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Wardogs Season 2 First Impressions: Still Hooked

I'm loving Season 2. The community is split, piloting pays slower up front and I miss free logi pallets, but unlocking everything all over again is half the fun.

Caleb Dorris 24 October 2026, 5:00 PM 9 min

Cover reading "Wardogs S2: Still Hooked" with a First Impressions tag: a helicopter lowering a pallet of supply crates over a rocky hillside in the rain, with lightning and a pickup truck below.

Wardogs Season 2 went live on October 15 with update 0.2.0, and the patch notes were huge. New tanks, Molotovs, rain, pricier vehicles and a full pass on the economy.

I already wrote about why I'm hooked on this game. So here's the short version of my Season 2 take: I'm loving it. I haven't played nearly as much as I'd like, but everything still feels great.

I'm loving Wardogs Season 2

Between work and family, my Wardogs time comes in small chunks right now. That's on me, not the game. But every session I've gotten in has felt like the same game I got hooked on, with a lot more to chase.

The new stuff looks pretty sweet. Four new weapons (the TCX-SPR, PP-19 Bizon, Evo-3 Ultra and M14), four new vehicles including the T-72B3 tank and the Flakpanzer Gepard anti-air, the Molotov, and a rain preset with thunder loud enough to cover footsteps. I haven't touched most of it yet. I want all of it.

The community is split, and that's okay

If you've spent any time in the forums or Wardogs social groups this week, you've seen it. Opinions are all over the place, and there's a lot of complaining about the changes.

I get why. Season 2 changed a lot at once. High-calibre rounds hit less hard (.308 is down 25%), vehicles cost more (the L2A6 went from $14,000 to $22,000), spotting pays about 30% less, and base logistics pay went down. If your whole loop was built on one of those, it stings.

But honestly? I haven't noticed most of it in my own games. Which brings me to the main thing.

I'm still earning doing what I enjoy

I'm still making money doing the things I like doing in this game. That's the test for me. If a patch made my favorite way to play pointless, I'd be upset too. This one didn't.

Part of that is how BULKHEAD rebuilt the rewards. Base pay is lower in a few places, but there are new bonuses for playing the objective, like a bigger payout for destroying a FOB and new delivery streaks for logistics. And they killed some of the lazy money. Spotting was the lowest-risk, highest-paying way to earn, and now it pays less. As someone who'd rather be in the fight, I'm fine with that.

Piloting pays a little slower up front

This is the one change I've felt. Flying doesn't feel quite as rewarding up front as it did in Season 1.

The patch notes back that up. Dropping off a player pays $100 instead of $150, air crate drops give less XP, and the armed Little Bird now unlocks later on the Pilot track and costs more to buy. Parachutes also won't open below about 10 meters, and the notes literally say, "Make sure you trust a pilot before getting into their aircraft." Rude, but fair.

That said, the multiplier bonus seems to work okay. The new delivery streaks add a bonus for every crate, pallet, player and return trip in a row, so the pay builds the longer you keep running. It rewards the pilot who keeps flying instead of the one who drops a squad and wanders off.

Unlocking everything again is the fun part

Season 2 reshuffled unlocks across every role track, and reaching level 20 now takes less than half the playtime it did in Season 1. So I'm unlocking things all over again, and I'm having just as much fun doing it.

There's something about that grind I genuinely like. A new gun to work toward, a new vehicle at the end of the track, a little more cash to stack. The T-72B3 sits at Driver level 20 and the Gepard at 25. One catch: BULKHEAD said Driver XP was set wrong at launch and slowed it back to the Season 1 pace for now, so drivers will get there a bit slower than the notes suggest.

My one real gripe

Logi pallets now need an unlock. In Season 1, the supply pallets were open from the start. Now the Mechanical, Ammo and Fuel supply pallets sit on the WARDOG track (levels 5, 9 and 16, at $10,000, $25,000 and $50,000). Only the building supply pallet is still open by default. I'm not happy about it. Logi is one of my favorite ways to play, and gating the pallets makes a new season feel slower for exactly the players keeping FOBs alive.

Less time to play. Not the game's fault. Work and family come first, and that's how it should be.

