WARDOGS Season 03: city map Sabatulo, Limited Mode and a slower grind

WARDOGS Early Access Season 03 goes live on November 12th and it is one of the biggest updates the game has seen so far. You get the first city map, a brand new Limited Mode, a reworked unlock system, a long list of weapon and vehicle tweaks and a Movember charity DLC. Here is everything that changes, translated and sorted so you know what it means for your next deployment. If you are still only eyeing the game up, you will find it on the WARDOGS Steam page.

Scheduled maintenance

There is a maintenance window on November 12th between 13:00 and 15:00 UTC. The developers estimate roughly two hours of downtime before the new season goes live.

New map: Sabatulo

Sabatulo is the first city map in WARDOGS, packed with tight streets, towering high-rises and plenty of destruction. Key locations include a central hospital, a swimming pool, a power station and the river embankment.

The map focuses on a mix of urban firefights, close-quarters combat and verticality. You can clear it room to room and street to street, or grab the high points and watch the city from above.

New game mode: Limited Mode

In Limited Mode, purchasable vendor items are restricted to what is typically available in the early to mid part of a season. That means:

• No Hollow Point (HP) or Armor Piercing (AP) ammo.
• No Level 3 or Level 4 armor.
• No attack vehicles.
• No CIWS, Stingray, MG Nest or Drill Rig.
• No anti-tank mines.

This “small arms warfare” mode is built for players who want an environment with fewer endgame power items – fairer engagements and a friendlier entry point if you join late in a season. All progression and cash you earn there carry over to the other modes.

Multi-track unlocks

Some shared items can now be unlocked from more than one role track, so you earn them by playing the role you actually enjoy. Armor, backpacks, tactical vests and parachutes are unlockable from every role track, and ammo types have been spread across the tracks according to where the weapons that use them unlock.

In practice, dipping into several roles to speedrun WARDOG levels is no longer the fastest way to unlock shared items. The developers call this a temporary solution until the intel-based progression system arrives next year.

Each role still gets certain role-adjacent items slightly earlier to reinforce its identity:

• Assault gets their armor before any other role.
• Medic gets their tac vest before any other role.
• Support gets their backpacks before any other role.
• Recon gets their AP before any other role.

Catch-up mechanic and extended vendor discounts

As the season goes on, an XP catch-up bonus and an extended vendor discount kick in week by week for low-level players, growing throughout the season on a per-role basis. The goal is to give players with less time a shot at midgame items within each role before the season ends, plus key counters to endgame power items.

Slower seasons, slower progression

Season length has been increased to roughly three months, giving more players time to progress and actually use what they unlock, and giving the studio more time to cook future seasons. Overall progression speed has also been slowed for the Season 3 launch, restoring the journey many players enjoyed before.

The developers note that WARDOGS rewards teamwork and that a very small percentage of min/maxing players will still unlock better items and vehicles within the first weekend. Their advice: unlock, share and use early-game counters and teamwork to beat them, or stick to new player and Limited servers. For a reminder of what changed last time around, we covered the Season 2 patch notes in detail.

Movember Mustache DLC

This November WARDOGS is teaming up with Movember to raise money for men’s health. Grab the Tactical ‘Stache DLC and your mustache grows as you play. 100% of profits from this DLC go to Movember.

You receive:

• Movember 2026 Tactical ‘Stache – an exclusive in-game mustache cosmetic that grows as you play, equippable throughout November.
• Movember 2026 Scoreboard Badge – a permanent badge you can wear all year round.

The Tactical ‘Stache can only be equipped during November, while the Scoreboard Badge stays equippable permanently. Movember is the leading charity changing the face of men’s health, supporting work on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention.

Gold Market camos

• Defibrillator – Black & Gold (limited time)
• MAAWS – Two-Tone Desert
• Compound Bow – Digital Wood
• M1911 – Chocolate Chip
• FAL – Chocolate Chip

The Black & Gold Littlebird camo carries over two weeks from Season 2 to account for the shortened season length.

