WARDOGS patch notes

Build history

Newest first. For announcements and devlogs rather than builds, see the news timeline.

1. Patch 0.11 (server browser)

   14 September 2026Confirmed

   Announced at 22:26 UTC on 12 September and delivered in a maintenance window of about an hour from 08:00 UTC on Monday 14 September. A server browser patch: Community and Official browsers, community server IDs that persist, a week of 5% bonus cash on community servers, and a published ban policy for economy abuse.

   TL;DR

   • Servers go down at 08:00 UTC on Monday 14 September for about an hour. "Cannot connect" in that window is the patch going in.
   • The server browser splits into Community and Official. Official has no filters at all; Community gets more reliable filters, a text search and a Show Empty/Full toggle on the quick bar.
   • Community servers keep one ID through map changes and restarts, so you can join a server by its ID. The number is much longer than before.
   • For a week, community servers pay a 5% bonus on end-of-match cash.
   • Economy abuse is now a ban: a timed ban plus cash and XP reset to 0 for using a cash exploit, permanent for making content that teaches one, permanent for more than a few minutes on an XP-farming server.
   • Also: various cash exploits fixed, more GPU crashes addressed, more server capacity in Asia.

   Changed here

   • No price, unlock level or XP figure on this site moves. The patch touches the server browser, crash handling and exploit abuse, not the economy tables.
   • The empty server browser page now separates the two tabs: the Official browser has no filters from this patch on, so an empty Official list is not a filter problem, while the Community tab carries the filters, the search and the Show Empty/Full toggle.
   • The status tracker carries the maintenance window above its verdict until the servers are back, so reports between 08:00 and 09:00 UTC read as the patch rather than an outage.
   • A new FAQ answer covers what Bulkhead now bans for: cash exploit abuse, content that teaches exploits, and XP-farming servers.

   Official notes in full — "SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE & PATCH 0.11", Bulkhead, 12 September 2026

   Scheduled maintenance

   We are delivering a patch to improve our server browser experience.

   • Thank you for helping us hit 400,000 Peak Concurrent Users. We are completely humbled by the response to our game and we have loved watching you all play.
   • We will be taking the servers down temporarily on Monday September 14th for approximately 1 hour to run maintenance and deliver an update.
   • September 14th 2026, Monday: US Pacific (PDT) 01:00, Mexico City 02:00, US Central (CDT) 03:00, US Eastern (EDT) 04:00, Brazil (Brasília) 05:00, UTC 08:00, UK and Portugal 09:00, Central Europe (CEST) 10:00, Eastern Europe, Türkiye and Moscow 11:00, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia 15:00, China and Taiwan 16:00, Korea and Japan 17:00, Eastern Australia (AEST) 18:00, New Zealand (NZST) 20:00.

   Server Browser Improvements & Community Server Discoverability

   It's time we own up. Community Servers have been underserved and the server browser experience as a whole has been poor. It is clear to us that we have not put the same amount of care and passion into Community Servers that we have into the rest of the game. As a result, we worked through the night to pull together an update that will start the process of improving the server browser in favour of community servers. Community Servers are the lifeblood of FPS games like ours. We want to make sure we actively create technology in and out of the game that supports the growth and fostering of communities. We have failed to do that by rushing our Community Server strategy. As we've always said, when we're wrong, we'll hold our hands up. We got this bit wrong. Below we will discuss the immediate changes to the server browser that we have made to better surface community servers. On top of which, by way of apology, for the next week community servers will offer a bonus 5% End of Match cash bonus. So if you're looking to grind, we suggest jumping in a community server.

