These leaves appear behind the settings button in Bloons TD 6 if the hacker flag is set.
The hacker flag[1] is a data flag (or, in some games, a set of flags) in the player's save file in certain Ninja Kiwi games that is set if Ninja Kiwi considers the player to be a cheater. When a player's save file is "flagged", certain features in the game behave differently. Usually, games with online play will place flagged players in a "hacker pool" that only allows matchmaking with other flagged players, in order to prevent flagged players from interacting with non-flagged players. In games that disable advertisements if the player makes any in-app purchases, flagging also causes the game to continue running ads anyway, presumably in case the player attempts to cheat to disable ads.
The way the hacker flag can get set depends on the game. Usually, the game flags the player automatically under certain conditions, such as altering the game's files or memory at runtime, obtaining items or microtransaction-exclusive content illegitimately, or achieving impossible scores in events. However, there are cases of players being falsely flagged from game glitches, as well as some events where extreme scores were possible to achieve legitimately. The Support Team can also manually flag players reported for cheating. Most games have a subtle visual indicator if the flag is set; for example, in Bloons TD 6, two small leaves appear behind the settings button on the main menu. The only way to remove the flag through legitimate means is to request Ninja Kiwi's Support Team to remove it.
Ninja Kiwi's support website refers to the state of having a flag as a "flagged account",[1] though this is misleading because the flag is separate for each game and does not affect the account as a whole; having the flag on one Ninja Kiwi game does not affect any other games on the same account.
If the game's cheat detection triggers in the middle of a match, the offending player automatically surrenders. The opponent receives a pop-up message that reads "Your opponent has been disconnected because they weren't playing by the rules!"
The version number on the main menu and settings displays a space between the "v" and the number, and has a period at the end.
Online matchmaking only matches flagged players against other flagged players.
The Weekly Competition menu displays "No data found." on all leaderboards.
This section is in need of research. You can help out by editing this article or discussing your findings on the talk page. The editor who added this notice elaborates: Check if the flag also forces ads even after purchasing something
Endless Mine only groups flagged players with other flagged players.
Two leaves appear in the top-left of the settings button on the main menu.
When the flag is set, the game also resets the player's profile stats (presumably to stop Ninja Kiwi's player analytics from recording illegitimate stats) and removes their scores from any active event leaderboards.
The player's scores stop registering on Race Event and Boss Bloon Event leaderboards. This also prevents the player from earning rewards based on their leaderboard position.
Co-op matchmaking only matches flagged players with other flagged players.
The player cannot create, join, or request to join a Team.
In the Martian Games menu, an animated sword icon appears next to the player's name at all times. Normally, this icon only appears next to other players who are actively playing the map, and never appears next to the name of the same player from their view.
Martian Games only groups flagged players with other flagged players.
Martian Games' hacker pool from the perspective of the player named "DesArch"
Settings menu
Weekly Competition menu
The main menu with the leaves and the message that appears when attempting to use a restricted feature
Martian Games' hacker pool from the perspective of the player named "DesArch"
Flagged player (version 3.1.2)
