How to use Cheat Engine to change a number in a single-player game

By the end of this guide you'll have found a number inside a running game, changed it and frozen it: first in Cheat Engine's own practice program, then on your company's bank balance in the free transport game OpenTTD. You need a Windows PC and about 45 minutes. Both programs are free, and everything here is for single-player games on your own computer.

What Cheat Engine does

While a game runs, every number it shows you (health, ammo, money) sits somewhere in your PC's memory. Cheat Engine is a memory scanner. You type the number you can see, and it lists every memory address holding that number. Then you change the number in the game, scan again, and the list shrinks. When one address is left, you can type a new value into it or freeze it so the game can't change it. The game's files aren't touched: the edit disappears when the game closes, unless the game saves the new value.

Ground rules

• Single-player and offline only. In online and multiplayer games the server keeps the real numbers, so edits do nothing or get you disconnected, and cheating against other people breaks the rules. Accounts can be banned for it.
• Back up your save first. A wrong edit can crash a game or spoil a save. Copy the save folder somewhere safe, or save under a new name.
• Treat downloaded cheat tables as programs. Tables can contain Lua scripts. If a window asks Execute this lua script?, click No unless you trust where the table came from.

Install Cheat Engine

The current version is 7.7 (May 2026). These steps are for Windows; the Mac and Linux versions work differently.

1. Open our Cheat Engine page and use its official download link. You get a file named something like CheatEngine77.exe.
2. Double-click the file and click Yes when Windows asks to allow changes. The setup window opens.
3. Read every screen before you click Next. Whenever a screen offers another program, click Decline.
4. Wait while setup downloads and installs the program, then click Finish. If your antivirus stops it, read the next section.
5. Start Cheat Engine from the Start menu. The first time, it asks Do you want to try out the tutorial? Click Yes, and the tutorial opens in its own window.
6. If a CEShare window asks you to pick a server (it's for sharing tables online), click Cancel.

If your antivirus complains

Some antivirus programs flag Cheat Engine, for two reasons. It reads and changes other programs' memory and runs scripts, so scanners call it a "hack tool" or "potentially dangerous"; the developer's site says these detections are mistaken. And some scanners flag the installer's ad offers as adware.

• Only use the official download from our Cheat Engine page, never a "clean" or "virus-free" copy from somewhere else.
• Don't turn your antivirus off. If it blocks the official download and you decide to trust it, allow just that file. Windows Security lists what it blocked under Virus & threat protection → Protection history.
• Not comfortable making an exception? That's a sensible call. Use a game's built-in cheats instead, like OpenTTD's below.

Learn the basics with the built-in tutorial

Cheat Engine includes a practice program that checks your work, and its steps 1 to 4 teach everything this guide uses. If you clicked No at first start, open it with Help → Cheat Engine Tutorial (x86_64).

Step 1: attach to the tutorial

1. In Cheat Engine, click the computer icon at the top left, under File (its tooltip says Select a process to open). The Process List window opens.
2. Click the Processes tab, click any entry, then type tutorial. The list shrinks to matching entries.
3. Click the entry ending in Tutorial-x86_64.exe, then click Open. Its name now shows at the top of the main window. Not in the list? Check the tutorial is still open, then close and reopen the Process List.
4. In the tutorial, click Next.

Step 2: exact value

The tutorial shows Health: 100 and a Hit me button. Goal: set health to 1000.

1. Leave Value Type on 4 Bytes and Scan Type on Exact Value.
2. Type 100 in the Value box and click First Scan. Addresses fill the list on the left; Found: shows how many.
3. Click Hit me. Health drops a little.
4. Type the new health into Value and click Next Scan. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until one address is left.
5. Double-click that address. It's copied to the address list at the bottom.
6. Double-click its number in the Value column, type 1000 and click OK. The tutorial's Next button becomes clickable.

Step 3: unknown starting value

Health is now a bar with no number; it starts somewhere between 0 and 500. Goal: 5000.

1. Click New Scan. Forgetting this is the most common mistake.
2. Set Scan Type to Unknown initial value and click First Scan.
3. Click Hit me, set Scan Type to Decreased value and click Next Scan.
4. Keep clicking Hit me and Next Scan until a few addresses are left.
5. Double-click the one whose value is between 0 and 500, then set it to 5000.

Step 4: decimals

Health is now a Float and ammo a Double: both have decimals. Goal: both at 5000 or more.

1. Click New Scan and set Value Type to Float.
2. Type the health exactly as shown and click First Scan.
3. Click Hit me, scan for the new health with Next Scan, and repeat until one address is left. Double-click it and set it to 5000.
4. Click New Scan, set Value Type to Double and untick Fast Scan (the tutorial recommends this for Doubles).
5. Type the ammo and click First Scan.
6. Click Fire (ammo drops by 0.5), scan for the new number, then set ammo to 5000.

