Season 2

0:44 Wardogs Season 2 is update 0.2.0, which went live after maintenance on Oct 15, 2026: it wiped everyone's progression back to level 1, added four weapons, four vehicles, three buildables, the Molotov and a rain weather preset, rebuilt all three team spawns on Bakurani, and made the role tracks much faster to level. Bulkhead posted the full notes the day before in WARDOGS | Season 02 Patch Notes. The launch went badly: a bonus meant to help the blue team was removed after one day, a Driver exploit put tanks in players' hands on day one, and on Oct 17 Bulkhead called its faster progression "the wrong call" and said it would bring Season 3 forward. Season 3 is now expected on Nov 12, 2026, so Season 2 will run for less than a month.

Quick facts

Sources: Bulkhead's Season 2 notes, Oct 14, 2026; Season 02 is now live, Oct 15, 2026; Season 02 Teaser, Sep 22, 2026; Shacknews, Oct 25, 2026.

When Season 2 started

Bulkhead first teased Season 2 and its date in the Season 02 Teaser on Sep 22, 2026, then laid out the plan in a Season 02 Preview devlog on Oct 9. The patch notes went up on Oct 14, and servers came down on Oct 15 from 08:00 to 09:30 UTC, about 90 minutes, before Season 02 went live. Season 1 had run from the Sep 10 launch, and the new season reset every player to level 1, as PC Gamer had reported in advance. How wipes work, and what is kept, is on Seasons and Wipes.

New weapons, vehicles and buildables

1:49 Season 2 added four guns, four vehicles and three buildables, with these prices and unlocks from Bulkhead's Season 2 notes. The new T-72B3 is slower than the L2A6 but cheaper and slightly more fuel-efficient. In the clip Bulkhead's Tim introduces the TCX-SPR and the M14 a week before the season.

Source: Bulkhead's Season 2 notes, Oct 14, 2026.

The Molotov does impact damage and then fire damage over time, burns destructible foliage and is weaker in rain (Season 2 notes). Full lists are on Weapons, Vehicles and Building and Fortifications.

Rain and weather

9:35 Season 2 brought the first weather to Wardogs, heavy rain and thunderstorms, per Team17's Season 2 release. Surfaces, vehicles and soldiers get wet, rain falls through destroyed roofs, spotting range shrinks and Molotov fire is reduced. Thunder is synchronized on the server, so every player hears the same strike at the same moment from the same direction, and it is loud enough to mask footsteps (Season 2 notes). The notes do not say whether rain is set per match or rolls in during one. More on Maps. In the clip Bulkhead's team describes rain falling into buildings whose roofs are blown off and thunder masking footsteps.

Bakurani spawns and the Lonestar bonus

30:13 All three team spawns on Bakurani were moved and rebuilt with new routes to the zone (Season 2 notes). Alongside it came a "Faction Balance Experiment" for Season 2 only: a cash and XP win bonus for Lonestar, Lonestar teamplay cash and XP multipliers, more desaturated Lonestar uniforms, and a 20% vendor discount for any team at least 40 points behind second place. Bulkhead wrote that "sentiment around the blue team is the largest driving factor for players not wanting to play on that team", as GamesRadar+ quoted it. The background is on Factions.

10:24 The Lonestar bonus was 5% cash and 2.5% XP and was meant to last about a week. Grinders flocked to blue, which then won "by far the most", and Bulkhead removed it in a backend hotfix after a single day, on Oct 15 to 16, 2026 (PCGamesN). Howard Philpott said it was "impacting people joining games and starting games", and the Bakurani spawn changes stayed (PC Gamer). Philpott also confirmed that the Lonestar-only music tape, "Blue (Da Ba Dee) - Eiffel 65", stays in the game. In the clip Bulkhead's designers say the best Season 1 players joined blue at once, that blue's win rate reached about 67%, and that the bonus lasted about 10 hours.

Faster progression and the XP curve

33:16 Each season has its own XP curve, and Season 2's is much flatter: reaching level 20 on a role track "now takes less than half the playtime it did in Season 1", Bulkhead wrote. In the clip Bulkhead's designers say millions of Season 1 players stalled at levels 9 and 14, so those stretches were sped up.

Source: Bulkhead's Season 2 notes, Oct 14, 2026. The Season 1 column is as those notes give it; Bulkhead's Sep 9 changelog had listed lower Season 1 totals.