   • Split front end into two browsers, Community and Official. A game with this many players realistically should be using matchmaking, and server browsers aren't massively fit for purpose, but we don't want Community admins and hosts to suffer. They're the lifeblood of the community who keep a game running well beyond its peak player days. As a result we have added an option for players.
   • Removed unnecessary filtering from Official Servers. In its current state, filtering is not necessary for Official Servers as we do not have Official modified game modes. Filters have been removed from the Official browser.
   • Improved reliability of filtering in Community Servers.
   • Added text based search to Community Servers.
   • Community Server IDs now persist between matches and restarts. Community Server IDs were previously wiped on map change and restart. They will now persist, and each server will have its own unique ID so players can join via ID. However the number will be much longer for security reasons.
   • Added Show Empty/Full to browser quick bar.
   • Updated Host button to direct to the correct location.
   • Server name ordering and naming. We have enforced new requirements on servers to make them alphabetical regardless of special characters and numbers. You will no longer be allowed to use more than one space at a time.

   Upcoming Features

   We are still working on a list of features we have seen requested from communities as a priority. This doesn't affect the content we're working on for Season 2, but we are heavily focused on reactive quality of life feedback for the very short term. These features are not yet ready but are in the pipeline.

   • Community server favouriting
   • Tiered priority queues for Community servers
   • Message of The Day Prompt
   • Improved Warmup Activities
   • AFK kicking during seeding disabling
   • Team Switching Controls

   Other Fixes

   • Various cash exploits have been fixed
   • More GPU crashes addressed

   Increased Capacity in Asia

   • We have increased the server capacity in the Asian region to support the interest coming from that region. Thank you to our players across Asia who have shown interest and continued to play the game. We will be putting more focus into supporting Asia as an important part of the worldwide Wardogs playerbase.

   Our Stance on Economy Abuse

   The economy of WARDOGS interlinks all players together into one shared universe and experience, even more so when we bring the meta into the game. As an early access game, we're not perfect, and we never will be. But if you do find something and take advantage of it, we have decided to come down hard. These players will be dealt with in the following ways:

   • Abusing cash exploits and bugs: We will respond with a timed ban, the length of which will be determined based on any previously applied bans. We will reset your cash and XP to 0.
   • Creating content that tutorialises economy exploits and bugs: We will treat creating content that tutorialises how to abuse systems, with no regard for reporting the issue, as advertising cheats. This will result in a permanent ban. There are easy ways to get things in front of us. We are not saying do not post on social media or Discord. We are saying there is a difference between promoting and alerting.
   • XP farming: This will result in the most serious bans. We track every server you enter, and we are also very aware of which servers are XP farming servers. If your account is tracked as joining one of these servers for more than a few minutes, we will ban your account permanently.
   • In the very early stages of finding these issues you may find yourself getting away with it, but it doesn't take long for our backend data to flag abusers. Effectively, if you find something and you then keep doing it, over and over again, that is abuse of an exploit. If you figure something out and test it once or twice, no biggy, thanks for helping us QA.
   • Let us know on socials and in the comments if you agree with our stance or if you think we should be adjusting it.

   The post on Steam ↗

2. Launch Stability Hotfix #1

   10 September 2026Confirmed

   A client update Bulkhead shipped at 20:20 UTC on 10 September, just over four hours after the 16:00 UTC Early Access unlock, for three launch-night faults: players unable to join servers, players kicked mid-match and long login queues. The post lists no balance, price or progression changes.

   TL;DR

   • Forced restart: everyone logged in had to close WARDOGS and download a client update on relaunch.
   • After updating, every player went back into the login queue, and Bulkhead let people in in controlled batches, widening them as players successfully got into servers.
   • It targets three faults: failing to join servers, being kicked from servers mid-match, and long login queue times.

   Changed here

   • No price, unlock level or XP figure on this site moves. The current build stamp stays at Season 1.
   • Four error pages were re-sourced to the hotfix the same night: the join timeout (error 1628505091), kicked back to the main screen, the login queue that never moves, and failed to authenticate.

   Official notes in full — "Launch Stability Hotfix #1", Bulkhead, 10 September 2026

   Client update

   We have now released a small client update to help address the issues we've been seeing since launch.

