Call of Duty's new "Damage Shield" anti-cheat measure turns perps into sitting ducks

The Call of Duty Warzone devs have deployed a new anti-cheat measure called 'Damage Shield' that turns cheaters into sitting ducks.

In a recent progress report, Team Ricochet -- the anti-cheat team tasked with cleaning up Warzone -- explained Damage Shield detects when a cheater is tampering with the game in real-time and disables their ability to inflict critical damage on other players.

That bait-and-switch leaves cheaters wide open by making legitimate players invincible and allows Team Ricochet to collect information about a cheater's system while they flounder like fish in a barrel.

"We track these encounters to ensure there is no possibility for the game to apply a Damage Shield randomly or by accident, no matter the skill level," said Team Ricochet. "To be clear, we will never interfere in gunfights between law-abiding community members. Damage Shield is now out of testing and deployed across the globe."

Activision deployed the wider Ricochet anti-cheat system in October last year in a bid to combat cheating in a range of Call of Duty titles.

The kernel-level system managed to bring cheating within Warzone to an all-time low over the holidays, but Team Ricochet admitted perpetrators have since found new ways to exploit the game.

"According to internal data. Team Ricochet was able to catch and disable accounts quickly, bringing cheating within Warzone to an all-time low during the holiday break," continued the team.

"As time has progressed cheat developers have looked for new ways to try to exploit the game. Some have succeeded, many have not. While a recent rise in cheating is not at the level it was during Verdansk, according to our data, any increase is frustrating."

Team Ricochet hopes measures like Damage Shield will allow them to continue detecting and combating cheaters, and has warned would-be offenders that repeated violations of its security policy may result in the permanent suspension of all Call of Duty accounts.