Wardogs Season 2: Everything Coming October 15

Season 1 wraps up this Thursday, October 15, when Bulkhead switches Wardogs over to Season 2.

We've been waiting on real details since the rain teaser went up in September, and on Friday the studio finally put out a Season 02 devlog and patch preview. Full patch notes are due this week, so expect exact numbers later. For now, this is everything that's been confirmed and how we think it'll play on our servers.

The short version

• Launch: Thursday, October 15, on Steam. Still PC only, with consoles targeted for 2028.
• New weapons: TCX Spear, M14, PP-19 Bizon, Evo-3 Ultra, plus the Molotov
• New vehicles: Wolf-110, Wolf-110 (Assault), T-72B3, Flakpanzer Gepard
• New buildables: MG Nest, Large Shelter, Wooden Step
• Rain, which messes with visibility and sound
• The Wager Vendor, an experimental way to bet cash on your own performance
• The reset: levels and cash wipe, and leftover cash turns into Gold Bars

New guns, one for each role

Four weapons are coming in, each filling a different role: the TCX Spear assault rifle, the M14 DMR, the PP-19 Bizon SMG and the Evo-3 Ultra LMG. New attachments come with them.

We're curious about the M14. Adding a marksman rifle in the same season that rain cuts down how far you can see is a strange choice, and we want to see how it plays before we call it.

There's also a Molotov. You can throw it overarm or underarm, and it splashes fire wherever it lands. Anyone who's tried to clear a building full of campers on the US-Central server already knows where these are going.

Four new vehicles (and no, still no jets)

• Wolf-110: a quick, light wheeled transport
• Wolf-110 (Assault): the same truck with a ring-mounted M2 Browning on top
• T-72B3: slower than the Leopard, but cheaper and easier on fuel
• Flakpanzer Gepard: a dedicated anti-air vehicle

The Gepard matters most here. Helicopters have had a free run for most of Season 1, and this is the first ground vehicle built specifically to deal with them.

If you were still hoping for planes, Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer shut that down on X earlier this month. Asked about jets for Season 2, he answered "100% no."

Rain changes how fights look and sound

The new rain preset affects how far you can see, the distance fights happen at and what you can hear. It also interacts with damaged and destroyed buildings, and the new Large Shelter gives you a big metal roof to park gear under.

Thunder is synced across the whole server and can briefly cover up footsteps. Somebody is going to time a push on a thunderclap this week, and it's going to be the best thing they've done all month.

Snipers and spotters will have it harder. Most long-range fights in Wardogs come down to seeing someone first, and a wet, gray map makes that a lot tougher.

Bulkhead hasn't said whether rain rolls in partway through a match or is set from the start. We'll know on launch night.

The Wager Vendor lets you bet on yourself

You pick one or more objectives, like a set number of kills in the hot zone or delivering a certain number of players. Then you decide how many deaths you're allowed while you do it and put cash on the line. Stack more objectives and the odds get longer, along with the payout. A tracker above the minimap shows your stake and your progress.

Bulkhead says this is experimental. If players find a way to exploit it or it throws the game off balance, it may get switched off for the rest of the season. Have fun with it, and maybe don't bet your tank money on night one.

Balance changes: IR, helmets and suppression

• IR Rangefinders are back, but they run on batteries now. Bulkhead pulled them from the vendor in the October 2 hotfix after they got too strong. Paying for batteries should stop people from sitting on thermals for a whole match.
• The Super Heavy Helmet now muffles your hearing, narrows your field of view and fogs up when you sprint.
• Heavy and Super Heavy helmets both get more suppression resistance.
• Weapon damage, recoil and suppression are getting tuned so each weapon class has a clearer job.

There's also a long list of general fixes for squads, vehicles, controllers and progression. We'll go through those when the full notes land.

Lonestar gets some help

Blue team had the lowest win rate in Season 1, and Bulkhead is giving players real reasons to pick it:

• Faction spawns on Bakurani have been moved
• Lonestar uniforms are more washed out, so they stand out less against the terrain
• Lonestar gets cash and XP win bonuses and multipliers, for Season 2 only
• Any team 40 or more points behind second place gets 20% off at vendors, whatever faction it is
• Switching teams late in a match is getting restricted

One line in the preview is aimed at communities like ours: community server hosts caught exploiting the faction bonus will be punished. For the record, nobody will be farming that bonus on either Gaming Fellers server.

What resets on the 15th

• Your level, XP, unlocks and ranks start over
• Your cash resets, but whatever you're holding gets converted to Gold Bars automatically
• Gold Bars, and anything you've bought with them, stay on your account

So there's no need to panic-spend before Thursday. One heads-up: Bulkhead has said seasons can shuffle the unlock order, so the progression path you memorized in Season 1 might not match Season 2.

What we still don't know

• The exact launch time. Season 1 went live at 9:00 AM Pacific (11:00 AM Central), so something similar wouldn't surprise us, but Bulkhead hasn't confirmed a time.
• The actual numbers behind the balance changes. That's what the full patch notes are for.
• How long Season 2 lasts. Season 1 was kept short on purpose, and Brammer has said future seasons won't necessarily run on the same one-month schedule.

In the announcement, Brammer put it this way:

"Early Access is about continuing to build the game with our community."

See you out there

We'll be logging in on launch day like everyone else. Keep an eye on our Discord on the 15th, since that's where we'll post once both servers are updated and back up. Come find us, and bring a raincoat.

Sources: Bulkhead's Season 02 patch preview on Steam, the official WARDOGS announcement on X and the WARDOGS Steam page.