EAC vs BattlEye vs Vanguard vs Ricochet vs VAC: Anti-Cheat Explained
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Easy Anti-Cheat, BattlEye, Riot Vanguard, Ricochet, and VAC are five separate anti-cheat systems built by different companies for different publishers — they share the same goal (stopping cheats) but differ in which games they protect, whether they run at the Windows kernel level, and how invasive that footprint is. If you’ve hit an anti-cheat error in one game and are wondering whether it’s the same problem you fixed in another, this guide lays out exactly where they overlap and where they don’t.
The five systems, compared
| System | Games | Level | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riot Vanguard | Valorant, League of Legends | Kernel | Requires Secure Boot + TPM 2.0; loads at boot, not just at game launch |
| Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) | Fortnite, Apex Legends, Rust | Kernel | Epic-owned; ships a per-game repair tool that fixes most launch errors |
| BattlEye | Rainbow Six Siege, Escape from Tarkov, PUBG, Destiny 2, ARK: Survival Ascended | Kernel | The most widely licensed anti-cheat; used across many unrelated publishers |
| VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) | Counter-Strike 2 | User-mode + Trusted Mode (kernel) | “Unable to verify” errors are almost always a Steam session issue, not a ban |
| Ricochet | Call of Duty (Black Ops 6, Warzone) | Kernel | Requires Secure Boot + TPM 2.0; known conflicts with Memory Integrity / Core Isolation causing BSODs |
| In-house (Blizzard) | Overwatch 2 | Proprietary | Undocumented publicly; no dedicated fix page on this site |
The important distinction isn’t “kernel vs not kernel” alone — it’s when the kernel driver loads. Vanguard is the outlier: it loads at Windows boot and keeps running whether or not Valorant is open, specifically to check what else is loading into your system. EAC, BattlEye, and Ricochet load their kernel component only while their respective game is running, then unload it. VAC’s base layer is user-mode; its optional “Trusted Mode” adds a kernel-level component only in official Valve matchmaking on CS2.
Why almost every fix is the same
If you’ve fixed an anti-cheat error in one game and hit a different-looking error in another, there’s a good chance the same handful of root causes is behind both. Kernel-level anti-cheat has a small number of ways to fail, and they repeat across every vendor:
- Secure Boot or TPM 2.0 is off. Vanguard and Ricochet refuse to load their driver without both enabled. This is the single most common cause of a flat “won’t launch” error on either system, especially after a fresh Windows install or a BIOS reset.
- The anti-cheat’s own Windows service isn’t running. Each vendor installs a background service (visible in
services.msc) that has to start before the driver can load. A service stuck on “Stopped,” disabled by a cleanup tool, or blocked by third-party security software throws an error that looks unrelated to its actual cause. - The anti-cheat install itself is corrupt. Nearly every vendor ships (or the game ships alongside it) a standalone repair/reinstall utility for exactly this reason — a partial patch or an interrupted update leaves files behind that the driver won’t load.
- GPU or chipset drivers are out of date. Anti-cheat systems that scan loaded kernel modules can choke on stale or mismatched driver versions, especially after a Windows feature update changes how drivers are signed or loaded.
- A pending Windows update hasn’t been applied. Anti-cheat vendors frequently require a current Windows build to keep their driver’s signing and compatibility current; skipping updates for months is a common, overlooked cause of sudden launch failures.
Work down that list in order — Secure Boot/TPM, service status, reinstall, drivers, Windows updates — and you’ll resolve the majority of anti-cheat errors regardless of which of the five systems threw it.
Fix guides by game
- Fortnite Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) error fix
- Apex Legends Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) error fix
- Rust Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) error fix
- Rainbow Six Siege BattlEye error fix
- Escape from Tarkov BattlEye error fix
- PUBG BattlEye error fix
- Destiny 2 BattlEye error fix
- ARK: Survival Ascended BattlEye error fix
- CS2 VAC error fix
- League of Legends Vanguard error fix
- Call of Duty Ricochet anti-cheat error / BSOD fix
- Valorant VAN error: Vanguard won’t start
For the Secure Boot/TPM requirement specifically, see why anti-cheat needs Secure Boot and TPM. If you’re weighing whether kernel-level access itself is something to be concerned about, see is kernel-level anti-cheat safe?
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between EAC, BattlEye, Vanguard, Ricochet, and VAC?
They're separate anti-cheat systems built by different companies for different publishers. Easy Anti-Cheat (Epic) covers Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Rust. BattlEye is the most widely licensed, covering Rainbow Six Siege, Tarkov, PUBG, Destiny 2, and ARK: Survival Ascended. Riot Vanguard covers Valorant and League of Legends. Ricochet is Activision's system for Call of Duty. VAC is Valve's system for Steam titles like CS2. All except VAC's base layer run a kernel-level driver; the fixes that resolve their errors overlap heavily because the underlying failure points (Secure Boot, TPM, a stuck service, a corrupt driver) are the same.
Which anti-cheat is the strictest?
Vanguard is generally considered the most aggressive, because its driver loads at Windows boot and keeps running in the background even when Valorant isn't open, specifically to watch for other drivers loading into the system. EAC and BattlEye only load their kernel component while their game is running. Ricochet sits in between: kernel-level, but tied to the Call of Duty process lifecycle rather than persistent at boot.
Do all of these anti-cheats require Secure Boot and TPM 2.0?
Vanguard and Ricochet enforce Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 as a hard requirement before they'll let the game launch. EAC and BattlEye don't universally require it, though individual publishers can turn the requirement on per title, and Fortnite and Call of Duty in particular do check for it. VAC does not require either.
Why do so many anti-cheat errors have the same fix?
Because despite being built by different companies, all of these systems are kernel-level drivers with the same handful of ways to break: a firmware setting they depend on is off, the driver's own service failed to start, a Windows update left the driver out of sync, or a corrupted install needs a clean reinstall. Fixing any one of Secure Boot, TPM, the anti-cheat service, or your drivers resolves the large majority of anti-cheat launch errors across every game on this list.
Can one anti-cheat ban you for something another anti-cheat allows?
Yes, on cosmetic and display settings this is rare, but on tools and background software it happens. A background utility flagged by one anti-cheat's heuristics isn't automatically flagged by another's, since each maintains its own detection signatures. This site's guides only cover settings and drivers that are safe across all major anti-cheat systems.
Is a hardware ban from one anti-cheat tied to bans on other games?
No. Each anti-cheat vendor manages its own ban list. A VAC hardware ban affects VAC-protected Steam games; it has no effect on your ability to play a BattlEye or EAC-protected title on the same PC. The systems don't share ban data with each other.