WARDOGS starts region control: ping cap on servers drops to 175 ms, region locking in progress on the backend
BULKHEAD has started controlling regions in WARDOGS: from the evening of 21 October the maximum ping on a server is being reduced to 175 ms, and region locking is being built on the backend to stop players from regions BULKHEAD considers more prone to cheating from flooding other regions’ servers. The studio calls it a decision it was forced into and says it will get stricter about cross-region play. For your rank it changes where you can play, not how progression works — but a connection that stays above 175 ms now gets you kicked.
- Announced by BULKHEAD on X on 21 October at 19:07 UTC: the maximum ping on a server is being lowered to 175 ms over the following hours, so the cap was expected to be in force by the night of 21–22 October.
- Region locking is being implemented on the backend. BULKHEAD says it is more than a switch to flip, so expect it to tighten in stages; no date was given for a full lock, and the studio says it will get stricter on players crossing between regions.
- The reason: an influx of players from regions BULKHEAD considers more prone to cheating. The studio says protecting the largest group of players comes before the minority and apologised for letting it get to this point.
- How the kick works (Season 02 rules): a player who stays above a server’s limit for a sustained period is kicked automatically, short spikes and server-side lag are ignored, a kicked player cannot rejoin until the next map, and the server browser shows max-ping tags and filters. Community server admins can set their own limits.
- What it means for your climb: play on servers in your own region and check the ping tag before joining; squads spread across continents are the first to be hit; XP, cash and gear are untouched — the change is about where you can play.
- What we are watching: the per-region values, whether every official region gets the same 175 ms, and the dev vlog with the Season 3 date BULKHEAD has promised since 17 October (still not out as of 22 October 09:30 UTC).
What BULKHEAD announced
On 21 October at 19:07 UTC, BULKHEAD said it had begun controlling regions in WARDOGS. Over the following hours the maximum ping on a server was to be reduced to 175 ms, and region locking is in progress on the backend. The studio says it decided to protect the largest group of players from an influx of regions it considers more prone to cheating, that it will get stricter on players crossing between regions, and that it is sorry it let things get to this point.
From lenient limits to a hard number
Region-based ping limits arrived with Season 02 on 15 October, and the patch notes said the first values would be lenient while BULKHEAD settled on the right ones. CEO Joe Brammer said on 13 October that the studio would enforce ping limits rather than region-lock, then on 19 October that a region lock was looking more and more appealing. The 175 ms cap is the first concrete number, and the backend lock is the step the studio had been holding back.
How the kick works
The mechanics are the ones introduced with Season 02:
- A player who stays above the server’s ping limit for a sustained period is kicked automatically; short spikes do not count.
- Server-side lag spikes are excluded from the measurement, so a bad server tick should not cost you a kick.
- A player kicked for high ping cannot rejoin that server until the next map transition.
- The server browser shows maximum-ping tags and can filter by them, so you can see a server’s limit before joining.
- Community server admins set their own limits, so cross-region play survives on community servers that allow it.
What it means for your climb
- Play on servers in your own region. 175 ms is comfortable for a connection on the same continent and tight for one across an ocean, so the players caught first are those joining servers far from home.
- Squads spread across regions are the main casualty: one member above the cap is kicked and locked out until the next map, so pick the server that keeps everyone under 175 ms.
- Progression is untouched. XP, cash and gear are not reset or changed by this announcement — the change is about where you can play, not what you keep.
- Expect the rules to tighten. BULKHEAD says region locking is not a single switch and will take time to have the effect it wants, so a server you can join today may be closed to your region later.
What we are watching
BULKHEAD has not published the per-region values, said whether every official region gets the same 175 ms, or given a date for the full region lock. The dev vlog with the Season 3 date, promised on 17 October, is still outstanding. We will update this item when BULKHEAD posts the next step on Steam or X.
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