Escape from Tarkov Director Addresses the Game’s Cheater Problem

Battlestate Games head Nikita Buyanov has recently addressed cheating in Escape from Tarkov, praising the team’s efforts to curb it after banning more than 2,000 accounts in just over a week. It’s no secret that Escape from Tarkov faces an uphill battle with cheaters, but the developers seem to be working hard to alleviate the issues ahead of the game’s 1.0 release.

Originally released in early access in 2017, Escape from Tarkov is an incredibly popular first-person extraction shooter, but this popularity comes with its own challenges. While Escape from Tarkov has added more incentives for gamers to report cheaters in the past, the problem continues, and its end does not seem to be in sight.

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As reported by Insider Gaming, Battlestate Games recently banned over 2,000 Escape from Tarkov cheaters in just over a week, and the studio’s head, Nikita Buyanov, praised the team, saying that “this fight is hard and never-ending.” In the comments, Buyanov also revealed that the research and development team of the studio is currently working on a kernel-level anti-cheat system for Escape from Tarkov. This information confused some gamers, as the title is already using one of these systems called Battleye. This led some fans to assume that Battlestate is working on a proprietary kernel-level anti-cheat function, which could possibly improve how to weed out cheaters, but on the other hand, it could also have its own challenges.

Cheating is a Big Problem for Escape from Tarkov Developers

Escape from Tarkov’s campaign against cheaters is nothing new. Back in 2024, for example, Escape from Tarkov banned over 11,000 cheaters in two weeks by using the Battleye anti-cheat.

It remains to be seen how the developers will deal with cheaters ahead of Escape from Tarkov’s 1.0 release, which the studio intends to put out in 2025, but it still does not have an official release date. Recently, the game saw the first-ever Escape from Tarkov hardcore wipe, which had a very controversial reception. While some gamers liked the more challenging experience, part of the fanbase was fairly annoyed that the game would get considerably more difficult after the wipe.

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Possibly due to these controversies, Escape from Tarkov dropped its boss spawn rate to 70% soon after the wipe, which could technically make the game more accessible for some players. Guaranteed boss spawns made the game much harder for solo players, while veterans used the change to their advantage, so the change could balance the experience.