Several thousand get temporary bans as For Honor battles experience-farming exploit

About 1,500 people have gotten three-day bans and another 4,000 have been warned as Ubisoft moves to contain the so-called "AFK Farming" exploit in its fighting game, For Honor.

The exploit rather crudely takes advantage of doing nothing within a match yet still earning end-game rewards and level progression. "AFK farming" entails keeping a character moving somehow during a match (typically by hooking a rubber band to the thumbstick) without playing.

Anyone who finishes a match is eligible for bonuses and some specific challenges, called "orders" set participating in or completing certain types of matches, or with certain fighters, as a condition to receive even more XP.

Writing on the For Honor subreddit, For Honor's development team explained both the bans and the offending conduct. Ubisoft Montreal, the developer, said earlier this month it was aware of the cheating and planned to do something about it.

Apparently, some players are able to use a cheat engine to exploit "AFK Farming." Anyone caught doing that risks getting a permaban, Ubisoft Montreal said.

“Because this kind of behavior negatively affects the player experience of others," the developers said, "it has become a top priority for us. As such, we will be sanctioning all the players who have been found to be using AFK Farming repeatedly.”

For Honor launched Feb. 14 on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. For more about the game, which we said is "a stout challenge but honest about its expectations," see Polygon's review.