WARDOGS Season 3: Patch Notes, Sabatulo and Limited Mode

When Season 3 started and how long it lasts

Update 0.3.0 went live on Thursday 12 November after a two-hour maintenance window, 13:00 to 15:00 UTC, with the official patch notes on Steam posted the day before. Season 3 began with a wipe, so everyone restarted from level one with starter cash. Seasons are now about three months long instead of four to five weeks, with a small mid-season balance update planned rather than quick fixes. Bulkhead said the short Season 2 never felt like a wipe because players reached tanks and level 4 armor within days, and it wants the early game to last.

Leveling was slowed to match Season 1 speeds. The notes warn that a small group of players who min-max will still unlock top gear and vehicles in the first weekend. Their answer for everyone else is two new systems: Limited servers, and a catch-up bonus that grows each week.

Sabatulo, the first city map

Sabatulo is a dense city of tight streets, high-rises and destructible buildings. The official landmarks are a central hospital, a swimming pool, a power station and the river embankment. The developers call it a half bowl: one half is high ground looking in, the other is packed city where you fight room to room. The hospital is the place for close quarters and vertical fights, while open areas remain for longer engagements.

Not every building has an interior. The developers admitted the density means some blocks feel like walls you cannot get past, and said they may open more over time. Learn which streets connect before you commit a squad. The apartment roofs sit at about 60 m, which matters for parachutes below.

Sabatulo joins Bakurani, Ozeti and Zestafona in rotation. The developers described each older map by its shape: Bakurani is a bowl with high ground all round, Ozeti has a raised castle in the middle, and Zestafona is flat. Blue has the least high ground on Bakurani, which they named as one reason Lonestar struggled there.

What is Limited Mode in WARDOGS?

Limited Mode is a server type where the vendor only sells what you would normally have early to mid season. It is built for players who want fairer fights and for anyone joining late in a season. Cash and XP you earn on a Limited server carry over to the normal mode. Bulkhead runs official Limited servers, and the server browser now has a filter for them.

With FMJ only and armor capped at level 2, fire rate decides more fights than ammo choice. The TTK calculator shows every gun against level 0 to 2 armor with FMJ, which is the whole Limited Mode matchup.

Multi-track unlocks and the catch-up bonus

Armor, backpacks, tactical vests and parachutes now unlock on every role track, not just the WARDOG track. Ammo types are spread across the role tracks that use them. If you only fly the minigun Littlebird and want .308 AP, you get it at Pilot 40 instead of grinding to WARDOG 140. Dipping into every role to rush WARDOG levels is no longer the quickest route to shared gear.

Each role gets one family of shared items before the others, to keep its identity.

The catch-up mechanic helps low-level players. As the weeks pass, an XP bonus and a bigger vendor discount switch on for each role you are behind on, and both grow through the season. The developers compare the XP part to a rested bonus: it is smaller on a role you have already leveled, and the progression screen shows the current amount. Bulkhead calls multi-track a stopgap until an intel-based progression system arrives in 2027. The leveling guide covers the fastest XP per role.

Unlock levels that moved in Season 3

The Large Hammer moved back because it let builders put up mega bases too early. That also delayed one answer to the minigun Littlebird, so the Verba shoulder-fired missile moved forward to Support 8 to cover it.

Weapon and damage changes

Assault rifle torso damage is back to its Season 1 values, and LMG torso damage now matches assault rifles. Armor still cuts damage by the same percentage, so the gain applies at every armor level.

DMRs got the biggest lift. Every DMR now kills an unarmored player in two body shots instead of three, and one headshot kills a player with no helmet. The SVD, BMR-308 and M14 need one or two fewer body shots at every armor level and kill through a level 3 helmet in two headshots. The SKS needs one fewer shot against level 2 and level 4 armor. Arms and legs did not change. The TCX-SPR climbs less in full auto and drifts less sideways, and compound bow arrows fly 50% faster.

Standing in Molotov fire now sets you ablaze, which deals damage and makes you drop whatever you hold. It does less to armored vehicles and heavy armor than before. The Halligan Bar can now force open an enemy supply crate, which drops one random item on the ground.

The Infrared Range Finder is gone from the vendor. It appeared in almost every match, and the Season 2 battery nerf did not change that. Recon players now spot with binoculars and scopes, as covered in the spotting guide.

Parachutes: which one to buy now

Both parachutes cost more and each now has one job. Helicopter passengers see their height above the ground over the minimap, so check it against the parachute tooltip before you jump.

Jump off a drill tower with a Basic Parachute and it will not slow you in time, which is a $1,250 way to die. Parachuting into an enemy FOB now pays a reward, to offset the higher prices.

Vehicle changes and price cuts

Vehicle miniguns hit infantry much harder again: +50% to the head, +78% to the neck and +64% to the upper torso. The rocket Littlebird now fires its own 70mm rockets with some wobble, so it is slightly worse against infantry and unchanged against vehicles and FOBs. Littlebird pilots and co-pilots take more hits before they die.

Tanks now shrug off a few grenades, and the grenade launcher needs 3 hits to break tracks and 5 to 6 to disable the engine. The Vanguard CIWS counts each round once per vehicle section, and the anti-air emplacement can only aim up to 60° instead of 65°, a bigger blind spot straight overhead. Wheeled vehicles reverse much faster: the Humvee and Kodiak go from about 35 to 57 km/h backwards. Vehicles can flatten box hedges, and tanks and artillery can knock down stone walls. The vehicle guide and anti-air guide cover how to use each.

Payouts and rewards that changed

Air vehicle kill streaks pay again when you kill enemy players. Destroying a vehicle with your own vehicle within 1,000 m of the control zone now earns the full control zone reward. Pallets dropped outside a friendly FOB pay less, and a cheap crate pays a smaller reward scaled to what is inside it. Fuel that starts a FOB's drill pays a new kickback. The losing-faction vendor discount now depends on how far you trail first place, not the team one place above you. The money guide ranks the earners that are left.

Supply crates, servers and the rest

Supply crates can no longer be placed inside safe zones. They also break from much lower drops: about 35 m for standard and armored crates and about 40 m for pallets, at up to about 80 km/h. The Wager Vendor is removed and back in development. Official servers now allow a ping of up to 250 in every region, after a ban wave of more than 185,000 accounts.

Changing NVIDIA Inspector settings to strip smoke or grass, or alter textures and LOD, is now bannable, and the game blocks launch if it finds them. Editing the hidden low-end shadow setting is reset on boot. Global Illumination now only shows on the Overkill preset. Community servers pay a small cash bonus and can show a rules popup, and you can favourite them from the server browser.

Not in the game, but worth knowing: WARDOGS goes up by $5 on 28 January, with the next increase planned around September 2027. Owners pay nothing extra. The Gold Market gets five Season 3 camos, and a Movember mustache pack sends all its profit to the charity.

What to do first in Season 3

Keep your first lives cheap, because leveling is slow again and the catch-up bonus only starts paying after the first weeks. Buy the Molotov early at Assault 8, now that it costs $12,500 and forces enemies to drop their weapon. Support players should take the Verba at level 8 before the Large Hammer, since the minigun Littlebird shows up early and is now cheaper to fly. On Sabatulo, carry a Sport Parachute only if you plan to jump off towers or roofs. Pilots should fly above 100 m before their passengers bail with Basic chutes.