ARC Raiders Cheats and Hacks: How Embark Catches Them

ARC Raiders cheats are third-party programs, scripts or devices that give one Raider an edge Embark Studios doesn't allow: an aimbot that aims for you, ESP that shows enemies and loot through walls, or a script that fires and controls recoil on its own.

They're also the fastest way to lose an account in the game. On September 30, 2026, Embark made a permanent ban the standard penalty for every known cheat program, on the first offense. In its own words: "No warnings, no second chances."

I read Embark's anti-cheat posts, its Help Center and its patch notes on October 12, 2026. This page covers the 5 kinds of ARC Raiders cheats and hacks players run into, how Embark catches each one, what a cheating ban takes from you, and the one situation an HWID spoofer fits.

If Embark has already blocked your PC, the error code ends in 17, so skip to the HWID spoofer section. If you're here to understand the cheaters in your raids, Saturn isn't your answer, so read straight through.

What Are ARC Raiders Cheats?

ARC Raiders cheats are tools that read or change what the game knows, or fake what your hands do, so one player sees, aims or loots better than the game allows.

In an extraction shooter, that edge costs other people real time. Everything a Raider carries topside can be lost on a single death, so a cheater who kills you takes the kit you spent hours building.

Embark's executive producer described the market behind them on September 30, 2026. Cheat makers "profit from selling to players, often bundling malware with their software," and adapt every time Embark improves its defenses.

Embark's Ban and Enforcement Policy puts them under one ban reason: "Using cheats, hacks, or third-party tools that affect gameplay." A separate reason covers "Attempting to bypass anti-cheat protections."

Cheats and hacks are the same thing here. Searchers type "ARC Raiders cheats" about 2.7 times as often as "ARC Raiders hacks," but they mean the same tools.

Types of ARC Raiders Cheats and Hacks

ARC Raiders cheats fall into five types, and the split I'd look at first is where each one gets its information: the game's memory, your screen, or your input.

ARC Raiders Aimbot

An ARC Raiders aimbot finds other Raiders, from game memory or from the picture on screen, and moves your crosshair onto them.

The idea is the same in every shooter, and how an aimbot works comes down to three steps: find the target, work out the angle, move the aim. In ARC Raiders the movement is the weak spot, because Embark calls input telemetry analysis "one of our most effective tools."

ESP and Wall Hacks

ESP in ARC Raiders draws other Raiders through walls, usually as boxes or skeletons with their names and distance.

A wall hack is the same idea under another name. ESP cheats read positions the game already holds, so they never touch your aim. The trail they leave is behavior: a player who checks every corner a Raider is hiding behind, and none of the empty ones.

Loot ESP and Radar

Loot ESP shows where valuable items sit, and a radar puts every Raider and ARC on a mini-map you were never meant to have.

In an extraction game, I'd argue those two are worth more to a cheater than an aimbot. A player who heads straight for the rarest container on the map, raid after raid, is a pattern a data model can see.

Other extraction shooters see the same family: Tarkov cheats and Arena Breakout cheats both include loot ESP and radar.

Scripts, Macros and Auto Clickers

Scripts and macros are small programs that press keys for you: rapid fire, auto-clicks, or a mouse pattern that cancels recoil.

Embark's Help Center lists separate System Integrity Violation error codes for an active AutoHotkey, an active auto clicker, scripting, and Cheat Engine. Its Cheat Software Detected page says that error "does not mean your account has been banned," but the same Help Center warns that "continuous attempts to load the game with Cheat Engine active will result in permanent suspension."

Internal, External and DMA Cheats

Internal cheats load code into the ARC Raiders process, external cheats read it from a separate program, and DMA cheats read memory through a card in a second PC.

The further a cheat sits from the game, the less a kernel driver can see of it. That's why Embark leans on what the cheat can't hide: the way your character moves and aims.

Input devices raise the same problem without any cheat software on the PC at all. In May 2026, Embark wrote that accessibility hardware "in the wrong hands" can be used to cheat, and that its systems look at telemetry to judge intent.

One thing that isn't a cheat at all: item duplication. Duping is a glitch exploit, and the ARC Raiders duping ban follows its own rules.

Memory, screen, input, or a second machine. Every ARC Raiders cheat gets its edge from one of those four.

How Does ARC Raiders Detect Cheats?

ARC Raiders detects cheats in three layers: Denuvo Anti-Cheat on your PC since mid-2026, Embark's machine learning models on your input data, and people on Embark's team reviewing reports and footage.

Embark's February 2026 patch notes describe the split well. "Some checks are simple and definitive, while others are behavioral and data-driven and evolve over time."

