WARDOGS Season 2 (update 0.2.0) went live on Steam on October 15 after a 90-minute maintenance window. It adds four weapons, four vehicles, rain and a large rework of damage, prices and progression. Within a day developer Bulkhead had already rolled back two things: it removed the cash and XP bonus for the blue Lonestar team and fixed a Driver XP exploit that let players unlock tanks on day one. The rest of the season stands as patched.
This guide boils the 6,000-word official Season 2 patch notes down to what changes how you play, explains what was reversed and why, and finishes with beginner tips that hold up under the new economy. We haven’t played it. Everything below comes from Bulkhead’s own posts and attributed reporting.
- Status: Season 2 has been live since October 15 on PC (Steam Early Access, $39.99). At about 20:00 UTC on October 16 WARDOGS was the #3 most-played game on Steam, with about 298,000 players in-game and a 24-hour peak of 330,655.
- New content: TCX-SPR, PP-19 Bizon, Evo-3 Ultra and M14; Wolf-110 (plain and M2), T-72B3 tank, Flakpanzer Gepard; Molotov; MG Nest, Large Shelter, Wooden Step; a rain weather preset.
- Reversed on day one: the Lonestar-only cash and XP bonus is gone, and the Driver XP exploit is fixed. Heavy abusers got 24-hour bans.
- Still to come: the Wager Vendor (opens later in Season 2) and “Limited Mode” servers without power weapons and vehicles.
- Biggest balance change: high-calibre rounds lose 16-25% base damage, so the FAL and other .308 or 7.62 weapons no longer dominate their classes.
Table of Contents
What’s new in WARDOGS Season 2
Bulkhead added one new weapon for each main class, plus vehicles aimed at the Driver track. Here is what each new item costs to unlock and to buy, from the patch notes’ progression and vendor price lists:
| Item | Type | Where it unlocks | Vendor price |
|---|---|---|---|
| PP-19 Bizon (9x19mm) | SMG | Medic, unlocked by default | $1,000 |
| TCX-SPR (7.62x39mm) | Assault rifle | Assault LVL 20 ($100k) | $3,200 |
| M14 (.308 Win) | Marksman rifle | Recon LVL 25 ($100k) | $7,400 |
| Evo-3 Ultra (.308 Win) | LMG | Support LVL 30 ($200k) | $7,250 |
| Molotov Cocktail | Throwable | Assault LVL 13 ($25k) | $340 |
| Wolf-110 | Light transport | Driver LVL 8 ($50k) | $2,200 |
| Wolf-110 [M2 Browning] | Armed transport | Driver LVL 16 ($125k) | $7,800 |
| T-72B3 | Main battle tank | Driver LVL 20 ($250k) | $16,000 |
| Flakpanzer Gepard | Anti-air | Driver LVL 25 ($300k) | $14,000 |
The T-72B3 unlocks at Driver level 20 and costs $16,000, shown here in the new rain weather. Image: Bulkhead
The T-72B3 is slower than the existing L2A6 but cheaper and slightly more fuel-efficient. It also matters because the L2A6 rose from $14,000 to $22,000. The Molotov splashes fire that burns foliage and does damage over time. It sits in the Assault track next to C4, which moved there from Support, and Bulkhead’s notes describe Assault as “the role for attacking enemy bases.”
The new rain preset matters more than it sounds. Rain shortens spotting range and weakens Molotov fire. Thunder is synchronised for every player on the server and is loud enough to mask footsteps, which Bulkhead openly tells players to use. On the building side, the MG Nest (large hammer, 650 supplies) gives defenders a manned M2 Browning, and the Large Shelter (medium hammer, 250 supplies) covers vehicles and supplies.
The Lonestar bonus experiment, and why it ended after a day
In Season 1 the blue Lonestar faction had a notoriously low win rate. Bulkhead’s notes put the main cause down to “sentiment around the blue team”, not just its uniform visibility or spawns. So Season 2 launched with a declared “social experiment”: a cash and XP win bonus and teamplay multipliers for Lonestar only, plus new spawns for every faction on Bakurani.
