HWID Spoofing Guides
Games That HWID Ban: 2026 Coverage List
Games that HWID ban, grouped by anti-cheat engine: 59 titles across EasyAntiCheat, BattlEye, Vanguard, RICOCHET and more, with what each ban covers
James Varga10 min read
Free Squad HWID Spoofer - Fix Hardware Bans
Squad's EAC check identifies the PC before a community server. TraceX Spoofer permanently rewrites that HWID once for free, then you delete it.
Free diagnostic
Is It Really a Squad HWID Ban?
Three different authorities can lock you out of Squad and the symptoms overlap: an Easy Anti-Cheat banned notice at the loading screen, a Steam "Game Ban" badge on the profile, an Offworld game-side ban, or a SteamID rejection pushed by the Community Ban List that many licensed servers query on connect. Check which one is actually firing before assuming the machine is the problem.
Step 1 / 6
Can you still log into your game account?
Hardware Coverage
What Squad Tracks — and What TraceX Rewrites
Squad's anti-cheat silently reads dozens of hardware identifiers from your PC while it's running — long before you reach a match. Learn how EasyAntiCheat works in Squad and why it's difficult to bypass without a spoofer. Below is a sample of the identifiers being tracked.
| Hardware Identifier | Squad Tracks | TraceX Rewrites |
|---|---|---|
| CPU / CPUID Platform Data | Yes | Yes |
| SMBIOS Type 2 Board Serial / UUID | Yes | Yes |
| GPU Device ID / LUID | Yes | Yes |
| Disk & Volume Serials | Yes | Yes |
| Network Adapter MAC | Yes | Yes |
| Windows MachineGuid | Yes | Yes |
Reality Check
Squad Appeals Almost Never Work
And when they're denied — which is almost always for HWID bans — your hardware stays permanently blacklisted. No second chances.
“Today, we have issued the final bans on 7 members of the community that were involved in creating and using a "Cheat Menu" that was found to be built into multiple mods for Squad. [...] All of these members have now been banned from accessing Squad.”
Offworld Industries — official announcement by community lead "Ceeg," posted to r/joinsquad July 22, 2025
Filing a support ticket or ban appeal
Creating a new Steam account on the same machine
Using a VPN or proxy
Reinstalling Squad
Reinstalling Windows
Waiting — HWID bans do not expire
Run TraceX once to rewrite your hardware identifiers — Squad's anti-cheat scans your machine and sees a completely new PC
Why You Need This
Do You Really Need an HWID Spoofer for Squad?
You queue a RAAS layer on Yehorivka, wait out the server browser, and the client drops you at the loading screen with an Easy Anti-Cheat banned notice before the first rally goes down. Gorodok does the same. So does Fallujah. Your Steam profile picks up a Game Ban badge, and licensed servers start refusing the SteamID on connect because they query the Community Ban List. Buying Squad again on a fresh Steam account is the reflex, and it is the wrong one: the new account reaches the same EAC handshake from the same motherboard, the same network adapter, and the same disks.
A Squad ban is easy to misdiagnose because three separate authorities can lock you out and only one of them is looking at your hardware. Easy Anti-Cheat runs alongside the Squad client on licensed servers. Offworld Industries can sanction the Steam account directly. The Community Ban List, a third-party blacklist many licensed servers query on connect, works purely from SteamIDs. Only the EAC layer holds a device profile. That profile can combine the SMBIOS Type 2 baseboard serial and the SMBIOS Type 1 system UUID, physical disk serials returned through storage IOCTLs, Windows volume serials, network-adapter MAC addresses, and MachineGuid under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography. Where the platform exposes it, TPM 2.0 endorsement-key material adds a hardware-rooted anchor. Secure Boot state reports a boot-chain integrity result rather than another serial number.
