How Many Cheat Codes Can Run at Once, Without Bugs

You know that moment when you’re feeling like an unstoppable legend unlimited health, infinite ammo, money falling from the sky and then the screen freezes so hard you can practically hear your console whisper, “Absolutely not”?

Yeah. That.

The good news: you can stack cheats without turning your game into a crashy little drama queen. You just need to know (1) how many cheats your setup can realistically handle, (2) which cheat types hate each other, and (3) a boring but life saving testing routine that keeps your save file from getting possessed.

Let’s keep your “power fantasy” from turning into “reload last save and cry.”

First: Your System Has a Limit. Respect It. (Or Don’t. But Don’t Blame Me.)

Every platform has a breaking point. Some systems are sturdy little workhorses. Some are the type to faint if you look at them wrong.

Here’s the real world vibe check:

• PC (Cheat Engine / trainers): Usually 8-15 active cheats before things start getting… weird. And “heavy” cheats (ones constantly writing or running scripts) can count like 2-3 cheats each.
• Emulators (GameShark / Action Replay codes): Often 15-20 codes, assuming they’re compatible with your ROM/version. Also: some “one” cheats are actually a bundle of codes wearing a trench coat.
• Native console cheats (built-in button combos): Typically the most stable, because the devs actually tested them (imagine that). Not invincible, but way less likely to explode your game.

And please—before you start toggling chaos like you’re conducting a digital orchestra—make 2-3 rotating backup saves. Not one. One is how you end up staring at a corrupted file like it personally betrayed you. Multiple backups = options.

Backups first. Chaos second. This is the way.

The “One Per Category” Rule (aka: Cheat Diplomacy)

Most crashes happen because two cheats are messing with the same system at the same time. It’s not “more is more.” It’s “two raccoons fighting in the pantry.”

My favorite rule for staying stable: aim for one cheat per category.

Here are the main categories that tend to overlap and start bar fights:

• Health / survivability: god mode, infinite health, no damage
• Combat stuff: infinite ammo, one hit kills, damage multipliers
• Movement / time / physics: speed hacks, moon jump, slow motion (the chaos trio)
• Inventory / item spawns: “give all items,” item spawners, max inventory
• Progression / flags / triggers: skip boss, auto-complete quest, unlock areas
• Cosmetic / visuals: skins, model swaps, HUD tweaks (usually low drama)
• Economy / XP: infinite money, instant level-ups

If you’re sitting there like, “But I want god mode and a damage multiplier,” you can try it… but that’s exactly the kind of pairing that makes games do math wrong and then fall over.

The Cheat Combos That Love to Ruin Your Day

Some combinations are basically you asking the game to juggle knives while sprinting.

I avoid these when I can:

• Speed hack + teleportation (player/camera desync = instant circus)
• Multiple item spawners at once (inventory corruption is a special kind of heartbreak)
• God mode + damage modifiers (health math gets crunchy, in a bad way)
• Walk through walls + progression skips (hello, missing triggers and softlocks)

Will these combos always crash every game? No.

Will they crash often enough that I mutter “I knew it” like a tired parent? Yes.

Why Your Platform Acts Like That One Friend Who Can’t Handle Two Drinks

Same cheat idea, different platform behavior.

• PC (Cheat Engine): You’ve got power… and responsibility… and also CPU/RAM limits. Freezing a value is usually lighter than scripts that constantly rewrite memory. If things start stuttering, turn off the “always writing” stuff first.
• Emulators: Often forgiving, but picky. A cheat made for one ROM revision might freak out on another (US v1.0 vs v1.1, PAL vs JP, etc.). Match your cheat list to your exact version or prepare for nonsense.
• Old school cartridge devices (GameShark on original hardware): They had hard limits, and when you cross them, you don’t always get a dramatic crash. Sometimes you get the worst outcome: silent weirdness. Cheats half work, or work “sometimes,” or turn your NPC into a glitchy accordion.

Your Game Usually Warns You Before It Dies (If You’re Paying Attention)

Crashes rarely come out of nowhere. The game starts showing little signs—like it’s clearing its throat.

Early warning signs:

• FPS drops (sudden slideshow energy)
• audio cutting out or desyncing
• input lag (buttons feel like they’re moving through peanut butter)

Late warning signs:

• textures flickering or going missing
• NPCs freezing, vanishing, walking into walls with purpose
• camera going rogue

My quick fix when things get funky: disable cheats one by one starting with the last one you turned on. The newest cheat is often the troublemaker, like the last guest at a party who starts rearranging furniture.

Softlocks: The Game Isn’t Dead, You’re Just Trapped in a Fancy Prison

A softlock is when the game keeps running, but progression is broken and you can’t move forward. No crash. No mercy. Just you, stuck, watching your character breathe dramatically.

This usually happens when cheats mess with triggers/flags—the little invisible “did you do the thing?” checkboxes the game uses to decide what happens next.

Common causes:

• teleporting past a trigger
• walking through walls and skipping “door opens” logic
• skipping bosses/cutscenes the game needed to mark as complete
• inventory cheats that break item checks

How to escape:

1. Load your backup save. (Notice how I keep being annoying about backups? This is why.)
2. If you don’t have one: turn off all cheats and return to the area normally to try to re-trigger the event.
3. Check for chapter select or anything that resets story state.
4. Last resort: save editor to manually toggle the missing flag (advanced stuff, but sometimes it’s the only way out).

And yes—sometimes a cheat “sticks” even after you disable it. Ask me how I know. (Actually don’t. I’ll get dramatic.)

My Simple Routine for Stacking Cheats Without Wrecking Everything

This is the unsexy part, but it works.

1. Make a fresh backup save. Name it something obvious like BEFORECHEATS01.
2. Test one cheat at a time. Enable one, play for five-ish minutes.
3. Add cheats slowly. After each new one, do:
   • – a fight (combat reveals problems fast)
   • – a loading zone/door transition
   • – something scripted (cutscene trigger, quest step, etc.)
4. Start with “simple” cheats first. Cosmetics, ammo freezes, basic stuff. Add the heavy physics/time cheats later.
5. Turn off aggressive cheats for critical moments. Boss fights, cutscenes, big story triggers—disable the chaos, get through it cleanly, then re-enable your nonsense.

Also: run one cheat tool at a time (don’t stack Cheat Engine + another trainer + emulator codes like you’re building a Jenga tower), and make sure your cheats match your game/ROM version for FireRed GameShark codes.

The Whole Point: Break the Game, Not Your Save

You can absolutely run multiple cheats at once—you just can’t treat your game like it’s invincible. Know your platform’s limits, keep to one cheat per category when possible, avoid the spicy crash combos, and test like a responsible gremlin.

Now go stack those cheats… and keep your save file safe enough with a save file protection checklist that Future You doesn’t have to write an apology letter to Past You.