The worst part about getting matched up against a cheater in any game is the frustration of knowing there’s little you can do. Players can send reports or wait for automated bans, but no one is actively watching. That is, unless you’re in Rust, where developers claim they’re keeping an eye on things.

According to COO Alistair McFarlane, rust administrators are monitoring player activities even when they’re not logged in, as if they were playing a real-time strategy game. He mentioned:

“Cheaters: We log off when admins connect to servers.
Us: Watching when we’re not connected to the server like we’re playing an RTS game. Every gun shot, every message, every dropped item, every kind of interaction is logged, recorded and can be played back or watched live.”

In a follow-up reply, he stated that reports of cheating are processed through automated systems that analyze player behavior before any action is taken, sometimes immediately and sometimes delayed. He also added that dedicated staff continually review reports, with a heightened focus on accounts that receive numerous reports.

Facepunch is committed to addressing cheating in Rust. They have recently announced new security requirements, including Secure Boot and Trusted Platform Module (TPM) essentials, that are currently optional but might become mandatory. Cheating has been a significant challenge for the game and is one of the reasons it is not available for Linux.