The season also reordered the tracks. The AK74 became the Assault default and the M4 moved from level 20 to 28 ($150,000); the Medic got the Medical Bag at level 14 ($50,000) and the MP5 at level 4 ($25,000) but the Defibrillator moved to level 22 ($110,000); the SPH-2 artillery tank moved from Wardog level 90 to Driver level 31 ($350,000); and the Deagle moved from Wardog level 85 to 65 (Season 2 notes). XP routing changed too: destroying buildables now pays Assault XP, artillery pays Driver XP, and repairs pay Driver or Pilot XP by vehicle. Every track is on Progression and Unlocks.

Gold Market and Wager Vendor

Gold Bars got their shop: the Gold Market unlocks on the Wardog track at level 35 for $150,000, and Season 2 added eight camos in four families there: Black & Gold (Little Bird, a Season 2 exclusive), Chocolate Chip (Evo-3 Ultra, M14, TCX-SPR), Two-Tone Desert (Galil, Mosin, Havoc) and Digital Wood (M500). The Black & Gold AK camo was removed. See Gold Bars and the Gold Market.

The experimental Wager Vendor lets players bet their own cash on objectives they choose, such as kills in the Hot Zone or deliveries, with a death allowance and a stake; stacking objectives raises the payout (Season 02 Preview). It was not open when Season 2 launched, is meant to come and go during the season, and Bulkhead said it may pull it "if it turns out to be too exploitable" (Season 2 notes). More on Economy and Cash.

Balance changes

Season 2 cut caliber base damage for infantry and vehicle weapons: .308 Winchester by 25%, 7.62x54mmR by 20%, 7.62x39mm by 19% and .50 Cal by 16%. Level 3 armor and helmets now reduce damage by 50% (was 55%) and Level 4 by 60% (was 65%); the Level 4 helmet muffles sound and proximity chat, narrows the field of view and fogs while sprinting. LMG body damage now matches assault rifles, and Scout Rifle headshots kill an unhelmeted target in one shot. Suppression was rebuilt so near misses from small and medium calibers suppress much more. See Armor and Gear.

Prices moved both ways. The AK74 was halved from $1,600 to $800, while the Super-45 rose from $2,600 to $5,600, the AMR 50 from $8,800 to $14,800, the L2A6 from $14,000 to $22,000 and the Havoc from $18,000 to $28,000. Parachutes open more slowly and not at all below about 10 m, and the Basic Parachute went from $100 to $500. Build costs rose sharply for doors (22 to 80 supplies), gates (85 to 200), the L81 Mortar (150 to 600) and the Stingray (150 to 650).

Rewards and logistics

Cash rewards were rebalanced in the same notes (Season 2 notes): an assault weapon kill pays $2,000 (was $1,500), capturing a hostile drill tower $1,500 (was $750), destroying a FOB up to $7,500, and hacking one $2,500 for the hacker. Base delivery rewards fell (a delivered player $150 to $100, a supply pallet $2,500 to $1,250) but new delivery streaks pay extra for each delivery in a row, up to +$250 per pallet. Spotting pays about 30% less than in Season 1. The best routes now are on Money Making Guide.

Other changes

The notes also lock team switching for 15 minutes once a team leads by more than 10 points, give switchers and late joiners an obscured map and no spawn vehicle until they reach the zone, add a team-kill Punish or Forgive vote, a Squad Intent screen, seeding rewards, pre-match games in each spawn, and region-based ping limits on Official servers (Season 2 notes). Controller players got an Aim Assist strength slider. Steam Trading Cards and Points Shop items were promised within Season 2, pending Valve's approval.

The Driver exploit

15:01 On day one, players found that driving just outside their HQ, dropping pallets and driving back earned Driver XP fast enough to unlock tanks almost at once (Eurogamer). Bulkhead fixed it and slowed Driver progression, and fewer than 1,000 players who abused it "very clearly", by Brammer's count, got a 24-hour ban and a cash and XP wipe. Rock Paper Shotgun reported that the temporary fix put vehicle progression back to Season 1 rates (Rock Paper Shotgun). See Driver. In the clip Bulkhead's designers put the players who used the exploit at fewer than 400.

"We f***ed up"

Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer owned the first day in a video, which PCGamesN headlined "We f***ed up:" Bulkhead admits Wardogs Season 2 "got a few things wrong" on Oct 16, 2026. On Oct 17 the official account posted on X: "Season 2 was meant to be a fresh start, and for a lot of you it hasn't felt like one. We sped up progression deliberately ... but it was the wrong call." Some players had reached tier 4 armor and main battle tanks within days, so "the wipe never really landed"; Bulkhead ruled out a "knee-jerk reset this weekend" and said it would bring Season 3 forward "significantly" (PCGamesN). "This is what Early Access is for," it added (Insider Gaming).

