An Arc Raiders ban is a temporary or permanent suspension that Embark Studios puts on a player's account for breaking the game's Terms of Service, EULA or Code of Conduct. Embark rewrote its cheating rules on September 30, 2026, and since then an account caught running a known cheat program is banned for good on the first offense. In January the plan for the same offense was a 30-day ban, then 60 days, then a permanent ban.
Cheating is not the only route to a ban. Embark's policy names seven kinds of behavior that can end in a suspension, from glitch abuse to selling items for real money, and the sanction can reach further than one account: the copy of the game, linked accounts, every Embark title, and in serious cases the PC itself. Most of the confusion online comes from older articles that still describe the softer rules from the start of the year.
What Is an Arc Raiders Ban?
An Arc Raiders ban is Embark's word for an access suspension, and it comes in two lengths: temporary or permanent. The studio says the severity of the offense decides which one you get, and the ban notification you receive states it plainly. On top of the account ban, Embark can stack wider sanctions when it wants to stop a player from coming straight back.
| Sanction | What it hits | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Temporary suspension | Your account, for a set time | Lesser violations |
| Permanent ban | Your account, for good | Known cheats, serious cases |
| License restriction | That copy of the game | A copy tied to a sanction |
| Linked-account ban | Accounts tied to a banned copy | Anyone linked to that copy |
| Cross-title ban | Every Embark game | Serious violations |
| Hardware ban | The PC itself | One machine used to cheat |
The last row is the one that outlives a fresh start. When Embark has enough evidence that one computer is being used to cheat, it can stop the game from running on that system, and that is why an HWID ban in Arc Raiders stays with the computer rather than the Raider account. Plenty of publishers do this, and how hardware ID bans work elsewhere matches Embark's approach: the block sits on the computer, not on the login.
Why Do Players Get Banned in Arc Raiders?
Players get banned in Arc Raiders for breaking the Terms of Service, the EULA or the Code of Conduct, and Embark's Ban and Enforcement Policy lists seven common reasons:
- Using cheats, hacks or third-party tools that affect gameplay.
- Trying to get around the anti-cheat protections.
- Exploiting bugs or glitches for an unfair advantage.
- Abusive behavior, hate speech, harassment or stream sniping.
- Account boosting or farming.
- Sharing or selling your account.
- Swapping in-game items for money or anything else of value.
Two details catch people out. First, Embark warns that outside software which interacts with the game can trip the anti-cheat even when you did not mean it to, and it will not give you a full list of safe apps; its advice is to skip any app you are unsure about. Second, the account owner carries the risk. Embark's Ban and Enforcement Policy says a ban stays in place even if another person committed the violation on your account, so lending a login to a friend who cheats costs you the account.
How Long Is an Arc Raiders Ban?
An Arc Raiders ban for cheating is permanent. Embark made permanent bans the standard for every known cheat program on September 30, 2026, and the three-strike ladder it announced in January 2026, with 30-day and 60-day suspensions before a permanent ban, no longer applies to cheaters. Battlestate Games takes a similar line on cheating in Escape from Tarkov: its license lets it cut off a cheater's access for an unlimited time, with no warning required.
For everything else, Embark uses temporary or permanent bans depending on how serious the offense was, and it does not publish fixed lengths for each violation. Player reports of a set length for a given offense are anecdotes, not policy. That is annoying if you wanted a number. The only reliable answer for your own case is the notification Embark sent when the ban landed, which states whether it ends or not.
A permanent account ban has knock-on effects worth knowing before you plan your next move:
- Items and progress do not transfer from a banned account to a new one.
- In-game purchases on an account banned for rule breaking are not refunded.
- A refund for the game itself follows your store's refund rules, whether that is Steam, the Epic Games Store, PlayStation or Xbox.
What Is the New Ban System in Arc Raiders?
The new ban system in Arc Raiders is the stricter enforcement Embark rolled out in three steps during 2026, ending in a policy where cheating means a permanent ban on the first offense. Each step replaced the one before it, which is why older articles still describe a softer system.
Step 1: A Three-Strike Ladder
In its January 2026 patch notes, Embark said a three-strike progressive ban system was being put in place: a 30-day ban, then a 60-day ban, then a permanent ban for repeat offenders. Players criticized a month off as too light for a first cheating offense, and Embark later agreed it should have handled first-time cheaters differently.
Step 2: Permanent Bans for Strong Detections
By the February 2026 update, Embark had tightened the rule. Strong detections now led straight to a permanent ban, while weaker cases drew a temporary suspension, with one chance to clean up before anything harsher. Embark also said it was preparing a systematic manual review of ban appeals.
Step 3: No Warnings for Known Cheats
On September 30, 2026, Embark's executive producer admitted the studio had been "overly cautious" about permanently banning first-time cheaters. The policy since then is short: permanent bans are standard for all known cheat programs, and an account caught cheating loses access for good. In Embark's words, "No warnings, no second chances." The same anti-cheat update broadened license restrictions, so a sanctioned copy of ARC Raiders cannot move to another account, and said an account that has ever been tied to a banned copy is banned permanently as well.
What Is an Arc Raiders Ban Wave?
An Arc Raiders ban wave is a batch of sanctions Embark issues together once its systems have confirmed a pattern, instead of acting on each account the moment something looks off. Embark has used the term itself: its September 2026 fair play note reported several ban waves aimed at accounts that acted "bot-like" in the game economy, and that it keeps sanctioning abnormally high-value item transfers. Embark says it plans to stretch that detection to other suspect behavior, such as XP farming.
