How to stop raids on Discord: a complete anti-raid setup

A Discord raid is a wave of throwaway or bot accounts joining your server within seconds to spam, mass-ping, post shock content or scam links, and DM your members. To stop raids on Discord you need three layers: Discord’s own safety settings so the laziest accounts can’t post, a gate that makes every newcomer prove they are human, and something that detects the wave and locks the server automatically — because a raid is usually over before a moderator even opens the app.

This guide walks through all three: how to recognise a raid, which built-in Discord settings to change today, and how to set up BotGG’s anti-raid with a captcha gate, a join gate and an automatic lockdown. If your worry is a hacked moderator or a rogue bot deleting channels, that is a nuke, not a raid — the anti-nuke guide covers it.

What a Discord raid looks like

Raids come from outside the server. The attackers don’t need any permissions — they only need an invite link, which is why public servers, servers listed on bot lists and servers whose invite was posted somewhere hostile get hit most often. Typical signs:

• The join feed explodes — 20, 50 or 200 members in a minute, far above your normal rate.
• The accounts look alike — created the same day, default avatars, usernames like raider_01, raider_02, r4ider.03.
• They all use the same invite — one leaked or shared code brings in the whole wave.
• Spam starts immediately — the same message pasted in every channel, @everyone and mass mentions, gore or NSFW images, scam links.
• Members get DMs — raiders who can see the member list message people directly with scams or abuse.
• Voice raids — accounts jump into voice channels to blast noise.

Step 1: Discord’s built-in anti-raid settings

These cost nothing and work even if every bot is offline. Discord renames its menus from time to time, but everything below lives under Server Settings (mostly the Safety Setup section).

Verification level

Discord’s verification level decides who can type at all:

Medium is a sensible minimum for any public server, and High buys your bots and moderators ten minutes during a raid. Highest stops most bot farms but also many real people, so keep it for emergencies.

AutoMod and mentions

Turn on Discord’s native AutoMod filters for spam content and mention spam (the mention-spam rule can also alert you when it suspects a mention raid). Then remove Mention @everyone, @here and All Roles from the @everyone role — raiders love it, and regular members almost never need it. The AutoMod setup guide goes through every filter.

Slowmode

Slowmode (channel settings → Slowmode) limits how often one member can post in a channel, from 5 seconds up to 6 hours. A 10–30 second slowmode on your busiest public channel makes copy-paste spam far less effective without hurting normal conversation.

Invites and DMs

• Delete leaked invite links under Server Settings → Invites, and stop handing out invites that never expire.
• Pause invites when you are under attack — Discord lets server staff pause new joins temporarily (up to 24 hours) from the server’s security actions or invite settings.
• DM protection — Discord’s DM spam filters and the option to restrict DMs from server members reduce how much raiders can reach your community privately.

Onboarding and Rules Screening

On Community servers, Onboarding and Rules Screening make newcomers read your rules and answer questions before they reach the channels. They slow down bots that only press one button, but a determined raid tool gets through them, so treat them as a filter, not a lock.

Step 2: Put a verification gate in front of the server

The single most effective protection is a gate: new members land in one #verify channel and can see nothing else until they pass. That stops chat spam and voice raids in one go, and makes DM raids much harder because raiders can’t browse your channels for targets.

In BotGG, Verification does this with a button, a rules acceptance, questions or an image captcha. For a raid target, pick the captcha: 5–6 characters without look-alikes, a limited number of attempts, and an optional deadline after which unverified accounts are kicked or sent to review. Add a minimum account age in days so week-old accounts go to a staff queue instead of the server.

The setup wizard creates the Unverified role, the #verify channel and the channel overwrites for you. The verification guide has the full walkthrough — finish it before continuing, because anti-raid works best with Verification turned on.

Step 3: Turn on anti-raid mode

Open https://console.botgg.app, choose your server, then Moderation → Protection → Anti-raid. Two detection rules run side by side:

• Rate rule — N joins within T seconds is a raid. The default is 10 joins in 10 seconds; set it a little above your busiest normal minute.
• Smart detection (on by default) — smaller bursts (5 joins or more by default) get a raid score from 0 to 100. The score adds up the join rate, the share of young accounts (younger than 7 days by default), default avatars, look-alike usernames and joins through the same invite. At 65 or more, the burst counts as a raid even if it is slower than the rate rule.

