Our Anti-Cheat Approach in Battlefield V

Playing Battlefield™ V should always be a fair experience. We have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to cheating and the anti-cheat team here at DICE is constantly working towards identifying and banning players who use hacks to ruin the experience for honest players. We’d like to answer some of the most asked questions on this topic and detail how we’re working tirelessly to create a safe, secure environment for the community.

This article will touch on the current state of affairs, but our anti-cheat work is, of course, an ongoing endeavor. Going forward, you'll see more status updates on our anti-cheat efforts.

Please note: in this article, we are intentionally leaving out some of the key details of our anti-cheat efforts to avoid revealing anything which cheaters and cheat program developers may take advantage of.

What are the top five things DICE is doing to prevent cheating in Battlefield V?
1) Working on better prevention, hardening the PC client against exploits.
2) Scaling up detection efforts.
3) Investigating supplementary deterrence methods which can work alongside banning accounts.
4) Investigating methods of improving the reporting flow, including easier reporting.
5) Keeping up to date with the latest cheat developments and reacting to them in a faster and leaner manner.

How are you identifying cheaters in Battlefield V?
We use a combination of in-game and server technology, such as FairFight, along with information from external websites, player reporting, and social channels. Having worked on anti-cheat for a long time, we have the knowledge combined with a refined set of procedures to identify cheating. However, finding the cheaters' unique identifiers and issuing bans based on them is not a silver bullet. Cheat developers work tirelessly to get around these methods, which creates a cat-and-mouse game in which we constantly need to be vigilant.

How are confirmed cheaters being punished?
After the launch of Battlefield V last year, all bans for cheating in the game are now permanent. No more one-week suspensions. We can’t guarantee that cheaters won’t come back using new accounts, though. Players will be banned as soon as we reliably detect them and will be removed from the active game if need be.

How can one tell the difference between a great player and a cheating player?
This is one of the challenges of anti-cheat work. There are many skilled players who do seemingly impossible things in game, and they are often wrongly reported as cheaters (shout out to Stodeh who highlights this with some amazing plays). Our team at DICE is trained to spot cheaters through its knowledge of different hacks and cheat types, which we constantly keep up to date with.

Some cheaters are good in masking themselves. Some are not – and some do not care. These aggressive players are getting dozens of kills without attempting to hide their cheating and are often harassing other users through the chat.

Getting into Spectator mode and observing the player is your best bet to spot cheaters. Are they consistently tracking enemy players through walls? Did they make an aim adjustment which seems inhuman? Do they kill players in less than the expected bullet amount? Are all their kills headshots? These can all be clues to help you make an informed decision.

How do I report a suspected cheater?
You can submit a report through the Origin overlay if you're playing on PC or through your respective consoles if you're playing on Xbox One or PlayStation® 4. This walkthrough on the Battlefield™ Forums will show you how: https://forums.battlefield.com/en-us/discussion/160934/how-to-report-suspected-cheaters-in-battlefield-v.

How do you know you won't incorrectly ban players?
Before activating bans on players, we always do thorough investigations. In 2018, the number of false positive bans in all DICE titles could be counted on one hand. (Compromised accounts would not be classed as false positives as they were banned correctly in the first place.) We are always cautious to avoid issuing false positive bans that would cause trouble for players fighting fair. You can learn more about banned or suspended accounts here: https://help.ea.com/en/help/account/information-about-banned-or-suspended-accounts/.

How does cheating impact PC versus console players?
Due to the nature of the platform, PC is by far the platform where cheats are most common. We are however aware of the (few) potential ways to cheat on console, and we're constantly following developments in both Battlefield and the consoles themselves to see if further ways to cheat will be made possible.

How can I protect my EA Account so it won’t be compromised and used by cheaters?
Follow this link to learn how you can protect your EA Account: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/account/how-to-maintain-account-security/.

What can I as a non-cheating player do?
Remember to secure your account to prevent compromises. For the health of the game, we will be unable to discriminate between a cheater who is using a compromised account or not, so save yourself from potential heartbreak and learn how to protect your account with a strong password and log-in verification here: https://help.ea.com/help/account/how-to-maintain-account-security. Also, you should be aware of Battlefield V's code of conduct: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/battlefield/battlefield-v/play-by-the-battlefield-v-rules.

– Sean Merson, Anti-Cheat Producer,
The DICE Anti-Cheat Team

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