Statement about antivirus programs flagging Skylords Reborn as unsafe

[TreyDog3]

If it comes down to you guys needing to purchase a certificate, you guys should set up a link for players in the community to donate to the cause. I am sure there are many players in the community who would love to send our support to keep this project running smoothly. 

[Majora]

We have seen some confusion regarding the issue also happening to players without a dedicated Anti Virus program like Norton or McAfee. Please note that Windows automatically comes with the AV-program Microsoft Defender, which also blocks the installer/updater. 

While we continue to search for solutions for the current situation, here is a explanation on how to add an exception to Microsoft Defender. Excluding the Skylords Reborn folder (not just the file) should also prevent players from constantly having to manually exclude the file every time we patch the game.  

The following steps were done on Windows 10, but they should be the same for Windows 11. You can also view the official Microsoft instructions here. 

1) Go to Virus & Threat protection

2) Click Manage settings:

3) Add or remove exclusions

4) Add exclusion for C:\games\skylords reborn (or wherever you have/want to install the game)

For players installing the game for the first time; we suggest to create the Skylords Reborn folder manually, move the installer files there, and add the folder to the anti-virus exceptions. Then proceed the installation into that folder. This prevents the AV from removing the file during installation. 

 

We know asking players to add an exception to their Anti Virus is a big ask, and we are still trying to solve the problem in a way that does not require this. Because we have a new patch planned for this month, we at least wanted to explain to players how to add the exception if they so desire. 

[chickennoodler]

Turns out if you whitelist Skylords, you probaby should double check whitelisting for all Antivirus programs.

My other Antivirus quarantined and deleted the whole whitelisted Skylord folder for "bypassing safeguards"

 

I don't know if I should feel protected or amused the settings caught that.

 

On 6/22/2024 at 11:45 PM, Majora said:

Blue screen shouldnt be related to these issues, but rather a hardware issue im afraid.

Well that's not good for me.

I'll see you guys later then after taking it apart and checking.
 

Hopefully my laptop still works later.

Edited June 26, 2024 by chickennoodler
Whoops

[Vysnia]

19 hours ago, chickennoodler said:

My other Antivirus quarantined and deleted the whole whitelisted Skylord folder for "bypassing safeguards"

omg, how many Antiviruses do you have??? o.0

[Xamos]

My Windows-Defender also mentioned proxy-internal.dll as dangerous (trojan) and I thus tried to allow the entire Game folder and added it as exclusion. Unfortunately this still doesnt work for me, when I start the Launcher (I was on v0.13) only the loading-symbol shows up and the the launcher terminates.

I tried to reinstall the game with the old files I have already downloaded into the excluded Order but the same thing happenes, Starting the launcher does just open it shortly and the closes it again.

[UltDragon]

14 hours ago, Xamos said:

My Windows-Defender also mentioned proxy-internal.dll as dangerous (trojan) and I thus tried to allow the entire Game folder and added it as exclusion. Unfortunately this still doesnt work for me, when I start the Launcher (I was on v0.13) only the loading-symbol shows up and the the launcher terminates.

I tried to reinstall the game with the old files I have already downloaded into the excluded Order but the same thing happenes, Starting the launcher does just open it shortly and the closes it again.

Hey, were is your game folder located? like "C:\Skylords Reborn\"
Do you have space in disk?
Do you have OneDrive or similar installed (file sync software)?

[Xamos]

On 7/1/2024 at 2:08 PM, UltDragon said:

Hey, were is your game folder located? like "C:\Skylords Reborn\"
Do you have space in disk?
Do you have OneDrive or similar installed (file sync software)?

Hi, yes its located at "C:\Games\Skylords Reborn" and OneDrive is installed where some files are "C:\Users\myname\OneDrive\Documents\BattleForge"

[UltDragon]

On 7/3/2024 at 7:27 PM, Xamos said:

Hi, yes its located at "C:\Games\Skylords Reborn" and OneDrive is installed where some files are "C:\Users\myname\OneDrive\Documents\BattleForge"

OneDrive lock files sometimes, so try adding an exception on OneDrive for "C:\Users\myname\OneDrive\Documents\BattleForge".