   • All currently logged-in players will be forced to close WARDOGS and restart the game.
   • You will then be prompted to download the latest client update.
   • Once the update has been installed and you relaunch the game, all players will return to the login queue.
   • We will then begin allowing players into the game in controlled batches.
   • As we confirm that players are successfully entering and populating servers, we will gradually increase the number of players being let through.

   Issues addressed

   This client hotfix is intended to address several of the issues we have been seeing, including:

   • Players unable to join servers.
   • Players being unexpectedly kicked from servers during play.
   • Extended login queue times.

   Monitoring

   • We will be actively monitoring the ongoing situation post hotfix and will be working through the night to see this resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.

   The post on Steam ↗

3. Season 1 (Early Access launch)

   10 September 2026Confirmed

   The Early Access build. Bulkhead published "Pre-Load Live & Season 1 Changelog" at 22:46 UTC on 9 September, the night before the 16:00 UTC unlock: everything that changed between Closed Beta 02 and release, including the first official price and unlock-level table.

   TL;DR

   • Levelling is slower from level 6 up, and not evenly: level 15 costs twice what it did in the beta (110,000 XP against 54,750), level 20 costs 124% more (250,000), and the top of the track is 16–20% slower. Bulkhead's stated target is the median player around level 20 at 20 to 25 hours.
   • Unlock costs rose on most big-ticket items — the Large Hammer tripled from $25,000 to $75,000, the Kodiak [Pickup] went from $15,000 to $35,000, the SPH-2 from $400,000 to $500,000 — and two fell: the Z20 Lakota and the Ural, both $50,000 to $35,000.
   • Two vendor prices moved: the Forward Operating Base tripled to $7,500 and the Large Hammer went from $1,600 to $2,400, "so they are more of a choice".
   • The Driver track was reshuffled around the vehicles: the L2A6 heavy tank moved from the account-wide Wardog level to Driver 35, the SPH-2 from Wardog 55 to 90, the Ural down to Driver 3, the Dune Buggy to 8, the Kodiak [Pickup] up to 10.
   • Helicopters: a Z20 Lakota balance pass with its sluggish pitch fixed and the chase-camera rattle brought down 6 dB; input damping on every device; vehicle turrets capped at a maximum rotation speed. 155 mm, 122 mm and flare deployables take more loadout room.
   • Reports are weighted so repeat and bad-faith reporters count for less, cheater bans are announced in-server, and voice no longer cuts out for good after a failed join.
   • Shadows can no longer be switched off on a fast PC — they clamp to Low on high benchmark scores. DLSS Frame Generation toggles without a restart, and a dozen crash paths are closed. Air-vehicle kills pay 250 XP rather than 300; selling a supply-crate item under $75 pays 1 XP rather than 25.

