The Wardogs wipe day is almost here, and with it comes a new grind to get my favorite weapons and toys back. After putting in around 140 hours, I’ve unlocked a lot of what I enjoy using, but there are still items I wouldn’t mind getting. While I’ve enjoyed my time thus far, I’m not sure I’m ready to put in those hours to keep up with the competition in Season 2.
This is a common worry I’ve seen among the Wardogs community, especially for those who can’t play as much as I have. It’d be one thing if the excessive grind meant not getting a vehicle like a dune buggy. However, it instead means missing out on high-tier armor, special ammo types, and powerful vehicles. This is made worse by players offering them in the headquarters at a high markup.
I don’t think anyone expects the Wardogs developer, Bulkhead, to have it all figured out immediately. As goes with any competitive multiplayer game, it’s a constant battle in getting the balance right. In some cases, it can kill your community if you tweak it wrong, listen to the wrong voices, or even do nothing. A comment I’ve seen variations of is falling behind other players who grind from the start of a season.
While you can loot gear off experienced players, surviving long enough to do so can be a challenge. Anyone playing Wardogs can likely imagine someone with level 1 armor against a player with AP rounds. That disadvantage can be enough to prevent someone from grinding for better gear, especially mid-season. One Steam user with 97 hours commented about having a positive experience that eventually soured for similar reasons,
“Yep. Sucks now. Can’t make any money without dying instantly in CZ to top-tier weapons. …. Changed my review to negative, man it sucks, I was having so much fun the first week or so.”
Complaints like these are contributing to the Steam reviews trending down. On September 11, when Wardogs’ launch server troubles were resolved, the reviews were 89% positive. Weeks later, they’re closer to the low to mid 60s each day. With that said, some reviews focus on issues like potential cheaters and users crashing.
While I haven’t run into those problems, I do find that I’m able to keep up with other players. Although, the time-to-kill becoming longer is certainly noticeable. This typically forces me to play slower rather than early on, when everyone was at the same playing level. Instead of sprinting into a firefight, I’m more likely to wait for an enemy or play quietly. And this is coming from someone who has tier 4 armor available, but due to its cost and weight, I’m more likely to use tier 2 or even a ghillie suit.
The increase in time-to-kill is a good shift for those who are sick of a sniper one-hitting them. Unfortunately, this only works if you can unlock that tier 4 armor at level 100 and avoid the anti-materiel rifle. To give some context, I reached level 116 after about 140 hours. Having a longer season before wiping will help players get to this point. However, they’ll be at a disadvantage until they do. This problem becomes more obvious when you struggle to counter how an enemy is playing due to your level.
Once Wardogs was released, I was consistently chasing a certain weapon or tool to solve the problems my team couldn’t. I’m sure this is intended, so we have goals that motivate us to continue playing. But I’d prefer to see Bulkhead fuel that desire through the currently planned missions. Which I’m hoping don’t become equivalent to a battle pass with basic tasks.
If players have something else to chase, reducing level requirements may make sense. But there are other potential solutions too, like double experience events or redeemable codes for the same purpose. I recently returned to Arma 3 to remember its King of the Hill mode, not far from what Wardogs is. One server has double experience codes you can redeem that last for a limited amount of time. This would be a flexible option instead of special events.
With that said, I’m not here to tell Bulkhead what to do, but I do know wipe day is going to hurt. The upside to a reset, however, is that everyone is back to zero. This can be one of the best times to play, similar to another game I’ve put almost a thousand hours into, Rust. Instead of worrying about powerful weapons and armor, you’re all running with similar kits. Alongside this, I’ll be especially curious to see what new changes we get when the Season 2 wipe hits on October 15.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.