That's the whole list. One gripe about pallets and one about my calendar is a pretty good season.

The 175 ping cap and region locking

On October 21, Bulkhead announced on the official WARDOGS account that it's lowering the maximum ping on a server to 175 over the following hours, to protect most players from "an influx of regions that are more prone to cheating." It also said region locking is in progress on the backend, but it "is more than a switch," and that it'll be getting stricter on mixing regions. Season 2 already added region-based ping limits and high-ping kicks, so this tightens rules that were already there.

Fewer cheaters is a good trade for most of us. It's a rough one for anyone who squads up with friends on another continent, and Bulkhead hasn't said which regions it means or when region locking lands.

What's next: Season 3 is coming early

Bulkhead isn't pretending Season 2 landed perfectly. On October 17, the official WARDOGS account said speeding up progression "was the wrong call," because some players were reaching end-game gear like Tier 4 armour and main battle tanks within days, "so the wipe never really landed." It said some things are "clearly out of balance" and will get fixed, while others have the community split, so it wants to see how those play out first.

Instead of a knee-jerk reset, it's looking at "significantly bringing forward Season 3 and some of its content" so everyone gets a proper fresh start. No date yet.

The balance pushback is real, but it isn't one-sided. Scroll the replies under Bulkhead's posts and you'll find complaints about helicopters, the .308 damage cut and how big the gap is between low- and high-tier gear. You'll also find players having more fun than in Season 1, like the guy working 40-hour weeks as a single dad who said this is the best season yet for actually unlocking stuff. That's closer to where I land. As of this writing, there's no new balance patch on Steam since the Season 2 notes.

More context is already out. On October 24, Bulkhead launched an official podcast, THE HOTZONE. Episode 1, "The Wipe," is a 71-minute look back at the Season 2 launch with Joe (executive producer and studio lead), Pete (lead designer), Mark (technical designer) and Tim (creative director). They cover what went right, what went wrong and what the data shows. It's on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. Co-founder Howard Philpott says the format gives the design team more room to go over the wipe, the progression changes and "the raw, honest context behind the scenes." A new vlog with a Season 2 reflection and a Season 3 preview is still due next week, and senior game director phantasy says it should address most of the concerns "as we move into our early season 3."

Me? I'm going to keep unlocking stuff until Season 3 shows up. If the fresh start means grinding it all over again, fine. That's the fun part.

Still hooked

Wardogs Season 2 changed a lot, and a lot of people are loud about it. Some of that's fair. But I'm still earning, still having fun, and still logging off thinking about what I'll unlock next.

If you're on PC and haven't jumped in, this is a good time. Console players get it on PS5 and Xbox in 2028. Until then, sucks to suck. :P

See you in the hotzone. (More gaming: my take on BioWare closing.)

FAQ

When did Wardogs Season 2 come out?

October 15, 2026, with update 0.2.0, after a short maintenance window.

When does Wardogs Season 3 start?

There's no date yet. On October 17, Bulkhead said it's looking at significantly bringing Season 3 forward so players get a proper fresh start. More details are due in a new vlog the week of October 26.

Does Wardogs have an official podcast?

Yes. THE HOTZONE: Official WARDOGS Podcast launched on October 24, 2026, on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, with video on YouTube. Episode 1, "The Wipe," has the developers breaking down the Season 2 launch.

Do you have to unlock supply pallets in Wardogs Season 2?

Yes, most of them. The Mechanical, Ammo and Fuel supply pallets moved to the WARDOG track at levels 5, 9 and 16, for $10,000, $25,000 and $50,000. The building supply pallet is still unlocked by default.

Does piloting pay less in Wardogs Season 2?

A little, up front. Player drop-offs pay $100 instead of $150 and air crate drops give less XP, but new delivery streaks add a bonus for every run in a row.

Is the Lonestar bonus still in Wardogs?

No. BULKHEAD removed the Lonestar cash and XP bonus in a backend update on the evening of October 15.

How do you unlock the T-72B3 in Wardogs?

It's on the Driver track at level 20, with a $250,000 unlock. It costs $16,000 to buy in a match.

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