 

[Majora]

Update:

Our efforts to formally sign the DLL files and update our automation tools appears to have resolved several of these problems. Additionally, we have been collaborating with antivirus companies to whitelist the flagged files, and the initial results are promising.

We are continuing to monitor the situation closely, and we would appreciate your feedback if you are still experiencing any issues. 
You can whitelisting the folder to play while we search for a permanent solution. Instructions can be found above. 

[Xamos]

On 7/6/2024 at 7:52 PM, UltDragon said:

OneDrive lock files sometimes, so try adding an exception on OneDrive for "C:\Users\myname\OneDrive\Documents\BattleForge".

 

Sadly this didn´t help. I also tried to completely disable my onedrive without success.

I literally cant play the game since the antivirus Problem occured months ago and nothing helps, it´s kinda frustrating 😞

Does anyone have another idea? I literally tried to reinstall the game 3 times by now -  redownloading all the files every time - without success.

Still when I open the launcher it terminates itself just seconds after, before any update-numbers occur.

 

 

On 8/15/2024 at 5:32 PM, Majora said:

Update:

Our efforts to formally sign the DLL files and update our automation tools appears to have resolved several of these problems. Additionally, we have been collaborating with antivirus companies to whitelist the flagged files, and the initial results are promising.

We are continuing to monitor the situation closely, and we would appreciate your feedback if you are still experiencing any issues. 
You can whitelisting the folder to play while we search for a permanent solution. Instructions can be found above. 

You did post this after I tried to reinstall the game, did the download files change with this? Should I try again?

Ah by directly opening the Patcher.exe I do now get an error-log-file:
_log_proxy_latest.log

[Xamos]

For anyone reading - I got help on Discord: Apparently my internet Provider blocks skylords-related stuff for me, because I can´t even open this side:
https://download.skylords.eu/update.txt

With a diffenent internet provider it works for me again.

[Fabsi]

On 8/15/2024 at 5:32 PM, Majora said:

and we would appreciate your feedback if you are still experiencing any issues.

Hi, just to keep you updated: I get this warning every time I launch the game. I did not set up a whitelist as it is just a popup but everything works normally even after the flag and the deletion of the file. It just gets recreated every time I launch the game

[MeatyChi]

For the last few days I have been happily getting back to grips with playing BF but now it wont load. It crashes shortly after accepting my logging in details. About an inch of loading screen occurs then it quits. 

Both of the following folders have been added to the exclusion list:

I'm running BF on Win 11. Any ideas how to fix?

 

[blackfission]

I never whitelisted Skylords Reborn, Windows Defender did flag it and made it so I could not play for several months, but the game started working for me again after the fixes over last summer (2024).

I was able to play as recently as yesterday, including updating the game and launcher, without an issue.  The updated launcher, v0.15 (Windows) has a dropdown for Game channel of "Live", "Test", and "Legacy".  The launcher spends significantly less time "Checking for updates..." or "Checking..." which is a big improvement.

Today the launcher loads, but the moment I hit the Play Game button I am receiving a message like I originally did from Windows Defender last summer, though I think this is a different file that is being flagged.
Detected: Program:Win32/Wacapew.C!ml
Status: Quarantined
Affected items: file: D:\Games\Skylords Reborn\pcre3.dll

A few seconds after that I get a error window:
BattleForge.exe - System Error
The code execution cannot proceed because pcre3.dll was not found.
Reinstalling the program may fix this problem.

I did try reopening the launcher and hitting Play Game a few times.  One of those times generated the error below, which was different, though probably related.
BattleForge.exe
The application was unable to start correctly (0x0000906). Click OK to close the application.

Unlike the previous antivirus problem in summer 2024, reopening the launcher did not result in the suspect file being reloaded during the "Checking for updates..." or the "Checking..." stage and being reflagged over and over by Windows Defender.

I also tried "Run as administrator" with SkypordsRebornUpdater.exe, which showed something I found odd in the publisher section, but upon some searching appears to be the name of one of the developers contributing to the GitLab repository for the game.

Was really looking forward to participating in the PvE Event Thirsty Journey Home, but will have to wait and see if this gets resolved before the event ends.

[Skillz]

I got the same error now. Never had problems before and now it tells me that pcre3.dll was not found and I have to reinstall the game .. 😕

\edit

now I reinstalled the game and it tells me in game when I want to log in that my client is not up to date and I need to update it.

