If Wardogs keeps kicking you out of matches for high ping, you have run into the 175 ms cap Bulkhead put on official servers on October 21. The studio openly framed it as a measure against cheaters from "regions more prone to cheating". Hold a ping above 175 ms for a while and the server drops you. Short spikes and server-side lag are ignored, and once you are out you can only get back onto that same server after the map changes. It is not a full region lock yet, and it does nothing about a cheater who sits comfortably inside the limit.
We track rule changes like this because they shape how our customers play. The current list of Wardogs cheats with prices and detection status is on our hub, and every product there gets rechecked against the Elytra anti-cheat after each Season 2 patch. Below: how the cap works, who it hurts, what Bulkhead has actually said, and why neither a VPN nor a cheat will fix your ping.
How the 175 ms ping cap works in Wardogs
Bulkhead announced the change on X, not in patch notes. Before October 21 some official servers let players in at up to 250 ms. Now the ceiling is 175 ms everywhere official. A per-region ping limit already existed when Season 2 launched on October 15, so this is a tightening of an existing system rather than something new.
Player reports line up with what the studio described:
- Sustained, not momentary. One bad second of lag will not get you kicked. The server is looking for ping that stays high.
- Server hiccups don't count. If the whole server stutters, nobody gets removed for it.
- No instant rejoin. After a kick you cannot hop straight back into the same server. You wait for the next map.
- Community servers play by their own rules. Their owners set the ping limit, so a community server may still let you in at 200 ms or more.
So if you were dropped mid-match, start by checking your real latency to that server region, not the number you see in other games.
Why you get kicked at a ping that feels normal
Plenty of players complaining on Steam had ping that looked fine elsewhere. The problem is distance. A player in New Zealand sits at roughly 180 ms to US servers, just over the line, and that is enough to get removed again and again once matchmaking sends them there. If your region has no official servers nearby, you are fighting physics, not a bug.
Is Wardogs region locked now?
Not fully. CEO Joe Brammer (brammflakes on Steam) has described a proper region lock as something being built on the backend, "more than a switch", with no release date. On October 13 he had said a region lock was not coming yet and that a ping limit would not completely solve cheating. Eight days later the cap went live anyway.
On October 22 Brammer put the trade-off bluntly: hurt a percentage of players to protect the majority. He said two more things worth knowing. VPNs make it harder for the studio to tell where a player really is, and the restriction is meant to be temporary.
Regions that took the hit
Bulkhead never named the regions it considers more prone to cheating. Player complaints point here:
| Region | What players report |
|---|---|
| South Africa | Long distance to the nearest official servers, regular kicks |
| Southeast Asia | Kicks, plus players from China pushed onto SEA servers by the cap (per Reddit) |
| South Korea and East Asia | Kicks, cheat ads in chat, DDoS complaints on Asian servers |
| Oceania | New Zealand sits around 180 ms to the US, just above the cap |
| South Asia | Few official servers close by, kicks at sustained high ping |
Does the ping cap actually stop cheaters?
Partly, and only one kind. The cap pushes out cheaters who connect from far away. Someone cheating on a server in their own region with 40 ms ping is untouched. That player still gets caught the old way: by Elytra, the kernel-level anti-cheat Wardogs runs instead of EAC, and by player reports, which can pull a suspicious account out of a match within minutes.
One report from October 22 shows the gap well. A player described running into a "flying vehicle", the ground vehicle exploit Bulkhead had confirmed two days earlier, and the driver was inside the 175 ms limit. The studio had promised a server-side hotfix and permanent bans for anyone abusing it, but as of October 23 no fix had been announced.
Bulkhead does not publish ban numbers, either. There is no official count of accounts removed by the cap or by Elytra, and any figure you see quoted on forums is a guess. For what actually leads to a ban, read our breakdown of how Elytra works in Wardogs and the guide to what happens when a cheater is caught mid-match.
