Pre-Load Is Live, and Season 1 Rewrites the XP Curve
BULKHEAD pushed the WARDOGS pre-load and a full Season 1 changelog on 9 September 2026 at 11:46 PM BST, tagged on Steam as a Major Update. It is the first document that tells you how the shipped game differs from the beta you played, and the differences are larger than a normal patch.
The short version is that progression got slower in the middle, building got a lot more expensive, and the Driver track was rebuilt from the ground up. This piece covers what is live right now, every number in the changelog, and what the new curve actually costs you in playtime.
What is live right now
Pre-load opened with the changelog post, so the client can download before the servers open. The store listing puts the install requirement at 50 GB of available space, and lists WARDOGS at GBP 36.99 with the Supporter Edition at GBP 45.99, checked on the Steam store page on 10 September 2026.
Steam’s own unlock countdown read roughly four hours out when we checked at 12:30 BST on 10 September 2026, which puts the servers opening mid-afternoon UK time rather than at midnight. Pre-loading now is the difference between playing at unlock and watching a 50 GB download bar.
- Pre-load: available from 9 September 2026, through the WARDOGS entry in your Steam library.
- Install size: 50 GB of available space, per the store listing on 10 September 2026.
- Unlock: 10 September 2026, mid-afternoon UK time based on Steam’s countdown, not a fixed time published by BULKHEAD.
- Consoles: confirmed for 2028 in the launch trailer post dated 10 September 2026, which is planned rather than shipped.
If you have not set your graphics options yet, do it during the download rather than after unlock. Our WARDOGS best settings guide covers the options that moved in this build, including the frame generation toggle noted below.
What changed, by category
The changelog runs to seven sections and mixes headline balance work with routine crash fixes. This is the shape of it before the detail.
| Section | Scale of change | What it affects |
|---|---|---|
| XP bands | Large | Levels 6 to 50, with the sharpest change at 15 to 20 |
| Economy | Large | 14 listed price moves across five tracks |
| Unlocks | Large | 18 listed level moves, mostly on Driver |
| Gameplay and vehicles | Moderate | Z20 Lakota handling, turret rotation, deployable loadout space |
| Performance and stability | Moderate | Seven crash or hitching fixes, plus frame generation controls |
| Voice chat | Moderate | Rejoin recovery and reliability under load |
| Servers and moderation | Minor | Browser filtering, report weighting, ban messaging |
One line in the exploits section is worth reading if you played the beta. The church roof position that let players reach an unintended vantage point has been closed, which changes a spot several beta squads leaned on.
The XP curve is the headline change
BULKHEAD’s stated intent is to slow levels 10 to 20 and flatten the curve from 35 onward, so that a median player at 20 to 25 hours sits around level 20. The figures below are the published bands, with the extra XP column added by us rather than by BULKHEAD.
| Level | Beta XP | Season 1 XP | Extra XP needed | Stated change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Below 6 | Unchanged | Unchanged | 0 | None |
| 6 | 8,750 | 9,250 | 500 | 5.7% slower |
| 10 | 25,000 | 35,000 | 10,000 | 40.0% slower |
| 15 | 54,750 | 110,000 | 55,250 | 100.9% slower |
| 20 | 111,500 | 250,000 | 138,500 | 124.2% slower |
| 25 | 192,000 | 325,000 | 133,000 | 69.3% slower |
| 30 | 293,750 | 400,000 | 106,250 | 36.2% slower |
| 35 | 416,500 | 500,000 | 83,500 | 20.0% slower |
| 40 | 551,250 | 650,000 | 98,750 | 17.9% slower |
| 45 | 689,500 | 800,000 | 110,500 | 16.0% slower |
| 50 | 838,000 | 1,000,000 | 162,000 | 19.3% slower |
We checked every stated percentage against the two XP columns and all ten reconcile.
Where the curve actually bites
Reading the percentages alone makes level 20 look like the wall, but the gap between bands tells a different story. Level 20 is where the multiplier peaks, and the pinch runs 10 to 20 rather than sitting at any single level.
