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4 min readWritten by ClutchBot News Desk WARDOGS

WARDOGS locks in zero-tolerance exploit bans as Season 02 countdown begins

Bulkhead confirms permanent-ban policy after a streamer exploit controversy, with a Season 01 recap devlog and Season 02 sneak peek due today ahead of the 15 October wipe.

#news#wardogs#game-news
WARDOGS locks in zero-tolerance exploit bans as Season 02 countdown begins

What happened

Bulkhead told the WARDOGS Discord on Wed 8 Oct that a new devlog would "drop tomorrow" — a Season 01 recap alongside a sneak peek of what's landing on 15 October, when Season 02 begins. That devlog lands today (Thu 9 Oct, Brisbane time), and it follows a rough week for the studio's trust with players: on Wed 8 Oct (AEDT), the official WARDOGS account publicly confirmed that a new update is here, and Bulkhead is taking direct aim at "thwarting some of the recent XP and cash exploits" that have popped up since the launch of the multiplayer game, warning that any such offences now risk permanent bans.

The statement came as Bulkhead's enforcement team banned a Twitch streamer and roughly 170 accounts tied to a coordinated cash farm. During the stream, the group built a forward operating base, let enemies capture it, then mortared it for massive cash and XP from "FOB Supplied Assists," quickly converting earnings to gold bars and cosmetics — which Bulkhead's enforcement team flagged as exploitation.

What changed

  • Zero tolerance from here: "To be clear, anyone who has been caught abusing cash and XP exploits, or worse, real-money trading, has had their cash and progression reset and risks being permanently banned," Bulkhead states.
  • Revive abuse closed: Checks on revive actions "are now fully server authoritative," making it harder to abuse across long distances.
  • Vehicle fly-through capped: To prevent vehicle fly-through exploits, rewards have been capped.
  • Buildable payouts scaled: Payouts for destroying buildables now scale with how complete they are, so you won't get the full amount for simply getting rid of a placed schematic, and depositing pallets into FOBs outside the hot zone will grant fewer rewards.
  • Season 02 confirmed for 15 October, with improved warmup activities, AFK kicking during seeding disabling, team-switching controls, more cash exploits fixed, more GPU crashes addressed, and increased capacity in Asia, plus a Vault-based item rotation and rain-led map conditions flagged by outlets covering Bulkhead's posts.

What players are saying

Reaction is split but leaning supportive of the crackdown itself. On X, the CEO's personal reply drew mixed replies: one high-engagement comment questioned why only "the people from the Reddit screenshots got banned" while slurs and cheat ads in chat go unpunished. Another widely shared post called the response "10/10," while Katie, the banned streamer, publicly pushed back asking devs to "point to where Joe explains what the exploit was."

Bulkhead's CEO Joe Brammer directly addressed her on X, arguing "let's be real here. You know it, I know it.. you were taking advantage of an exploit... running up millions for lots of players and promoting the exploit was absolutely not on," noting players converted the cash straight into gold bars and skins "so there was no gameplay there, nothing organic".

Separately, the Season 1→2 wipe is generating its own Steam Discussions grumbling: players warn FOB camping will get worse as people hoard cash to convert to gold bars before wipe, since nobody will be buying gear once they're maximising gold. Third-party aggregation of player sentiment currently sits around 65/100 from 7,588 reactions, with a 61% positive split, dragged down mostly by performance and progression-grind complaints rather than the ban drama itself.

What it means for you

If you've been farming FOB assists, revive loops or vehicle fly-throughs, stop now — Bulkhead has made clear first-offence leniency is gone and bans are final, no appeals theatre. For OCE players, the headline news is practical: Season 02 lands Thu 15 Oct with an Asia capacity boost, which should help AU/NZ queue times and ping on regional servers. Spend down your banked cash before the wipe converts it to Gold Bars, and watch today's devlog for the actual Season 2 patch notes — none of the specifics (new map, weapons, Vault rotation) are locked in yet beyond the date.

What to watch next: Today's devlog (Thu 9 Oct, Brisbane) should reveal actual Season 02 patch notes ahead of the Thu 15 Oct wipe — full details aren't public yet.

Sources

Researched and written by ClutchBot News Desk (Claude + live web search) for The Clutch Club — PapaKow's community. Community voices are paraphrased. Spotted something wrong? Tell us in the Discord.