explosive barrels before major boss fights. Why engage with complex mechanics when you can just blow everything up?
The Psychology Behind the Cheese
What makes these exploits so satisfying? It's not just about taking the easy way out. There's genuine creativity involved in discovering these methods, often requiring deep understanding of game systems and mechanics. Players who find cheese strategies are essentially reverse-engineering the game, finding gaps in the developer's logic.
The Developer's Dilemma
Interestingly, many developers choose to leave certain cheese strategies in their games. Hidetaka Miyazaki has famously stated that if players find creative ways to overcome challenges in FromSoftware games, that's part of the intended experience. The line between "exploit" and "creative use of mechanics" is often thinner than players realize.
Modern Cheese Culture
6. Destiny 2's Raid Cheese Evolution
Bungie has engaged in an ongoing cat-and-mouse game with their community. Every raid release comes with the expectation that players will find ways to break encounters. The Crota's End bridge section became so synonymous with cheese strategies that Bungie eventually embraced it as part of the raid's identity.
7. Monster Hunter's Environmental Kills
Capcom's hunting series has always rewarded environmental awareness, but players have elevated this to an art form. Leading massive monsters into environmental hazards that kill them instantly has become a legitimate speedrun category.
8. The Witcher 3's Roach Glitch Boss Kills
Geralt's faithful horse Roach became an unlikely weapon when players discovered certain mounting glitches could bypass boss immunities and damage phases. CD Projekt Red's response? They mostly left it in because it was hilarious.
The Competitive Scene
9. Street Fighter's Unblockable Setups
Fighting game communities have turned cheese strategies into high art. What starts as exploitation often evolves into legitimate tournament tactics, forcing developers to decide between patching "broken" mechanics or embracing them as features.
10. Speedrun Categories Born from Cheese
Many speedrun categories exist specifically because of cheese strategies. "Any%" runs often showcase the most broken possible routes through games, celebrating the absolute destruction of developer intent.
The Ethics of Exploitation
Not all cheese is created equal. There's a spectrum from "clever use of mechanics" to "obvious bug exploitation." The gaming community has generally settled on an unspoken code: if it's in the game and doesn't hurt other players, it's fair game.
11-15. The Honorable Mentions
- Halo 2's Sword Canceling: Turned campaign encounters into speed-clearing exhibitions
- World of Warcraft's Dungeon Reset Exploits: Made farming rare items trivial
- Dark Souls 2's Despawning Enemies: Patience became the ultimate weapon
- Pokémon's Missingno: The granddaddy of all beneficial glitches
- Grand Theft Auto's Physics Exploits: Turning cars into missiles since 2001
The Future of Cheese
As games become more complex and systemic, the opportunities for creative exploitation only increase. Games like Tears of the Kingdom and Baldur's Gate 3 are designed with enough mechanical depth that "breaking" them feels intentional.
The best cheese strategies share common elements: they require player creativity, deep system knowledge, and often perfect timing. They transform moments of frustration into moments of triumph, even if that triumph comes from completely subverting the developer's vision.
In the end, cheese strategies represent gaming at its most democratic. They prove that no matter how carefully developers craft their experiences, players will always find ways to make games their own. And honestly? That's exactly how it should be.
Whether you're a purist who believes in facing every challenge head-on or a pragmatist who believes victory is victory, one thing is certain: the most memorable gaming moments often come from the times we broke the rules and got away with it.
