Wuthering Waves

Wuthering Waves is a free-to-play open-world gacha action-RPG from the Chinese studio Kuro GamesPublisherKuro GamesKuro Games is the Chinese developer of Wuthering Waves and Punishing: Gray Raven, publishing internationally through a Singapore subsidiary. Wuthering Waves ships Tencent's kernel-level Anti-Cheat Expert (ACE), which drew privacy scrutiny because the game is largely single-player.1 game in this family →, released May 22, 2024 on Windows, iOS, and Android, and later on PlayStation 5 and Steam. Built on Unreal Engine 4EngineUnreal Engine (Epic Games)Epic Games' Unreal Engine is the most widely used engine in big-budget PC games. Versions 4 and 5 power a substantial share of the modern competitive shooter market, including Valorant (UE4), Fortnite (UE5), PUBG (UE4), The Finals (UE5), and Delta Force (UE5).20 games in this family →, it is widely framed as a competitor to Genshin Impact, with a heavier emphasis on fast combat, and it topped download charts in more than a hundred countries at launch.

Installing Wuthering Waves means accepting Tencent's kernel-level ACEAnti-cheatTencent Anti-Cheat Expert (ACE)Anti-Cheat Expert (ACE) is Tencent's in-house kernel anti-cheat, the modern continuation of TenProtect. The kernel driver (ace-base.sys) is catalogued in the Field Guide. ACE is distinct from NetEase's NeacProtect, with which it is commonly confused.2 games in this family → and a separate user agreement, with a shared driver that one game's uninstall will not remove; the ace-base.sysDriverace-base.sysAnti-Cheat Expert (ACE) base kernel driverOpen plate → plate in the drivers section is worth reading for why a kernel anti-cheat driver is its own security surface. The main process is Client-Win64-Shipping.exe. On the Steam Deck and desktop Linux, ACE has locked players out, so verify current compatibility before relying on it there. The reasonable move is the one this guide always points to: weigh the kernel-level access against what you are getting before you install, eyes open rather than alarmed.

Wuthering Waves installs Tencent's Anti-Cheat Expert (ACE), a kernel-level anti-cheat, the same family that protects Delta Force and other Tencent-published titles. Its kernel driver belongs to the ace-base.sys family catalogued in this guide's drivers section, and a version of that driver appears on the public LOLDrivers vulnerable-driver list under CVE-2024-22830, a privilege-escalation flaw, which is the clearest reason to treat the install as a real kernel-level trust ask. ACE installs into a shared system drivers folder, so it is not removed by uninstalling a single game, and it requires agreeing to a separate Tencent user agreement. The main game process is Client-Win64-Shipping.exe. Notably, the game is largely single-player, which is why many players questioned the need for kernel anti-cheat at all.

The honest version of the controversy matters here. What is verified: Wuthering Waves ships a kernel-level anti-cheat with deep system access, a vulnerable ACE driver exists on the public list (CVE-2024-22830), and the anti-cheat comes with its own Tencent agreement. What is community concern rather than demonstrated fact: a widely shared analysis from a single self-identified developer, relayed by Sportskeeda, claimed the anti-cheat was resource-heavy and could destabilize a system, and parts of the community called it spyware. No named-outlet forensic report has shown the game reading browser history or unrelated files, and Kuro did not publicly rebut the spyware framing, so this guide reports the concern and its limits rather than a verdict. A separate and unrelated 2024 incident, in which Kuro accidentally exposed a few hundred players' email addresses by not using blind copy on a refund email, was an operational mistake, not an anti-cheat issue. Sources include GamingOnLinux, Sportskeeda, and the LOLDrivers project.