Usernames are normalised before comparison — accents, separators and trailing numbers removed, look-alike digits folded — so raider_01, R4ider-02 and raider.03 are recognised as one group. Each signal can be switched off if it doesn’t fit your community (for example, “same invite” on a server that only has one public invite).

Step 4: Decide what happens when a raid hits

The response settings sit on the same page:

• Lockdown — @everyone loses Send Messages, thread creation and reactions in the channels you pick, or in every text channel @everyone can write in. The previous permission overwrites are stored and restored exactly when the raid ends.
• Captcha gate during the raid — with Verification enabled, every newcomer must solve the image captcha while the raid lasts, whatever method you normally use. Without Verification, newcomers get a timeout (1 hour by default), a kick, or nothing.
• Minimum account age during the raid — accounts younger than this (7 days by default) are kicked while the raid lasts.
• Raid cluster action — the accounts that match the raid pattern (same name group, same invite, or new with no avatar) are listed. The default is alert only, a dry run; once you trust the detection you can switch it to kick or ban automatically.
• Alert — a message in your alert channel (or the mod log) with the verdict, score, signals, locked channels and listed accounts, pinging the roles you choose. Staff can press Ban all listed, Kick all or Dismiss; the bulk buttons ask for a confirmation first.
• Auto-end — every new join during the raid pushes the end back; after 15 calm minutes by default the lockdown lifts by itself. Set 0 to end it only by hand.

Step 5: Add an always-on join gate

Anti-raid mode only reacts to bursts. Some raids drip in slowly — two or three bot accounts an hour. The join gate, on the same page, applies to every join, raid or not:

• Minimum account age in days (0 = off).
• No default avatar — catch accounts that never set a profile picture.
• Action — kick, or a timeout (24 hours by default).

A 3–7 day minimum with a timeout instead of a kick is a gentle start: real newcomers with fresh accounts can still read along and ask staff for help.

Step 6: Catch the raiders who get in

No gate is perfect, so let BotGG’s AutoMod handle what slips through. Under Moderation → AutoMod enable at least:

• Spam — N messages within T seconds (6 in 5 by default, with a 5-minute timeout).
• Mentions — too many user and role mentions in one message, optionally counting @everyone.
• Duplicates — the same message repeated.
• New account — flags messages from accounts younger than N days.

Each rule can delete the message, add a warning, time the member out, or several of these. Spam, mentions and new-account checks work without the Message Content intent; content-based rules such as duplicates and links need it.

During a raid: a 5-minute checklist

If the alarm didn’t go off or you want to act first, these are BotGG’s manual controls:

1. /lockdown start — lock the configured channels now, with an optional reason and duration. /lockdown end lifts it.
2. /panic start — the big red button: locks every writable channel, switches newcomers to the captcha when Verification is on, can quarantine a specific member, and pauses invites for 24 hours if BotGG has Manage Server (the default invite link doesn’t grant it). /panic end restores everything.
3. Ban the listed accounts from the raid alert in one click.
4. /purge — delete up to 100 recent messages in a channel, optionally only from one user or only from bots.
5. /slowmode — slow a channel down without locking it.
6. Find the invite — the “same invite” signal shows which code the raid used; delete it in Server Settings → Invites.
7. Report the accounts to Discord’s Trust & Safety team, especially if there was gore, threats or doxxing.

Recommended settings

FAQ

What is the difference between a raid and a nuke?

A raid comes from outside: many new accounts join and flood the server. A nuke comes from inside: an account or bot that already has permissions deletes channels, roles and members. Anti-raid handles raids; anti-nuke handles nukes — see the anti-nuke guide.

Can I stop raids completely?

You can’t stop people from pressing an invite link, but you can make sure a raid never reaches your members. With Discord’s verification level at Medium or higher, a captcha gate and automatic lockdown, a raid becomes a list of kicked accounts and an alert in your mod channel.

Will anti-raid kick real members?

Only if you tell it to. By default the raid cluster is listed, not punished, and newcomers during a raid get a captcha or a timeout rather than a kick. The age-based kick during a raid only hits accounts younger than your limit.

Does anti-raid need Message Content or Administrator?

No. Detection is based on joins, not messages, and BotGG doesn’t ask for Administrator. It needs Manage Roles and Manage Channels for the lockdown, Kick and Ban Members for the responses, and Manage Server to pause invites during a panic — the default invite link doesn’t include that one, so add it to BotGG’s role if you want it.

Is BotGG anti-raid free?

Yes. Anti-raid mode, the join gate, the panic button, AutoMod and Verification with captcha are all part of the free plan.