The wave pattern is also why cheaters can stay in matches for days after a clip goes viral. The studio explains that its anti-cheat checks behavior across multiple instances to reach a high degree of certainty before it issues a permanent ban, because banning on the first sign of something odd would catch legitimate players too. Embark's team also reviews videos and streams on YouTube and other platforms, so a clip of someone cheating may already be part of a case. Bans tied to item duplication have come in waves of their own, in February and again in July 2026, after Embark fixed a duplication glitch.
What Anti-Cheat Does Arc Raiders Use?
Arc Raiders uses Denuvo Anti-Cheat for kernel-level protection, Anybrain detections, and a growing set of in-house machine learning models, according to Embark's September 30, 2026 update. Embark adds that a human stays in the loop through the appeals process, and that it is working toward testing Elytra, an anti-cheat system it is trialing in THE FINALS.
The stack has changed during the game's life. Embark's May 2026 fair play post described kernel-level protection from Easy Anti-Cheat. Denuvo Anti-Cheat began rolling out later that month to a limited group, and by the end of June 2026 Embark said the rollout to all players was complete, so the game moved from Easy Anti-Cheat to Denuvo during 2026. Denuvo is the only kernel-level anti-cheat listed on the ARC Raiders Steam store page.
Chat Bans and Shadow Bans
Embark does not document a separate Arc Raiders chat ban or a shadow ban. Abusive behavior, hate speech and harassment appear among the reasons Embark gives for bans, so what you say in proximity or party voice chat can lead to a ban on your account. Arc Raiders also lets you block a player after reporting them, and it shows an in-game Action Notice when Embark acts on someone you reported.
What players describe as an Arc Raiders shadow ban is usually matchmaking. Embark matches Raiders partly by playstyle across previous rounds, so a run of aggressive play gradually shifts the lobbies you get. Late in September 2026 Embark also began keeping known queue-teaming groups apart in matchmaking, and reported 85% fewer players teaming within five days. Neither is a ban, and Embark has not said it hides banned or flagged players in separate lobbies.
Duping, Hardware Bans and Appeals
Duplication and Exploit Bans
Embark treats exploiting bugs as a ban reason and has acted on duplication glitches more than once, removing duped items and Coins and suspending the worst abusers. Whether an Arc Raiders duping ban lands depends on how deliberately you exploited the glitch and how much you gained from it.
Hardware Bans
Embark confirms that it issues hardware bans for serious offenses, that they apply across all Embark titles, and that they cannot be appealed. A hardware ban blocks the computer instead of the Embark ID, so a second account on that PC does not get you back in.
Appeals and False Bans
If you think Embark banned you by mistake, you can appeal an Arc Raiders ban while the restriction is still active, one time per restriction, through ARC Raiders Support after you sign in with your Embark ID. A member of Embark's team reviews every appeal by hand, but hardware restrictions are final.
Where Saturn Fits After an Arc Raiders Ban
Saturn helps with one kind of Arc Raiders ban and not the others. An account ban lives on Embark's servers against your Embark ID, so no spoofer lifts it: a banned Embark account stays banned. A hardware ban is different, because it is tied to the machine and to the hardware IDs your PC reports rather than to a login.
An HWID spoofer clears that kind of ban on your machine by swapping the banned hardware IDs for new ones. Saturn covers the game through its Arc Raiders spoofer, which comes with the EAC HWID Spoofer license and runs from the same single loader as the rest of Saturn. Saturn spoofs the CPU, TPM, motherboard and SMBIOS identifiers, RAM and disk serials, GPU, monitor EDID, MAC address, USB devices, UEFI firmware variables and dozens of other unique identifiers, which is how an HWID spoofer works in practice.
Saturn has two modes, and picking between the permanent and temporary spoofing modes comes down to how long you want the change to last. In temporary mode the ban is cleared only while Saturn runs, and closing it brings the original, banned IDs back; you get unlimited profiles, and a banned profile is replaced by picking a fresh one. In permanent mode Saturn rewrites the IDs on a single profile and they stay rewritten, which clears the PC itself. The free Saturn trial runs for 24 hours, needs only an email and skips the card details.
Arc Raiders Ban FAQ
Is an Arc Raiders ban permanent?
It depends on the reason. Cheating with a known cheat program brings a permanent ban on the first offense, while other violations can bring a temporary or a permanent suspension depending on severity. Your ban notification says which one you have.
Does an Arc Raiders ban carry over to THE FINALS?
It can. Embark says that for serious violations a ban may apply to every game it publishes, not only the one you were playing, and Embark's hardware bans always cover all of its titles.
Can Embark tell me exactly why I was banned?
Only in part. Embark gives the enforcement reason when you submit an appeal, but it does not share the specific detection or evidence behind a ban, to protect its anti-cheat systems.
Does Steam Family Sharing spread an Arc Raiders ban?
Yes, to the shared license. When a player on a shared copy is banned, Embark restricts that license on the platform it was shared on, so nobody using it can play there. Embark's Shared License page says the other players' Embark IDs are not restricted, but they can only play on other platforms where they own the game, and the September anti-cheat update adds that an account once tied to a banned copy can be banned too.
Can a fresh account dodge an Arc Raiders ban?
Not on a banned copy or a banned PC. Embark restricts the license tied to a sanction, bans any account connected to a banned copy, and uses hardware bans when it has enough evidence that a machine was used to cheat.