Battlebit Remastered anti-cheat update won’t break Steam Deck & Linux support

The popular FPS Battlebit Remastered is set to introduce a new anti-cheat, and the development team has finally put Linux players at ease.

For weeks now, Battlebit Remastered has been prepping to push an update that moves the game from Easy Anti-Cheat to FACEIT, an anti-cheat software best known in Counter-Strike circles.

The move would have ended support for the Battlebit Remastered on the Steam Deck and Linux, which irritated fans. After the announcement, there was no clear messaging from the Battlebit Remastered team, leaving Linux players in the lurch.

FACEIT is a custom anti-cheat that players have to opt-in to, which then allows them to access FACEIT servers. It operates independently of Valve’s VAC in CS:GO, but cuts the game off from its native Linux support.

Developers often fear Linux players due to the unrestricted freedom that experienced users could use for malicious intent. Battlebit Remastered has already become known for banning cheaters and aims to continue that level of scrutiny.

However, in a new update video, the team behind Battlebit Remastered has come forward about the swap:

“We will not use the FACEIT that exists today. Like the current FACEIT that CS:GO uses, we will not use that FACEIT. The developers are making a new anti-cheat.

“They are making a fresh new anti-cheat that is different to their original anti-cheat that will support Linux… it will have less restrictions to what CS:GO has but at the same time it will still be effective.”

The Steam Deck runs SteamOS, a custom-built version of Linux by Valve. It uses a translation layer called Proton to play games not native to the Linux OS, which has recently hit over 75% support.

FACEIT responds over Battlebit Remastered anti-cheat changes

Battlebit

FACEIT’s Maria Laura Scuri (Lulu), VP of Labs & Community Integrity, answered in a Steam forum post how the developers will be implementing FACEIT’s anti-cheat on Linux:

“FACEIT Anticheat Lite is going to support Linux. We are starting with Proton and SteamDeck, and we will then add other popular Linux builds.

“FACEIT Anticheat Lite gives the option to game developers to disable some system integrity checks and in particular, in Battlebit we will have this configuration:

a) There will be no checks for secure boot, so nobody will need to enable it.
b) We won’t be requiring [you] to update your operating system.
c) You can run HyperV without any special requirements.”

Essentially, unlike the anti-cheat for Destiny 2 and Call of Duty, which keeps the games off of Linux, Battlebit’s new anti-cheat will be skipping over the checks that make FACEIT so strict on Windows.