Wardogs Season 3 lands November 12 with an urban map and Limited Mode

Wardogs Season 3 starts on Thursday, November 12 on Steam, with a full progression wipe, a new close-quarters urban map called Sabatulo and a gear-capped Limited Mode. Developer Bulkhead and publisher Team17 announced the season on November 6, alongside a ban wave covering 185,000 accounts. Bulkhead has not given a start time, so check the Steam page on the day.

Seasons also get longer: from now on each one runs for about three months before the next wipe.

What's confirmed

The map. Season 3 adds an urban battlefield built for close-quarters fighting. GameWatcher names it Sabatulo. Because the season starts with a wipe, every player begins learning it at the same time.

Limited Mode. The press release describes Limited Mode as an alternative way to play with restrictions on weapons, ammunition, armour and vehicles, so better-equipped players have less of an edge. The planned rules include FMJ-only ammunition, a Tier 2 armour cap and fewer attack vehicles, and the final list is not settled. Cash and XP earned in Limited Mode carry over to the default mode and back again.

Slower progression. Bulkhead says progression will return closer to Season 1's pace, after admitting Season 2 sped it up too aggressively. GameWatcher adds multi-track unlocks, which let you earn equipment through more than one relevant role instead of grinding a role you do not want to play.

Why Season 2 is being reversed. In Bulkhead's Road to Season 3 video, reported by PC Gamer, UI/UX director Howard Philpott says the studio responded to negative reviews with changes that looked good in patch notes but made the game less fun once the season went live. PC Gamer also recalls a cash incentive meant to help the weaker blue team that was dropped one day after it went live.

The anti-cheat push. Bulkhead says it analysed 187 million hours of play with machine learning and is switching on further anti-cheat layers early, because nearly four million unique players since launch gave it enough data. Exploiters, real-money traders and gold-farming networks have been permanently banned and have lost server-hosting rights. CEO Joe Brammer told PC Gamer that the studio let cheaters keep refining their tools so its models could learn from them. GameWatcher reports that Brammer later posted on X that another 108 accounts were banned in the 24 hours after the first wave.

Visual tweaks are bannable. GameWatcher reports Brammer saying that using NVIDIA Inspector or other tools to remove smoke or grass gives an unfair advantage. From Season 3, players caught doing it first get a warning that blocks play until they restore their settings.

Price and specs. Steam lists Wardogs at $39.99 in Early Access. The minimum spec is an Intel Core i5 8600 or Ryzen 5 3500, 16GB of RAM, a GTX 1660 or RX 590 and 50GB of storage, which Steam rates at 1080p low and 60fps with upscaling.

Background

Wardogs is a 100-player tactical shooter that launched in Steam Early Access on September 10, 2026, and Eurogamer calls it one of the breakout successes of the year. Its first season set the tone, and its second, as PC Gamer puts it, became Bulkhead's "difficult second album". Eurogamer reports that console versions for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S are due in 2028. A player trust score and a new progression system are planned for 2027 on the road to version 1.0, and full Season 3 patch notes are due before launch.

My take: what it means for players

I think the 185,000 bans are the headline, but Limited Mode is the bigger change. Gear-capped play is how you keep new and casual players around in a wipe-based shooter. Without it, the first two weeks of a season belong to whoever no-lifes the tech tree, and everyone else runs into top-tier armour and ammunition. Sharing cash and XP across both modes means Limited Mode won't become a ghost town.

On cheating, I have seen this movie before. PUBG's breakout in 2017 turned into years of anti-cheat headlines, and players are already asking, GameWatcher reports, whether banned Wardogs cheaters will simply buy the game again. Brammer's approach, letting cheats evolve so the models can learn them, is smart, but the proof is in ranked lobbies three weeks from now, not in a ban count. GameWatcher also reports complaints on the appeals forum about wrongful bans, and Bulkhead needs to handle those in public.

The NVIDIA Inspector warning is the change I like most. Stripping grass and smoke with driver tools is an old PC shooter habit, and a warning screen that blocks play until you fix it is fairer than a silent ban. If you dropped Wardogs during Season 2, November 12 is the right moment to come back.

What we don't know yet

• Start time. Bulkhead has given the date, November 12, but no hour.
• Final Limited Mode rules. The restricted list is still being decided.
• Patch notes. Full notes are promised before launch and were not out when we checked.
• False positives. Bulkhead has not said how many appeals it has upheld.
• Smurf accounts. GameWatcher reports Brammer saying the studio can identify thousands of smurf accounts but is not banning them as a category.

Quick facts

FAQ

When does Wardogs Season 3 start?

On November 12, 2026, on Steam. Bulkhead has not announced an exact start time.

What is Limited Mode in Wardogs?

A separate mode that caps gear: FMJ-only ammunition, Tier 2 armour and fewer attack vehicles. Cash and XP carry over to the normal mode.

Will Season 3 wipe my progress?

Yes. Season 3 starts with a full wipe, and progression will be slower, closer to Season 1.

Why were 185,000 Wardogs accounts banned?

Bulkhead says its machine-learning anti-cheat found cheaters, exploiters, real-money traders and gold-farming networks after analysing 187 million hours of play.

More: Wardogs.

Sources: Bulkhead and Team17 (press release via Capsule Computers); Steam store page; Eurogamer; PC Gamer; GameWatcher.