How we make money, and how we test
Last updated: 7 October 2026
The short version
Right now this site earns nothing. There are no ads, no affiliate links and no sponsored posts on Checkpoint Guides. That will change, because hosting and time cost money, and this page will change first when it does. Whatever we add, it will never decide a score, a recommendation, or whether we publish a negative review.
Affiliate links
We don’t use affiliate links yet. When we do, buying something through a link to a store may earn us a percentage of the sale, at no extra cost to you.
Any article containing affiliate links carries a disclosure at the top, before the article body. We don’t rely on you finding this page.
Commissions are paid on the sale, not on which product you buy, and we get the same cut whether you buy the thing we recommended or the thing we told you to avoid. That’s deliberate: it means we have nothing to gain from steering you.
What we buy and what we’re sent
We buy most of what we cover with our own money.
When a publisher or developer sends us a review copy, or a manufacturer sends hardware, we say so at the top of the article. Hardware on loan goes back; anything we are allowed to keep is used for long-term testing or given away. We don’t sell it.
We never accept payment for a review. We never let a publisher see an article before it publishes. We don’t send questions for approval, and we don’t run corrections that are really just complaints about a score.
If a company makes continued access conditional on coverage, we say so publicly and stop working with them.
Sponsored content
We don’t publish sponsored posts. If that ever changes, sponsored articles will be labelled at the top, excluded from reviews and tier lists, and never given a score.
How we test
- Guides are written from our own play, on the current patch, and the patch is shown at the top
- Codes are redeemed by one of us before they go on a codes page
- Tier lists say what they were tested on: mode, rank or difficulty, solo or party
- We re-check guides after major patches and update the article and the date
- We say what we didn’t test. Nobody tests everything.
Scores
Review scores run 0 to 10. A score is a summary of the review, not a substitute for reading it.
A score can change. If a patch fixes or breaks something that matters, we update the score and note the change and the date in the article.
Corrections
We fix mistakes. Updates are noted at the top of the article with the date and what changed. We don’t quietly edit and pretend it was always right.
Spotted something wrong? Email [email protected].
Questions
If anything here is unclear, or you want to know how a particular article was funded, ask us: [email protected]. We’ll tell you.