{"id":5322,"date":"2026-09-12T21:22:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T14:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/wardogs\/wardogs-season-1-xp-curve\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T23:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T16:33:15","slug":"wardogs-season-1-xp-curve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/es\/wardogs\/wardogs-season-1-xp-curve\/","title":{"rendered":"WARDOGS Season 1 XP Curve: Level 10 \u2013 20 Changes Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BULKHEAD&#8217;s full Season 1 XP Bands table \u2014 beta vs Season 1 at every published checkpoint level, where the curve bites at 15 and 20, and why the increases settle after 35.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[720],"tags":[],"blog_tag":[],"class_list":["post-5322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wardogs"],"acf":{"redactor":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"<p>WARDOGS Season 1 made levels 10 through 20 cost noticeably more XP than they did in <a href=\"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/wardogs\/wardogs-closed-beta-02-100k-contest\/\">the beta<\/a>, while the increases past level 35 are far smaller \u2014 a deliberate rebalance BULKHEAD spelled out, with numbers, in the <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/news\/app\/1867240\/view\/1843481262690549\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Pre-Load Live &amp; Season 1 Changelog<\/a> posted the night before Early Access launched on 10 September 2026. This guide lays out the studio&#8217;s own XP Bands table in full, points at the two levels where the curve actually bites, and covers what the two related XP Events changes mean if you were farming crate sales for easy levels.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"<div class=\"post-tldr\">\n<p class=\"post-tldr__h\">TL;DR<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Below level 6, nothing changed. From level 6 up, every published band needs more XP.<\/li>\n<li>Level 20 is the worst jump on the track: 250,000 XP versus 111,500 in the beta \u2014 124.2% more XP required (BULKHEAD&#8217;s own label is &#8220;124.2% slower&#8221;).<\/li>\n<li>From level 35 up the increases sit in a 16 \u2013 20% band instead of 100%+ \u2014 that is the &#8220;flattening&#8221; the studio describes.<\/li>\n<li>Air-vehicle kills and cheap crate item sales both got their XP payout cut.<\/li>\n<li>These are role-track figures (Assault, Medic, Support, Recon, Driver, Pilot). Career-level goals like Artillery at 90 are a separate ladder.<\/li>\n<li>BULKHEAD says this exact curve is a Season 1 curve only \u2014 it changes again next season.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"title","heading":"What BULKHEAD Changed and Why","tag":"h2"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"<p>The studio didn&#8217;t dress this up. &#8220;Looking at the data we have decided to slow levels down around 10 to 20, and flatten the curve from 35 onward.&#8221; That&#8217;s the entire rationale, straight from the changelog, and it&#8217;s followed immediately by a number that matters more than the patch notes themselves: &#8220;This means our median players, at 20 to 25 hours, will be around level 20, and those wanting the big ticket items, the top 5%, will need to grind.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Two unlock moves rode along with the curve change. The Artillery Tank moved to Career level 90 (from 55), and the Heavy Tank moved from Career 35 to Driver 35 \u2014 a change of track at the same number, so read it as a relocation, not as a longer grind: Career and Driver are different ladders and the changelog does not compare their pace. Keep the two ladders apart, though: the XP table below is the <a href=\"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/wardogs\/wardogs-role-tracks\/\">role-track<\/a> curve, and BULKHEAD has published no XP figures for Career levels.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-stat-row\">\n<div class=\"post-stat post-stat--bad\"><span class=\"post-stat__v\">124.2%<\/span><span class=\"post-stat__l\">more XP needed for level 20<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-stat post-stat--bad\"><span class=\"post-stat__v\">100.9%<\/span><span class=\"post-stat__l\">more XP needed for level 15<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-stat\"><span class=\"post-stat__v\">5.7%<\/span><span class=\"post-stat__l\">more XP needed for level 6<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"title","heading":"The Full XP Bands Table","tag":"h2"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"<p>BULKHEAD published the bands as cumulative XP required at a set of checkpoint levels \u2014 6, 10, 15 and then every five levels to 50 \u2014 old figure to new figure, with its own percentage label on each row. Two things to keep in mind while reading it. The right-hand figures are cumulative totals, not per-level costs: level 50 needs a million XP from the start of the track, not a million for that one level alone. And the studio&#8217;s &#8220;% slower&#8221; label is the increase in XP required, not a measured change in play time \u2014 how much longer a level actually takes depends on how fast you earn XP, which the changelog does not quantify.