Weapons and equipment

Infrared Range Finder removed

The Infrared Range Finder is gone from the vendor. The team is not happy with how often it was used in almost every match, and the Season 2 battery nerf did not curb its power. It stays out until they are happy with a redesign. The earlier removal and the CIWS situation were covered in our piece on the IR Rangefinder hotfix.

Assault rifle and LMG torso damage

• Assault rifle torso damage is back to Season 1 values, and LMG torso damage now matches assault rifles.
• Upper torso +13%, middle torso +3%, lower torso +3% compared to the Season 2 update.
• This applies to all targets, with or without armor. Armor still reduces damage by the same percentage as before.

TCX-SPR handling

• Recoil reduced – the rifle climbs less in full auto, so you can keep sprays on target longer.
• Less side-to-side drift during sprays, making recoil easier to pull down.

DMR damage buffs

Some DMR values go up, landing between Season 1 and Season 2:

• Body: every DMR now kills an unarmored player in 2 shots (was 3).
• Armor: the SVD, BMR-308 and M14 need 1 to 2 fewer body shots at every armor level. The SKS needs 1 less shot against Level 2 and Level 4 armor.
• Head: every DMR kills a player with no helmet in 1 headshot (was 2). The SVD, BMR-308 and M14 kill through a Level 3 helmet in 2 headshots (was 3).
• Neck: damage increased, but it still takes 2 shots to kill.
• Arms and legs: no change.

The team believes the Season 2 damage changes were overtuned when combined with the recoil changes.

Compound Bow

• Arrow speed increased by 50%, so arrows reach targets faster and you need to lead moving targets less.

Molotov Cocktail

• Getting caught in the fire now sets you ablaze, dealing damage and forcing you to drop your held item.
• Cheaper to unlock: $25k → $12.5k.
• Reduced damage against armored vehicles and heavy armor, where it was overperforming.

Basic Parachute

• It is now an emergency parachute, ideal for bailing out of helicopters – not for jumping off towers.
• It takes longer to open and you cannot pull it within about 20 m of the ground.
• Effective above about 100 m (still survivable above 60 m if you react fast).
• Price $500 → $1,250.

Sport Parachute

• Turns, glides and dives much faster, with a stronger and longer flare.
• It comes down a little faster, so steer or flare to stay in the air.
• Built for BASE jumps, effective above about 60 m (still survivable above 40 m if you react fast).
• Price $700 → $2,250.

Additional parachute changes

• Helicopter passengers now see their height above the ground, above the minimap – check it against your parachute’s effective height in the item tooltip before you jump.
• New reward for parachuting into an enemy FOB.
• Pick the right chute: a Basic Parachute off a tower is an expensive way to die.

If you want a refresher on flying and bailing out, we have a separate guide on helicopters in WARDOGS.

Halligan Bar

• Enemy supply crates can now be forced open with a Halligan Bar, dropping a random item on the ground.

Corrected item weights

• AMP-9 20 RND Magazine: 1 kg → 0.3 kg
• Improvised Explosive Device: 1.5 kg → 2.7 kg
• Improvised Explosive Device Trigger: 1.5 kg → 0.2 kg

Vehicles

Handling

• Wheeled vehicles now roll downhill when you are off the throttle.
• Slightly improved traction on the Ural and Humvee, so the rear wheels slip less.
• The Ural, Kodiak, Humvee, Dune Buggy and Wolf-110 lose some grip when pushed beyond the top speed they can reach under normal acceleration.
• The Ural can no longer reach unfair speeds by rolling backwards downhill.

Reverse speed

• Bobcat: 16 → ~25 km/h
• Kodiak: 33 → ~57 km/h
• Humvee: 35 → ~57 km/h
• Dune Buggy: 43 → ~50 km/h
• Ural: 15 → 27 km/h
• Wolf-110: 27 → ~40 km/h

Vehicle-mounted miniguns

Damage multipliers against infantry go up, landing between Season 1 and Season 2 after Season 2 nerfed them harder than intended: head +50%, neck +78%, upper torso +64%, mid torso +55%, lower torso +50%, pelvis/arms/legs +56%.