   Changed here

   • Every "from" figure in the official economy and unlock tables matches what this site published from the 2 September progression snapshot, to the dollar and the level. That snapshot was labelled reported; the changelog confirms it, and the 17 rows it moves now carry the changelog as their basis.
   • The Forward Operating Base vendor price triples, $2,500 to $7,500, and the Large Hammer rises from $1,600 to $2,400 — "so they are more of a choice", in Bulkhead's words. The Large Hammer's unlock also triples, $25,000 to $75,000, and moves from Support 7 to 8; the Medium Hammer's unlock goes from $10,000 to $25,000.
   • The SPH-2 — "Artillery Tank" in the notes — moves from Wardog level 55 to 90 and its unlock from $400,000 to $500,000. The L2A6 ("Heavy Tank") stays at level 35 but the gate moves from the Wardog track to Driver.
   • Helicopter unlocks swap places: the Z20 Lakota falls from $50,000 to $35,000 and the AH-6M [Miniguns] ("Little Bird with miniguns") doubles from $25,000 to $50,000.
   • Driver track reshuffled "to give a satisfying escalation through attack vehicles": Ural level 4→3 and $50,000→$35,000, Dune Buggy 10→8 and $35,000→$25,000, Kodiak [M249] 8→6, Kodiak [Pickup] 2→10 and $15,000→$35,000, Ural Defender 30→18, Ural Defender [M249] 40→25, Humvee [Minigun] 35→30.
   • The Ural question is settled: the alpha tile read $60,000, the snapshot said $50,000, and the changelog lists $50,000 as the outgoing figure. The snapshot was right.
   • Deagle drops from Wardog 90 to 85, the Sport Parachute 36 to 35, the Ruck Backpack ("Large Backpack") 56 to 55, and the PP-19 50-round drum from Medic 33 to 29.
   • XP bands are the first official per-level figures: unchanged below level 6, then slower everywhere — level 10 needs 35,000 XP (was 25,000), level 20 needs 250,000 (was 111,500, 124% slower), level 50 needs 1,000,000 (was 838,000). Bulkhead says the median player at 20–25 hours lands around level 20, and that each season will carry a different curve and item order.
   • Not in this catalogue, so nothing to correct: the 6–10x MRAD and MOA scopes ($25,000→$40,000 and $30,000→$45,000 on Recon), the supply crates and the 25→1 XP change on items sold under $75, Music Tape H (Pilot 28 → Driver 23, $5,000→$2,500), and the AP ammunition gates (7.62x54 83→82, 5.56 85→83).
   • Also in the notes and not a number: 155 mm, 122 mm and flare deployables take more loadout room; a Z20 Lakota balance pass and pitch fix; turret rotation capped; air-vehicle kills pay 250 XP rather than 300.
   • The Season 1 build itself, checked on 13 September (Steam build 25254499): no weapon, ammunition or armour figure on this site moved between the beta and release, apart from the M4's shot deviation (7° to 10°) and vertical recoil on the Mini Angled and Shift foregrips. Four missing prices are filled — 2.5x Combat Optic $690, Holographic Sight $620, Spectr 4x $800, Adrenaline Pen $250 — and the Flakpanzer Gepard is corrected from $8,000 to $10,000. BUILD TOOL is the Small Hammer, REPAIR TOOL is the Wrench, and the Z20 Lakota has its stats at last: 13 seats, 445 km/h, 120 L of fuel.

   Official notes in full — "Pre-Load Live & Season 1 Changelog", Bulkhead, 9 September 2026

   Exploits

   • Fixed an exploit that let players reach an unintended position on the church roof.

   Reporting and moderation

   • Added a new report tracking system.
   • Reports are now weighted so that repeat and bad faith reporters carry less influence.
   • Cheater bans are now announced in server when match termination is turned off.
   • The kicked from server message now only appears if you were actually banned.

   Server browser and front end

   • Reworked server browser filtering.
   • Fixed community server images scaling incorrectly.
   • The Host a server button now links straight to the hosting page.

   Voice chat

   • Fixed voice cutting out permanently after a failed join. Stale channel rejoins, push to talk targeting and re-login all recover properly now.
   • Improved voice reliability under load, and added a visible communication status.

   Gameplay and vehicles

   • Z20 Lakota balance pass, and a fix for sluggish pitch.
   • Helicopter input damping now applies to every input device.
   • Vehicle turrets now have a maximum operator rotation speed.
   • 155mm, 122mm and flare deployables now take up more room in your loadout.
   • Fixed a DPI issue affecting tank aiming.
   • Brought the Z20 Lakota chase camera rotation rattle down by 6 dB.