46:12 On Oct 25 Brammer told PCGamesN that adding lots of content at the expense of core fundamentals was "a huge mistake on our part", and that "We've got to slow down. We can't do monthly seasons" (PCGamesN).

Players and reviews

Season 2 brought players back: SteamDB's hourly counts rose from a high of 124,583 on Oct 14 to 336,679 on Oct 15, and PCGamesN reported daily highs of 300,000 active users. Reviews went the other way. Season 2 day drew 62.5% positive of 2,940 reviews, the next day only 42.8%, and the Season 2 week 48.2% of 11,237, down from 70.3% the week before. The worst single day came later, on Oct 22, after a 175 ms ping cap reported by GameRiv. Numbers by date are on Player Count and Reception and Reviews.

Frequently asked questions

When did Wardogs Season 2 come out? Wardogs Season 2, update 0.2.0, went live on Oct 15, 2026, after maintenance from 08:00 to 09:30 UTC; Bulkhead posted the patch notes on Oct 14.

What did Wardogs Season 2 add? Season 2 added the TCX-SPR, PP-19 Bizon, Evo-3 Ultra and M14, the Wolf-110 in two versions, the T-72B3 and Flakpanzer Gepard, the MG Nest, Large Shelter and Wooden Step, the Molotov, rain, the Gold Market and the Wager Vendor.

Did Wardogs Season 2 wipe progress? Yes. Season 2 reset every Wardogs player to level 1 on Oct 15, 2026, with a new, faster XP curve.

Why was the Wardogs Lonestar bonus removed? Bulkhead's Season 2 bonus of 5% cash and 2.5% XP for Lonestar drew so many grinders to the blue team that it won most matches and games were slow to start, so Bulkhead removed it after one day.

When does Wardogs Season 2 end? Season 2 ends when Season 3 starts, which Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer put at Nov 12, 2026 in a reply on Steam; Bulkhead had not confirmed it in a news post as of Oct 26, 2026.

What did Bulkhead say about Wardogs Season 2? Bulkhead said on Oct 17, 2026 that speeding up Season 2 progression "was the wrong call", after Brammer's video that PCGamesN headlined "We f***ed up".

Sources

• WARDOGS | Season 02 Patch Notes, Bulkhead (Steam news), Oct 14, 2026
• WARDOGS | SEASON 02 IS NOW LIVE, Bulkhead (Steam news), Oct 15, 2026
• WARDOGS | Season 02 Preview, Bulkhead (Steam news), Oct 9, 2026
• WARDOGS | Season 02 Teaser, Bulkhead (Steam news), Sep 22, 2026
• WARDOGS Season 2 is out now, Bulkhead and Team17 (Games Press), Oct 15, 2026
• ANNOUNCEMENT, Wardogs on X, Oct 17, 2026
• "We f***ed up:" Bulkhead admits Wardogs Season 2 "got a few things wrong", PCGamesN, Oct 16, 2026
• Wardogs Season 3 could be brought "significantly" forward, PCGamesN, Oct 17, 2026
• "We've got to slow down," Wardogs developer admits after Season 2's rocky rollout, PCGamesN, Oct 25, 2026
• 'We f**ked up': 1 day into Wardogs Season 2, PC Gamer, Oct 16, 2026
• I did the math on my Wardogs XP grind, and now I wish I hadn't, PC Gamer, Sep 25, 2026
• Wardogs Season 2 will pay people to join blue team, GamesRadar+, Oct 9, 2026
• Wardogs devs rush to fix XP exploit allowing players to quickly unlock tanks, Eurogamer, Oct 16, 2026
• "We were wrong": Wardogs devs end Season 2's team-specific cash and XP bonus experiment, Rock Paper Shotgun (via Steam news), Oct 16, 2026
• Wardogs wipe issues bring Season 3 earlier, Insider Gaming, Oct 17, 2026
• When does Wardogs Season 3 start?, Shacknews, Oct 25, 2026
• WARDOGS Developers Introduce 175ms Ping Cap and Region Locking to Fight Cheating, GameRiv, Oct 22, 2026
• Review histogram for app 1867240, Steam, read Oct 26, 2026
• WARDOGS charts, SteamDB, read Oct 26, 2026
• WARDOGS | Press Conference 01 | Road to Season 02, Bulkhead, Oct 9, 2026 (video)
• THE HOTZONE | Ep 1 | "The Wipe", Bulkhead, Oct 24, 2026 (video)