A hardware ban in Wardogs is a device-level block: Bulkhead bans the computer itself rather than a single account, using an identifier taken from your hardware, and every account that has played on that PC falls under it. It is the fourth and harshest tier in the studio's enforcement policy. You cannot appeal it: appeals are accepted only for a permanent account ban, and every other decision is final.
Before you buy any software, know this: for cheats and anti-cheat tampering, Bulkhead goes straight to a permanent or HWID ban, with no warning and no intermediate steps. So at ForgeCheats we look past the feature list and ask how visible a build is under Elytra. Current options with undetected status and prices are listed on the Wardogs cheats page. Everything below was checked against the official rules page on wardogs.com and tested on the post Patch 0.11 build, on Bakurani and Ozeti, on both official and community servers.
Bulkhead's four enforcement tiers
The studio's punishment ladder is official and has four levels, from mild to severe. The catch is that nobody walks a cheater up from the bottom rung.
| Tier | What it covers | Can you appeal |
|---|---|---|
| Server restriction | Your account within a server | No, the decision is final |
| Temporary suspension | Your account for a set period | No |
| Permanent account ban | Your account forever | Yes, via appeal@bulkhead.com, reply in about 30 days |
| Hardware ban | Every account on the device | No |
The key line in the rules reads: "Cheating and tampering... most likely to result in a permanent or hardware ban with no prior warning". Put plainly, cheats and messing with the anti-cheat will most likely earn you a permanent or hardware ban straight away, and nobody is going to warn you first. The milder tiers exist, but for software the text points directly at the top two. For comparison, in ARC Raiders Embark moves players along a strike ladder, while Bulkhead simply skips the first warning for cheats.
How a hardware ban differs from a permanent ban
A permanent ban is tied to your Steam account: the $39.99 purchase, your levels, cash and Gold Bars all go with it. A hardware ban goes further. The rules say it applies to all accounts on a device by an "identifier derived from your device", meaning an ID calculated from your hardware. That is a classic HWID ban: buying a fresh copy on a new account and logging in from the same PC won't work, because the block will trigger on the new account too.
Losing progress hurts more in Wardogs than in most shooters because of the economy. Cash carries over between matches, and vehicles got expensive with Season 1: the Artillery Tank costs $500,000, the Little Bird with miniguns $50,000. Everything you saved disappears with one moderator decision, and a hardware ban also shuts the door on coming back from that computer.
Which violations push you up the ladder
Bulkhead's list of banned activity is long, and most of it is about software:
- aimbot, wallhack, ESP, radar and macros;
- tampering with the Elytra anti-cheat;
- game exploits and win trading;
- ban evasion and account sharing;
- false reports against other players.
Patch 0.11 on September 12 made the rules tougher. Abusing cash exploits now gets you a temporary ban and resets your cash and XP to zero. Publishing exploit guides earns a permanent ban: the studio says it will "treat... as advertising cheats". Running XP farm servers is also a permanent ban, with the short note "We track every server you enter". So even players who never ran any software get hit if they farmed levels on a rigged community server.
Can you appeal a Wardogs ban
Out of four tiers, only one can be contested: the permanent account ban. You write to appeal@bulkhead.com, and according to the rules the reply comes in roughly 30 days. HWID bans, temporary suspensions and server restrictions are final, and appeals for them are not reviewed.
Players banned by mistake are the ones with a real chance. Moderation in Wardogs combines AI with manual review, and humans make errors too. The loudest case happened on September 11-12: a moderator banned streamer summit1g by mistake instead of the actual cheater. The ban was lifted, and studio CEO Joe Brammer publicly admitted that it was a human error. At launch, according to players, there were also false bans caused by beta profile tags conflicting with the new anti-cheat; a day one patch fixed them.
If the ban came from real software, an appeal is unlikely to change anything, and with a hardware ban it won't even be accepted. So in Wardogs it matters more to avoid a ban than to hope you can overturn one. We covered what the anti-cheat actually looks at in Elytra instead of EAC: which anti-cheat Wardogs uses.
Studio bans vs community server admin bans
There are two systems here, and they don't mirror each other. A Bulkhead ban applies everywhere, community servers included: a banned account won't get into a server with friendly admins either. It doesn't work the other way round. If a community server admin bans you, the studio won't lift it, and you'll have to sort it out with the server owner.
The studio itself recommends playing on community servers "for maximum protection", where admins ban instantly. In practice that means suspicious play gets watched more closely there than on official servers. We described how match termination for all 100 players and the new reporting work in our piece on match termination when a cheater is caught and weighted reports.
Family Sharing and the $40 quote
On September 18 Bulkhead disabled Steam Family Sharing. The official reason: "A number of accounts were exploiting Steam Family Sharing to bypass bans, explicitly to cheat". Banned players were launching Wardogs through a friend's or relative's library and carrying on. Joe Brammer summed it up with "The $40 price tag is the best anti-cheat": every new account after a ban should cost the full price of the game.
This matters for anyone weighing the risk. On top of hardware bans, the studio is steadily closing the cheap routes back into the game. Early Access costs $39.99 right now, and in about a year, according to Brammer, the price will go up to $49.99, so each next copy will cost more.
