The ebuild does not respect ar on amd64 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-ar - /usr/bin/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-ar) and calls it directly: /usr/bin/ar cru libcfclient.a client.o commands.o image.o init.o item.o mapdata.o metaserver.o misc.o newsocket.o p_cmd.o player.o script.o script_lua.o