Each step shows its password at the top (PW=). To return to a step later, type the password into the Password box on the first screen and click OK:

Steps 5 to 9 (code finder, pointers, code injection) are the next level. For a change, Help → Cheat Engine Tutorial Games opens a small graphical game with three levels: level 1 can be beaten with the scans above, while levels 2 and 3 are harder and suit the later steps.

Value types at a glance

Cheat Engine only finds a number if Value Type matches how the game stores it.

If a whole-number scan finds nothing, try Float, then Double. If you can't see the number at all, start with Unknown initial value.

Real example: money in OpenTTD

OpenTTD is a free, open-source transport tycoon game, and your bank balance is one clean number: ideal practice. Install it from our OpenTTD page. These steps were checked against version 15.3.

Show money in pounds first

OpenTTD stores money in British pounds and converts it to whatever currency you display; dollars and euros, for example, show twice the stored number. Switch to pounds so the number on screen is the number in memory.

1. Start OpenTTD and click Game Options on the main menu.
2. On the General tab, open Currency units and choose British Pound (GBP).
3. Close the window.

In a game that's already running, click the toolbar button Options and settings (hover over the buttons to see their names) and choose Game options.

Find the money

1. Click New Game, then Generate. Your money shows at the bottom right of the screen: £100,000 with default settings.
2. Make a backup: click the disk icon on the toolbar, choose Save game, type a name and click Save.
3. In Cheat Engine, click the computer icon, find openttd.exe on the Processes tab (click any entry and type openttd to filter) and click Open. If asked Keep the current address list/code list?, click No.
4. If you see a New Scan button, click it to clear the tutorial results.
5. Set Value Type to 8 Bytes, because OpenTTD keeps money as a 64-bit whole number. Leave Scan Type on Exact Value.
6. Type the balance without the £ sign or commas (100000) and click First Scan. Expect a long list.
7. Spend some money: click the toolbar's road button (Build road infrastructure) and choose Road construction.
8. In the Road Construction window, click the first button (Build road section) and drag across a few squares of grass. The balance drops.
9. Type the new balance and click Next Scan. Repeat steps 8 and 9 until one to three addresses are left.

Change it and freeze it

1. Double-click each remaining address to copy it to the bottom list.
2. Double-click the first one's Value, type 5000000 and click OK.
3. Build another piece of road. If the balance now reads about £5,000,000, you've found it. If not, set that entry back to its old number and try the next one.
4. To freeze it, tick its box in the Active column. Cheat Engine now rewrites the number many times a second, so spending doesn't stick. Untick it to unfreeze.
5. Save the game if you want to keep the money; otherwise load your backup.

The built-in alternative

OpenTTD has its own cheats. In a single-player game, press Ctrl+Alt+C (or choose Sandbox options from the Options and settings toolbar button) to open Sandbox Options, then click the right-hand arrow next to Increase money by £10,000,000. Use Cheat Engine here to learn the technique, and the built-in window when you just want the money.

Save your work as a cheat table

A cheat table (a .CT file) stores your address list with names, so next time you don't start from scratch.

1. Double-click No description on an entry, type a name such as Money and click OK.
2. Choose File → Save As..., pick a folder and a name, and click Save.
3. Next time, attach to the game, choose File → Load and pick the file.

Why it stops working after a restart

Restart OpenTTD, attach again and load your table: the entry will probably show ?? or a nonsense number. Most games put their data somewhere new in memory each time they start, so a plain address only lasts one session. Games find moving data through pointers: a fixed address (shown in green in the results list) that holds the data's current location, sometimes through several hops. A table built on pointers survives restarts. Tutorial steps 6 and 8 teach how to find them by hand, and right-clicking an entry and choosing Pointer scan for this address automates the search. Until then, just scan again: it takes two minutes.

If something goes wrong

• Found: 0. The number changed before you scanned (OpenTTD charges loan interest at the start of each month), or Value Type is wrong. Click New Scan and start again.
• The list won't shrink. Change the number in the game a few more times, scanning each time.
• The value changes but the game ignores it. You edited a copy used only for display; try the other addresses. In online games that's all you can reach, because the server holds the real number.
• The game crashes or acts oddly. You changed the wrong thing. Close it and load your backup; memory edits don't survive a restart.
• Next Scan is greyed out. You clicked New Scan; start again with First Scan.

Uninstall cleanly

1. Close Cheat Engine.
2. Open Settings → Apps → Installed apps (on Windows 10, Settings → Apps → Apps & features).
3. Find Cheat Engine, click the three dots next to it (on Windows 10, click the entry) and choose Uninstall. Follow the uninstaller to the end.
4. Sort the list by install date and uninstall anything from the same day that you didn't choose, such as an offer accepted by mistake.
5. Delete your saved .CT tables if you don't want them.