WARDOGS Season 2: live since 15 October as update 0.2.0, with every price, unlock and balance number from the patch notes

The patch notes list sixteen headline additions across six categories, the same set the 9 October preview announced. The table uses the names and one-line descriptions from the final notes; where the preview used a different name, it is in brackets.

Counted by category, weapons and vehicles are level at four each, three things are buildable, and three single items stand alone: the Molotov, the rain preset and the Wager Vendor. That spread is the first useful read of the season. It isn't a weapons patch or a vehicle patch. It adds a little to every part of the sandbox, which matches what 0.1.2 promised on 30 September: 'a larger content update, with new map conditions, equipment, balance reworks and additional features'.

The notes separate two costs that the preview never mentioned. The unlock cost is paid once, at the listed role-track level, to make an item available. The vendor price is paid every time you buy it into a loadout. Both are in the table, exactly as listed. The PP-19 Bizon is the only new item that costs nothing to unlock: it is 'now unlocked by default' on the Medic track, which makes it the cheapest new gun to try at $1,000 a life.

The two heavy vehicles show how the economy is meant to push players. The T-72B3 is $16,000 per purchase, the Gepard $14,000, while the existing L2A6 tank went up from $14,000 to $22,000 in the same patch. So the new tank is the cheaper armour option by $6,000 a spawn, which matches BULKHEAD's description of it as 'cheaper' than the L2A6. The Driver track now runs Wolf-110 (8), Wolf-110 [M2 Browning] (16), T-72B3 (20) and Gepard (25) before the SPH-2 at 31, so a driver meets armed vehicles much earlier than in Season 1.

The Wager Vendor is the one genuinely new system in Season 2, and the final notes make it even more provisional than the preview did. The heading reads 'New Wager Vendor (Opening Later in Season 2)', and the notes say it twice: 'The Wager Vendor is not available at Season 2 launch. It will open later in Season 2.' So nobody can use it yet, and no date has been given.

What the notes describe: 'A new Wager vendor lets you bet your own cash on your own performance. Set your own stakes, bet on yourself. Win big or lose it all.' A live wager tracker sits above the minimap showing your stake and your progress. The notes add a new detail: the vendor 'is not a permanent addition and is intended to come and go throughout a season'. The preview had already called it experimental and said BULKHEAD 'may well pull it from the game during the season if it turns out to be too exploitable'.

What the notes still do not give: any odds, a minimum or maximum stake, a payout table, the objective list or the death budget the preview mentioned. The task we set ourselves was to add the Wager Vendor numbers from the patch notes, and the honest result is that there are none to add. Any site quoting a wager multiplier today is guessing. We will add the figures when BULKHEAD opens the vendor and publishes them.

Until now, the three factions had no published mechanical differences. Lonestar, Valkyra and Manticore were narrative teams, and this site's how-to-play guide said so. Season 2 changes that for one team and one season.

BULKHEAD's reasoning, as repeated in the patch notes: 'one team had a notoriously lower win rate than the other two teams.' It accepts 'valid complaints around Lonestar's uniform visibility and certain spawn positions', but says 'sentiment around the blue team is the largest driving factor for players not wanting to play on that team'. The notes call the response 'a social experiment' and add a line of flavour: 'Lonestar has cash... and Lonestar needs you.' The confirmed parts:

The preview also promised more desaturated Lonestar uniforms; the patch notes do not repeat that line, so we can't confirm it shipped.

The biggest change is to high-calibre rounds. BULKHEAD's reasoning: .308 and 7.62x54mmR 'were built for sniper rifles', but in assault rifles, DMRs and LMGs they were 'doing close to sniper damage at a much faster fire rate'. Base damage for four calibres is cut, and the cut applies to every weapon firing them, vehicle guns included (the Little Bird, Z20 Lakota and Humvee miniguns are named). Sniper rifles get higher hit-location damage to compensate. These are percentage changes, not absolute damage values, and no source publishes the base values, so this site still has no weapon stat table.

Armour gets weaker and helmets get a second job. Level 3 armour and helmets now reduce damage by 50% (was 55%), Level 4 by 60% (was 65%). Suppression was rebuilt 'around shared falloff curves per weapon'; near-miss suppression from small and medium calibres is 'considerably stronger', and Level 3 and 4 helmets now cut suppression by 68% and 80%. The Level 4 Helmet pays for that with muffled audio and proximity chat, a narrower field of view and fogging while sprinting.

Smaller changes worth knowing before you spend: the Infrared Range Finder's battery 'lasts around 80s of active use' and drains faster if toggled; parachutes open slower, won't open below about 10 m, and opening below roughly 50 m at speed means fall damage; the Scout Rifle now one-shots a target with no helmet; the MGL-40 loses 25% muzzle velocity; and the Medical Bag's durability rises from 100 to 150.