Helicopter rockets

• The AH-6R Littlebird [Rockets] now fires its own 70mm rockets instead of sharing the Havoc’s 122mm rockets.
• Damage is unchanged against vehicles and infantry compared to before the update.
• 70mm rockets now have thrust instability and wobble in flight, making the variant slightly less effective against infantry while staying the same against vehicles and FOBs.

Littlebird cockpit protection

• Increased damage protection for the pilot and co-pilot in the MH-6, AH-6R and AH-6M Littlebirds, between Season 1 and Season 2 levels. Crews were getting shot out of their seats far more often than the chopper itself was destroyed.

Window cleaning

• The first-person window material changed in Season 2 to support rain and caused an unintended smear and visibility issue. All vehicles have had their windows thoroughly cleaned for Season 3.

Vanguard CIWS / 20x102mm rounds

• 20x102mm rounds now damage each vehicle section once per round instead of hitting it several times as they pass through.
• Havoc and Z20 Lakota take roughly the same damage as in Season 2, the MH-6, AH-6R and AH-6M Littlebirds take slightly less.
• The anti-air emplacement’s maximum aim angle drops from 65° to 60°, increasing the overhead blind spot.

Tanks, hedges and walls

• Tanks are now more resistant to grenades – a single grenade could previously destroy a tank’s engine, doing the job rocket launchers are meant for.
• Box hedges can now be flattened by vehicles (except the Bobcat).
• Stone walls can now be destroyed by tanks and artillery.

If armor is giving you trouble, we have a whole guide on how to destroy a tank.

Supply crates and pallets

• Supply crates can no longer be deployed inside safe zones, matching supply pallets.
• Supply Crates: ~60 m → ~35 m, Armored Supply Crates: ~80 m → ~35 m, Supply Pallets: ~90 m → ~40 m maximum drop height.
• Armored crates no longer survive higher drops than standard crates, but remain resistant to bullets and explosions.
• Speed counts as well as height – you can still deploy safely at up to ~80 km/h around these heights. Tooltips show the new values.

Vehicle prices

• Wolf-110 [M2 Browning]: $7,800 → $6,800
• Kodiak [M249]: $6,750 → $6,250
• AH-6M Littlebird [Miniguns]: $12,000 → $10,480
• Havoc: $28,000 → $26,000

The Wolf-110 underperformed because of how exposed its crew is, and the Kodiak came down alongside it. The Littlebird and Havoc already got extra rewards for dogfights and kill streaks, but the upfront cost was still scaring pilots away.

Progression and economy

• The XP required for each level has been increased and overall progression speed is more aligned with Season 1.
• Armor, backpacks, tactical vests and parachutes unlock from every role track.
• C4: Level 4 → Level 5, Molotov: Level 13 → Level 8.
• Ammo types moved later in the WARDOG track and spread across role tracks.
• Tanks moved later and re-added to the WARDOG track: Level 20-35 → Level 35-50 Driver, Level 145 → 200 WARDOG.
• Large Hammer: Level 8 → Level 14 in the Support track, to make mega-bases harder to set up very early in a season.
• Verba: Level 14 → Level 8, giving Support an anti-air option against the AH-6M [Miniguns] again.
• AMR 50: Level 35 → Level 41 in the Recon track.

The Large Hammer shift matters most for base builders – we go through the whole process in our guide to building and the FOB.

Discounts and cash rewards

• The losing faction’s vendor discount is now based on the gap to the first-place faction instead of the faction one place above.
• Doubled cash for destroying enemy buildable weapon emplacements: L81 Mortar, Talon 9K-SAM, MG Nest and Stingray $650 → $1,300, Vanguard CIWS $1,200 → $2,400.
• Air vehicle kill streak rewards are back when killing enemy players.
• Destroying a vehicle with your own vehicle within 1,000 m of a control zone earns the full control zone reward.
• Pallets deployed outside a friendly FOB give reduced rewards, and low-value crates pay smaller rewards to discourage crate drop spam.
• Spotted target kill rewards reduced on high-value targets, for example AH-6M/AH-6R $1,000 → $850, Z20 Lakota $1,400 → $1,200, L2A6 $3,300 → $3,000, T-72B3 $2,400 → $2,000, Hot Zone Magnet $1,650 → $1,500. XP also drops (player 150 → 125, FOB 250 → 200, spawn vehicles 500 → 400).
• New reward kickback for depositing fuel into a FOB that activates a drill, plus a new reward for parachuting into an enemy FOB.