<\/p>\n<p>This is the <a href=\"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/wardogs\/wardogs-role-tracks\/\">role track<\/a> curve \u2014 the tracks BULKHEAD names (Medic, Support, Recon, Driver, Pilot \u2014 Assault per outside trackers) each run their own copy of this ladder, published to level 50; that is the last row printed, not a stated cap. It is not the Career ladder \u2014 where items like the Deagle, AP ammo and the Sports Parachute unlock \u2014 and the studio has published no XP figures for that ladder.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"table","headers":[{"header_text":"Level"},{"header_text":"Was"},{"header_text":"Now"},{"header_text":"BULKHEAD label (= more XP required)"}],"rows":[{"cells":[{"cell_text":"Below 6"},{"cell_text":"unchanged"},{"cell_text":"unchanged"},{"cell_text":"unchanged"}]},{"cells":[{"cell_text":"6"},{"cell_text":"8,750"},{"cell_text":"9,250"},{"cell_text":"5.7% slower"}]},{"cells":[{"cell_text":"10"},{"cell_text":"25,000"},{"cell_text":"35,000"},{"cell_text":"40.0% slower"}]},{"cells":[{"cell_text":"15"},{"cell_text":"54,750"},{"cell_text":"110,000"},{"cell_text":"100.9% slower"}]},{"cells":[{"cell_text":"20"},{"cell_text":"111,500"},{"cell_text":"250,000"},{"cell_text":"124.2% slower"}]},{"cells":[{"cell_text":"25"},{"cell_text":"192,000"},{"cell_text":"325,000"},{"cell_text":"69.3% slower"}]},{"cells":[{"cell_text":"30"},{"cell_text":"293,750"},{"cell_text":"400,000"},{"cell_text":"36.2% slower"}]},{"cells":[{"cell_text":"35"},{"cell_text":"416,500"},{"cell_text":"500,000"},{"cell_text":"20.0% slower"}]},{"cells":[{"cell_text":"40"},{"cell_text":"551,250"},{"cell_text":"650,000"},{"cell_text":"17.9% slower"}]},{"cells":[{"cell_text":"45"},{"cell_text":"689,500"},{"cell_text":"800,000"},{"cell_text":"16.0% slower"}]},{"cells":[{"cell_text":"50"},{"cell_text":"838,000"},{"cell_text":"1,000,000"},{"cell_text":"19.3% slower"}]}],"size":"default"},{"acf_fc_layout":"title","heading":"Where the Curve Actually Breaks: Levels 15 and 20","tag":"h2"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"<div class=\"post-stat-row\">\n<div class=\"post-stat post-stat--bad\"><span class=\"post-stat__v\">140,000<\/span><span class=\"post-stat__l\">XP from level 15 to 20 in Season 1<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-stat\"><span class=\"post-stat__v\">56,750<\/span><span class=\"post-stat__l\">XP from level 15 to 20 in the beta<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Level<\/th>\n<th>Beta (cumulative)<\/th>\n<th>Season 1 (cumulative)<\/th>\n<th>Extra XP<\/th>\n<th>Increase<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td>25,000<\/td>\n<td>35,000<\/td>\n<td>+10,000<\/td>\n<td>+40.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>15<\/td>\n<td>54,750<\/td>\n<td>110,000<\/td>\n<td>+55,250<\/td>\n<td>+100.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>20<\/td>\n<td>111,500<\/td>\n<td>250,000<\/td>\n<td>+138,500<\/td>\n<td>+124.2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>25<\/td>\n<td>192,000<\/td>\n<td>325,000<\/td>\n<td>+133,000<\/td>\n<td>+69.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"<p>Every band from 6 upward got more expensive, but two of them stand well above the rest. Level 15 moved from 54,750 to 110,000 cumulative XP, and level 20 from 111,500 to 250,000 \u2014 the largest percentage increase anywhere on the table. Put the two together and the stretch from 15 to 20 alone now costs 140,000 XP, more than the entire beta track to level 20 (111,500) used to. Nothing else on the ladder, including the top-end bands past 35, comes close to that pair.<\/p>\n<p>That is where the studio&#8217;s median-player estimate lives. &#8220;20 to 25 hours to around level 20&#8221; is not a vague guess about the whole game \u2014 it is BULKHEAD&#8217;s own number for getting through the newly steepened teens and over the level-20 step on a role track. Anything past that is an open-ended grind rather than a fixed number: the changelog gives no hours figure for the upper bands.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-callout post-callout--tip\">\n<p class=\"post-callout__label\">Not on this curve<\/p>\n<p>Artillery at Career 90 and the Deagle at Career 85 are Career-track unlocks. Career is a separate ladder from the six role tracks, and BULKHEAD has not published XP figures for it \u2014 so those targets cannot be read off the table above.