George In The Meta
What does the WARDOGS Season 02 wipe reset?
By George In The Meta · · updated
Short answer: Season 02 starts on 15 October 2026 and wipes your cash and XP, so everyone goes back to zero. Whatever cash you have left turns into gold bars, which buy permanent cosmetics, and BULKHEAD is banking your XP for long-term progression it hasn't built yet. Infrared range finders come back the same season, and now need batteries.
Updated 10 October 2026 with BULKHEAD's Season 01 devlog (9 October). First written 5 October. Sources: BULKHEAD's Season 02 teaser on Steam (22 September), Joe Brammer, BULKHEAD's CEO (2 October), and gold prices as tracked by WARDOGS Hub and HR Plays.
When does WARDOGS Season 02 start?
15 October 2026. BULKHEAD announced the date on Steam on 22 September and repeated it in the Season 01 devlog on 9 October. There's no start time yet. The full patch notes and a Season 02 trailer are due the week of the 15th.
What gets wiped?
Your cash and your XP. Joe Brammer confirmed it on 2 October: "yes cash and XP will be wiped this season, your cash will be converted into gold bars."
XP is your level, and your level is what unlocks things. So the weapons and vehicles you've worked up to go too.
What happens to your cash?
It turns into gold bars. The devlog confirms how: at the end of each season, "any outstanding savings" are auto-exchanged to gold bars at their value when the season ends, and gold bars buy permanent cosmetic unlocks. BULKHEAD says that's why it refuses to sell weapon and vehicle camos: if you see one, it was earned.
Gold bars carry over into Season 02 and cash doesn't. And the gold price has crashed: a bar cost about $2.8 million in cash at launch, $331,582 on 2 October, and around $166,000 two days later. BULKHEAD hasn't said why. Most players blame the exploit bans in update 0.1.2, but the fall started a few hours before that update went in. Either way, cash buys far more gold than it did, which is why everyone's converting before the wipe.
Your XP isn't thrown away either. BULKHEAD says it is banking all the XP players earn from season to season in early access, and will apply it retroactively to long-term systems such as player skills once they exist. Brammer had already said each season would add more persistence, through player skills and "intel".
Is the wipe a good thing?
I kind of like it. It puts everyone back to zero.
But it'll end up the same way. Whoever puts the most time in ends up where they are now, with the higher-level vehicles and weapons, and it'll be rough on anyone playing casually. Apparently my 150 hours count as casual: I'm level 67, and the guys killing me yesterday were 192 and 174.
Can a wipe every season work?
BULKHEAD admits the game "absolutely needs more persistence between wipes". In the devlog it says wipes are how it tests the game in early access: they clear out XP and economy exploits after patching them, and let it rebalance the unlock curve each season. It also says the current progression system can't serve both "the 10 hour player and the 300 hour player", and a full rework is planned closer to 1.0.
I'm not sure it can. If they wipe every season, I think they'll eventually have to cut the grind or make the seasons longer. I don't want to unlock a weapon at the end of a season, get a couple of days with it, and then start the next season with nothing again.
BULKHEAD's line is "play how you want to play", and Joe Brammer clarified on 4 October that it's not "play with whatever you want to play with". For them, the journey to unlocking things is the interesting part, and he expects Season 2 players to be "more targeted and planned in their progression out of the gate."
Fair enough. But by that measure, I'll only spend a small slice of each season actually playing my way with the gear I want. Season 02 won't tell us much. Season 03 will.
What should you spend your cash on before the wipe?
I'm spending mine on loadouts. Mine cost about $20,000 each right now: an anti-air missile on my back and a big hammer in my backpack, so I'm carrying every support tool going. Vehicles have become a massive problem, and that's what the missile is for.
