Wardogs is set to have a serious chance at shaking up the modern-military multiplayer FPS space with its full launch today. Developer Bulkhead’s challenger to the likes of Battlefield, Delta Force, and Call of Duty has picked up major momentum through its recent playtests, with the most recent beta reaching a peak concurrent player count of over 245,000, and Steam wishlists passing the million mark. Inspired by the beloved Arma 3 King of the Hill mod, this spin on the large-scale shooter invites you to “play like you used to” – but your experience won’t feel quite the same as the playtest.
If you haven’t been following Wardogs so far, the gist is that battles are focused around randomly assigned ‘action zones’ spread across giant maps. There are three teams that share 100 players between them, and whoever can keep the most people within that designated region starts racking up points towards victory. On top of this, each player has to equip and resupply themselves using a personal cash stash, which is earned through everything from directly playing the objective to transporting or reviving your allies.
With launch imminent, Bulkhead has now put out the Wardogs Season 1 patch notes to cover what’s changed from the previous beta. These include some balancing and bug fixes, such as the removal of an exploit to access “an unintended position” on a church roof. Helicopter input damping and tank aiming has been improved, and there’s now a maximum operator rotation speed on vehicle turrets to limit how quickly you can adjust. Cheater bans will be announced publicly, and player reporting will be weighted to reduce the influence of “repeat and bad faith reporters.”
The big overhaul is to the level progression and economy, with Bulkhead noting that the previous balancing “was designed specifically for weekend-long beta tests.” The team believes its updated progression should now better suit a fully released game. Expect a slower climb overall, with a particular focus on increasing the experience needed to get from level 10 through to 20, which will take a little over twice as long as before. Additionally, you’ll get slightly less experience from air vehicle kills, and almost nothing from selling supply crate items valued at less than $75.
“This means our median players, at 20 to 25 hours, will be around level 20, and those wanting the big-ticket items, the top 5%, will need to grind,” Bulkhead explains. Alongside this it’s moved the Artillery unlock from career level 55 up to 90, and the Heavy Tank from level 35 in the overall career progression to specifically reaching Driver level 35. The studio promises that each season will have “a different XP curve with different item orders.” You can see the full list of confirmed price changes below.
Wardogs launches into early access on Thursday September 10, 2026. You can buy it on Steam; expect to pay $39.99 / £36.99. Bulkhead says it plans to gradually increase the price to $49.99 and eventually $59.99 by the time version 1.0 releases.
Bulkhead has done a fantastic job in the runup to release of being very open and honest about the early access plans for Wardogs, even going so far as to run down a list of reasons why you might not want to play it until the full launch despite the hugely positive reception. Largely, this boils down to the fact that the focus for now is going to be on the core gameplay experience rather than expanding the number of maps or modes on offer, meaning there won’t be “regular content drops” on top of the 37 weapons, 27 vehicles, and three maps included at launch.
If you don’t mind that, the future looks bright. Battlefield 6 made a strong impression, but it certainly feels like there’s an opportunity for a new multiplayer game to strike out and shake up the scene. Wardogs has the potential to be that game, but Bulkhead seems well aware that it’s got a long road ahead if it’s going to cement its reputation moving forwards.