Achievements, replays and the Wager Vendor

• Added the He’s Behind You, Car Jacker and Slot Machine Steam achievements.
• Steam recordings now get timeline events with unique icons for kills, revives and giving up, with more to come.
• The Wager Vendor has been removed and goes back into development – testing uncovered too many exploits, and the redesign that nerfed his earnings weakened the high-stakes role he was meant to fill.

Seeding, team switching and community servers

• During seeding, a few unarmed vehicles spawn for free for each team, and all vehicles are cleared when the match starts.
• The team switch penalty, which hides tactical map info until you enter the control zone, now only applies if you previously connected to the server during the current match.
• A small cash bonus for playing on community servers.
• Server admins can create and customise a “Server Rules” popup shown to joining players.

UI and quality of life

• New Season 3 themed main menu background video.
• The Collection screen gets a Player category for emotes, bobbleheads and badges, with new icons and collapsible filter groups.
• Redesigned Deployment Select with separate Official and Community sections for each mode.
• Community servers can be favorited from the browser and the in-match pause menu, with a favorites filter and sort column.
• The server browser now shows and filters Limited servers.
• Squad invites and join requests queue (up to 5 each) instead of replacing each other.
• Fixed chat getting stuck collapsed and blocking movement inputs, UI buttons stuck between states and unreachable repair locations on Littlebird attack variants.
• Fixes for wrong popup texts, tooltip and prompt issues, the spawn vehicle deployment screen, the “Rebuy Last Loadout” button with locked magazines and incorrect loadout totals after refunds.

Audio

• New hitmarker sounds for armor and helmet hits with Hollow Point ammo.
• Armor and helmet break sounds now play consistently.
• New spotting voice lines, including specific ones for tanks, anti-air vehicles, the Wolf-110, MG Nests and supply crates; refreshing a spot plays a new sound.
• New voice lines for players on fire or stuck in barbed wire.
• New weapon inspect sounds, including a separate one for inspecting an empty weapon.
• Unique 2D rain ambience per space rather than per biome.

Controller

• You can now move directly to the driver’s seat: A changes seat, A (hold) moves to the driver’s seat, B is Handbrake / Fire (Pilot).
• Reload Discard added to X (hold), letting you reload faster by discarding the current magazine.
• World interactions now need a single press instead of press and hold; X (hold) stays for interactions inside vehicles.
• Downed bindings: A Call for Help, B Damage Log, X Give Up, Y Bribe.
• Analogue cursor improvements, shorter hold time for the Tac-Map and Pause Menu, plus fixes for cursor drift, minimap zoom while downed, D-Pad navigation, IED detonation, buying Stingray ammo and the gunner seat focus bug.

Performance, stability and anti-cheat

• Better performance for ground clutter (ivy, leaves, rubble, litter) and fixed unnecessary shadow updates across the map.
• Improved rain rendering and fixes for rain flickering on vehicle windows and stopping after using a vendor.
• The loading screen now stays up until match data arrives.
• Fixed server crashes with invalid lock-on targets and damaged vehicle tires or engines, plus the graphics benchmark running twice on first launch.
• Using NVIDIA Inspector or other third-party software to remove smokes or grass, modify geometry, alter LOD bias or change textures is now bannable. With such a setting active you will be blocked from playing by a warning popup on launch.
• The ‘potato’ shadow setting is force-reset on boot if it was tampered with outside the in-game settings, and spoofing system specs to abuse it is a bannable offense from Season 3.
• Global Illumination now only appears on the Overkill preset, where it starts on and can be toggled; on other presets it is off and hidden.

Ping limit increase

After a ban wave of 185,000+ players and a check of regional biases against real data, the ping limit on official servers is going up to 250 across all regions. Community server admins can still set their own limits.

