Questions
WARDOGS FAQ
The questions people are actually asking, answered honestly — including the ones where the honest answer is "nobody knows yet".
When does WARDOGS come out?
Confirmed
WARDOGS launches into Steam Early Access on 10 September 2026, on PC only, at $39.99; Steam's scheduled unlock is 16:00 UTC. Bulkhead announced the date on 11 August 2026 and opened pre-orders the same day. The last test before launch was Closed Beta 02, 19:00 UTC on 3 September to 08:00 UTC on the 6th, opened to everyone for its final night. The studio expects one to two years in Early Access before a full 1.0 release, and console versions are coming in 2028.
How do I get into WARDOGS?
Confirmed
From 16:00 UTC on 10 September 2026 you buy it: WARDOGS is on sale in Steam Early Access at $39.99, with no invite, key, sign-up or queue. Every gate before that is gone. The Closed Alpha in August went through a FirstLook hardware survey, and the two Closed Betas in August and September were guaranteed by pre-order or granted in waves through the Request Access button on Steam. None of those routes exists any more.
How much does WARDOGS cost?
Confirmed
WARDOGS costs $39.99 in Steam Early Access in the United States, with a Supporter Edition at $49.99. Prices are regional: the Eurozone pays €39.99, the UK £36.99, and much of Latin America and Turkey sit on a separate US-dollar tier at $24.99. Both editions went on pre-order on 11 August 2026 ahead of the 10 September launch. WARDOGS is not free-to-play, and Bulkhead has confirmed the game will not be monetised at all during Early Access beyond that one purchase.
What is in the WARDOGS Supporter Edition?
Confirmed
The WARDOGS Supporter Edition costs $49.99 against $39.99 for the standard edition, and the $10 buys cosmetics only: three faction-branded starter weapons, a Littlebird camo, a supporter icon on the scoreboard that can be hidden, and two bobbleheads. It gives no gameplay advantage and no queue priority — Bulkhead describes it as the single exception to its promise not to monetise WARDOGS during Early Access.
Does WARDOGS have classes?
Confirmed
No fixed classes. You buy your weapons, equipment and vehicles with cash before each life, so your role is defined by what you purchased. There are six XP progression tracks, such as Medic and Pilot, but you earn them by using the relevant gear rather than by picking a class before the match.
Is WARDOGS a battle royale or an extraction shooter?
Confirmed
Neither. WARDOGS is an objective-based control-point shooter. Three teams of up to 100 players total fight over a randomised 2x2 km Control Zone, and the first team to 100 points wins. There is no shrinking circle and no extraction.
Will WARDOGS be pay-to-win or have a battle pass?
Confirmed
No. Bulkhead has stated there will be no battle pass and no pay-to-win, and that cosmetics are earned by playing. The game costs $39.99 up front in Early Access, and no store or cosmetic-purchase model has been published.
What are the system requirements?
Confirmed
Minimum is Windows 10, an Intel Core i5-8600 or AMD Ryzen 5 3500, 16 GB RAM, a GTX 1660 or RX 590, and 50 GB of storage. Recommended is Windows 11, an Intel Core i7-12700K or AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, 16 GB RAM, an RTX 3070 or RX 6700 XT, and 50 GB of storage.
When was the WARDOGS Closed Alpha?
Confirmed
The first WARDOGS Closed Alpha ran from 7 to 9 August 2026 on Steam, invite only through Bulkhead FirstLook, and has now ended. The next test is the Closed Beta, live from 17:00 UTC on Friday 21 August to 02:00 UTC on Monday 24 August 2026, which runs through Steam instead: pre-ordering guarantees access, or you can request access free on the Steam page for a chance at a place.
Does WARDOGS wipe progress?
Confirmed
Yes, at the end of every season, and Season 1 is about a month. When a season ends WARDOGS resets your cash and level progression, exchanges leftover cash for Gold Bars, and keeps the Gold Bars and the cosmetics bought with them. Bulkhead's CEO Joe Brammer said on 27 August that Season 1 is a month; with Early Access opening on 10 September that puts the reset around 10 October, though Bulkhead has not announced the date. Gold Market unlocks carry across seasons, each season changes the order of progression, and Closed Beta progress did not carry into Early Access.
Can you get banned for using exploits or XP farming in WARDOGS?
Confirmed
Yes. Abusing a cash exploit or bug earns a timed ban and a reset of your cash and XP to 0. Making content that teaches an exploit without reporting it is a permanent ban, and so is spending more than a few minutes on an XP-farming server. Testing a bug once or twice is not treated as abuse.
Can you switch teams mid-match in WARDOGS?
Reported
Yes, for now. Players report that WARDOGS lets you change team during a match on official servers, and that some use it to cross to the other side and sabotage the team they left. Bulkhead listed Team Switching Controls among its upcoming features on 12 September 2026 without a date or any detail, and has not said whether switching has a cooldown or costs you anything. Deliberate throwing is against Bulkhead's enforcement policy, so report a player who switches sides to wreck your team.
How do you report a cheater or griefer in WARDOGS?
Confirmed
Use the reporting tool inside the game: pick the player, choose the reason, and add the server name and roughly when it happened. Reports go to Bulkhead rather than to the server you were playing on, can include up to the last 50 text chat messages from the session, and are usually dealt with within a few days. On a community server the admins set their own rules, so tell them as well. General and safety enquiries go to [email protected], and permanent bans are appealed at [email protected].
A note on the unsettled answers
One of these answers is not yet fully settled. That is deliberate. WARDOGS is a pre-release game and the pressure on a site like this is to fill those gaps with a confident guess, because a confident guess ranks. We would rather be the page you can trust in October than the one that got the click in August.
It cuts the other way too. When Bulkhead does answer something, we upgrade the label — the console and monetisation answers were both marked unconfirmed here until we traced them to Bulkhead's own posts.