What Is an HWID Ban? How It Works Across 15 Games

An HWID ban is a ban on a computer rather than on an account. The anti-cheat ties the penalty to the PC's hardware, so any account used on that machine is blocked, a brand-new one included. How long it lasts depends on the game. A VAN 152 hardware ban in Valorant "typically lasts 4 months," according to the error code list Riot last revised on June 2, 2026. Arena Breakout: Infinite hands verified cheaters a ten-year device ban, and Embark Studios says its hardware bans can't be appealed.

This guide explains how an HWID ban works, how it differs from an account ban, and what the publishers of 15 games, from Valorant and Fortnite to Delta Force, say about hardware bans. Each rule names its source.

What Is an HWID Ban?

A hardware ID ban, or HWID ban, is a penalty on a PC instead of a login. When a banned machine connects, the game recognizes its hardware and refuses it, whichever account is signed in. Riot Games' article on HWID bans, updated May 31, 2026, says the banned player isn't meant to "create, access, or use any account" on a Riot game until the ban ends.

The hardware ID comes from serial numbers stored in the PC's own components, which a new account or a reinstalled game doesn't touch.

How Does an HWID Ban Work?

An HWID ban works by matching the machine instead of the password. The anti-cheat keeps a record of the banned PC, and any later session that matches it gets the ban, even on an account that never broke a rule. Riot gives the most detail about what happens next:

• Every login fails. Any attempt to sign in returns error VAN 152.
• New accounts don't last. Riot keeps searching for accounts the banned player uses and bans them by hand, however those accounts behaved.
• Other people get caught. A friend or relative who logs in on that PC is locked out of it and handed a timed ban, because Riot's system treats the login as a dodge of the first ban.

Other publishers describe the same effect. The Apex Legends team says its hardware bans keep repeat offenders out of the game "even if they spin up new accounts," and Embark tells hardware-banned players they'll need another computer to play its games.

Is an HWID Ban the Same as an Account Ban or IP Ban?

No. An HWID ban blocks a computer, an account ban blocks one login, and an IP ban blocks a network address:

Riot, the Apex team, Facepunch and Embark reserve hardware bans for serious or repeated violations, while Arena Breakout: Infinite adds the device to every verified cheating ban. As for a Valorant IP ban, Riot's VALORANT penalty table has none at all.

How Long Does an HWID Ban Last?

An HWID ban lasts as long as the publisher decides, and there's no industry standard. The lengths publishers give:

• Valorant: usually four months for VAN 152, going by Riot's error list, so a Valorant HWID ban is temporary by default. Riot can also shorten or extend one after a review.
• Delta Force: one year. In a single week of November 2025, the game's security team blocked 862 devices for a year.
• Arena Breakout: Infinite: ten years, as part of "a ten-year account and device ban" for verified cheating.
• Arc Raiders: no end date given. Embark calls its hardware bans "final and non-appealable."
• Apex Legends and Rust: not published. Both confirm hardware bans without giving a length.

League of Legends shares Riot's Vanguard system, so Riot also decides how long a League of Legends HWID ban runs.

Which Games Use HWID Bans?

The publisher's own pages document hardware bans for 10 of the 15 games below, and only 3 of those 10 come with a length. Epic Games and EA refer to hardware or device bans without publishing a policy, and the pages we read for Escape from Tarkov, FiveM and DayZ don't mention them.

Do Valorant and League of Legends Use HWID Bans?

Yes. Valorant and League of Legends both run Riot Vanguard, Riot's anti-cheat with a kernel-mode driver, and a Riot HWID ban covers every Riot game at once. Riot lists three things that lead to one: extreme hostility in chat or feeding on purpose across a string of permabanned accounts, a threat of harm Riot can verify, and getting flagged for scripts, cheats or other third-party tools.

Riot will re-evaluate a Valorant HWID ban through a Player Support ticket, then lift it or extend it, though bans that followed a verified threat against someone aren't up for lifting.

Do Easy Anti-Cheat Games Use HWID Bans?

Easy Anti-Cheat detects cheating, but each publisher picks the penalty. EAC's player support FAQ says that once it flags an account, "the game publisher may subsequently decide to suspend or ban the account."

Fortnite

Epic Games publishes account-level Fortnite ban lengths: temporary bans of up to 365 days, and permanent bans that are indefinite, per its Fortnite ban help article. Since April 2025, a first cheating offense brings a one-year matchmaking ban and a second a lifetime ban, under Epic's February 27, 2025 anti-cheat update.

