MeinMMO shows you the details of the anti-cheat system of Call of Duty: Vanguard and the Battle Royale Warzone. The system is called “RICOCHET” and is designed to enhance the security of the CoD servers and your accounts, as well as detect suspicious behavior on the PC via a kernel driver.
Why is there a new anti-cheat system for CoD? Cheaters are a major problem in modern CoD games and have ruined matches for many players in recent months, actually years.
Previously, there were only isolated cheaters in short multiplayer matches, but the problem became increasingly annoying with the introduction of “Battle Royale” formats into the CoD franchise.
Particularly the popular Call of Duty: Warzone suffers from many cheaters and wants to change that with the new anti-cheat system “RICOCHET”.
Which fronts the new security systems attack and how the kernel driver works on the PC, you will find out here on MeinMMO.
RICOCHET relies on server update and kernel driver
RICOCHET consists of several parts:
- Server-side analysis tools
- Improved investigation processes
- Increased account security
- Kernel driver on the PC
The first 3 tools went online with the release of CoD: Vanguard and launched in Warzone with the Pacific update. The kernel driver is now also available in Warzone but will come to Vanguard later.
Kernel applications require a high permission level in your system, and this permission is also utilized by the kernel driver of Call of Duty. Since cheat programs can also operate at this level of the system, the kernel driver needs these extensive permissions to have a chance to detect suspicious interactions of applications with CoD games.
However, the detection of cheat programs is not guaranteed by this.
How does RICOCHET work? There are not many details about the functioning of the new system. Every detail about the workings of the new anti-cheat could help cheat program developers create new cheating software.
However, the CoD developers emphasize that RICOCHET is not just about the new kernel driver on the PC. Rather, it is a comprehensive process and monitoring upgrade in the background, and the kernel driver is just one part of the measures.
How secure is the system? This cannot currently be assessed. In a FAQ about RICOCHET, it states under the question, “Will the cheating problem be solved with this?” that there are many different types of cheating and no fixed guidelines on what cheating actually is.
The system is intended to be continuously developed under this premise to provide comprehensive protection against fraud.
CoD also emphasizes that two-factor authentication remains an important part of account security. Log in here at callofduty.com to set up your 2FA. Reporting cheaters in-game also helps the responsible parties.
We embed here the short overview trailer for the new anti-cheat:
Answers about the RICOCHET driver on the PC
What does the RICOCHET driver do? The driver is a small program on your PC that monitors software and applications that interact with Call of Duty. It only collects data related to the respective CoD games. This data is intended to help detect suspicious software behavior.
For example, developers can check which application interactions occurred with caught cheaters and use that experience to detect other cheaters.
Does the kernel driver run all the time? Call of Duty explains in the blog about anti-cheat that monitoring is only active when a CoD game with RICOCHET protection is running.
Do I have to download an extra program to play CoD? No, the kernel driver of RICOCHET is part of Warzone and later also of Vanguard. Once you download one of the games, you have the driver on your PC.
Can I uninstall the driver? Only together with the respective games. The RICOCHET driver is part of the installation files and cannot be uninstalled separately.
Is there a RICOCHET program on the consoles? The kernel driver is exclusively for PC, and there is no additional monitoring on the PlayStation and Xbox consoles. However, the server-side measures of RICOCHET also apply to the consoles.
If you would like to take a look at the English FAQ about the RICOCHET system yourself, you can find it at Activision Support (via support.activision.com).
With the anti-cheat system, Call of Duty conveys a signal of a breakthrough in the battle against cheaters. How effective the measures are cannot currently be assessed, and CoD remains cautious about their effectiveness for now. But in any case, it is a step in the right direction for fairer matches.
What do you think? Can RICOCHET meet the expectations? Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments on MeinMMO.