Early Access price increase

As stated in the dev vlogs before launch, the WARDOGS price will rise periodically throughout Early Access. The first increase happens at the end of Season 3 on January 28th and amounts to $5. The next one is planned around the one-year Early Access anniversary in September 2027. If you already own WARDOGS, you will not pay anything extra.

Season 3 Twitch Drops

Twitch Drops are enabled for Season 03. Link your accounts at account.wardogs.com, watch WARDOGS for the required time and claim the rewards on Twitch:

• Walk It Off (15 min) – Bandage ×2
• Happy Hour (1 h) – IED ×1, Molotov ×2
• Get In There (2 h) – White Smoke Grenade ×2, Adrenaline Pen ×1, Field Backpack ×1
• Leap of Faith (4 h) – Basic Parachute ×1, Sport Parachute ×1
• Knock Knock (5 h 30 min) – Halligan Bar ×1, RPG7 ×1, 93mm ×2
• Taxi Service (7 h 30 min) – Littlebird ×1, Wolf-110 ×1
• Fresh Recruit (9 h 30 min) – Small Backpack ×1, L1 Helmet ×1, L1 Armor ×1
• Tactical Kit (11 h 30 min) – TCX-SPR ×1, TCX-SPR 28 RND Magazine ×2, OKP 7 Reflex ×1, Rubberized Ergonomic Foregrip ×1
• Dog of War (15 h) – Medium Backpack ×1, L2 Helmet ×1, L2 Armor ×1

Claimed items appear in your vault in the front end and can be redeemed in match at the vendors.

DDoS attacks in Asian regions

The team is aware of ongoing DDoS attacks hitting Official and Community servers across Asian regions. They have identified the attack vector and are working on infrastructure changes targeted for the Season 03 release, and they are acting against accounts engaging in malicious activity against the server infrastructure.

Bug fixes

General

• Fixed visual issues including terrain gaps, distant objects and ground pieces, helicopter glass, supply crate colors and ceilings on the lowest graphics settings.
• Fixed distant players aiming over low walls from high positions sometimes appearing hidden behind cover.
• Fixed mode-specific vendor restrictions carrying over into the next match after map rotation.
• Fixed unbans and reserved-slot removals on community servers being undone after a settings save.
• Fixed death bags and downed bodies being treated as team kills; death bags now show the owner’s name and disconnected downed players drop their loot bag.
• Fixed several buildable issues, including floating pieces, the MG Nest not being repairable and missing or frozen build tool prompts.

Weapons

• Fixed bullet and collision issues on church railings, hedges, car windows and vehicle prop windows.
• Fixed the TCX-SPR using standing recoil while prone.
• Fixed the AK74 drum magazine using the wrong inspect animation.

Vehicles

• Fixed a mounted weapon’s reload menu repeatedly opening and closing.
• Fixed vehicle weapon hits being credited to the player’s hand-held weapon.
• Fixed vehicles failing to spawn on flat ground and lock state not changing in the Shooting Range.
• Fixed incorrect death poses for Wolf-110 occupants and crash kills credited to the downed driver.
• The grenade launcher now takes 3 hits to destroy tank tracks and 5–6 to disable the engine, matching grenades.
• Fixed bullets killing the T-72B3 driver from outside the tank, plus clipping and animation issues.
• Items moved into a vehicle’s inventory top up existing stacks first, and gunners can buy vehicle ammo at the garage again.
• Fixed the MH-6 Littlebird body being unrepairable on its gun and rocket pod variants.

Maps

• All maps: fixed missing collision, clipping objects, gaps and lighting in shared buildings, shops and props; fixed doors staying up after walls were destroyed; fixed players falling through the ground at match start; removed Lonestar propaganda posters from spawn areas.
• Bakurani: rain now realistically falls through the glass of the factory roof.
• Zestafona: fixed mortars firing through the roof of the green brick warehouse, adjusted collision on abandoned tractors.
• Ozeti: fixed blocked vehicle spawns, vehicles can no longer drive through the stadium’s front retaining wall and pillars.

On top of that there are many more QoL improvements, bug fixes and server stability and security improvements.

FAQ