Does Deadlock have anti-cheat?

Valve’s upcoming hero shooter Deadlock is already being impacted by in-game cheaters. So what systems do the devs have in place to combat this?

Deadlock is a 6v6 hero shooter with a MOBA twist. It includes a massive roster of playable characters, such as robots, wizards, and other creatures. It has already drawn major comparisons to Overwatch 2 and Team Fortress.

While Deadlock is only in very early access, reports of cheating have already begun cropping up online and future players are concerned that the game will be riddled with hacking similar to Valve’s other titles.

Here is everything we know so far about Deadlock’s anti-cheat systems and any future plans the devs have laid out regarding mitigating any hacking issues.

Is there anti-cheat software for Deadlock?

At the time of writing, Deadlock does not have any major anti-cheat measures in place. However, given that the game is still very much at the beginning of its lifespan, there is no doubt Valve will implement more measures in the future.

Valve promised that they are working on “larger anti-cheat systems” and it is expected that Deadlock will use Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC), a system that the devs have implemented in many other titles. Hopefully, this will go some way towards assuaging the current fears of rampant hacking.

One of Deadlock’s devs on the game’s official Discord server confirmed that the team is currently working on an anti-cheat. However, did not divulge much information other than confirming it.

As part of the game’s anti-cheat measures, the devs added an in-game reporting system to keep toxic players away in the September 12 update.

Players can now lose access to matchmaking, voice chat, text chat, and even reporting as penalizations for toxicity.

They can also be put in a low-priority queue as punishment if they have been reported too much. In addition, if you regularly misreport you could also face the same punishments.

On the official Steam listing for the game, access is “currently limited to friend invites” by existing playtesters. This decision aims to minimize hacking and cheating because, after all, who wants to be called out for cheating by their friends?

In fact, if your friend was caught cheating, and you’ve played regularly with them, it too could result in a ban on your account.

If you’re looking for a legitimate way to get ahead in Deadlock, check out our tier-list of the current characters or the best mouse and keybind settings.