Epic's help pages don't set out a Fortnite hardware ban policy, but they refer to one. Its Hardware Identifiers Warning page says the warning appears when Epic detects a tool that hides or changes a PC's hardware identifiers, "often used to avoid a hardware ban," and that the account may be permanently banned if the tool stays.

Apex Legends

Apex Legends issues hardware bans for its worst cases. The Apex anti-cheat team posted on July 13, 2026 that it had carried out nearly 6,000 hardware bans across PC and console since the end of April. It calls hardware bans its "most severe penalty" and aims them at "malicious bad actors and serial cheaters," without giving a length.

Rust

Rust hardware bans go only to repeat offenders, according to Facepunch Studios' Ban Second Chances page, updated in September 2026. It lets players banned more than 8 months ago return on a new account if they haven't reoffended or evaded the ban, but not hardware-banned players. Facepunch's EAC ban article adds that every EAC ban in Rust is permanent, and tickets won't remove one.

Arc Raiders

Arc Raiders hardware bans are final. Embark Studios' hardware banning page, updated October 29, 2025, says a hardware-banned PC "will no longer be able to access any of our products," every Embark game included, and that the ban can't be appealed. The ban message can show one of 11 codes ending in 017, from ARAV0017 to ARAV11017.

Do BattlEye Games and FiveM Use HWID Bans?

Only one of the three BattlEye games here, PUBG, mentions hardware in its rules. BattlEye's own support page says its global bans "are permanent and no exceptions will be made," and an appeal needs the global ban ID from the ban message.

PUBG: Battlegrounds

PUBG: Battlegrounds can restrict a PC as well as an account. Krafton's Rules of Conduct list a permanent game ban for unauthorized programs or hardware devices, with "restrictions of using the Service on your hardware devices," and allow sanctions on every account tied to one device or IP address used for misconduct. Krafton's anti-cheat roadmap of March 24, 2026 says Krafton will advance its "hardware-based re-entry blocks."

Rainbow Six Siege

Rainbow Six Siege bans cheaters permanently, and in a 2021 developer AMA Ubisoft confirmed that it also uses hardware bans in Siege. Ubisoft's November 2025 R6 ShieldGuard update counts perma bans such as over 4,300 accounts caught ELO trapping in one October wave, and its help center lists a one-year MouseTrap ban for console players caught using an adapter that makes a mouse and keyboard look like a controller.

Escape from Tarkov

Escape from Tarkov bans cheaters daily through BattlEye and Battlestate Games' own checks. Battlestate's anti-cheat diary of April 6, 2026 gives no ban length or hardware ban policy, and says that when players report a false ban, the account has more often used a spoofer, been shared with a cheater or run cheats in another game.

FiveM

FiveM uses Cfx.re's own anti-cheat rather than BattlEye, and its bans land on accounts. The Cfx.re ban FAQ says an account caught injecting into the FiveM or RedM client is banned from both, with a message giving the ban's length at every join attempt. It doesn't mention hardware bans.

Does Battlefield 6 Use HWID Bans?

EA's Battlefield 6 anti-cheat updates don't set out a hardware ban policy, though its ban help page says a ban can sit on your EA Account, on a specific game or "on your device." Battlefield 6 runs EA Javelin Anticheat, which EA's September 2026 Javelin update says protects 20 titles and added a TPM 2.0 requirement for Battlefield 6. Appeals for EA games, Apex Legends included, go through the Penalty History tool, where a review can uphold, shorten or remove a penalty.

Do ACE Games Use HWID Bans?

Yes. Both games here that run Anti-Cheat Expert (ACE) put the device in the ban and give it a set length. ACE's November 2025 security brief says a TPM 2.0 chip allows "significantly more accurate hardware bans."

Delta Force

Delta Force pairs long account bans with device blocks. Its G.T.I. Security team, formed with ACE, lists account bans of up to 10 years for cheating on its security page, along with IP address bans, and its penalty notice for November 17 to 23, 2025 reported 862 devices blocked for one year.

Arena Breakout: Infinite

Arena Breakout: Infinite bans the device along with the account, which is what players call an Arena Breakout HWID ban. Its B.D.C. security team's list of ten rules, posted October 21, 2025, sets a ten-year account and device ban once cheating is verified, and suspensions of 1 to 365 days when it's only suspected. Its Season 6 security report from late September 2026 counts over 8,000 ten-year bans.

