WARDOGS buffs and nerfs: October 2026 so far

Scout Rifle headshots now one-shot targets with no helmet.

• A Level 1 helmet takes two headshots to kill.

Level 3 and Level 4 helmets also now have increased suppression resistance.

• Level 3 helmets reduce suppression by 68%.
• Level 4 helmets reduce suppression by 80%.

Near-miss suppression from small and medium calibres is considerably stronger.

Slightly more effective vs lower tier armor than season 1.

Durability increased 100 → 150, so a single bag goes further before it needs replacing.

Infrared Range Finder Update - Now runs on batteries. A battery lasts around 80s of active use. Drains faster if quickly toggled on and off.

.308 Winchester -25%

• These changes affect every weapon that uses these rounds, including infantry & vehicle weapons.

7.62x54mmR -20%

• These changes affect every weapon that uses these rounds, including infantry & vehicle weapons.

7.62x39mm -19%

• These changes affect every weapon that uses these rounds, including infantry & vehicle weapons.

.50 Cal -16%

• These changes affect every weapon that uses these rounds, including infantry & vehicle weapons.

Hit-location damage has been adjusted for the new calibre base damage values. Headshots and upper-body hits are slightly weaker, so DMRs sit between assault rifles and snipers.

Assault rifle body shots do slightly less damage.

LMG body damage now matches assault rifles. LMGs win fights through sustained fire and magazine size, not by out-damaging assault rifles on every shot.

Damage reduction lowered 55% → 50%.

Damage reduction lowered 65% → 60%.

Level 4 Helmet now has muffled audio, muffled proximity chat, a restricted field of view, and will fog over when you're sprinting.

The calibre reductions above also apply to vehicle weapons that fire those rounds, such as the Little Bird AH-6M Minigun, Z20 Lakota Minigun and Humvee Minigun.

We've also reduced how much damage turrets do to infantry depending on where the shot lands.

• Heavy and Artillery top machine turrets were using the same hit-location values as the helicopter cannon.
• Heavy and Artillery turrets now use the same hit-location values as assault rifles and LMGs.

Parachutes now take longer to fully open, and won't open at all below about 10m.

• Pulling at the last second is now a real risk. If you're falling fast and open below roughly 50m, you won't slow down in time and will take fall damage.

Recoil pattern updated to have more of a horizontal pattern, as it was too easy to use.

Damage fall-off increased beyond 50m, its effective range, pushing it firmly into a close-quarters role.

Muzzle velocity reduced -25%.

40mm outer radius now has a stronger damage fall-off.

Experiences much more inaccuracy and sway, slower ADS speed, and a reload penalty when sitting on the Little Bird bench, to reduce reliability.

Medium hammer now contributes less per swing.

Critical spots give a smaller bonus than before.

Minimum fuel to activate 1,500 → 2,000

Duration per fuel 0.05 → 0.03 (max uptime 375s → 300s) (matches capturable towers)

Post-spawn cooldown substantially increased, so a destroyed rig cannot immediately be replaced.

Reload 2s → 5s

Restock from munition supplies 50 → 200

• The Talon, Mortar and Drill Rig have had their resources and ammo rebalanced to make them slower to build and more expensive to keep active, without removing creative strategies or putting hard limits on player freedom.

Restock from munition supplies 75 → 150 to reduce the amount of shots that can be fired per pallet drop-off.

New firing animation - The player now drops the shell into the end of the mortar as it fires, to reduce the fire rate of the mortar.

Reduced Vanguard CIWS damage to the Spawn Vehicle, now takes 2.25x longer to kill the SV.

The CIWS also now destroys the havoc in around 6 seconds as opposed to 12.

• We acknowledge we overcorrected this in the previous patch and have hotfixed the issue this morning.