Call of Duty: Warzone's anti-cheat software has a new mitigation technique to hopefully curb the amount of cheaters ruining everyone's fun: take the cheaters' guns away mid-game.
Activision published a blog this week addressing the current situation with Warzone cheaters and the newish Ricochet anti-cheat system. In the article, the developers behind Ricochet explain that tackling cheating in Warzone is like a game of cat and mouse: as solutions are identified and implemented to combat cheating, the cheaters are already working on new ways to get around those guardrails and the rules of the game.
That said, there are a number of existing mitigation practices in place which exist to let detected cheaters remain in the game for enough time to analyze their methods but also minimize their impact on other players. Essentially, it's a way to annoy cheaters as much as possible while the anti-cheat devs observe them and find new ways to catch them.
- 136,000 Call of Duty accounts have gotten banned since ranked launched for Black Ops 6: "We’re not slowing down in our mission to shut down cheaters"
- Fortnite is now giving cheaters "second chances" with 1-year bans that allow you to use the battle royale like it's Discord and do absolutely nothing else until you're freed from the void
For example, a "damage shield" stops cheaters from being able to inflict critical damage on other players, thereby letting rule-abiding players identify cheaters and report them or, better yet, capture video evidence of their crime and baffled reaction to share with the internet. Another existing technique makes all players invisible to detected cheaters, leaving them confused and helpless.
The newest strategy from Ricochet is to simply take cheaters' weapons away, including their fists. That way, if you see a player swinging at you but not doing any damage, you know you're probably dealing with a no-good cheater.
Here's a list of the best Warzone guns to put cheaters in their place.