Bulkhead's in-game 'Lonestar needs you' poster from the faction balance section of the Season 2 patch notes. Image: Bulkhead
It backfired fast. According to PCGamesN and Rock, Paper, Shotgun, the bonus was only 5% cash and 2.5% XP. Even so, the most dedicated players piled onto blue, blue started winning “by far the most”, and players left servers once Lonestar was full, which delayed match starts. “We were wrong,” Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer said in the video announcing the change. He planned to run the bonus for about a week. He also said the reworked Bakurani spawns had already evened out win rates in testing, and admitted “we should have just stuck to our guns with that.”
On the evening of October 15, Bulkhead’s official X account listed the backend update: blue cash and XP bonus removed, Driver progression fixes, the Driver exploit fixed, and Limited Mode servers “coming soon”. The rest of the faction package was not rolled back: the new spawns and the 20% vendor discount for any team at least 40 points behind second place. PCGamesN also reports that Bulkhead confirmed the Lonestar-only Eiffel 65 music tape stays in the game.
The Driver XP exploit and the tank rush
Season 2 made logistics pay out on streaks, with a bonus for every consecutive delivery and return trip. Players found they could drop pallets just outside their HQ and drive back and forth for rapid Driver XP. Combined with the faster Season 2 XP curve, that unlocked the T-72B3 and other tanks within hours, before most players had anti-tank gear, Eurogamer reports.
The fix:
- The exploit is closed. RPS reports that, as a temporary measure, vehicle progression is back to Season 1 rates for now.
- According to Eurogamer and PCGamesN, players who used it “extremely” get a 24-hour ban. Brammer put that at “less than a thousand” players. Eurogamer says everyone else who used it more lightly appears to have been left alone.
- Bulkhead’s zero-tolerance policy from update 0.1.2 still applies: repeat abuse of unintended exploits risks a permanent ban without warning, per PCGamesN’s coverage of that patch.
Next up, according to Brammer’s comments reported by PCGamesN: Limited Mode servers arrive in the mid-season update (tentatively version 0.25) and replace the current low-level servers. They cap out Level 4 armour, power weapons, tanks and artillery, so you can keep playing the early-to-midgame sandbox if you prefer it.
Season 2 balance changes that matter most
Damage and armour
Bulkhead’s reasoning: sniper calibres in assault rifles, DMRs and LMGs were doing close to sniper damage at a much higher fire rate. Every weapon using these rounds, vehicle guns included, loses base damage:
| Change | Season 1 | Season 2 |
|---|---|---|
| .308 Winchester base damage | 100% | -25% |
| 7.62x54mmR base damage | 100% | -20% |
| 7.62x39mm base damage | 100% | -19% |
| .50 Cal base damage | 100% | -16% |
| Level 3 armour/helmet damage reduction | 55% | 50% |
| Level 4 armour/helmet damage reduction | 65% | 60% |
| Level 4 helmet price | $3,000 | $4,500 |
Sniper rifles get higher hit-location damage to compensate, and the Scout Rifle now one-shots unhelmeted heads. The Level 4 helmet adds trade-offs: muffled audio and proximity chat, a narrower field of view, and fogging while sprinting. In exchange it cuts suppression by 80% (Level 3: 68%). Suppression itself was rebuilt and is now much stronger from small and medium calibres. LMG body damage now matches assault rifles, so LMGs win through sustained fire, not per-shot damage.
Faster progression
Role levels 10-20 were the Season 1 stall point. Bulkhead says level 20 now takes under half the playtime:
| Role level | Total XP (Season 1) | Total XP (Season 2) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 35,000 | 25,000 | 29% quicker |
| 15 | 110,000 | 54,750 | 50% quicker |
| 20 | 250,000 | 111,500 | 55% quicker |
| 30 | 500,000 | 318,200 | 36% quicker |
| 50 | 1,500,000 | 1,150,000 | 23% quicker |
Notable unlock moves: the Medical Bag drops from Medic level 24 to 14, the PKM from Support level 30 to 15, and the MP5 from Medic 15 to 4 (now $25k to unlock). The Little Bird AH-6M [Miniguns] moves later, from Pilot level 4 to 8, at $125k.