   Performance and stability

   • DLSS Frame Generation can now be turned off without restarting, and the render target pool is configurable.
   • Reduced shadow cache refreshes, which cuts hitching when you take control of a character.
   • Fixed two crash paths in the frame generation pipeline.
   • GPU crash reports now carry more detail, so we can act on them faster.
   • Removed a legacy graphics dependency.
   • Shadow quality is now clamped to Low on high benchmark scores rather than being switched off entirely.
   • Fixed a crash caused by network calls scheduled off the game thread.
   • Fixed a crash when closing a chatbox entry tooltip.
   • Fixed a crash involving buildables.
   • Fixed a crash when firing a weapon whose owner had left.
   • Dropped items no longer affect navigation, which claws back a little performance.
   • Improved startup reliability, with clearer messages when something fails early and a route to recovery.

   Balance changes

   Looking at the data we have decided to slow levels down around 10 to 20, and flatten the curve from 35 onward. This means our median players, at 20 to 25 hours, will be around level 20, and those wanting the big ticket items, the top 5%, will need to grind. Artillery moves to Career 90 and Heavy Tank to Driver 35. Driver has also been rejigged to give a satisfying escalation through attack vehicles. Forward Operating Base and Large Hammer vendor prices have gone up to make them more of a choice.

   • Levels 10 to 20 slowed down, with the curve flattening from 35 onward.
   • Artillery moved to Career level 90, and Heavy Tank moved to Driver level 35.
   • Forward Operating Base and Large Hammer vendor prices raised so they are more of a choice.

   XP Bands

   Previously our balancing was designed specifically for weekend long beta tests. Now they will be in-line with where we believe they should be. Each season we will have a different XP curve with different item orders.

   • Below level 6: unchanged.
   • Level 6: 8,750 to 9,250, 5.7% slower.
   • Level 10: 25,000 to 35,000, 40.0% slower.
   • Level 15: 54,750 to 110,000, 100.9% slower.
   • Level 20: 111,500 to 250,000, 124.2% slower.
   • Level 25: 192,000 to 325,000, 69.3% slower.
   • Level 30: 293,750 to 400,000, 36.2% slower.
   • Level 35: 416,500 to 500,000, 20.0% slower.
   • Level 40: 551,250 to 650,000, 17.9% slower.
   • Level 45: 689,500 to 800,000, 16.0% slower.
   • Level 50: 838,000 to 1,000,000, 19.3% slower.

   XP Events

   • Player kill using an air vehicle: 300 XP to 250 XP.
   • Supply crate item sold under $75: 25 XP to 1 XP.

   Economy Changes

   Every price change in one place. Level moves stay with their track.

   • Vendor, Forward Operating Base: $2,500 to $7,500.
   • Vendor, Large Hammer: $1,600 to $2,400.
   • Career, Artillery Tank: $400,000 to $500,000.
   • Recon, 6-10x MRAD scope: $25,000 to $40,000.
   • Recon, 6-10x MOA scope: $30,000 to $45,000.
   • Support, Medium Hammer: $10,000 to $25,000.
   • Support, Large Hammer: $25,000 to $75,000.
   • Pilot, small armoured supply crate: $5,000 to $10,000.
   • Pilot, Little Bird with miniguns: $25,000 to $50,000.
   • Pilot, Z20 Lakota: $50,000 to $35,000.
   • Driver, URAL: $50,000 to $35,000.
   • Driver, Dune Buggy: $35,000 to $25,000.
   • Driver, Kodiak Flatbed: $15,000 to $35,000.
   • Driver, Music Tape H: $5,000 to $2,500.
   • Rebalanced the role track XP curve from level 6 upward. Level 6 moves from 8,750 to 9,250, roughly 5.7% slower, with a larger increase at level 10.
   • Rescaled the supply crate purchase curve from 25 to 250 down to 1 to 200, so low value items are priced sensibly and cannot be abused.

   Season 1.0 Unlocks: Career

   • Sports Parachute: level 36 to level 35.
   • Large Backpack: level 56 to level 55.
   • 762x54mm AP: level 83 to level 82.
   • 556mm AP: level 85 to level 83.
   • Deagle: level 90 to level 85.
   • Artillery Tank: level 55 to level 90.

   Season 1.0 Unlocks: Medic

   • PP-19 50 round drum magazine: level 33 to level 29.