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span data-nsx-cta-anchor=\"grinding a role track past level 20\"><\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"title","heading":"What the Curve Does After Level 35","tag":"h2"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"<p>This is the other half of the studio&#8217;s stated goal, and the table backs it up. From level 35 up, the increases sit in a narrow band: 20.0% at 35, 17.9% at 40, 16.0% at 45 and 19.3% at 50. They do not shrink on every step \u2014 level 50 ticks back up \u2014 but every one of them is a fraction of the 100 \u2013 124% seen at 15 and 20. That is what &#8220;flatten the curve from 35 onward&#8221; means in practice: the extra XP keeps coming, but at a steady 16 \u2013 20% on top of the beta figure rather than doubling it.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"title","heading":"Two XP Event Changes That Hit Crate Sellers","tag":"h2"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"<div class=\"post-stat-row\">\n<div class=\"post-stat post-stat--warn\"><span class=\"post-stat__v\">300 \u2192 250<\/span><span class=\"post-stat__l\">XP per player kill with an air vehicle<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-stat post-stat--bad\"><span class=\"post-stat__v\">25 \u2192 1<\/span><span class=\"post-stat__l\">XP per crate item sold under $75<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"<p>Alongside the level bands, two smaller per-action XP values changed, and both point at the same kind of behavior BULKHEAD wanted to discourage.<\/p>\n<h3>Air Vehicle Kills Pay Less<\/h3>\n<p>Player kill using an air vehicle: 300 XP to 250 XP. A flat cut with no percentage attached in the source, just the two raw numbers.<\/p>\n<h3>Selling Cheap Crate Loot Barely Pays Anymore<\/h3>\n<p>Supply crate item sold under $75: 25 XP to 1 XP. That&#8217;s not a trim, it&#8217;s close to a removal \u2014 anyone who was clearing out low-value crate drops for a quick trickle of XP on the side loses almost all of that income at once. Combined with the <a href=\"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/wardogs\/wardogs-loadout-buy-order\/\">loadout buy order<\/a> economy changes in the same patch \u2014 vendor prices went up across several categories including the Forward Operating Base and Large Hammer \u2014 the changelog is nudging players away from treating crate junk as a leveling shortcut and back toward earning XP through actual matches.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"title","heading":"Each Season Gets a Different XP Curve","tag":"h2"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":5346,"caption":"Illustration: The same landmark, reset under different light each time.","alt":"A watchtower on a ridge lit by two different tones of natural light across one sky."},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"<p>The changelog is explicit that none of this is meant to be permanent: &#8220;Previously our balancing was designed specifically for weekend long beta tests. Now they will be in-line with where we believe they should be. Each season we will have a different XP curve with different item orders.&#8221; Read plainly, that means the exact table above \u2014 the 250,000 XP needed for level 20, the 1,000,000 for level 50, the item unlock levels tied to each track \u2014 is a Season 1 artifact. A leveling plan built around these numbers has a shelf life of one season, not one game. Whatever ships as the next season&#8217;s changelog is likely to reset the math, possibly the item order too, which is worth keeping in mind before treating any single band as a long-term target.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"title","heading":"What to Do Right Now","tag":"h2"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"<p>Below level 6, nothing about your grind changed; 6 to 10 is a mild step (5.7% more XP at 6, 40% at 10). Past level 10, budget for a genuinely different pace: level 15 and level 20 both need more than double their old XP, and that stretch is where the studio&#8217;s 20-to-25-hour median estimate actually lives. Past level 35 the increases settle into a 16 \u2013 20% band, which is the flattening BULKHEAD describes. If your target is one of the relocated unlocks \u2014 Artillery now sitting at Career 90, Heavy Tank at Driver 35 \u2014 the Artillery Tank is a longer-term goal than it was in the beta (Career 55 \u2192 90); the Heavy Tank changed ladder rather than distance, and in the studio&#8217;s own words the top 5% chasing big-ticket items will need to grind.