WARDOGS Season 1 Early Access Update: XP, Economy, and Unlock Changes

What changed in the WARDOGS Season 1 Early Access update?

The Season 1 changelog changes progression, role unlocks, equipment prices, vehicles, reporting, voice chat, performance, and stability before the Early Access launch. The biggest practical difference is that beta progression was intentionally fast, while the Season 1 curve is designed to make major unlocks take longer.

This page summarizes the official changelog and the supplied update breakdown video. It is a launch reference, not a promise that every value will remain unchanged during Early Access.

How does the new XP curve affect progression?

The new curve raises XP requirements most sharply in the middle of the progression track. Levels below 6 are unchanged, levels 10–20 slow down substantially, and the curve becomes flatter from level 35 onward. Role-track XP is also rebalanced from level 6 upward.

Level	Previous XP	Season 1 XP	Change
6	8,750	9,250	5.7% slower
10	25,000	35,000	40.0% slower
15	54,750	110,000	100.9% slower
20	111,500	250,000	124.2% slower
25	192,000	325,000	69.3% slower
30	293,750	400,000	36.2% slower
35	416,500	500,000	20.0% slower
40	551,250	650,000	17.9% slower
45	689,500	800,000	16.0% slower
50	838,000	1,000,000	19.3% slower

Two XP events are also reduced: air-vehicle kills move from 300 XP to 250 XP, while selling a supply-crate item worth less than $75 moves from 25 XP to 1 XP. The supply-crate purchase curve changes from 25–250 to 1–200 so low-value items cannot be abused.

Which Career and role unlocks moved?

The update reorganizes the unlock tracks instead of simply moving every item later. Artillery becomes a late Career milestone, Heavy Tank moves to Driver, and several Driver vehicles arrive earlier or later to create a more gradual vehicle progression.

Track	Item	Previous	Season 1
Career	Sports Parachute	36	35
Career	Large Backpack	56	55
Career	7.62×54mm AP	83	82
Career	5.56mm AP	85	83
Career	Deagle	90	85
Career	Artillery Tank	55	90
Medic	PP-19 50-round drum magazine	33	29
Support	Large Hammer	7	8
Driver	URAL	4	3
Driver	Kodiak Assault	8	6
Driver	Dune Buggy	10	8
Driver	Kodiak Flatbed	2	10
Driver	Large Supply Crate	20	16
Driver	URAL Covered	30	18
Driver	Music Tape H	Pilot 28	Driver 23
Driver	URAL Attack	40	25
Driver	Humvee with minigun	35	30
Driver	Heavy Tank	Career 35	Driver 35

For a first deployment, choose the role you can use consistently instead of saving only for the most expensive unlock. The factions and classes guide explains how combat, recon, medic, pilot, builder, and logistics roles fit together.

Which equipment and vehicle prices changed?

The economy changes make several high-impact tools more expensive, especially FOBs, hammers, scopes, and attack vehicles. A few transport options become cheaper, so the best purchase depends on the role track you are leveling and the team’s immediate needs.

Category	Item	Previous price	Season 1 price
Vendor	Forward Operating Base	$2,500	$7,500
Vendor	Large Hammer	$1,600	$2,400
Career	Artillery Tank	$400,000	$500,000
Recon	6–10× MRAD scope	$25,000	$40,000
Recon	6–10× MOA scope	$30,000	$45,000
Support	Medium Hammer	$10,000	$25,000
Support	Large Hammer	$25,000	$75,000
Pilot	Small armoured supply crate	$5,000	$10,000
Pilot	Little Bird with miniguns	$25,000	$50,000
Pilot	Z20 Lakota	$50,000	$35,000
Driver	URAL	$50,000	$35,000
Driver	Dune Buggy	$35,000	$25,000
Driver	Kodiak Flatbed	$15,000	$35,000
Driver	Music Tape H	$5,000	$2,500

The cash economy guide covers the broader risk of spending an expensive kit before you can protect it. For base construction specifically, compare the new FOB price with the placement and supply advice in the FOB building guide.

What fixes and quality-of-life changes arrived with the update?

The changelog also targets the problems players encountered during testing. It fixes the church-rooftop exploit, adds report tracking and weighted reports, announces cheater bans in the relevant server state, and clarifies when a kicked-from-server message means an actual ban.

Other changes include reworked server-browser filtering, more reliable voice chat recovery, a visible communication status, a Z20 Lakota balance pass, helicopter input damping for all input devices, a maximum turret rotation speed, and a tank-aiming DPI fix.

Performance and stability work includes better GPU crash reports, fewer shadow-cache refreshes, fixes for frame-generation and buildable crashes, improved startup recovery messages, and a change that stops dropped items from affecting navigation. These fixes should be treated as launch-build improvements, not as guarantees that later Early Access builds will behave identically.

How should new players adapt to Season 1 progression?

Start with a complete, affordable setup and keep enough cash for another deployment. The slower curve makes role choice more important: level the track tied to the equipment you actually want, and do not spend every match’s budget on a single expensive vehicle or building tool.

Use this launch checklist:

1. Pick one primary role track and learn its early unlock order.
2. Keep a reserve instead of buying every newly available upgrade.
3. Treat a FOB or heavy vehicle as a team decision, not a solo status purchase.
4. Record the build, item price, unlock level, and result when testing a change.
5. Recheck the official notes after hotfixes or season changes.

Where can I watch the update breakdown?

The supplied video explains the transition from beta to Early Access and highlights the progression, economy, and unlock changes. Watch it alongside the official WARDOGS Steam announcements when checking whether a later hotfix has changed a value.