How Do You Know If You're HWID Banned?

You're probably HWID banned if every account on your PC is blocked, not just the one that was flagged. The clearest signs:

• A hardware error code. Riot games show VAN 152 at every login, and Arc Raiders can show one of Embark's ARAV codes ending in 017.
• A second account gets banned on your PC. On a Riot PC, a friend's account that signs in is locked out and given a timed ban.
• The ban survives a reinstall. Reinstalling the game changes nothing, because the ban sits on the hardware.

Don't test it with a new account: Riot advises against logging in with any account on a PC you suspect is banned. Riot also warns that VALORANT shows the wrong error code for some errors right now, so ask Player Support before you assume the worst.

Bans don't always land at once, either. EAC says a ban may not be applied right away, and Riot's games can delay bans too.

What Doesn't Remove an HWID Ban?

The usual quick fixes don't remove an HWID ban, because none of them changes the hardware it's tied to:

• Deleting the flagged account, or reinstalling the game. Riot rules both out as a fix.
• A factory reset or a clean Windows install. Both replace software, and the serial numbers in the motherboard, drives and network adapters stay the same.
• A VPN or a different IP address. The ban follows the PC, not the connection.
• A new account. Riot bans it on sight, the Apex team keeps repeat offenders out even on new accounts, and Rust's second-chance offer excludes hardware-banned players.

What Can You Do About an HWID Ban?

Your options after an HWID ban depend on the publisher, and a review comes first wherever one exists:

1. Ask for a review. Riot re-evaluates hardware bans with one ticket per affected account, which is how a Valorant ban appeal works. Epic takes appeals in its Sanctions and Appeals Portal with the Sanction ID from your ban email, EA uses Penalty History, and BattlEye and Cfx.re take support tickets.
2. Wait it out when there's an end date, like Valorant's usual four months or Delta Force's one-year device block.
3. Know which bans are final. Embark doesn't hear hardware ban appeals, and Facepunch doesn't lift EAC bans on request.
4. Change what the PC reports. New parts change the hardware the ban was tied to, and an HWID spoofer changes the identifiers in software instead.

Saturn is an HWID spoofer: you run a single loader, and whichever license you own sets the anti-cheats it works against. A spoofer doesn't clear the ban on the publisher's side, and publishers watch for spoofers: Epic's Hardware Identifiers Warning targets tools that change hardware identifiers, Embark lists attempts to bypass anti-cheat protections as a ban reason, and Battlestate names spoofer use among the causes behind supposed false bans.

HWID Ban FAQ

Is an HWID ban permanent?

Not always. Each publisher sets the length: Riot's VALORANT error list puts the usual VAN 152 ban at four months, Delta Force has blocked devices for one year and Arena Breakout: Infinite blocks them for ten, while Embark's hardware bans have no end date and no appeal.

Does a factory reset get rid of an HWID ban?

No. Resetting the PC reinstalls Windows, but the hardware the ban is tied to doesn't change. Riot says deleting the banned account or reinstalling the game won't remove one either, and Embark's answer for a hardware-banned PC is a different computer.

How can I fix an HWID ban in Fortnite?

Appeal it first. Epic reviews every Fortnite ban appeal in the Sanctions and Appeals Portal on its Safety Center, using the Sanction ID from your ban email, and a human moderator can uphold, lift or change the sanction. Epic also says the account may be permanently banned if a tool that changes hardware identifiers stays installed after its warning.

Can a used PC come with an HWID ban?

Yes. A hardware ban stays with the machine, so a secondhand PC can carry the last owner's ban, and on a Riot PC any account that signs in is locked out and handed a timed ban. If a PC you just bought hits VAN 152, tell Player Support it's secondhand and treat it like a Valorant false ban.

Do HWID bans carry over between games?

Sometimes. A Riot hardware ban covers every Riot game, Embark applies its hardware bans to all of its titles, and Delta Force's security team lists record sharing with other games among its measures. Easy Anti-Cheat leaves the penalty to each game's publisher.

Can I play on another account while I'm HWID banned?

Not on the banned PC. Riot bans any account the banned player uses and gives other people's accounts a timed ban there, Facepunch warns that accounts used to dodge an EAC ban get banned too, and the Apex team built its hardware bans to stop repeat offenders on new accounts.