RICOCHET Anti-Cheat is Fully Active Worldwide
December 15th, 2021
by MavriqGG
Activision confirmed today that the kernel driver, part of the new RICOCHET Anti-cheat, is now live world wide. This was after the driver went live last night via a 20gb update on Battle.net.
When Warzone Pacific dropped, the kernel driver was only available to those on the Asia Battle.net client. For more details, here’s a full link to the blog.
What does this mean?
Are Cheaters gone?
No. Just because we now have a kernel level anti-cheat (AC), doesn’t mean cheating will disappear. Sure, there might be less obvious cheaters, some cheat providers may even stop developing COD cheats. But Anti-Cheat is a back and forth battle between AC devs and cheat developers. New cheat providers will enter the market, new exploits and bypasses will be found. We’ve seen games with better Anti-Cheats still deal with cheaters. Apex, RB6: Siege and Valorant just to name a few. With a platform as open as PC, there will always be someone cheating. Although IF Warzone required things like Secure Boot and TPM in order to play, would go a long way in the fight against cheaters.
Kernel level isn’t a catch-all and cheaters won’t be immediately banned when detected as ban waves catch more cheaters. Waves make it harder for cheat developers to figure out what caused the detection. The real test for RICOCHET will be how vigilant and reactive the RICOCHET team is. Are there weekly/bi-weekly ban waves? Are they constantly fixing bypasses and improving the kernel driver?
This is the first step, but there’s still lots of work left to do.
What about Cronus and other Controller mods???
We haven’t had any recent communication about how they’d go about cracking down on Cronus use. The last thing we heard was during a content creator Q&A, with the RICOCHET team saying they’ll be working with Microsoft and Sony to stop usage. This was back in October 2021.
Speculation at the time was that RICOCHET’s server side technology would be able to detect the usage of such controller macros/scripts, but given that the server side tech has been active since November 5th in Vanguard and December 8th in Warzone, there haven’t been any bans linked controller mods. It’s safe to assume that Cronus and controller mods are low on the priority list at this time.
My game is having issues! Fixes for You!
I can’t login. I’m stuck on “Connecting to Servers”.
Close your game. Close Battle.net. Open Task Manager and make sure any versions of COD and Battle.net are closed. Open Command Prompt (windows key > type “command prompt”). Type “Driver Query”. Scroll down and look for “atvi-brynhildr”. If it’s there, then the RICOCHET kernel driver is installed. If not, open Battle.net and check for updates.
If this doesn’t work, check the next solution.
Battle.net keeps asking me to “Scan and Repair”
Before you try the steps below, try setting the BattleNet Launcher to “Run as Administrator”. Tap your windows key and type “Battlenet”, should see the Battle.net App come up. Right click and click “Open file location”. If it takes you to a shortcut, right click the shortcut and select “Open file location” again. You should now see “Battle.net Launcher.exe”, right-click and select “Properties”. Click “Compatibility” and tick the box next to “Run this program as an administrator”. Reopen Battle.net and the issue should be fixed. If not? Proceed with the steps below.
Click on the “Settings Wheel” next to “Play” in the Battle.net launcher. Click “Show in Explorer”. This is your game install folder. Press “Ctrl + X” and find a new place to paste the folder. I recommend making a new folder on the same drive and press “Ctrl + V” to paste the folder. For example my install path is G:\Call of Duty Modern Warfare. I made a new folder and my new install path was G:\BattleNet\Call of Duty Modern Warfare
Close Battle.net and open Task Manager, look for “Battle.net Update Agent (32 bit)” and “Battle.net (32 bit)”. End both tasks by clicking “End Task” in the bottom right.
Open Battle.net. Don’t panic if there’s an install button. Click the Battle.net icon in the top right, click “Settings” and click “Downloads”. Next to “Default Install Directory” click change. Find the directory where you pasted the game install folder and then select the game install folder. In the example, you’d navigate to G:\BattleNet\Call of Duty Modern Warfare. You’re back on the Downloads page, now click “Scan for Games” and select “Locate”. Find the pasted folder again (ex. G:\BattleNet\Call of Duty Modern Warfare) and it should auto select your Warzone install. Click “Close” and then “Done”. Battle.net should say “Call of Duty: Warzone has started an update”. Wait a couple minutes and you should be able to play!
Written by: MavriqGG – Twitter
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