> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.exploits.gg/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Rainbow Six Siege Anti-Cheat: Shield Guard and QB AC

> An overview of how Rainbow Six Siege's Shield Guard and QB Anti-Cheat work, what makes external cheats harder to build, and how statistic-based bans happen.

Rainbow Six Siege uses **Shield Guard Anti-Cheat** combined with a system called **QB Anti-Cheat**. Compared to other games, the detection risk from the anti-cheat software itself is relatively low — but there are other ways to get banned that you need to understand.

## Shield Guard Anti-Cheat

Shield Guard is generally considered not very effective at direct cheat detection. Its real defensive advantage comes from a different source: the game engine.

R6 runs on a **custom-built proprietary engine** that isn't used in any other game. This makes external cheats significantly harder to develop because cheat authors have no prior reference knowledge for the engine's memory layout. As a result, even features like aimbot visibility check are difficult or impossible to implement externally.

## QB Anti-Cheat

QB Anti-Cheat works by distributing **different game builds** to different players — meaning multiple versions of the game client are in circulation simultaneously.

Cheats work by reading memory using pointers and offsets to specific locations. When a game file changes, those memory locations change too. QB Anti-Cheat exploits this by forcing cheat developers to maintain working offsets across many different builds at once, significantly increasing their maintenance burden.

Despite how sophisticated this sounds, the anti-cheat itself remains weak in practice.

## How bans actually happen

<Warning>
  The primary ban vector in R6 is **statistic-based**. Extremely high KD ratios and headshot percentages are flagged by automated systems.
</Warning>

From real-world testing:

* Rage hacking with extreme stats (very high KD, abnormal headshot %) results in **permanent bans after approximately 5 hours of gameplay**
* Legitimate-looking gameplay with normal statistics — even using cheats — has produced **no bans over weeks of play**

The conclusion: playing aggressively and visibly is far more dangerous than the anti-cheat software itself.

## Recommendations

* Play with statistics that look plausible for your displayed skill level
* Do not run the HWID spoofer with the R6 Ancient cheat — R6 rarely HWID bans and the spoofer introduces additional risk while also requiring TPM to be disabled. See the [Ancient R6 setup guide](/games/r6-ancient) for more details.
* Avoid obviously suspicious behavior that would generate player reports