Past that point the per-band cost is genuinely lower than it was in the beta. Getting from 20 to 25 now costs 75,000 XP against the beta’s 80,500, and 25 to 30 costs 75,000 against 101,750.
| Band | Beta XP for the band | Season 1 XP for the band | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 to 10 | 16,250 | 25,750 | Harder |
| 10 to 15 | 29,750 | 75,000 | Much harder |
| 15 to 20 | 56,750 | 140,000 | Much harder |
| 20 to 25 | 80,500 | 75,000 | Easier |
| 25 to 30 | 101,750 | 75,000 | Easier |
| 30 to 35 | 122,750 | 100,000 | Easier |
| 35 to 40 | 134,750 | 150,000 | Harder |
| 40 to 45 | 138,250 | 150,000 | Harder |
| 45 to 50 | 148,500 | 200,000 | Harder |
The flattening BULKHEAD describes from level 35 applies to the size of the percentage change, not to the raw XP requirement, which keeps climbing to 200,000 for the final band.
What the new curve costs in hours
BULKHEAD gave one anchor that turns XP into time, which is that median players at 20 to 25 hours should land around level 20. Level 20 now costs 250,000 XP, so the implied median earn rate is roughly 10,000 to 12,500 XP per hour.
Apply that rate to the rest of the table and level 50 lands somewhere near 80 to 100 hours of median play. This is our arithmetic from BULKHEAD’s own stated median, not a published figure, and it assumes a flat earn rate that real matches will not deliver.
- Level 20: 250,000 XP, roughly 20 to 25 hours at the stated median.
- Level 35: 500,000 XP, roughly double that, so 40 to 50 hours on the same rate.
- Level 50: 1,000,000 XP, roughly 80 to 100 hours on the same rate.
- Level 90: not published, so the Artillery Tank unlock cannot be costed in hours at all.
Unlock moves, and a rebuilt Driver track
Eighteen unlocks changed level, and they are not spread evenly. Career lost its two heaviest toys and Driver gained almost everything else.
Career track
Five Career unlocks moved a level or two earlier, which is a rounding change against the sixth. The Artillery Tank moved from level 55 to level 90, and its price moved from $400,000 to $500,000 in the same patch.
| Unlock | Beta level | Season 1 level | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sports Parachute | 36 | 35 | Earlier |
| Large Backpack | 56 | 55 | Earlier |
| 762x54mm AP | 83 | 82 | Earlier |
| 556mm AP | 85 | 83 | Earlier |
| Deagle | 90 | 85 | Earlier |
| Artillery Tank | 55 | 90 | Much later |
Stacking a 35 level gate increase on top of a $100,000 price increase makes artillery a genuine end-game purchase rather than a mid-match option. Everything else on the Career list is a small pull forward, with the Deagle’s five level drop the most useful of them.
Driver track
The Driver list is where the design intent shows. Seven unlocks moved earlier, one moved much later, and the Heavy Tank moved tracks entirely.
- URAL: level 4 to level 3, with its price cut from $50,000 to $35,000.
- Kodiak Assault: level 8 to level 6, the earliest real attack vehicle on the track.
- Dune Buggy: level 10 to level 8, with its price cut from $35,000 to $25,000.
- Large Supply Crate: level 20 to level 16.
- URAL Covered: level 30 to level 18, the single largest pull forward on the list.
- Music Tape H: moved from Pilot level 28 to Driver level 23.
- URAL Attack: level 40 to level 25, a 15 level reduction.
- Humvee with minigun: level 35 to level 30.
- Kodiak Flatbed: level 2 to level 10, the only Driver unlock pushed later.
- Heavy Tank: moved from Career level 35 to Driver level 35.
The Heavy Tank move is the one that changes your route rather than your timeline. The level number is identical, but it now sits on a track fed by vehicle activity, so the transport and logistics work covered in our guide to unlocking the L2A6 Tank fast is now the direct path to it rather than a detour.
