GCSWar Thunder Anti-Cheat
Kernel-level BattlEye since December 2024, a ring-3 Viking layer inside the client, replay review and a monthly published ban count in the thousands.
In plain EnglishThis page explains the anti-cheat that protects War Thunder - the system that tries to catch and ban cheaters. It covers how strict that system is and how cheats try to stay hidden from it. No cheat is ever 100% safe, so always check a product's status before you buy. War Thunder uses BattlEye, a kernel-level anti-cheat that loads a Windows driver with deep system access. Caught cheaters get an account ban, and our database rates its detection strength low. The guide below covers how it detects, what a ban really costs and what kind of build survives.What anti-cheat does War Thunder use?
War Thunder runs two anti-cheat systems, by Gaijin’s own account: BattlEye, a kernel-level anti-cheat that replaced Easy Anti-Cheat in December 2024, and Viking, a ring-3 system built into the game client. Its Steam page lists BattlEye as kernel-level.
Gaijin adds a third layer of its own: player reports, review of in-game replays and heuristic checks. Every month it publishes a Fair Play report; the one for September 2026 counts 3,984 accounts banned for bots and cheat software. BattlEye loads at kernel level, while Viking runs inside the game client. The anti-cheat can be switched off in the launcher, but it is mandatory in markerless modes, and in Air Arcade, Air Realistic and Ground Arcade for players and squads with vehicle line-ups at Battle Rating 4.7 or higher. In practice that means most of the battles where a cheat is worth using are battles where the anti-cheat is running. Gaijin bans the account. Its terms forbid spoofers, DMA hardware and tools that change a device’s identity, and forbid dodging a ban by hiding or changing your device, but Gaijin has not said that it bans hardware itself. It also keeps the data a ban decision is based on indefinitely. Bans are public: each month Gaijin lists permanently banned players for two weeks, and the September 2026 report also counts 661 temporary bans for bug abuse and 397 bans for teamkilling and griefing, 13 of them permanent. We rate War Thunder "Low" on client detection, but enforcement is steady: Gaijin’s monthly counts have ranged from about 2,000 to over 5,000 bans for bots and cheats in 2026, and it banned 9,569 accounts in January 2024 alone. Replay review matters here. A tank that always aims for the weak spot through a bush, or a plane that never misses, is easy to see in a replay and easy to report. In War Thunder information is the edge: where enemy vehicles are, what they are and which way they face. ESP that answers that wins more fights than aim help, which is easy to spot in replays. Remember the anti-cheat is mandatory at Battle Rating 4.7 and above in the main modes, and that Gaijin bans for spoofers and DMA hardware too. The War Thunder builds we keep current are below. 2 War Thunder builds are on sale right now, listed by how each one runs according to its own description. Official pages for the systems this guide describes. They are the primary sources for how BattlEye works and how bans are issued; the detection ratings and build guidance are our own editorial assessment, explained in the editorial policy.How BattlEye works in War Thunder
What a War Thunder ban actually means
Detection track record
Cheating in War Thunder safely
War Thunder builds in the store
War Thunder anti-cheat FAQ
Does War Thunder still use Easy Anti-Cheat?
Can you turn off the anti-cheat in War Thunder?
How many players does War Thunder ban?
Sources
This guide is informational and reflects how BattlEye and War Thunder bans generally work; anti-cheats update constantly, so treat every detail as a moving target rather than a guarantee. Last reviewed 1 November 2026.Keep reading