On the PC

On the PC, ARC Raiders runs Denuvo Anti-Cheat, a kernel-level driver. The game's Steam page lists it under "Uses Kernel Level Anti-Cheat."

Embark moved the ARC Raiders anti-cheat from Easy Anti-Cheat to Denuvo between May and June 2026, and finished the rollout to all players by June 30, 2026. In May 2026, Embark gave its reason for running a kernel driver at all: "most commercial cheats operate within that space."

The driver is the "simple and definitive" layer. It looks for disallowed software and for programs that interfere with the game's files or memory, and it's where the Help Center error codes come from. That's how Denuvo Anti-Cheat works in ARC Raiders: a kernel-level driver that watches the space where, Embark says, most commercial cheats operate.

In the Input Data

In the input data, Embark's models look at how you play rather than what's installed.

Embark says it has worked with Anybrain on input research "since the start," and its September 30, 2026 update lists "detections from Anybrain" and "a growing set of in-house models built around machine-learning" next to Denuvo. In July 2026 it described the full stack as "hardware & software detection, ML-driven input telemetry analysis and much, much more."

This is the layer an external cheat, a DMA card or a cheating input device still has to beat. It never sees the cheat. It sees aim and movement no hand produces, and it's the layer I'd worry about most, because it doesn't need to find a single file.

Reports, Clips and Delayed Bans

Reports and footage are the third layer. Embark says its team reviews videos on YouTube and other platforms, and acts when a clip shows clear cheating.

A ban doesn't always land in the same raid. Embark says its system "analyzes behavior over multiple instances" before issuing a permanent ban, because banning on the first odd moment would catch legitimate players too.

That's why cheaters can stream for days before they disappear. Embark is also testing Elytra, a newer anti-cheat system, in THE FINALS, and says it wants to bring it to ARC Raiders.

I read Embark's anti-cheat notes back to January 2026, and the direction hasn't changed once: more layers, faster bans, fewer second chances. A cheat has to beat all three, every raid, for as long as the account exists.

What a Cheating Ban Costs You in ARC Raiders

A cheating ban in ARC Raiders costs you the account on the first detection, and it can take the copy of the game, linked accounts and the PC with it.

Embark's rules stack like this, from its September 30, 2026 anti-cheat update and its Help Center:

• The account. "Any account caught using cheats is permanently banned." The old 30-day, 60-day, permanent ladder from January 2026 is gone.
• The copy of the game. A license restriction stops a sanctioned copy of ARC Raiders from being used with another account.
• Linked accounts. An account that has ever been tied to a banned copy gets a permanent ban too, and on Steam Family Sharing a ban can hit every account using the shared license.
• Other Embark games. For serious violations, Embark can apply a ban to every title it publishes.
• What you paid for. A banned account can't move items or progress to a new one, and in-game purchases aren't refunded.

The layer I'd underline is the last one: the PC. An ARC Raiders hardware ban stops one machine from running any Embark game, it's "final and non-appealable," and the error message carries a code ending in 17, such as ARAV0017.

Embark said on September 30, 2026 that it had lowered the threshold for hardware bans, and that it's working on a way to reach "almost all systems caught running cheat software." It hoped to ship that later in the year. I checked Embark's Steam news on October 12, 2026, and found no post saying it has shipped yet.

One detection, and the account goes. Give Embark enough evidence about the machine, and the PC goes with it.

Are Free ARC Raiders Cheats Safe?

No. Free ARC Raiders cheats are a well-known malware lure aimed at gamers, and Embark says even paid cheats often come bundled with malware.

Flare, a threat exposure management firm, looked at 53,896 devices infected with infostealer malware between June and August 2025. It found that 41% of the infections came from a gaming-related file, with unofficial mods and cheats leading the list.

An infostealer goes after saved passwords, browser sessions and game logins. That creates a second problem in ARC Raiders: Embark's policy says a ban stays on your account "even if the violation was committed by another person," so a stolen login used to cheat still costs you the account.

Then there's the false positive you cause yourself. Embark warns that external software can trip the anti-cheat "even unintentionally," and that it can't publish a full list of safe apps. Its advice is short: if you're unsure about an app, don't run it.

I'd treat any free download promising ARC Raiders cheats as malware until proven otherwise, because the file can cost you more than the account does.

What to Do When a Cheater Kills You

When a cheater kills you in ARC Raiders, report them in-game and let Embark's data do the rest.

I'd report every one, even when the raid is already lost. Reports feed the review layer, and Embark thanks players for "reporting players and sharing any illicit behavior" in its September 2026 notes. By July 2026, players were getting an in-game Action Notice when Embark acts on someone you reported.

