WARDOGS down? Server status and errors

Where to check if the servers are up

BULKHEAD does not run a server status page (as of October 17, 2026). Fan trackers admit they do not measure the developer's servers: they only show the list of visible servers and collect announcements. These are the channels you can trust:

Maintenance: when and how long

Four of the five maintenance windows started at 08:00 UTC. In the developer's own time table that is 09:00 in the UK, 10:00 in Central Europe, 04:00 US Eastern and 18:00 in Eastern Australia (summer time). This is a pattern, not a fixed rule.

The Season 2 launch ran late: the developers posted that the maintenance window was being extended and servers were restarting region by region. At 10:00 UTC they announced: "Season 02 is now live".

Not every change needs downtime. Balance and backend fixes (such as removing the Lonestar bonus on October 15) go live at the next server restart in each region, with no new game download.

Season 2: ping limits, queues and disconnects

Season 2 added region-based ping limits on official servers:

• If you exceed the limit for a sustained period, you get kicked. Short spikes and server-side lag do not count.
• After that kick you cannot rejoin the same server until the next map.
• The server browser now has max ping tags and a filter.
• Community server admins set their own limits, including looser ones for cross-region play.

The developers did not publish the exact values, only that the starting limits will be "quite lenient". According to players, the limit on EU servers is 250 ms.

Queue: since Update 0.1.2, after you click Join you see that you are connecting and then your place in the queue. In Season 2 players report waiting around 20 minutes at position "5 of 5".

Disconnects: since October 15 there are more reports of being kicked from matches despite low ping (for example 25 ms) and of a broken connection icon in the UI. One player noticed that cash earned before the disconnect stays, but the match XP is lost. As of October 17, 2026 the developers had not replied in those threads or released a hotfix. Every Season 2 change is covered in our Season 2 guide.

Regions: are there Italian or German servers?

There are no servers tied to countries. In the browser you pick a zone (Region select shows how many zones you have selected). According to fan sites the zones are:

• Europe: EU West, EU Central, EU East, EU South,
• North America: NA East, NA Central, NA West, NA North,
• South America, Oceania,
• Asia: Asia East, Asia Southeast, Asia West.

BULKHEAD has not said which cities host the EU zones, so nobody can confirm whether EU South is Italy or EU Central is Germany. A player from Italy who only saw Asian servers had simply missed the region select button.

Players from Germany or Italy who want to play "at home" pick community servers. German ones such as "[EU/DE] PACK SIX" and "EU/GER WARCATS 50VS50" advertise on the Steam forum. You join them via Community Servers → Join by Server ID, since community server IDs are permanent.

Error 1147405308: "Failed to authenticate with online services"

This error appears after the title screen and blocks login. Team17 Support replied to a player on the Steam forum with these steps:

1. Turn your PC and router off and on again.
2. Clear the Download Cache in Steam and flush your DNS cache.
3. Set your NAT to Open or Moderate. Your internet service provider (ISP) or router maker can help.
4. On a university or shared network, ask the administrator to open the Steam ports.

The other known cause is a broken WinHTTP proxy. The netsh winhttp show proxy and netsh winhttp reset proxy commands are explained step by step in our best settings guide. The author of that fix notes it does not solve every case.

After the Season 2 launch (October 15–17, 2026) the Steam forum filled with new threads about this error, including from players who had tried every step. There is no official statement about this wave. Some players suspect banned accounts see this message, but the developers have not confirmed it.

Random crashes

Start with the Team17 list: Verify files in Steam, new drivers, Repair Elytra, no overclocking and a 60 fps limit while testing. The full list of steps and the WD-L codes are in our best settings guide.

What players report beyond that:

• "Fix for random crashing" (Season 1): the game froze after 20–40 minutes. The author fixed it by turning off NVIDIA Reflex and setting Anti-Aliasing Method to None. Treat this as a test, not a permanent setting.
• NVIDIA driver 617.42 (Season 2): several players stopped crashing after rolling back to 616.92 or 610.47.
• "Crash Report Handler" after Season 2: several people crash with an INVALID_POINTER_READ (0xC0000005) error despite reinstalling the anti-cheat and updating drivers. There is no fix yet.

Keybinds after rebinding: reload and zoom

Reload in vehicles and the mortar

According to the guide "cant reload mounted weapons or zoom not working?", binding the R key to another action breaks reloading of mounted weapons and zoom. The guide "Fix the reload bug with vehicles, mortar, etc" (Season 1) restores reloading by hand:

1. Close the game completely.
2. Open %localappdata%\Wardogs\Saved\Config\WindowsClient\GameUserSettings.ini.
3. At the end of the file, just before the [WDSecondStage] section, add two lines:
   • [/script/engine.inputsettings]
   • +ActionMappings=(ActionName="Vehicle.WeaponExtension.Reload",bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False,Key=R)
4. Save the file and start the game.

Still broken? Players in the comments suggest checking whether the BHEnhancedInputPlayerBinds section higher up in the file already has a line with Vehicle.WeaponExtension.Reload. If it does, delete it. Vehicle reload also fails when the key clashes with one of your infantry binds, so pick a free key.

The last resort is deleting the whole GameUserSettings.ini. You will lose all your settings: graphics, sensitivity and binds.

Scope zoom

When you bind the mouse wheel to another action, the game saves empty scope zoom entries, and "Reset Keybinds" does not fix it. The menu has no option to rebind scope zoom. The fix in the same file is in our best settings guide. According to players it still works after Season 2.

Elytra anti-cheat: login errors and bans

WARDOGS uses Elytra, an anti-cheat that runs at the kernel level of your system.

• Repair Elytra: WARDOGS install folder → Elytra folder → Elytra setup → Repair. This is an official Team17 step.
• "Anti-Cheat Login Failed" (1628505086): syncing your Windows clock fixes it most often. For one player, a dead motherboard battery kept resetting the time.
• Code 1628505088 (October 17, 2026): the game hangs at login, and reinstalling did not help. No solution yet.
• Whole PC restarts when the game starts: reported since September, and some players link it to Elytra starting up. One player fixed it by going back to an older NVIDIA driver. There is no official fix.

Bans: you appeal through the WARDOGS Support Bot on Discord. The developers say they are "highly confident" in their anti-cheat and the likelihood of a false ban is "extremely low". Every case is reviewed manually, so it takes time. Spamming or tagging the developers will not speed things up.

How to report a problem

Report bugs, cheaters and bans through the WARDOGS Support Bot on Discord. You can also send technical issues through the Team17 Help Centre (Contact Us on team17.com).

For connection problems Team17 asks for: your country, Steam Download Region (Steam → Settings → Downloads), internet speed, whether you use a VPN, and your NAT type. Have it ready so you do not wait for a second reply. Price, requirements and platforms are in our everything about the game guide.