Warzone’s new “Disarm” anti-cheat feature takes hackers’ weapons away

Liam Mackay
Warzone players fighting in Season 4

Not only does Warzone’s RICHOCHET anti-cheat detect and ban hackers, but it subjects them to a little bit of trolling too. The developers shared the latest tool in their arsenal that completely disarms suspected cheaters.

After Verdansk was flooded with cheaters over Modern Warfare and Cold War’s seasons, Warzone players were hesitant to put their trust in a new anti-cheat. But, many believe that RICOCHET is a roaring success – especially with how it actively nerfs cheaters in-game.

We’ve all seen the clips where an aimbotter’s Assault Rifle essentially turns into an airsoft gun, dealing almost no damage to the player whose game they’re trying to ruin.

That isn’t the only way RICOCHET nerfs these cheaters, as Activision have detailed the other hilarious features including the new weapon Disarm.

ricochet anti-cheat warzone

Alongside announcing Warzone and Vanguard Season 4, Activision gave an update on RICOCHET, their in-house anti-cheat designed specifically for Call of Duty. Over a million Warzone accounts have been banned, with RICOCHET using ‘mitigations’ to investigate cheaters as they play.

The devs explained that they needed a way to study cheaters in-game without allowing them to ruin it for the rest, and it all started with a comment like, “wouldn’t it be funny if…”

The most common mitigation is the Damage Shield where suspected cheaters’ bullets deal almost zero damage. That’s not all, as there are a few more ways that these cheaters’ hacks are rendered useless in-game.

Alongside confirming the existence of the Ghost Mode feature where players completely disappear before the cheater’s eyes, they detailed a new mitigation called Disarm.

Disarm works exactly how you’d expect, taking away the suspected cheater’s weapon and putting them in a “time out.” As shown by the devs, the gun vanishes and they can’t even use their fists to defend themselves.

They don’t expect many clips of Disarm to appear online, but they said that when they do, “the reactions from cheaters are always priceless.”

Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 will have RICOCHET at launch, and the devs said they “can’t wait to see how Damage Shield, Cloaking, Disarm and our other tricks look in a modern setting.”

Image Credit: Activision

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About The Author

Liam is CharlieIntel's Editor who focuses on Call of Duty but also plays lots of fantasy RPGs or anything else in his massive gaming backlog. After graduating in Journalism from Edinburgh Napier University, Liam freelanced in games journalism before joining CharlieIntel in November 2020. You can contact Liam at [email protected].