That list is why partial hardware changes disappoint. Matching is composite: EAC does not need every value to agree, only enough of them to correlate. Swap the SSD you were running when the ban landed and the board serial, system UUID, remaining drives, adapter MAC, and MachineGuid still line up. Reinstall Windows and you rotate MachineGuid and volume metadata while the firmware-level identifiers survive untouched. A second Steam account is the same mistake in cheaper form: credentials change, the machine does not, and the fresh SteamID attaches to the existing profile at the next EAC handshake. Neither Offworld nor EAC publishes Squad's exact field list or weighting, so treat these surfaces as the categories in play rather than a confirmed recipe.
The same EAC client ships inside a long roster of other titles, so an unchanged machine presents the same board, storage, network, and Windows values wherever EAC initializes. Enforcement is still administered per publisher; a Squad ban is not evidence that another publisher has banned anything. The exposure is that those values are already on file across the engine's roster, and re-flagging on another EAC title is common. Temporary session spoofers present substitute values only while a loader or driver stays resident, so the original profile returns after a reboot and the tool has to run again before every session. TraceX Spoofer rewrites the supported identifiers once, as a single coherent machine profile. Complete the one-time setup, run TraceX once, then delete the tool; nothing stays resident beside Steam or EAC. The rewrite does not restore a banned Steam account, reverse an Offworld sanction, or remove a SteamID from the Community Ban List.
Verified
On July 22, 2025, Offworld Industries banned 7 members of the Squad competitive community for embedding a "Cheat Menu" inside mods used in OWI's own official Squad Arena tournament — including the modders Offworld had commissioned to build the tournament tools. OWI's community lead "Ceeg" stated in the official announcement: "Unfortunately, as for Offworld's part in this, like many others, we were misled by these modders." (Source: r/joinsquad official post by u/03-several-wager, July 22, 2025.)
Why TraceX
Built for Squad Players
You shouldn't need to replace your PC to play Squad again. That's why TraceX exists.
Squad One-Time Run
Run TraceX once before opening Squad through Steam. The rewrite persists, so you can delete the tool before EasyAntiCheat starts.
Permanent EasyAntiCheat Identity
Squad's hardware ban (hwid) is tied to the profile EasyAntiCheat reads. Rewritten identifiers persist across reboots without a TraceX daemon.
EasyAntiCheat Identifier Coverage
For Squad, the documented EasyAntiCheat coverage includes CPU / CPUID Platform Data, SMBIOS Type 2 Board Serial / UUID, GPU Device ID / LUID. TraceX rewrites the supported fields in one pass.
No Squad Runtime Load
Squad launches from Steam after the rewrite is complete. No TraceX process remains during EasyAntiCheat gameplay to consume resources.
Squad Compatibility Notes
Squad's hardware ban (hwid) details stay separate from the current EasyAntiCheat status, so a game update is never treated as unchanged by default.
Fresh EasyAntiCheat Hardware Profile
When you open Squad with Steam account, EasyAntiCheat reads the supported identifiers produced by the completed permanent rewrite.
Setup Guide
How to Bypass a Squad HWID Ban
Getting around a Squad HWID ban used to take hours — reinstalling Windows, flashing BIOS, wiping drivers, re-downloading everything, and praying it worked. One wrong step meant starting over and burning another account. With TraceX, a single click does more than all of that combined.
01
Get TraceX for Squad
Submit your email through the TraceX Spoofer homepage form to receive the Squad setup instructions — free, no card required.
02
Rewrite Your Hardware
Run TraceX once before launching Squad. Every hardware identifier EasyAntiCheat reads is rewritten in a single pass — then you can delete the tool.
03
Log In and Play
Open Squad via the Steam with a new Steam account. EasyAntiCheat scans your hardware and sees a machine it has never seen before — no ban record.
04
Play Ban Free
You're back in Squad. The rewrite is permanent — no daemon running, no expiry, nothing to renew.
Free download
Get the free Squad HWID spoofer.
Submit your email and receive your free TraceX HWID Spoofer license in a few minutes. Run it once on your PC to permanently rewrite the identifiers EasyAntiCheat fingerprints, then delete the binary and reinstall Squad.
