CALL of Duty has created a new “God Mode” damage shield that lets you lay waste to hackers.
It stops hackers from being able to kill you in a gunfight – effectively giving you unlimited possibility to take them down.
The new feature is part of Activision’s hi-tech Ricochet Anti-Cheat systems, which launched with the new Pacific Warzone mode Caldera late last year.
Part of this Ricochet system is the new Damage Shield.
This Damage Shield can identify when a cheater is using hacked systems to attack you.
And it will prevent the hacker from being able to kill you.
“When the server detects a cheater is tampering with the game in real-time, it disables the cheater’s ability inflict critical damage on other players,” said Activision.
“This mitigation leaves the cheater vulnerable to real players and allows [Activision] to collect information about a cheater’s system.”
Activision says that the new Damage Shield system has already rolled out.
It said that the system was designed to stop cheaters from “taking wins” from regular players.
Activision added: “We track these encounters to ensure there is no possibility for the game to apply a Damage Shield randomly or by accident, no matter the skill level.
“To be clear, we will never interfere in gunfights between law-abiding community members.”
In December last year, Activision used Ricochet to ban 50,000 players.
It’s the latest in a long series of mass bans on Call of Duty cheaters.
Importantly, it uses Ricochet, which only rolled out with the new Vanguard and Warzone games this year.
Ricochet warfare
Activision said that 48,000 players were banned in a single day thanks to the system.
These players will have been cheaters using special software to secure kills and win games.
In a statement, the Call of Duty team said: “48,000 cheater accounts were banned yesterday across Warzone and Vanguard thanks to Team Ricochet.”
The exact details of how the new anti-cheat system works are closely guarded, but we have a general idea of what is happening.
Game makers try not to give too much away – so that hackers can’t get around it.
The new system is called Ricochet, and we know that it operates at the kernel level.
That means it can access all of the resources on your system.
That’s a higher level than a game would usually access.
And it means that Ricochet can detect any attempts to interact with Call of Duty Warzone.
It can then analyse whether you’re using special software to cheat.
Call of Duty has already banned more than half a million accounts in Warzone.
It’s part of a growing crackdown on Warzone cheaters, who cause chaos for legitimate gamers.
Cheaters employ a host of techniques to win games.
These include aimbots, wall hacks, trainers, stat hacks, texture hacks, leaderboard hacks, injectors, hex editors and software that manipulates game data or memory.
The situation has been so bad at times that one pro gamer vowed to quit Call of Duty Warzone.
“We have zero tolerance for cheaters across Call of Duty and Call of Duty Warzone,” said Activision in a statement earlier this year.
“Our focus is to combat both cheaters and cheat providers.
“We are also continuing our efforts to identify and address cheat providers at the source, who distribute unauthorised third-party software for modding or hacking.
“We are committed to delivering a fair and fun experience for all players.”
Activision says it has security teams monitoring Call of Duty 24/7 to investigate cheating.
And the company has promised to improve the interface for reporting cheaters in-game.
The game maker says all in-game reports are analysed and investigated.
If a player is found to be cheating – including using “hacks” – then bans will be handed out quickly.
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