Where can I update it? I thought it is automatically searched for updates in the SkylordsRebornUpdater when I start it?

Thank you for help!!

Edited March 7 by Skillz

[Hellzgate]

Just got the same Issue as Skillz, so I redownloaded the installer and reinstalled but now it is telling me I have the wrong client version when I try to log in.

[UltDragon]

Reinstall is a waste of time, as it does not solve the problem.

For anyone having the version error, try deleting Documents\BattleForge\updater-config.json and reopening the updater 

Edited March 7 by UltDragon

[Skillz]

Thank you for the answer.

I deleted the updater file and it updated again. Then the error come again

Detected: Program:Win32/Wacapew.C!ml
Status: Quarantined
Affected items: file: D:\Games\Skylords Reborn\pcre3.dll

A few seconds after that I get a error window:
BattleForge.exe - System Error
The code execution cannot proceed because pcre3.dll was not found.
Reinstalling the program may fix this problem.

 

/edit

I fixed it. You have to manually allow and recover the pcre3.dll file in the windows defender.

Have fun 🙂

Edited March 7 by Skillz

[Kozgery]

Hey, I recently wanted to download the game, but Defender flagged a threat called Win32/Kepavll!rfn, which it claims is a trojan. Anyone have a similar experience? I googled this thing and some sources claim this is actual malware, is there reason to worry?

[Elkondo]

20 hours ago, Kozgery said:

Hey, I recently wanted to download the game, but Defender flagged a threat called Win32/Kepavll!rfn, which it claims is a trojan. Anyone have a similar experience? I googled this thing and some sources claim this is actual malware, is there reason to worry?

There are hundreds of people playing every day, so if you downloaded using the official links from the forum, I don't think there's any reason to worry.

If you want to feel more comfortable, try uploading the downloaded file to virustotal.com to see scan results from multiple scanners yourself. 5 scanners detect something, whereas around 65 deem the file safe.
 

[Xamos]

Since the new Update I get the following when opening the Updater/Launcher:

Any Ideas what I can do?

Edit: it´s still my internet provider who is blocking this, I can actually play with the use of my phone´s hotspot ^^

Edited June 2 by Xamos

[STM]

On 5/23/2025 at 8:45 AM, Elkondo said:

virustotal.com

Unfortunately it doesn't look good:
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/44efab802390880cb5aa6d35209f109eaa9170e9ae9c9c7b2a53462da101a2e3
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/b37f667adcc500e1846ad7fb21c1ee1e5b23d1fd6a49090609ff0a3fd521e913
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/2d2c8e474c8082b91f5398d11d6db0716b8dc9c246e98a2eb83dd0fdbea8d8d2

Up to 17 out of 72 AV engines say those files are malware.

Edited June 8 by STM

[UltDragon]

On 6/8/2025 at 1:17 PM, STM said:

Unfortunately it doesn't look good:
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/44efab802390880cb5aa6d35209f109eaa9170e9ae9c9c7b2a53462da101a2e3
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/b37f667adcc500e1846ad7fb21c1ee1e5b23d1fd6a49090609ff0a3fd521e913
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/2d2c8e474c8082b91f5398d11d6db0716b8dc9c246e98a2eb83dd0fdbea8d8d2

Up to 17 out of 72 AV engines say those files are malware.

Its saying 6/72 at worst (3/72 at best) for the latest files (on the games folder after updates)
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/da1628c8d23b435d84bb804bd57c1d782cd76f23d7a014f9bfe1283ffe59c25d
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/636c273cffc9b1340d1a5c8781d38a69f69ed5c316e292d25055fa1fbe89f913
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/b308c1f9e2eaa937f4b737e8e43a93355f6aa49a90d9c710ccab5643735ad5a4
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/e0bd32da7b48df00da16c96b837147ca694efd41869088d63ff493f5b773a8a4

[STM]

Even if it said 0 after the update, it's a bad out-of-the-box experience for new users.

[Dutchy]

5 hours ago, STM said:

it's a bad out-of-the-box experience for new users

Could you elaborate on this, please? We're curious why you came to this conclusion. Perhaps there is a way to make it more new-player friendly?