   Season 1.0 Unlocks: Support

   • Large Hammer: level 7 to level 8.

   Season 1.0 Unlocks: Driver

   • URAL: level 4 to level 3.
   • Kodiak Assault: level 8 to level 6.
   • Dune Buggy: level 10 to level 8.
   • Kodiak Flatbed: level 2 to level 10.
   • Large Supply Crate: level 20 to level 16.
   • URAL Covered: level 30 to level 18.
   • Music Tape H: moves from Pilot level 28 to Driver level 23.
   • URAL Attack: level 40 to level 25.
   • Humvee with minigun: level 35 to level 30.
   • Heavy Tank: moves from Career level 35 to Driver level 35.

   The post on Steam ↗

4. Closed Beta 02

   3 September 2026Confirmed

   Second closed beta, from 3 September. Steam build 25098628.

   Changed here

   • The UH-1Y is gone and the Z20 Lakota is in its place, in both the transport and the [Miniguns] variant. A different airframe, not a rename: the build carries new vendor art, a new killfeed silhouette and a new map icon for it.
   • Every weapon, vehicle, armour rung, pack and gated item now carries the level it opens at, the track that level reads against, and the one-off unlock cost that sits on top of its price. Imported from a 2 September progression snapshot and reported, not confirmed; the build itself does not ship the nodes.
   • The SPH-2 lists at $8,000, not $10,000. The one vehicle price that did not sit at exactly twice its observed figure now does.
   • The A-91 and KH-2002 list at $0 for the first time, which puts them beside the Bushmaster M17S as the three starter rifles that take no attachments and cost nothing.

   The announcement on Steam ↗

5. Closed Beta

   21 August 2026Confirmed

   Pre-order gated, NDA lifted. 17:00 UTC Friday 21 August to 02:00 UTC Monday 24.

   Changed here

   • FAL rose from $5,500 to $6,500 — the only weapon whose price went up, and it is already the most expensive rifle in the game.
   • The MGL-40 rose from $3,500 to $6,000.
   • Player health is 100, decoded rather than assumed. Every time-to-kill figure on this site was modelled against that number and it is now the build's own.
   • Armour has values: 30, 40, 55 and 65 per cent damage reduction across the four tiers, with durability from 80 to 300 and a four-stage wear ladder behind it. The ghillie suit reduces nothing at all — it is concealment, not armour.
   • Every attachment says what it does and by how much. A foregrip that took a quarter off vertical recoil could only be described as 'affects recoil' until now.
   • Weight is a real cost with real numbers: five classes from under 10 kg to over 40, and above the first one every class slows you, shortens your stamina and widens your sway.
   • Every calibre now carries its own damage, muzzle speed, penetration and ricochet angle.
   • The alpha's end-of-round screen refunded $517 of $575 spent and this site could not say whether that ratio was fixed. It is: RefundModifier is 0.9, and 517/575 is 0.899.
   • Twenty weapons, magazines and items that had never published a price have one.
   • Corrected: the two STANAG magazines were never repriced. What looked like a price cut was the vendor's ammunition-load ladder being read at a different rung — the empty magazines cost $180 and $10, and the higher figures are FMJ, hollow-point and armour-piercing loads.

   The announcement on Steam ↗

6. Closed Alpha

   7 August 2026Confirmed

   First public build. Three days, Steam only, invite gated.

   No official notes were published for this build — closed tests ship without a changelog.

Where the changes land

• 

  Tier list

  Why cost is the WARDOGS meta

  A weapon that wins fights can still be the wrong buy.

• 

  Catalogue

  Every weapon we have recorded

  The Closed Alpha roster, tab by tab.

• 

  Builds

  Complete loadouts by what they cost

  Whole kits priced against the $10,000 you get once per account.

• 

  Live

  Are the servers up right now?

  Player reports from the last 24 hours and the live Steam count.