Is WARDOGS Full of Cheaters? Anti-Cheat & Ban Risk
Is WARDOGS Full of Cheaters? Anti-Cheat & Ban Risk Explained
Short version: WARDOGS runs kernel-level Easy Anti-Cheat, but cheaters already turned up during the closed beta — aimbots, ESP and even vehicle wallhacks appeared within the first day. You do not need Secure Boot or TPM 2.0 to play (despite what some sites tell you), and because the game is online-only, every match runs under the anti-cheat.
Does WARDOGS have anti-cheat?
Yes. WARDOGS uses kernel-level Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC), confirmed on its Steam page. "Kernel-level" means EAC loads a driver deep in Windows so it can watch for cheat software with far more reach than a normal program — the same kind of kernel-level anti-cheat the big shooters use.
It also matters that WARDOGS is 100-player PvP with no offline or bot mode. Every match you play is online and protected, so there's no "safe" way to mess around the way there is in a single-player game.
Do you need Secure Boot or TPM 2.0 for WARDOGS?
No — not officially. A lot of the aggregator sites ranking for this question tell you to switch on Secure Boot to "fix" WARDOGS, but as of the beta the game does not require Secure Boot or TPM 2.0. Steam lists Windows 10 as the minimum with no such prerequisite.
That's different from Battlefield 6 and the latest Call of Duty, which genuinely do force Secure Boot + TPM for their anti-cheat. Steam has started showing your Secure Boot and TPM status in system info, which is probably why the confusion is spreading — but for WARDOGS specifically, it isn't a requirement right now. If EAC won't start, the legit fixes are verifying your game files, repairing/reinstalling the Easy Anti-Cheat service, and updating your GPU drivers — not blindly flipping BIOS settings.
Worth a note: this could change when Early Access launches on September 10. If it does, we'll update this page.
Are there cheaters in the WARDOGS beta?
Yes — and they showed up fast. Within about 24 hours of the first closed beta (Aug 21–23), cheat sellers were already advertising aimbot, ESP and vehicle wallhacks, and players were posting about enemies flying and sprinting across the map. Because it's a combined-arms game with 21 vehicles, vehicle ESP — seeing tanks and helicopters through walls — is a real category here, not just the usual aimbot.
The community is split on how bad it is, and that's fair: a beta is a stress test, and cheat makers pile onto anything with a million wishlists. On the other side, the developer (Bulkhead) was reportedly using on-screen watermarks to trace and ban caught streamers during the test. So: expect some cheaters, especially early, but it isn't the wasteland a few clips make it look like.
What happens if you get caught? The real ban risk
Because EAC is kernel-level, the ban risk is real — there is no honest "unbannable" cheat on a game like this, and anyone who promises one is lying to you. Bulkhead hasn't published a detailed WARDOGS ban policy yet, so we won't invent one, but EAC-protected games issue game bans on detection, and the studio has already shown it will ban cheaters mid-test.
If you do decide to run cheats, the only thing that meaningfully lowers the risk is a private, maintained build that's updated around EAC — never a free public hack that thousands of people are already using and that the anti-cheat has already learned to spot. That's the whole reason our own private, maintained WARDOGS cheats are patched as EAC changes, and why we're straight with you about the risk instead of promising the impossible.
Will WARDOGS Early Access be full of cheaters?
Early Access starts September 10, and cheating will be an ongoing cat-and-mouse from day one. Kernel EAC plus active developer bans will catch the obvious rage-hackers; private cheats and HWID spoofers will keep surfacing. The realistic take: WARDOGS won't be overrun, but it won't be spotless either — that's true of every big PvP shooter. Play on the assumption that a few players in any lobby have an edge, and if you want one yourself, do it on a maintained build and go in understanding the risk.
Frequently asked questions
Does WARDOGS have anti-cheat?
Yes — kernel-level Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC), confirmed on the Steam page. It runs in every match because the game is online-only.
Do I need Secure Boot or TPM 2.0 to play WARDOGS?
No. Unlike Battlefield 6 or the newest Call of Duty, WARDOGS does not officially require Secure Boot or TPM 2.0 — Windows 10 is the listed minimum. This could change at the September 10 launch.
Are there really cheaters in the WARDOGS beta?
Yes. Aimbot, ESP and vehicle wallhacks appeared within roughly a day of the first beta. The developer was already banning cheaters during the test using screen watermarks.
Will I get banned for cheating in WARDOGS?
There's a real risk — EAC is kernel-level and the studio bans cheaters. Nothing is "unbannable." A private, maintained cheat lowers the risk versus a free public one, but never to zero.
Is kernel-level Easy Anti-Cheat a rootkit / is it safe?
It's a driver that runs with high system access while the game is open, which is why some players dislike it. It isn't spyware, and it's standard for this genre — but you do have to accept a kernel driver to play WARDOGS online. It only runs while a protected game is running.
Last updated: September 2, 2026 — we'll refresh this when WARDOGS hits Early Access on September 10.