12 November is confirmed; the clock is not
BULKHEAD's official Steam announcement now confirms Season 03 for 12 November 2026, replacing the earlier developer-response-only date. The matching release says the season starts with a wipe. Neither source gives a maintenance start, downtime estimate, reset hour, patch number or Season 02 shutdown time. A Season 03 Patch Notes Preview is promised for early next week, so this page does not invent the missing clock.
Sabatulo is the new urban map
The announcement names Sabatulo and describes it as urban warfare and close-quarters combat. That establishes the map's name and broad combat setting — not its dimensions, tower count, spawn layout, districts, rotation weight or community-server availability. Those values remain unpublished.
Limited Mode: planned caps, shared cash and XP
The publisher release describes Limited Mode as a separate way to preserve early-to-mid-game combat by restricting weapons, ammunition, armour and vehicles. Its planned rules are FMJ-only ammunition, a Tier 2 armour cap and a reduced attack-vehicle selection. Cash and XP earned there can be used in the default mode and vice versa. BULKHEAD explicitly says the final restricted-item list is still being determined, so the earlier shorthand 'no power weapons and no vehicles' is not treated as the final rule set.
Read the republished BULKHEAD / Team17 release →
- Planned: FMJ-only ammunition.
- Planned: armour capped at Tier 2.
- Planned: fewer attack vehicles — not a final vehicle list.
- Cash and XP carry between Limited Mode and the default mode in both directions.
Progression moves back toward Season 1; seasons move to three months
BULKHEAD says Season 2 accelerated progression too aggressively and Season 3 will bring the pace closer to Season 1. The studio is also moving to three-month seasons, giving players more time before each wipe and the team more development time. No Season 3 XP table, per-action rate, exact season-end date or mid-season-update date is published.
185,000 bans are a studio figure, not an independent audit
The publisher release says BULKHEAD banned 185,000 accounts after analysing 187 million hours of play with machine-learning assistance, against nearly four million unique players since launch. It also says permanent bans and server-hosting revocations were used against exploiters, real-money trading and gold-farming networks, and that a player trust score is planned for 2027. These figures and actions are BULKHEAD's account; the release publishes no method, false-positive rate, regional split, appeal outcome or independently auditable dataset.
Anti-cheat providers, policy and the new enforcement figures →
Still unpublished before launch
The preview leaves several player-facing details open. The promised Patch Notes Preview may resolve some of them; until it does, they stay blank rather than being inferred from the video or press summaries.
- Maintenance start, expected downtime and exact reset hour.
- The final Limited Mode restriction list.
- A Season 3 XP table or per-action progression rates.
- Sabatulo's dimensions, tower count, spawn positions and rotation rules.
- The complete wipe and carry-over matrix, including paid unlocks.
Common questions
When does WARDOGS Season 3 start?
12 November 2026 on Steam. BULKHEAD has not published a maintenance window, downtime estimate or exact reset time yet.
What is the new WARDOGS Season 3 map?
Sabatulo, described by BULKHEAD as an urban map for close-quarters combat. No dimensions, tower count, spawn layout or rotation weight are published.
What is WARDOGS Limited Mode?
A separate mode with planned FMJ-only ammunition, a Tier 2 armour cap and fewer attack vehicles. Cash and XP transfer between it and the default mode. BULKHEAD says the final restricted-item list is still being determined.
Will WARDOGS Season 3 wipe progress?
The publisher release says Season 3 launches with a season wipe. The standing BULKHEAD plan resets cash and XP progression and converts savings to gold bars, but a complete Season 3 carry-over matrix and exact reset hour are still unpublished.
How long will WARDOGS Season 3 last?
BULKHEAD says it is moving to three-month seasons. It has not published an exact Season 3 end date or reset clock.
Sources & verification
BULKHEAD's complete 6 November Steam announcement confirms the date, Sabatulo and an early-next-week Patch Notes Preview. A matching BULKHEAD / Team17 release, transparently republished by Inven Global, supplies the wipe, three-month cadence, progression direction, planned Limited Mode restrictions and anti-cheat figures. The release says the restriction list is not final; neither source publishes a maintenance window, reset hour or complete patch notes.
| Source | Type | Read |
|---|---|---|
| BULKHEAD · WARDOGS Road to Season 3, 6 November 2026Published at 19:00:18 UTC through Steam (News API gid 1848664643347097; the complete 805-character contents field was read). BULKHEAD confirms Season 03 for 12 November, names the new urban close-quarters map Sabatulo, promises longer seasons, and says a Season 03 Patch Notes Preview will follow early the next week. The post gives no maintenance window, reset time, patch number or final Limited Mode restriction list. | Publisher stated | 2026-11-06 |
| BULKHEAD / Team17 · Season 3 announcement release, republished by Inven Global, 6 November 2026Inven Global labels the complete text as a press release. It says Season 3 brings a wipe, progression closer to Season 1, three-month seasons and Limited Mode with planned FMJ-only ammunition, a Tier 2 armour cap and fewer attack vehicles; the final restricted list is still being set, and cash/XP transfer both ways between Limited and default modes. It also carries BULKHEAD's figures of 185,000 banned accounts, 187 million hours analysed and nearly four million unique players, plus a player trust score planned for 2027. These are studio statements, not independently audited measurements. | Publisher stated | 2026-11-06 |
| BULKHEAD developer response · Season 3 date and Limited Mode, 23 October 2026A Steam review response by brammflakes, marked [developer], says Season 3 has been brought forward to 12 November 2026 for a fresh start and will bring Limited Mode servers with no power weapons and no vehicles. The public page displays “Posted: Oct 23 @ 8:36am” without a timezone. It does not publish a maintenance window, reset time, patch notes, complete Limited Mode rules or Season 02 end time. | Publisher stated | 2026-10-26 |
| BULKHEAD · THE HOTZONE Episode 1, “The Wipe”, 24 October 2026Published at 16:00:00 UTC through BULKHEAD’s official YouTube channel. The Atom feed titles it “The Wipe”; the watch page displayed the alternate title “Did we OVER react?” when its complete 70-minute English transcript was read on 24 October. The studio says retained top-quartile players progressed 2.4× faster than Season 1, Driver participation rose from 9% to 44% on Season 2’s first day, and fewer than 400 accounts used the Driver exploit. It says Season 02 will run four to five weeks instead of six to eight, monthly seasons are unsustainable, roughly three-month future seasons with a smaller mid-season update are under consideration, and Intel targets Q2 2027. These are spoken plans, not final patch notes: the episode gives no exact Season 3 date or reset time, and its IR-binocular discussion is explicitly introduced as raw and not gospel. | Publisher stated | 2026-10-24 |
| BULKHEAD · “WARDOGS | Early Access & Beyond”, 7 April 2026, from 02:39Read from YouTube’s English captions. States that at the end of a season cash and XP progression reset with cash auto-converted into gold bars, that gold bars and cosmetics stay on the account across seasons, and that the cash-to-gold-bar rate will fluctuate daily. A plan dated April 2026; the on-screen Gold Exchange panel is captioned “Representative – not final”. | Publisher stated | 2026-09-23 |