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-verdict\">\n<p class=\"post-verdict__h\">Our Take<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-verdict__lead\">The rebalance reads as honest math, not a stealth nerf dressed up in patch-note language.<\/p>\n<p>BULKHEAD published the actual before-and-after numbers instead of a vague &#8220;progression has been adjusted&#8221; line, and that transparency is worth crediting on its own. The level 15 and 20 jump is real and it will slow down anyone who breezed through the beta in a weekend, but the studio also told you exactly why \u2014 those bands were tuned for short test weekends, not a game meant to hold players for a season. The one thing worth remembering, per BULKHEAD&#8217;s own line about each season getting a different curve, is that none of this table is a permanent target. Plan around it for Season 1 and expect to re-learn it later.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"<h2>Sources and Confidence<\/h2>\n<p>This table separates what the studio has confirmed from what comes out of press previews, and what is still just circulating. Every link below was fetched before publishing.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Claim<\/th>\n<th>Where it comes from<\/th>\n<th>Status<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>BULKHEAD says it slowed levels 10 to 20 and flattened the curve from 35 up<\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/news\/app\/1867240\/view\/1843481262690549\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Pre-Load Live &amp; Season 1 Changelog<\/a> (Steam, 10 Sep 2026)<\/td>\n<td>Official<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Full XP Bands table (level 6 through 50), from the Season 1 changelog<\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/news\/app\/1867240\/view\/1843481262690549\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Pre-Load Live &amp; Season 1 Changelog<\/a> (Steam, 10 Sep 2026)<\/td>\n<td>Official<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Median player expected around level 20 at 20 to 25 hours per BULKHEAD<\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/news\/app\/1867240\/view\/1843481262690549\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Pre-Load Live &amp; Season 1 Changelog<\/a> (Steam, 10 Sep 2026)<\/td>\n<td>Official<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>WARDOGS developed by BULKHEAD, published by Team17, launched Early Access Sept 10 2026<\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/1867240\/WARDOGS\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Steam store page<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Official<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>XP event changes: air-vehicle kills and cheap crate item sales pay less XP<\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/news\/app\/1867240\/view\/1843481262690549\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Pre-Load Live &amp; Season 1 Changelog<\/a> (Steam, 10 Sep 2026)<\/td>\n<td>Official<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"faq","items":[{"question":"Did leveling get slower in WARDOGS Season 1?","answer":"Yes, from level 6 upward on the role tracks. Levels 10 to 20 got the steepest increases, and from 35 onward the increases settle into a 16 \u2013 20% band. Below level 6, nothing changed."},{"question":"How much XP does level 20 need now?","answer":"Level 20 now needs 250,000 cumulative XP on a role track, up from 111,500 in the beta \u2014 124.2% more XP, which BULKHEAD labels \"124.2% slower\". That is the single largest jump anywhere on the XP Bands table."},{"question":"How long does it take to reach level 20?","answer":"The stated target places the median player around level 20 after 20 to 25 hours. That figure comes from BULKHEAD itself, not a third-party estimate, and it applies to Season 1's curve specifically."},{"question":"Will this same XP curve still apply in Season 2?","answer":"Not according to the changelog. Each season we will have a different XP curve with different item orders. Treat the Season 1 table as temporary."},{"question":"Did selling crate loot for XP get nerfed?","answer":"Close to it. Supply crate item sold under $75: 25 XP to 1 XP. Cheap crate items now pay almost nothing in XP compared to before."}]}],"bottom":[{"acf_fc_layout":"more_articles","heading":"","posts":"","count":10},{"acf_fc_layout":"chat","heading":""}],"meta_description":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5322"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5368,"href":"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5322\/revisions\/5368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5322"},{"taxonomy":"blog_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonsect.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_tag?post=5322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}