Kodiak Flatbed is the counterweight. It went from a level 2 freebie to a level 10 unlock and from $15,000 to $35,000, which removes the cheapest early logistics vehicle from new accounts entirely.
Level gates across every track sit in our WARDOGS career unlocks by level table, which we are updating against this changelog rather than against beta values.
Economy changes, and where the money now goes
Fourteen prices moved. Ten went up, four came down, and the increases are concentrated in building and optics rather than spread evenly.
| Item | Track | Beta price | Season 1 price | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large Hammer | Support | $25,000 | $75,000 | +200% |
| Forward Operating Base | Vendor | $2,500 | $7,500 | +200% |
| Medium Hammer | Support | $10,000 | $25,000 | +150% |
| Kodiak Flatbed | Driver | $15,000 | $35,000 | +133% |
| Little Bird with miniguns | Pilot | $25,000 | $50,000 | +100% |
| Small armoured supply crate | Pilot | $5,000 | $10,000 | +100% |
| 6-10x MRAD scope | Recon | $25,000 | $40,000 | +60% |
| 6-10x MOA scope | Recon | $30,000 | $45,000 | +50% |
| Large Hammer | Vendor | $1,600 | $2,400 | +50% |
| Artillery Tank | Career | $400,000 | $500,000 | +25% |
| Z20 Lakota | Pilot | $50,000 | $35,000 | -30% |
| URAL | Driver | $50,000 | $35,000 | -30% |
| Dune Buggy | Driver | $35,000 | $25,000 | -29% |
| Music Tape H | Driver | $5,000 | $2,500 | -50% |
Building is the category that changed character, not just price. A Support player fielding a Large Hammer and a Forward Operating Base went from $27,500 to $82,500 for the same pair, which is a threefold increase in the cost of holding ground with construction.
Air assets split in two directions in the same patch. The Z20 Lakota got 30% cheaper while the Little Bird with miniguns doubled, which reads as a deliberate push toward transport over gunship work.
Current values sit in the WARDOGS database, and the comparison tool is the fastest way to put two of these side by side before you commit cash. Every figure above is a balance lever and should be rechecked after the next patch rather than treated as settled.
XP events and the supply crate rescale
Two XP events changed, and both target farming rather than normal play. Selling a supply crate item under $75 dropped from 25 XP to 1 XP, a 96% cut, and the supply crate purchase curve was rescaled from a 25 to 250 range down to 1 to 200.
Read those two together and the intent is clear. Cheap crate churn is dead, because the items that were worth farming now price and pay at the bottom of the scale.
The other event change is smaller and aimed at pilots. A player kill using an air vehicle dropped from 300 XP to 250 XP, a 17% reduction that lands on the same patch that halved the price of the Lakota.
Fixes that change how the game feels
Not every line in the changelog is a bug fix. Several sit close enough to balance that they will alter how vehicles and settings behave on day one.
- Z20 Lakota: a full balance pass plus a fix for sluggish pitch, and the chase camera rotation rattle brought down by 6 dB.
- Helicopter damping: input damping now applies to every input device, which matters if you fly on a stick or a gamepad.
- Vehicle turrets: now carry a maximum operator rotation speed, capping how fast a gunner can swing.
- Deployables: 155mm, 122mm, and flare deployables now take up more room in your loadout, which is a soft cost increase on top of the cash changes.
- Tank aiming: a DPI issue affecting tank aim has been fixed, so recheck your sensitivity if you tuned around it in the beta.
Performance and stability
DLSS Frame Generation can now be turned off without restarting the game, and the render target pool is configurable, which makes settings testing far quicker than it was in the beta. Shadow quality is now clamped to Low on high benchmark scores rather than being switched off entirely, so machines that previously lost shadows outright will get them back at reduced quality.
The remaining fixes cover crashes in the frame generation pipeline, network calls scheduled off the game thread, chatbox tooltips, buildables, and firing a weapon whose owner had left. Reduced shadow cache refreshes should also cut the hitch that hit when you took control of a character.
Voice chat, servers, and moderation
Voice chat was the most reported beta problem and got the most direct answer. Voice cutting out permanently after a failed join is fixed, stale channel rejoins and push to talk targeting now recover properly, and a visible communication status has been added.
