Dragon Ball Sparking Zero Players Warned Bans Are Coming

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero publisher issued a warning to players today that indicates bans are very likely on the horizon for some who play online. As we’ve seen from social posts and showcases since Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero launched, some Dragon Ball fans are injecting a little extra flair into their games by using mods that change the appearances of fighters to “add” even more characters than the 182 that are already in the game. That may be all well and good for offline play, but for those using these mods in custom matches, you run the risk of getting banned for utilizing them.

The warning from Bandai Namco seems to deal exclusively with Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero‘s custom battles. This is the feature where players can come up with their own Dragon Ball fights complete with characters, stages, and other scenario factors that you picked out yourself. These custom battles can then be saved, and others can download them using a unique code so that they can play through them themselves.

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The problem with those matches is that players can presumably use mods when creating one to change the appearances of characters among anything else that a mod would be capable of (which is pretty much everything). Even if you download a custom battle that uses a mod, if you don’t have the mod in question, it’s almost certainly not going to work for you anyway which defeats the purpose of using them in custom matches. For content moderation purposes, the thumbnails for custom battles also make use of whatever content is included in them, so even if the mods don’t work for others, they’d still be able to see some thumbnails that are potentially unsuitable for online play.

To that end, Bandai Namco has issued a mandate: stop using mods in custom matches or you could be banned.

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“Concerning Custom Battle MODs in DRAGON BALL: Sparking! Zero,” the message shared on Twitter said. “Appropriate security measures will be taken against those who used any MOD system in Custom Battle. We recommend you delete any custom battles containing MODs immediately to avoid a ban. Please note that our support team cannot address any issues or appeals caused by the use of MODs. We appreciate your understanding and continued support for the game.”

It’s unclear how long a ban might last if you get hit with one for using mods in online play, but it sure sounds like Bandai Namco won’t be taking any measures to unban you since a warning has already been issued. For those who’ve been using mods in custom battles and have uploaded them already, now would probably be the best time to get rid of them. And if you see a custom battle online that looks like it’s been modded, it’s probably best to avoid it since it likely won’t work properly and will probably be gone soon anyway.

Aside from using mods to augment custom battles, players have also found a way to “mod” their way into a custom battle scenario which was technically baked into Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero already. It would seem that there’s a way to play as Gohan Black in the Dragon Ball game through inputting a specific code players discovered without any mods needed, but Gohan Black isn’t technically a pickable character from the game’s roster despite being in the alternate scenarios. That’s led people to believe that Gohan Black may be added later as a standalone fighter, but all we know about so far is the DLC that’s been laid out previously.