There's an upside most players miss. Embark wrote in July 2026 that it's "continuing to compensate for loot lost to cheaters, regardless of whether you reported them or not." The kit can come back.

Report it. Don't rage in proximity chat, because abusive behavior is a ban reason of its own.

Where an HWID Spoofer Fits (and Where It Doesn't)

An HWID spoofer fits one situation: Embark has banned the PC itself, and you want that PC to play again.

That's the one case we build Saturn for. We don't make cheats. We change the hardware IDs your PC reports, such as the CPU, TPM, motherboard, disks, GPU, monitor and network adapter values, so a hardware-banned machine shows up as different hardware.

No cheat cover. No account unban. No protection for an account that keeps cheating, because the cheat gets caught the same way it did the first time.

Saturn is the wrong answer if:

• Only your Embark ID is banned. A spoofer can't touch a record on Embark's servers.
• Your copy of the game is under a license restriction. That follows the copy, not the hardware.
• You expect it to keep a cheating account alive. The next detection bans the next account, and Saturn only keeps the PC from being locked out.
• You think you were flagged by mistake. Embark reviews account ban appeals by hand, so appeal first.

Better you read that here than find it out after paying.

Where it does fit, Saturn covers ARC Raiders with its EAC license, and the ARC Raiders HWID spoofer runs from the same single loader as every other Saturn license. Your license decides which games it covers.

As of October 12, 2026, Saturn is currently undetected by every anti-cheat it supports, and the live status page is where that's tracked day to day. I'd keep one thing straight, though: that's Saturn's own footprint, not your cheat's, and an anti-cheat that catches the cheat still bans the account.

Temporary mode gives you unlimited profiles, and your original IDs come back when you close it. Permanent mode writes one profile for good.

Where it falls short: Embark is watching for this. "Attempting to bypass anti-cheat protections" is on Embark's list of ban reasons, and Embark says that when cheat makers find ways around its hardware bans, its job is to "deploy fixes as quickly as possible."

Every license comes with a 24-hour free trial, no card needed, only an email address for the key.

ARC Raiders Cheats FAQ

Can you get banned for cheating in ARC Raiders?

Yes. Since September 30, 2026, any ARC Raiders account caught using a known cheat program is banned permanently on the first offense, with no warning. Embark can also restrict the copy of the game, ban linked accounts and, in severe cases, ban the PC.

Does ARC Raiders detect cheats?

Yes. ARC Raiders detects cheats with Denuvo Anti-Cheat, which replaced Easy Anti-Cheat for every player by June 30, 2026, plus Anybrain and Embark's own machine learning models on input data, plus people reviewing reports and footage. Embark says its systems wait for repeated evidence, so some bans arrive days later.

Are there free cheats for ARC Raiders?

Free ARC Raiders cheats exist, and they're a common way to get infostealer malware. Embark says cheat makers often bundle malware with paid cheats too, and a free cheat gets the account banned the same way.

Are there console cheats for ARC Raiders?

Embark hasn't published anything specific about console cheats in ARC Raiders. What it has written about is input hardware: in May 2026 it said accessibility devices can be misused to cheat, and that it analyzes telemetry to tell genuine use from abuse.

Do ARC Raiders cheaters get hardware banned?

Some do. Embark bans the PC when it has enough evidence that one machine is being used to cheat, lowered that threshold in September 2026, and calls hardware bans final. The error code ends in 17.

Does an HWID spoofer hide ARC Raiders cheats?

No. An HWID spoofer changes the hardware IDs a PC reports and does nothing to hide cheat software from Denuvo or Embark's models. An account running a cheat gets caught the same way, spoofer or not.

Final Thoughts

ARC Raiders cheats come in five types, from aimbots and wall hacks to scripts and DMA cards, and Embark now catches them with three layers that don't care which one you picked.

My advice is short. If you're thinking about running one, I've read Embark's own pages, and they say the account goes on the first detection and the PC can follow. If a cheater took your kit, report them and let Embark's compensation do its job.

Checked by Gabri on October 12, 2026. Sources: Embark's An Update on Anti-Cheat (September 30, 2026), Ensuring Fair Play (May 7, 2026), Patch Notes 1.13.0 (January 2026), 1.17.0 (February 2026) and 1.29.0 (May 2026), Store Update 1.35.0 (June 30, 2026), Live Update 1.36.0 (July 7, 2026), Store Update 1.47.0 (September 22, 2026), Embark's Help Center articles on the Ban and Enforcement Policy, Hardware Banning, Cheat Software Detected and System Integrity Violation codes, the ARC Raiders Steam store page, and Flare (November 2025). UNVERIFIED: whether Embark's planned wider hardware-ban system has shipped.