Two of the four vehicles fill gaps the Season 1 line-up left open. The Wolf-110 is a fast, light wheeled transport at $2,200, and its M2 Browning version ($7,800) gives a squad an armed light vehicle without paying for armour. The Flakpanzer Gepard ($14,000, Driver 25) is the first anti-air vehicle. Until now, air defence lived mostly in base buildables, and those were rebalanced too: the Talon 9K-SAM now costs 650 build supplies (was 1,000) but reloads in 5 s (was 2 s), and the Vanguard CIWS costs 1,200 (was 1,500) and takes 2.25 times longer to kill the Spawn Vehicle.

The T-72B3 is pitched against the L2A6: 'slower than the L2A6, but cheaper and slightly more fuel-efficient'. The preview said 'far more fuel-efficient'; the final notes say 'slightly', so expect a small fuel saving, not a large one. The price gap is real, though: $16,000 against the L2A6's new $22,000. The patch also reworks vehicle handling (heavier tracked vehicles, a reworked Humvee, looser Dune Buggy brakes) and makes purchased vehicles' inventories private to the driver's squad by default. Every price change is on the vehicles page.

The rain preset is the first weather system in WARDOGS, and the notes describe it in more detail than the preview. Surfaces, vehicles and characters get visibly wet. Rain sounds different 'under cover, indoors, inside a vehicle, or out in the open'. Destroy a roof and rain comes through it. Thunder rolls in during heavier rain, and 'every player on the server hears the same strike at the same moment from the same direction', loud enough to mask footsteps. Rain also shortens spotting range and reduces Molotov fire.

The three buildables now have costs. The MG Nest costs 650 build supplies and needs the large hammer; the Large Shelter costs 250 and needs the medium hammer or above; the Wooden Step needs only the small hammer. The rest of building got more expensive across the board: a door went from 22 to 80 supplies, a gate from 85 to 200, the L81 Mortar from 150 to 600, and the Hot Zone Magnet from 2,250 to 2,750. Drill rigs got the hardest nerf: 2,000 fuel to start (was 1,500) and a maximum uptime of 300 s (was 375 s). The FOB guide covers how building works.

Progression is the change most players will feel first. BULKHEAD's verdict on Season 1: 'Levels 10 to 20 were a slow grind, and many players stalled out before unlocking the gear that defines each role. Reaching level 20 now takes less than half the playtime it did in Season 1.' The total XP for level 20 falls from 250,000 to 111,500, which the notes call 55% quicker. Every band from 10 to 50 is cheaper, from 29% at level 10 to 23% at level 50.

One caution about the 'before' numbers. The Season 1 totals the new notes quote for levels 25 to 50 (for example 1,500,000 for level 50) are higher than the figures in BULKHEAD's own 9 September changelog. We chart them as the Season 2 notes list them and don't try to reconcile the two.

The unlock order was reshuffled on every track. A few that change early choices: the AK74 is now unlocked by default on Assault and costs $800 a life (was $1,600); C4 and the Remote Detonator move to Assault level 4; the Medical Bag unlocks at Medic 14 instead of 24; the PKM drops from Support 30 to 15; the armed Little Bird AH-6M moves from Pilot 4 to 8 and its unlock cost rises from $50,000 to $125,000; and the SPH-2 moves into the Driver track at level 31 for $350,000 (it was WARDOG level 90 at $500,000).

Season 1 ran five weeks from the 10 September Early Access launch. The chart below is the official record of that stretch. In order, it shows: sales milestones from 1.25 million copies on 11 September to 3 million on 26 September ('in just over 2 weeks'); the 400,196-player peak SteamDB recorded on 12 September; patch 0.11 on 14 September; update 0.1.2 on 30 September; and the two 2 October hotfixes.

The devlog also restates BULKHEAD's Early Access stance in a way worth quoting to anyone deciding whether to come back for Season 2: 'If you'd rather hop back in at a later update, or wait for 1.0, that's completely okay. You owe us nothing.' It also confirms a Golden Joystick Awards nomination for Best Early Access Game of 2026, a community vote, and a 24-hour extension of the #WARDOGS100K clip contest, whose $100,000 cash grand prize winner was due to be revealed 'next week' with the Season 2 trailer.

Before the notes came out, this page listed six open questions. Here is where each stands after reading the 14 October post:

Also new in the notes and not in the preview: team-switch limits once a team is more than 10 points ahead, a victim-driven Forgive or Punish vote for team kills, squad intent tags, region-based ping limits, server-seeding rewards, cheaper Role Track levels, and Steam Trading Cards 'pending Valve's approval'. We read the official Steam feed every day and will add the Wager Vendor numbers when BULKHEAD publishes them.