BULKHEAD Pulls WARDOGS Blue Team Bonus One Day After Season 2 Launch
The bonus was meant to fix a perceived faction imbalance but concentrated its benefit on the most skilled players, and BULKHEAD reversed it faster than it shipped it.
Key Facts
- BULKHEAD launched the WARDOGS blue team bonus on October 15 with Season 2, granting 2.5% extra EXP and 5% extra cash to Lonestar players.
- BULKHEAD removed the WARDOGS blue team bonus on October 16, one day after it was added.
- BULKHEAD CEO Joe Brammer said in a video on X, "We made the wrong call."
- BULKHEAD put the WARDOGS blue team win rate at around 20% before the bonus.
- BULKHEAD said drivers in WARDOGS were leveling about 50% faster than infantry, and it temporarily reduced driver progression speed.
Reporting from 2 sources: Automaton, Game Spark.
BULKHEAD introduced a bonus for the blue team in WARDOGS on October 15, the day Season 2 began. The bonus gave Lonestar players 2.5% extra EXP and 5% extra cash, a total of about 100 to 200 additional EXP per match. The studio had announced the measure to address the blue team's low win rate, which BULKHEAD put at around 20%. The following day, October 16, the studio posted a video on X in which CEO Joe Brammer said, "We made the wrong call." Players had rushed to join the blue team, which hurt matchmaking and gave that faction an overwhelming win rate. Tracking also showed the percentage bonus favored top-tier players, who earn more per match, widening the progression gap. BULKHEAD removed the EXP and cash bonus after one day and said it will keep adjusting spawn points, which it found insufficient. The game is in early access on PC via Steam.
Lonestar has taken the blame for its low win rate partly because its blue equipment colors stand out on the battlefield. BULKHEAD had already adjusted spawn points for all three factions alongside the bonus, and the studio says those changes are still not enough, promising continued work. The three factions are Manticore (green), Valkyra (red) and Lonestar (blue), and weapons and equipment are shared across all of them. Matches put up to 100 players on a 256-square-kilometer map, with teams scoring by sending players into Control Zones that spawn at random; the first team to 100 points wins.
BULKHEAD also answered feedback that drivers level up too fast. The driver role gained levels about 50% faster than infantry, letting drivers deploy tanks before infantry had unlocked anti-tank weapons. Driver progression has been temporarily slowed and will be readjusted in the next hotfix. Feedback on leveling had already split both ways, too fast for hardcore players and too slow for casual players, and Season 2 sped things up with casual players in mind.
Primitive servers (provisional name) are planned from late October to early November. They replace the existing low-level servers and restrict powerful elements such as level 4 armor and heavy tank shelling, so players can stay in early and mid-game combat after maxing out and lower-level players can level up late in the season.
WARDOGS is in early access on PC via Steam. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions are planned for 2028.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.