Detection Analysis
How Squad Scans Your Hardware
EasyAntiCheat can combine identifiers from your PC into a hardware profile for Squad. TraceX rewrites the supported fields shown below before the game runs.
What Squad Reads Without TraceX
CPU / CPUID Platform DataBFEB...0684
ExposedSMBIOS Type 2 Board Serial / UUIDPF0W...R3X9
ExposedGPU Device ID / LUID0x0000:0x0001D3A7
ExposedDisk & Volume SerialsS75B...6859N
ExposedNetwork Adapter MAC4A:3B:8C...5E:01
ExposedWindows MachineGuidd83fa349-...-4f3a
ExposedWhen you launch Squad, your real hardware IDs are scanned and matched against ban records. Every new account on a flagged PC is blocked.
What Squad Reads With TraceX
CPU / CPUID Platform Data906E...A0C2
RewrittenSMBIOS Type 2 Board Serial / UUID7KM2...JQ84
RewrittenGPU Device ID / LUID0x0000:0x00F4B810
RewrittenDisk & Volume SerialsWMC4...3J2L
RewrittenNetwork Adapter MACD2:7E:19...1C:A4
RewrittenWindows MachineGuid71c0e28d-...-9b7f
RewrittenSquad sees a completely new machine with no ban history. New account, clean hardware — access granted.
Ban Reference
Squad Ban Details
Anti-CheatEasyAntiCheat
Account SystemSteam account
Ban TypeHardware Ban (HWID)
DurationPermanent for a confirmed EAC ban; Offworld game-bans and Community Ban List entries have separate scopes and separate owners
Common Triggers
Aimbot, ESP, or wallhack code injected into the Squad client on a licensed serverCheat menus embedded in Squad mods, including competitive and tournament modsCheat loaders, unsigned drivers, or DMA hardware detected by EAC's kernel componentReturning to licensed Squad servers from hardware already linked to a banUnluckyNo Reason At All
All EasyAntiCheat Games
Other Games Using EasyAntiCheat
All of these games use EasyAntiCheat — the same anti-cheat that banned you in Squad. One permanent TraceX rewrite covers every one of them.
Fortnite
EasyAntiCheat
Apex Legends
EasyAntiCheat
Rust
EasyAntiCheat
Dead by Daylight
EasyAntiCheat
The Finals
EasyAntiCheat
Fall Guys
EasyAntiCheat
Hunt Showdown
EasyAntiCheat
Sea of Thieves
EasyAntiCheat
For Honor
EasyAntiCheat
NBA 2K26
EasyAntiCheat
Lost Ark
EasyAntiCheat
New World
EasyAntiCheat
Throne and Liberty
EasyAntiCheat
VRChat
EasyAntiCheat
Off the Grid
EasyAntiCheat
ARC Raiders
EasyAntiCheat
FAQ
Squad HWID Ban — Frequently Asked Questions
Does Squad issue an HWID ban, or only a Steam Game Ban on the account?
Both layers exist and they are not the same thing. A Steam "Game Ban" badge is the account-visible record; the Easy Anti-Cheat side can also hold a device profile built from board, storage, network, and Windows identifiers. Neither Offworld nor EAC publishes a rule saying every Squad sanction includes hardware enforcement. The pattern that points at the machine is repetition: a new Steam account, freshly purchased, still failing the EAC handshake on the same PC across multiple licensed servers.
Which hardware identifiers can Easy Anti-Cheat read when Squad launches?
EAC keeps Squad's exact field list private, but the Windows surfaces available to a kernel-level anti-cheat are well documented. They include the SMBIOS Type 2 baseboard serial, the SMBIOS Type 1 system UUID often called the motherboard UUID, drive firmware serials queried through storage IOCTLs, filesystem volume serials, physical network-adapter MAC addresses, and MachineGuid under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography. TPM 2.0 endorsement-key material and Secure Boot state are separate platform signals rather than confirmed Squad ban keys.
