Destiny 2 Corridors of Time Gamers cheat at

FAQ This: Revealing the Levels that Gamers Cheat at Most

We’ve all been there. Stuck in the Water Temple. Praying we’ll have some grand epiphany as we wait for the Internet to become more widespread later in the decade. As it turns out, we weren’t alone according to some research by OnBuy.com. In a study of annual Google searches, OnBuy found that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time‘s most torturous of temples is still the 5th most likely section of any game to send gamers to an FAQ or walkthrough. The list of 10 games that gamers cheat at most contains only one game that chips in TWO levels with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim contributing its Volskygge and Fahlbtharz Boiler Room sections to the confusion.

Other famous (or infamous) puzzles that still stump after many years include the Piano Room from Silent Hill and Name that Gnome from King’s Quest.

The number one most-searched section of all is more recent and not necessarily a single-player game. Destiny 2‘s Corridors of Time tops the poll with a whopping 307,680 searches for that section alone in one year.

The List

Section/LevelGameGoogle Searches per Year
Corridors of TimeDestiny 2307,680
Magic LampThe Witcher 3273,240
VolskyggeThe Elder Scroll V: Skyrim260, 880
Fahlbtharz Boiler RoomThe Elder Scroll V: Skyrim198,960
Water TempleThe Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time183,480
Kayra Mah ShrineThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild119,208
Pumpkin PuzzleBorderlands 397,560
Name that GnomeKing’s Quest59,040
Chamber 18Portal50,556
Piano PuzzleSilent Hill31,320

The list is a mixture of folk missing/misinterpreting the obvious (Silent Hill), codebreaking (King’s Quest), obvious answers with ambiguous direction (Ocarina of Time), puzzles that ask for decent spatial reasoning and working memory (Portal). A good variety that seems to suggest that being asked to do a new thing or contend with a new take on an old mechanic can throw people off as much as lacking innate talent or knowledge of puzzles outside of gaming.

No Judgement

The term ‘cheating’ may seem strong but looking up a guide is, indeed, cheating. However, it’s the little white lie of cheating – nobody got hurt and you did it to keep someone from going insane. It’s win-win, or neutral-win or whatever.

And besides, some puzzles are almost unfair in their execution. Broken Sword‘s Goat Puzzle and Gabriel Knight 3‘s Cat Hair Moustache Puzzle have their own Wikipedia pages, likely written by someone tortured by them back in the day.

The Greatest of All Time according to some but it doesn’t make the Top Ten

And for those wondering where the PvP multiplayer titles that gamers cheat at are. Thankfully, there aren’t tens of thousands of people annually using wallhacks on CS:GO or DDoSing their opponents on Rainbow Six: Siege.

It just feels like it sometimes…

Which of these games did you resort to Google for? It’s OK, you can tell us… Mine was the Water Temple. Any other shortcuts we want to ‘fess up to? Are you surprised that the Goat Puzzle from Broken Sword isn’t frustrating folk en masse to this day?

Vinny Fanneran
Harassed Adam Kelly into founding this site. Wrote about tech and games for the Irish Sun for many years, now dayjobbing with Reach Ireland at Galway Beo. Also spent some time as a freelance technology industry copywriter. Former editorial lead for Independent News & Media's PlayersXpo, former gaming editor of EliteGamer.