Friday, May 8th 2026
Arc Raiders Dev Tests New Kernel-Level Anti-Cheat Solution, Raising Questions About Linux Support
Arc Raiders is one of only a handful of semi-competitive, shooters with a large player base that has a Platinum rating on ProtonDB, thanks to its Linux-friendly Easy Anti-Cheat implementation. In a recent blog post addressing the studio's plans to "ensure fair play," Arc Raiders developer, Embark Studios, confirmed that it is testing a new kernel-level anti-cheat solution that the studio expects "will sharpen both detection and precision throughout Speranza and the Rust Belt." The studio confirms that, in addition to the pre-existing kernel-level anti-cheat implementation, it relies heavily on machine learning tools and input telemetry data in order to catch cheaters. In spite of these existing efforts, Steam user reviews still complain bitterly about the presence of cheaters in Arc Raiders.
It should be noted that Embark has clearly considered Linux playability via Proton and similar tools, as well as its Steam Deck Verified status, until now. There's a fair bit of the anti-cheat blog post dedicated to accessibility and players on uncommon hardware and input devices, with the developer promising to continue letting players with unorthodox accessibility tools play the game. Additionally, when Embark first implemented kernel-level anti-cheat in The Finals, it promised to maintain support for Linux and the Steam Deck, so there's a fairly decent chance that Arc Raiders may remain playable on Linux devices. That said, in cases like that of Apex Legends, Respawn and EA have claimed that dropping Linux support resulted in a 33% decline in cheaters, giving rise to a notion in certain circles that Linux is a cheater's operating system.
Sources:
Embark Studios, ProtonDB
It should be noted that Embark has clearly considered Linux playability via Proton and similar tools, as well as its Steam Deck Verified status, until now. There's a fair bit of the anti-cheat blog post dedicated to accessibility and players on uncommon hardware and input devices, with the developer promising to continue letting players with unorthodox accessibility tools play the game. Additionally, when Embark first implemented kernel-level anti-cheat in The Finals, it promised to maintain support for Linux and the Steam Deck, so there's a fairly decent chance that Arc Raiders may remain playable on Linux devices. That said, in cases like that of Apex Legends, Respawn and EA have claimed that dropping Linux support resulted in a 33% decline in cheaters, giving rise to a notion in certain circles that Linux is a cheater's operating system.
44 Comments on Arc Raiders Dev Tests New Kernel-Level Anti-Cheat Solution, Raising Questions About Linux Support
KLAC IS THE PLAGUE OF THE GAMING WORLD, ADD SERVER SIDE ANTICHEAT ALREADY
/s
i got the impression tp shows steam charts with games with barely no gamers, see this week a) b) c) vs the regular topic about games with players. Those games usually have a follow up topic with massive cheater infestations.
store.steampowered.com/app/1808500/ARC_Raiders/Everyone is very positive // topic closed // discussion over :P
Steam - which i did not use after the free amd garbage callled hte last of us, thinks player like i love this game. LOL
My star conflict years are over -- The last time i really used steam with gnu gentoo linux. the last of us was just to quickly finish it and to see the praised graphics. To see how the current games were.
gog.com or epic games. Steam really knows my gaming habbits. for sure. arc raiders look like subnautica, the last of us or the recently played my time at portia.no issues with the gnu userspace and the linux kernel. it is steam deck "verified". // topic closed // discussion over :P
Have Valve said anything about porting VAC to Linux?
Like, how hard it is to detect if client is hard locking to heads of players or locking and responding to players through walls even though there is absolutely no way to see them. Or if they have accuracy higher than the best professional players. Or detect the fact that they are intentionally shooting the ground to lower accuracy. All the shit that could root out and eliminate the most blatant cheaters who ruin matches the hardest. If someone puts in so much work to confidently conceal use of cheats, then let those be judged by reports and other means, but most obvious should be instantly dealt with. It would be incredibly hard for cheaters to figure out the actual logic and it would just be there and you can't tell how it works and what actually triggers it. One of things Ai could actually be of good use and they don't use it.
It's also important to understand how VAC works, it is not a proactive anti-cheat solution, but a reactive one. This means that cheaters will initially think they got away with it scot free, and then in the next ban wave their account is stamped out. Due to being reactive and generally reviewed by the VAC team, VAC bans are punished harshly as these permanently affect the standing of a Steam account. If you cheated 20 years ago, your Steam account will still be marked as a heckin cheater today, and that on full display to everyone who comes across your profile.
Developers of competitive e-Sport games, again, other than Valve (so CS2 and Dota 2 are safe from this), shun Linux entirely. Valve's deal is both a vested interest (due to Steam Hardware/SteamOS) and Gabe Newell's personal issues with Microsoft (which are the reason the former exists), so there's that.
It's claimed that cheaters went as far as actually spoofing a Linux system to bypass known cheat detection methods on Windows, crazy stuff I won't pretend to understand