Will formatting Windows or replacing my SSD clear a Squad hardware ban?
Neither is a full identity reset. A clean Windows install regenerates MachineGuid and volume metadata, which is a real change but a small slice of the profile. Replacing one drive removes one serial and leaves the board serial, system UUID, other disks, and adapter MAC intact. Because matching is composite, EAC only needs enough surviving values to correlate the machine with the flagged one. Reinstalling Squad itself refreshes game and EAC files and does nothing to a server-side ban record.
Does buying Squad again on a new Steam account fix the ban?
It changes the account identifier and nothing underneath it. If enforcement is tied only to the banned SteamID, a second copy is a different situation; if the machine profile is also recognised, the new account reaches the same EAC handshake from the same hardware and can be flagged again. Squad's community layer compounds this, because admins on licensed servers share ban intelligence through the Community Ban List and linked Discord databases that catch alt accounts independently of EAC.
What is the Community Ban List (CBL), and does an EAC ban add me to it automatically?
The CBL is a third-party cross-server blacklist maintained by the Squad community, not by Offworld or EAC. Participating licensed servers query it on player connect and reject SteamIDs it holds. There is no automatic pipeline from an EAC ban into CBL; entries come from participating servers recording their own ban events. A direct Offworld game-ban and admin bans issued on well-connected community servers tend to propagate through it faster than an EAC action alone.
Can Offworld Industries ban me directly, separate from Easy Anti-Cheat?
Yes. Offworld issues game-side bans independently of EAC for terms-of-service violations. The clearest precedent is the July 22, 2025 announcement in which OWI community lead "Ceeg" stated: "All of these members have now been banned from accessing Squad," referring to 7 members caught running a cheat menu inside mods used in OWI's own Squad Arena tournament. That route has its own appeal owner, so an EAC appeal will not touch an Offworld sanction and vice versa.
I edited Squad's .ini config files to remove grass and reduce fog. Is that bannable?
Config-file visibility tweaks sit in a grey zone. EAC bans specifically for .ini edits are rare next to memory-injection detections, and Squad's EULA grants EAC consent to analyse "the Game binaries and scanning the memory of the Unit" rather than naming config files. The practical risk is administrative: admins on populated licensed servers have kicked and banned players they identify using them, and a community ban can reach the CBL without EAC being involved at all.
Can I still play Squad offline or on a server without EAC?
Squad's offline mode with AI runs locally and does not put you through the licensed-server EAC handshake, so a ban does not remove single-player practice, layer testing, or firing-range work. That is the extent of it. Licensed multiplayer servers run the anti-cheat, and a server without it is outside the normal Squad server population. Offline access is not an appeal outcome and does not indicate that the ban record has changed.
How do I appeal a Squad EAC ban, and will Offworld lift it for me?
Offworld will not lift an EAC ban; the standard support reply is that EAC issued the ban, not Offworld, so the appeal goes to EAC. Collect the EAC reference ID from the Squad F1 console log and submit it through EAC's official ban-appeal form with "Squad" as the game. Offworld's own game-side bans go through its support desk instead. Some false positives have been reversed when EAC audits a ban wave; confirmed cheating detections very rarely are.
What is the difference between a permanent rewrite and a temporary Squad spoofer?
A temporary session tool presents substitute identifier values only while its loader, driver, or background service stays active, so the original profile returns after a reboot and the tool has to run again before each Squad session. TraceX uses the permanent-rewrite model: complete the one-time setup, run TraceX once to rewrite the supported profile, then delete the tool. No TraceX process sits beside Steam or EAC afterwards. Neither model restores a banned Steam account or clears a CBL entry.
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Next Steps
Not sure the Squad ban is hardware-based?
Work out which ban you are actually dealing with before you change anything. The ban-type checker walks the symptoms, and how long a EasyAntiCheat ban lasts covers whether waiting it out is realistic for Squad.
You can also browse every game TraceX supports or read up on the anti-cheat engines behind these bans.