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I’ve had this goal in the back of my head to unlock all the Medic gear in Wardogs so I can become the best sawbones on the server. There’s only one piece I still don’t have—a medical bag that can both revive and heal teammates in one item. It’s unlocked at Medic level 24, which doesn’t sound so bad, since I’ve already reached level 18 over my first 30 hours of Wardogs.
But this week I noticed my steady Medic rise had slowed considerably. I had been ranking up every one or two rounds, but now I’m lucky to climb a rank over a whole night of play. I’m doing just as well in matches—better than ever, actually, with the addition of defibrillators and stronger medkits—so that’s not the issue.
For the first time, I made note of the XP thresholds for leveling up and compared where I’m at to my goal. I wish I hadn’t. So far I’ve gained 17 levels with 177,619 Medic XP. Level 24, just seven ranks later, will require 337,000 XP. So while it looks like I’m gaining on that useful medicine bag, I’m actually just 52% of the way there.
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So this is the brutal Wardogs grind I’ve been hearing about. Bummer.
The mountain
I was curious how that last 48% will translate to playtime and matches—maybe it’ll go by faster than it sounds—so I did an unscientific test: I played an average match with my typical focus on revives and healing. For the record: I’m an OK player at best. To maximise XP gains, I also brought an SMG and purchased stims to administer to teammates.
Over a 50-minute match on the winning team, this was my scoreline:
Medic XP earned | Cash earned | Revives | Kills | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
9,995 | $62,215 | 15 (2nd highest) | 2 | 5 |
A pretty low kill game, admittedly. Our team repeatedly pulled the zone to our walled-off FOB, so there was a lot of time spent dragging bodies away from mortar barrages. If I keep playing like this, I’d unlock the medicine bag in 16 more matches, or ~13 hours of playtime.
I reckon that, depending on who you are, that either sounds surprisingly reasonable or totally deflating. It’s disheartening for me, because these days I only play games for two or three hours on the nights that I play anything at all. By my standards, I’ve been going hard on Wardogs these past two weeks and yet I’m still at least a week away from unlocking this singular item.
Is this mountainous XP climb exactly what Bulkhead had in mind, and if so, is it good? It’s a question the Wardogs community is grappling with every day, and opinions are all over the map. Some think the XP milestones increase too quickly, others think the grind would be fine if not for the planned seasonal wipes, and some firmly believe that Wardogs needs its massive XP grind to stay interesting.
It’s an issue of degrees. To what degree is Wardogs meant to accommodate players with limited time, and how much should Bulkhead cater to the diehards racking up hundreds of hours? Complex multiplayer games have a way of splintering into differing perceived states depending on the beholder’s skill and commitment level.
Changing the state of XP and cash is both a philosophical and balancing consideration: If it takes less XP to get my precious medicine bag or RPG or attack helicopter, that also affects how quickly powerful items become prominent in matches throughout a season, and Wardogs’ meta progression flattens. But if nothing changes, then a player at my level may never unlock some items before the next wipe—fair, but not fun in the long term.
Bulkhead is taking in all the feedback around grind, and has alluded to future features that will shake up the grind from season-to-season, but hasn’t commented on specific changes yet. Its first major patch since early access launch is still a few weeks away—season 2 begins October 15, and will wipe everyone back to level 1. Back to the base of the mountain.