Server browser filtering was reworked, community server images no longer scale incorrectly, and the Host a server button links straight to the hosting page. On moderation, reports are now weighted so repeat and bad faith reporters carry less influence, and the kicked from server message only appears if you were actually banned.
Confirmed, derived, and still unknown
Early Access content ages quickly, so this is the honest split between what BULKHEAD published, what we worked out, and what nobody has said.
| Item | Status | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Every XP band, price, and unlock level above | Confirmed | Season 1 changelog, 9 September 2026 |
| Pre-load live, 50 GB install, GBP 36.99 price | Confirmed | Steam store listing, 10 September 2026 |
| Per-band XP costs and percentage price moves | Derived | Our arithmetic on the published figures |
| Roughly 10,000 to 12,500 XP per hour median | Derived | Level 20 at 250,000 XP against BULKHEAD’s stated 20 to 25 hour median |
| XP figures being cumulative totals | Assumed | Not labelled either way in the changelog |
| Exact server unlock time | Unconfirmed | Steam countdown only, no published time |
| XP requirements above level 50 | Unconfirmed | Bands stop at 50, so Artillery at level 90 cannot be costed |
| Whether beta progress carries over | Unconfirmed | Not addressed anywhere in the changelog |
| Console release in 2028 | Planned | Launch trailer post, 10 September 2026 |
BULKHEAD also stated that each season will carry a different XP curve with different item orders, so treat this curve as the Season 1 shape rather than the permanent one. We will retest the economy and the driver payouts once servers are live and update our tables against the shipped build.
Everything else on the game, including current vehicle and weapon data, lives on the WARDOGS page.
Frequently asked questions
Is WARDOGS pre-load available now
Yes. Pre-load opened alongside the Season 1 changelog on 9 September 2026, and the client downloads through your Steam library ahead of the servers opening.
How big is the WARDOGS download
The Steam store listing asks for 50 GB of available space in both the minimum and recommended specifications, checked on 10 September 2026. That figure covers the install rather than the pre-load package specifically.
What time does WARDOGS Early Access unlock
BULKHEAD has not published a fixed unlock time. Steam’s countdown read roughly four hours out at 12:30 BST on 10 September 2026, which puts it mid-afternoon UK time.
How much slower is the WARDOGS XP curve in Season 1
It depends heavily on the level. Level 20 is 124.2% slower at 250,000 XP against the beta’s 111,500, while level 50 is only 19.3% slower at 1,000,000 XP.
Is the whole curve slower, or just part of it
Just part of it. The cumulative totals are higher everywhere above level 6, but the cost of each individual band from 20 to 35 is actually lower than it was in the beta, with the increase concentrated between levels 10 and 20.
What level is the Heavy Tank in WARDOGS now
Driver level 35. It sits at the same level number it had in the beta but has moved off the Career track, so vehicle activity now feeds the unlock directly.
What level is the Artillery Tank now
Career level 90, up from level 55, with the purchase price raised from $400,000 to $500,000. BULKHEAD has not published XP requirements above level 50, so there is no way to cost that gate in hours yet.
Did anything get cheaper in Season 1
Four items did. The Z20 Lakota and the URAL both dropped from $50,000 to $35,000, the Dune Buggy went from $35,000 to $25,000, and Music Tape H halved to $2,500.
Why did supply crate XP drop to 1
Selling a supply crate item under $75 fell from 25 XP to 1 XP, and the purchase curve was rescaled from 25 to 250 down to 1 to 200. BULKHEAD’s stated reason is that low value items should be priced sensibly and cannot be abused.
Does beta progress carry into Early Access
The changelog does not address it. Treat it as unconfirmed rather than assuming either outcome, since nothing in the 9 September 2026 post mentions account carryover.
Will these numbers still be accurate next month
Some will not. Economy values and XP curves are the first things a live Early Access title adjusts, and BULKHEAD has said each season will run a different XP curve with a different item order.