How players reacted
Steam took it badly. On October 22 the game got 547 positive reviews against 2,053 negative (21% positive), and recent reviews slid to Mixed at 58%. According to wardogshub.gg, more than 40% of negative English-language reviews posted October 21 to 23 were about the cap or region locking, around 123 reviews mentioned DDoS, and a thread called "Why is Bulkhead validating xenophobia?" passed 500 comments. Daily peak concurrent players fell from 336,202 on Season 2 launch day to 185,509 on October 21 and 178,187 a day later.
VPNs, ping and cheats: what won't help
Since the cap went live this has been the most common question in our chats. The short answer: a VPN does not make a distant server any closer. Your packets travel the same physical distance, and routing through a VPN server usually adds latency instead of removing it. The cap measures your real ping, so if you sit at 190 ms without a VPN, you will almost never land under 175 ms with one. Brammer also said openly that VPN traffic complicates region detection, which makes it exactly the kind of traffic the team is watching.
No cheat changes network latency either. Wardogs software reads game data to draw ESP or assist aim. It does not touch your connection to the server. None of the products in our catalog are sold as a ping fix or as something that works through a VPN, and you should be suspicious of anyone who claims otherwise.
Which Wardogs cheats make sense under the new rules
If you play inside the limit, the cap does not change what software you can run. It does make you think about exposure. With more attention on cheating and reports pulling suspects quickly, quiet tools look smarter than loud ones. These are the options we suggest for this situation:
- Pure ESP, no aim: ANCIENT shows boxes, skeleton, health, weapon and distance through walls and has no aimbot at all. It runs on the Steam version in borderless mode, on Windows 10 1903+ and Windows 11, and the overlay is hidden from OBS. $3 a day, $15 a week, $29 a month.
- Information only, with a radar: NN LITE is also built without aim. It adds a radar and markers on the in-game map, and keeps its menu and ESP out of screen capture. Steam, windowed or borderless, Windows 10 and 11. $3 a day, $12 a week, $25 a month.
- Full kit with aim: KRUSH pairs ESP and chams with smooth aim and Silent Aim. Steam version, windowed mode, Intel and AMD, Windows 10 and Windows 11. $5 a day, $20 a week, $40 a month.
- Not sure what survived the latest patch: check the status column on the hub before buying. We update it after every Wardogs update.
Why ESP-only tools suit this moment is covered in our piece on wallhack without aim and closet cheaters. People who report you can see a snap to the head. They rarely notice someone who just seems to know where the enemy is.
Where to go from here
The full catalog of cheats for Wardogs with live status sits on the hub, with prices, supported Windows builds and anti-cheat notes for every product. We revise it after each patch, so it reflects the current Season 2 build, not what worked a month ago. The rules may also shift again soon: Season 3 could arrive as early as November 12, see our Season 3 release date and wipe guide.
Questions about a specific setup go to our Telegram (300+ members) or Discord (2000+ members), where the team answers them directly.
FAQ: Wardogs ping limit and region lock
What is the ping limit in Wardogs?
It is 175 ms on official servers since October 21. Before that, some servers allowed up to 250 ms. Community servers set their own limits, so the number can differ there. ForgeCheats tracks changes like this alongside cheat status updates.
Why does Wardogs kick me for high ping?
Your ping to that server stayed above 175 ms for a sustained stretch. Short spikes and server lag are ignored. After a kick you can rejoin the same server only after the map changes, so try a closer server or a community server with a higher limit.
Is the Wardogs region lock permanent?
Bulkhead calls the current restriction temporary. A full region lock is still in development with no date, and the studio has not said which regions it is aimed at. For now, the ping cap is the only thing actually in place.
Will a VPN help with the ping cap?
Usually not. A VPN does not shorten the distance to the server and often adds latency on top. The CEO has also said VPNs complicate location checks. We would not build a setup around one.
Can a cheat lower my ping or get me past the region lock?
No. Cheats read game data for ESP or aim and never touch your network connection. If you want software that is undetected on the current build, browse our Wardogs hacks catalog and check the status before you buy.