How Wardogs catches cheaters and where HWID comes in
Bans in Wardogs are not handed out only for a detected file. According to the press, Elytra focuses on behavior analysis: unnatural aiming, repeatedly "tracking" an enemy through walls. Player reports add to this, and since Season 1 they are weighted: people who report often and in bad faith carry less influence. A ban can come for how you play rather than for a signature, and a moderator decides which tier to hand out.
From support tickets we see a few practical takeaways:
- Aggressive aim shows up in behavior. A hard aimbot without smoothing leaves stats that no window setting can hide.
- ESP only builds leave fewer traces. If you don't shoot through walls or track targets behind cover, behavior analysis has almost nothing to latch onto.
- Recording and streaming carry their own risk. An overlay visible on video turns into ready made evidence for a report.
- Your hardware stays exposed. Even with careful play, a moderator mistake or a wave of reports can end in a hardware ban, and then the whole PC suffers.
A spoofer as hardware insurance
Since an HWID ban targets the device identifier, some of our customers keep a spoofer as insurance: it replaces the hardware identifiers such a ban is built from. It is not a guarantee and not a way to recover a banned account, but a chance not to lose your PC for gaming if the worst happens. We went through a similar situation in detail in our article on the Delta Force HWID ban and spoofers, and ready solutions are collected in the HWID spoofers section. Check with support whether a specific spoofer is compatible with Elytra before buying. Also, Bulkhead's rules prohibit ban evasion, so playing on a new account after a hardware ban is still a violation.
DMA and hardware bans
DMA owners often ask whether an HWID ban affects them. With KRUSH DMA and ELEVATED WARDOGS DMA the software runs on a second machine and the gaming PC stays untouched, so Elytra finds no third party processes on it. That doesn't protect you from a behavior ban, though: if a moderator sees inhuman aiming, the hardware ban lands on the gaming PC exactly as it would for a regular cheater. That's why KRUSH DMA has human-like aim assist and reaction delays, while ELEVATED only reads memory by default and has a separate mode against detection of sharp movements. More on pairing a second machine with a kernel anti-cheat in our article about DMA cheats for Wardogs.
The Season 2 wipe doesn't lift a ban
Season 2 starts on October 15, 2026 with a wipe: cash and levels reset, cash converts into Gold Bars, while Gold Bars and cosmetics stay. A ban is tied to your account and hardware, not to your progress, and the wipe announcement says nothing about bans, so the seasonal reset won't cancel it. What happens to the economy and keys is covered in our article on the Wardogs Season 2 wipe.
What to pick for Wardogs if you're worried about an HWID ban
A risk free cheat doesn't exist: undetected status is valid at the time of purchase, and a mistake costs more in Wardogs than usual because of the hardware ban. You can lower the risk through the build you pick and how you play. Here's how we split the catalog by scenario:
- Minimal footprint without aim: ANCIENT for about $3 a day (ESP only, hidden from OBS recording, Borderless mode only) or NN LITE for $3 a day with radar and map markers.
- Full pack with streamproof: GHOST from about $3.5 a day, humanize with jitter, deadzone and reaction delay, hidden from OBS and Discord recording, Battle Mode to switch the visuals off fast.
- Soft aim with prediction: ARCANE from $4 a day or BYSTER from about $3 a day. Both have a humanizer and smoothing, and BYSTER adds ballistics with gravity compensation. Neither card lists recording protection, so don't stream with them.
- Clean gaming PC: KRUSH DMA from $4 a day or ELEVATED WARDOGS DMA from $3 a day, and ELEVATED also has a lifetime option for $200. You'll need a DMA card, a second machine and a KmBox.
- Hardware insurance: a spoofer from the HWID spoofers section paired with any build above.
About settings: Silent Aim, instant bullet travel and increased fire rate leave the most visible trace in stats, and we recommend keeping them off on official servers. If Elytra won't start after installation, first check our breakdown of Wardogs anti-cheat errors: code 1628505086 and WD-L020 are launch problems, not bans.
Check the status before you buy
Catalog statuses change after patches, so before buying open the Wardogs cheats with current status → page. It lists every live build with prices from $3 a day and the undetected label, which we update after every game and Elytra update.
You can ask questions about picking a build in our community: Telegram (200+ members) and Discord (637+ members).
FAQ about bans and cheats for Wardogs
How long does a hardware ban in Wardogs last?
A hardware ban in Wardogs is indefinite and final, and appeals for it are not accepted. It covers every account that has played on the blocked device. That's why at ForgeCheats we advise thinking about risk before launching any software: pick calmer builds and keep a spoofer as hardware insurance.
Can I buy a new account after an HWID ban?
You can buy one, but from the same PC the block will trigger on it too, because the ban is tied to the device identifier. On top of that, the rules prohibit ban evasion, and Family Sharing was disabled on September 18 precisely because of players coming back that way. Each new account costs $39.99.
How do I appeal a ban in Wardogs?
Send an email to appeal@bulkhead.com, and expect a reply in about 30 days. Only permanent account bans are reviewed; temporary suspensions, server restrictions and HWID bans are final. The ForgeCheats team has no influence on Bulkhead's decisions, so only the arguments in your email can help.
Do you get a warning before a cheating ban?
No. The rules state plainly that for cheats and anti-cheat tampering the ban comes "with no prior warning", usually straight to permanent or hardware. That makes the choice of build under Elytra the most important step: check statuses on the cheats for Wardogs page before every purchase.