WARDOGS Season 2 beginner tips
The store page says every player starts with $10,000, and cash carries over between matches. PCGamesN’s Season 2 preview reported that the new season brings a wipe, so many veterans are rebuilding too. These tips follow from the new patch notes:
- Run cheap kits first. The AK74 is now unlocked by default and its vendor price halved to $800, and the Medic’s PP-19 Bizon costs $1,000. Losing an expensive loadout early sets you back further than a few lost fights.
- Earn through teamwork, not just kills. Teamplay actions pay cash. Delivery streaks add up to +$250 / +100 XP per consecutive pallet and +$50 per return trip in a row. Capturing a hostile drill tower now pays $1,500, and hacking a FOB pays $1,000 to every teammate in its radius. PCGamesN’s money guide also suggests ferrying players to the zone and dropping supply crates teammates can buy from, both still rewarded. Just don’t farm the HQ loop.
- Seed empty servers. Players who join and fill an empty server earn rewards and a vendor discount once the match starts.
- Use the comeback discount. If your team is at least 40 points behind second place, the vendor is 20% off. That’s the moment to buy armour or a vehicle.
- Respect parachutes. They now open more slowly, won’t open at all below about 10 m, and opening below about 50 m at speed means fall damage. The Basic Parachute went up to $500, the Sport Parachute down to $700. The notes’ own advice: only board aircraft with a pilot you trust.
- Play the weather. In rain, thunder masks footsteps for everyone at once, and spotting range shrinks. It’s a good time to reposition, and a bad time to rely on sound.
- Don’t team-hop late. Once a team leads by more than 10 points, switching locks you in for 15 minutes, hides your map until you reach the control zone, and blocks the spawn vehicle.
- Controller players: there’s a new Aim Assist strength slider under Settings > Controller > Advanced (default 1, 0 turns it off). Many binds moved; Open Inventory is now on Menu.
Wolf-110 (Driver level 8) and the armed Wolf-110 [M2 Browning] (level 16): cheap ways to run deliveries for streak bonuses. Image: Bulkhead
When does the Wager Vendor open?
Not yet. The patch notes say the Wager Vendor “is not available at Season 2 launch” and will open later in the season, and that it will come and go rather than stay permanently. It lets you bet your own cash on objectives you pick, such as kills in the hot zone or players delivered. A live tracker above the minimap shows your stake. In its Season 2 preview, Bulkhead said it may pull the vendor during the season “if it turns out to be too exploitable.” No opening date had been announced as of October 16, 20:00 UTC.
If you’re looking at other large-scale shooters this week, Battlefield 6 is free to play on Steam until October 19 at 17:00 UTC (our free games this weekend roundup has the details). The milsim Squad has a free PS5 alpha running until October 25. On the Call of Duty side, our Modern Warfare 4 campaign guide covers the early-access story, and next week’s new releases lists everything else arriving October 19-23.
FAQ
When did WARDOGS Season 2 come out?
October 15, 2026, as update 0.2.0. Scheduled downtime ran from 08:00 to about 09:30 UTC, and Bulkhead’s “Season 02 is now live” post went up at 09:59 UTC.
Is the Lonestar (blue team) bonus still in the game?
No. The Lonestar-only cash and XP bonus was removed in a backend update on October 15. The new Bakurani spawns and the 20% losing-team discount, which applies to all factions, remain.
Will I be banned for using the Driver XP exploit?
Only players who abused it heavily got 24-hour bans, according to Bulkhead’s comments reported by Eurogamer and PCGamesN, fewer than 1,000 people. Bulkhead’s standing policy is that repeat abuse of exploits can mean a permanent ban, so don’t keep trying variations.
What platforms is WARDOGS on?
WARDOGS is a Windows PC game in Steam Early Access, priced at $39.99, developed by Bulkhead and published by Team17. It entered Early Access on September 10, 2026, and Bulkhead says it has sold more than 3 million copies.
Sources: WARDOGS Season 02 patch notes (Steam), WARDOGS Season 02 Preview and launch posts (Steam), WARDOGS on X, WARDOGS Steam store page, PCGamesN, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Eurogamer. Player counts from Steam’s concurrent-player charts, checked October 16, 2026, about 20:00 UTC.
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