AFK farming has become a growing problem in For Honor.

For those unfamiliar with the practice, AFK farming is when a player goes AFK (away from keyboard) but sets their game up in a way that their player keeps moving, by tying a rubber band around their control stick or something similar.  The constant movement prevents the game’s auto-detect software from kicking the player automatically, allowing them to stay for the whole match and collect the XP and rewards given out at the end.  Doing this consistently allows the player to rack up a serious amount of rewards for their account without actually playing, thus “farming”.

This kind of behaviour naturally has a negative effect on other players who are actually playing, as going up against an enemy team of four players while your three teammates are running in circles at spawn is far from ideal.

Developer Ubisoft first addressed the problem of AFK farming in For Honor in a post made a few weeks ago, identifying the issue and laying out their plans to warn first-time offenders, before banning those who repeat the transgression multiple times.

Just two days ago, Ubisoft made their first wave of bans in For Honor, and shared their results in a post made on the official For Honor subreddit.  In all, approximately 4,000 AFK farmers were detected and issued a warning, with around 1,500 getting a 3-day ban for repeated offense.  Additionally, Ubisoft warned that using a cheat engine to AFK farm is against the game’s Code of Conduct, meaning that some players who used that method may incur a perma-ban.

The post concludes with a reminder of the official For Honor community values, which are:

Honor: Fight, win and lose with Honor. Support your teammates.
Respect: Respect your opponents and other community members, inside and outside the game.
Share: Share your experience, share tips and hints, spread the word!

You can read more about Ubisoft’s approach to sanctions on the For Honor FAQ page.