vodka / A Prometheus alternative
A Prometheus alternative. A platform around the protection.
Prometheus is a free, open-source Lua obfuscator. vodka is a free, hosted platform that protects your script and runs the key system, delivery and monetization around it, with benchmarks you can reproduce.
Yours from
the first line.
Saved privately
Validated before publishing
Your next release, same address
Your release workflow / illustrated
The short version
The same idea, plus everything after it.
Prometheus is a free, open-source Lua obfuscator, run as a local tool. It is a solid way to obfuscate a file, and if that is all you need, it is a reasonable choice.
vodka is a free, hosted platform. It protects your Lua and Luau source and then handles everything after the build: a key system, a stable loadstring, a Discord bot, HWID locking and a developer API, in one place and at no cost.
A distinct scheme
vodka's output is Luau source in its own protection scheme, not a chunk in another tool's format.
Lifters and decompilers written for a specific obfuscator do not transfer to it. That is a property of the output, not a ranking.
What the platform adds
The parts a standalone obfuscator leaves out.
Access, delivery and monetization
Run free-key tasks, lifetimes, HWID locks and revocation on the server, redeem through a Discord bot, and publish one stable loadstring your future builds reuse.
Connect your own work.ink, LootLabs or Linkvertise account; the provider pays you directly and vodka takes no cut.
Measured, and current
vodka tracks the current Luau runtime and differential-tests behavior against it, so supported code runs the same after protection.
The engine is measured in a committed benchmark harness with seeds and dates, including an honest list of what it does not defeat.
Where protection ends
Honest about the boundary.
No client-side obfuscator can make a delivered secret unrecoverable. An authorized client receives the code it runs, so running the loader can recover the strings and reverse the arithmetic. This is true of every obfuscator, vodka included, and we will not pretend otherwise.
What protection does is raise the cost of casual inspection and copying. What actually gates access is server-side: the key check, expiry, revocation and HWID locks are all enforced where the client never sees how the decision was made. Keep anything that must stay secret on a server, and read the benchmarks for exactly what the engine does and does not defeat.
Keep exploring
Where to go next.
The obfuscator
Encoded constants, flattened control flow and an opt-in bytecode VM for your Roblox Lua and Luau scripts.
Reproducible benchmarks
Run the exact harness yourself: protection resistance, runtime overhead and the weaknesses we do not hide.
The key system
Free-key tasks, HWID locks, revocation and a Discord bot, enforced on the server rather than in the loader.
What it costs
Free for creators and players. Monetize with your own ad-link provider; the platform never holds the money.
Questions
A few things worth knowing.
01How is vodka different from Prometheus?
Prometheus is a free, open-source Lua obfuscator you run locally. vodka is a free, hosted platform that protects your code and also runs a key system, delivery, a Discord bot, HWID locking and monetization. Both are free; vodka is the complete pipeline rather than the obfuscation step alone.
02Is vodka open source like Prometheus?
No. vodka is a hosted service and its engine is not published as source. It does publish a reproducible benchmark harness with seeds and dates, so the protection can be measured even though you do not run the engine yourself.
03Will deobfuscators for other tools work on vodka output?
vodka's protected output is Luau source in its own scheme, not a chunk in another obfuscator's format, so lifters and decompilers written for a specific tool do not transfer to it. This is a property of the output, not a claim that it cannot be analyzed. Running the loader still recovers delivered values.
04Does vodka include a key system?
Yes. Free-key tasks, lifetimes, HWID locks, revocation and a blacklist are built in and enforced on the server, with a Discord bot and a developer API. A standalone obfuscator leaves all of that to you.
Keep building
Your next release starts here.
Bring your original source. Make the workspace your own.