Did you just get a ‘Fatal Error!’ pop up that suggests that you are hacking your game of Helldivers 2? If you’re innocent, don’t panic—it’s been happening to other people too, and there’s a couple of things you can do to address the issue.
UPDATED April 16
Helldivers 2 Hack Attempt Detected Bug Fix
Assuming that you’re totally innocent, it is possible that this is just an error from an overzealous anti-cheat system. In this case, it would be the ‘GameGuard’ referred to in the same error dialog box.
Restart Your PC
As always, proceed with the simplest thing first: just restart your PC. Maybe there’s another application resident in the memory on your PC that is being flagged as suspect by the anti-cheat, or maybe the system clock is out of sync with the server. Whatever it is, take this simplest step first.
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Update The Game
If that fails, it’s time to check if your Helldivers 2 local files are properly up to date. Anti-cheats are also set off by discrepancies in file dates and sizes. Since Helldivers 2 is an online-only, Games-as-a-Service (GaaS) title, if your game version isn’t synced with the server, you will not be able to launch the game properly.
Verify Game Files
Assuming that there isn’t a patch or update pending, then it’s possible that your files are corrupted, and tripping up anti-cheat for the same reason as above.
A corrupted installation is said to be the cause of the issue for some players on Steam PC. You may want to either perform a fresh install, or simply use the “Verify integrity of game files” function by right-clicking Helldivers 2 -> Properties -> Installed Files. Here’s a detailed guide to verifying game file integrity from Steam itself.
Reset Config File
Could a setting that you changed be the source of the problem? You can force the game to reset its settings to default. Navigate to C:\Users\[your PC name]\AppData\Roaming\Arrowhead\Helldivers2 and rename user_settings.config to user_settings.config.old or anything of your choice. This will create the config file anew.
While users on the SteamCommunity that have had success with this method generally recommend deleting the file, you’re better off renaming it just to be safe, but also so that you can handily restore the same settings if that wasn’t the issue.
Disable VPN
Players with VPNs may want to skip the middleman for once, as it is known to trip up server connectivity, and now potentially anit-cheat, in Helldivers 2. If the VPN is vital to your online security, try switching to another city or country.
On the other hand, have you been consistently using a VPN before, and only now connected normally? A change in connectivity might be the issue, so revert to your VPN and test it.
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Disable Security Software And Hardware
This is really not recommended, as it opens you to attack from third-parties unrelated to the game. It’s possible that the anti-cheat is conflicting with your firewall, anti-virus, or other security software.
A good compromise would be to add Helldivers 2 to the list of exceptions maintained by the software, i.e. the whitelist, but this is a one-sided solution and won’t necessarily stop the anti-cheat itself from detecting the software.
Reinstall The Game
We saved this one for last, because while it may seem relatively painless for people with fast internet, it’s still quite disruptive, potentially losing all your settings if you’re careful. Consider this a measure of last resort, before opting for a full, fresh install of Helldivers 2.
Contact Support
Yes, you should contact support last of all, simply because they’ll most likely run you through at least one or two, if not all of the steps above, themselves.
While there’re plenty of ways to make contact with their support team, your best bet as of now is the Official Helldivers 2 Discord:
https://discord.gg/helldivers
That’s just about everything you can possibly do to fix the false positive ‘Hack Attempt Detected’ bug in Helldivers 2.
