Embark Studios is cracking down hard on cheaters in ARC Raiders: anyone caught using known cheat software is out for good, no warning and no second chance.
Executive Producer Aleks laid it all out in a long statement just ahead of the Frozen Trail update, and admitted along the way that the studio was too cautious early on.
Permanent bans instead of warnings
Every account caught with a known cheat program now gets a permanent ban. According to Embark that is fixed policy now, and it applies from the very first offence.
That was not always the case. Aleks writes that Embark was "overly cautious" about permanent bans for first-time cheaters and that the studio heard the community's frustration. On top of that, the consequences now reach beyond a single account:
- License restrictions: a banned copy of the game can no longer be used with another account.
- Linked accounts: any account that was ever tied to a banned copy gets permanently banned too.
- Hardware bans: once a machine is clearly identified as a cheating rig, ARC Raiders will no longer run on it. Embark recently lowered the threshold for these.
Later this year a solution is meant to follow that lets hardware bans hit a lot more systems. The goal is to stop repeat offenders from simply firing up a fresh account on the same PC.
How Embark catches cheaters
ARC Raiders uses several layers: kernel-level protection from Denuvo, detection from Anybrain and a growing set of in-house machine-learning models. They work together and build up enough evidence before any sanction goes out.
Long term, Embark also wants to add Elytra. The system is currently being tested on a small scale in THE FINALS and, according to the studio, early results look promising.
Why the cheater on stream is not banned instantly
One thing that drives players up the wall: cheaters post their clips and nothing seems to happen. Embark explains that banning on the first hint of suspicion would raise the risk of hitting legitimate players, so the system looks at behaviour across multiple situations first.
The team also reviews videos and streams on YouTube and other platforms itself. So if you spot a cheating clip online, there is a decent chance something is already happening behind the scenes.
Queue teaming: 85 percent less in five days
The most interesting number is near the end. For a few days now, Embark has been keeping known teaming groups apart in matchmaking, meaning players who coordinate to land in the same solo lobby together.
- Five days in: 85 percent fewer players doing it.
- Spoiled raids: down from roughly 1 in 50 to 1 in 300.
- Impact on queue times: nothing meaningful, says Embark.
Good to know for solo players: teaming up with someone you meet in a raid over proximity chat is still fair game. What gets punished is coordinating before the raid.
FAQ
Does ARC Raiders still give warnings to cheaters?
No. Anyone caught with known cheat software gets a permanent ban right away, first offence included.
Is teaming with strangers in a raid now banned?
No. Teaming up on the fly via proximity chat is still allowed. Only pre-arranged teaming to hunt other players in solo lobbies is targeted.
Are more anti-cheat measures coming?
Yes. Hardware bans are set to cover more systems later in 2026, and Elytra from THE FINALS is planned for testing in ARC Raiders down the line.
A fight that never ends
Embark is under no illusions: cheating is a multi-billion dollar business and will never fully disappear. But with permanent bans from the first offence and hard numbers on teaming, the studio is showing in concrete terms for the first time that things are moving. Whether it holds up is the real test once Frozen Trail and the free weekend bring a wave of new players in.