You can no longer buy an infrared rangefinder in WARDOGS, and the CIWS kills a Havoc in about 6 seconds instead of 12. Bulkhead made both changes in a balance hotfix posted at 15:39 UTC on Friday 2 October on the Steam news hub, and on @WARDOGSUpdates a few minutes earlier. No client download or server downtime was needed. The changes took effect as servers restarted across regions within 12 hours of the post.
What changed
| Change | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| IR rangefinder | On sale in the vendor | Removed from the vendor until Season 2 |
| IR rangefinder in Season 2 | — | Back, but needs batteries to use |
| CIWS against a Havoc | About 12 seconds to destroy | About 6 seconds |
Why the IR rangefinder was pulled
Bulkhead's own words are that it agrees with player sentiment and that the rangefinders cross the
line into being too overpowered
. The post does not say more than that. It does not mention
the bug that showed some players enemies through walls, which
Team17 support had been logging since 22 September. Pulling the item ends that bug for now as well,
because nobody can equip it.
Season 2 starts on 15 October. Bulkhead has not said how batteries will work: what they cost, how long one lasts, or where you get them. Until it does, this site does not guess.
Why the CIWS changed
Bulkhead says it overcorrected
the CIWS against the Havoc in the previous patch, and that this
hotfix puts the kill time back to around 6 seconds. It does not say which change it means. The likely
one is in Update 0.1.2 on 30 September, which fixed a bug that made
the Havoc take extra damage from 20mm and 30mm cannon fire. Bulkhead has not published the CIWS's
calibre, so that link is our reading, not its statement. The Havoc,
the heavy attack helicopter, had become the complaint of the week: on r/WarDogs players were arguing
that a few Havocs force a whole team to stop and deal with them.
For pilots, this means a finished CIWS is now twice as dangerous to sit near. Our attack helicopter guide already says to kill the CIWS gunner before it finishes building. That is now more important. The Havoc page has the helicopter's price and unlock.
What does not change
No price, unlock level or XP figure on this site moves. The ordinary rangefinder and monocular are unaffected. The hotfix lists only these two changes, and both are on the patch notes page.