If there’s one thing that’s troubled Call of Duty Warzone the most, it’s cheating. Cheaters have been running riot in Call of Duty’s free-to-play battle royale since day one, and without a proper anti-cheat, players were often left helpless as bad-faith actors ruined their games. However, it looks like Ricochet, Call of Duty’s new anti-cheat, is actually doing a good job.
In a new update posted on the official Call of Duty blog, Team Ricochet say it has seen a “significant drop of in-game cheat reporting” since the kernel level driver was rolled out in December. The system is apparently allowing the team to catch and disable infringing accounts quickly, bringing cheating to an “all-time low” over the holidays.
However, if you’ve played a game recently, you’ll know the system isn’t perfect. Reports of cheating seem to have increased since the launch of Season 2 – something Team Ricochet admits is true, and says it is investigating. However, despite the increase, cheating is “not at the level it was in Verdansk.”
One way the team is tackling the problem is by rolling out its Damage Shield. While this feature, which removes a cheater’s damage output, has been mentioned before in passing, this is the first time we’ve had confirmation that it is out of testing and has been rolled out worldwide.
The system allows legit players to inflict damage to the cheater without consequences and gives the Ricochet team enough time to collect data about the cheater. The blog does note though that Damage Shield will never be applied randomly or by accident – it is only applied when a cheater has been identified.
Of course, this isn’t the only thing that Team Ricochet is working on. The anti-cheat team say it has several other features in the works, some of which are live, some of which are in development.
While this is great news for Warzone players, particularly those looking to earn those wins using the best Warzone guns, it’s reassuring to see Team Ricochet admit that the “work is never done.”