Your first night
Everything you need to not feel lost on a Friday. How WARDOGS actually works, what each job is for, how we call it, and how we run a squad. Ten minutes of reading, and you'll be more use than half the lobby.
The game in ninety seconds
Three teams, one box
Somewhere on that enormous map sits a Control Zone — a 2×2 km box that moves every match. Whichever team has the most bodies inside it scores a point every thirty seconds. First to a hundred wins.
Three teams, not two. Nobody has to fight fair, and a contest you're losing badly can turn the moment the third team shows up.
The Hot Zone is the game
Inside the Control Zone there's a smaller Hot Zone that keeps moving. Stand in it and you count double, and you earn more cash. That's where the fight actually is, and it's why a squad that sticks together is worth more than a squad of snipers on a hill.
Presence beats kills
Nothing on the scoreboard rewards your K/D. Points come from being in the box. A dead operator holds no ground — and you lose the gear you paid for — so trading your life for one kill on the edge of the zone is a bad deal even when it feels great.
Spending the squad's cash
How money works
- You start with $10,000, and it carries over. That's your starting balance for the whole game, not an allowance per match or per life. Nothing tops it up when you respawn or when a new match starts — what you've got is what you've built.
- You earn it back by playing. Revives, hauling people to the fight and holding the objective all pay. The guy driving the truck is not doing charity work.
- Dying costs you. You lose what you were carrying, so an expensive loadout is a real bet. Get killed in it twice and you're back to basics for a while.
- Start cheap and build up. Gear you can actually shoot beats gear you're still learning, and a good match funds the good stuff in the next one. Buy for the job — and ask on comms if you're not sure, somebody's been burned by it already.
We don't do gun stats
This game is in Early Access and the numbers move with every patch. Rather than keep a weapons table here that goes stale and gets somebody killed, we point you at the people who maintain that full time.
Weapons, attachments, ballistics, vehicle stats, interactive maps and artillery tables all live on the fan sites in Field tools & intel, over on the Ops page. New patch notes land in #wardogs-news in the Discord automatically.
Roles and what they're for
WARDOGS has no class screen. Your role is whatever you bought and whatever you're doing this life, and it can change every time you respawn.
Bodies in the box
Rifles, scopes and the nerve to stand in the zone. Points come from being there, and most of the bodies holding it are Assault.
Levels up from kills and assists with rifles and other assault gear. Don't grind it: play the objective with a rifle and it takes care of itself.
Nobody stays down
Bandages, revive kits and an SMG for anyone who gets too close. Every revive puts cash in your pocket and a body back in the box.
Levels up from healing and reviving teammates, plus SMG kills. Patching yourself up pays nothing, so bandage the other guy.
The squad's eyes
Binoculars, rangefinders and long rifles. A good spotter marks every truck and fire team before it's a problem, and watches the back door while everyone else faces the zone.
Levels up from marking players, vehicles and gear, assists when somebody kills what you marked, and sniper or marksman kills. Spotting pays even if you never fire a shot.
Builds it, breaks it
Hammers, launchers, explosives and the big guns. Support puts up the FOB and the cover we hold from, fixes the rides, and deletes enemy armor.
Levels up from building, repairing friendly vehicles and blowing up enemy ones. Building pays on every swing of the hammer, not just when it's finished.
The squad's ride
Trucks, buggies and, further down the road, armor. On a map this size, whoever gets the squad to the zone in one piece just won the first fight.
Levels up from hauling teammates and supplies, with a bonus for dropping them in the Control Zone. Keeping it out of the ditch is optional, but encouraged.
Fast in, fast out
Helicopters for moving people and supplies across the map, and later, armed ones. The quickest way to get a squad somewhere, and the quickest way to lose everybody's gear at once.
Levels up from flying teammates and supplies where they're needed, plus whatever you destroy from an armed helicopter. Crashes cost real money, so learn to fly with an empty cabin.
How roles work
- Six roles, six XP tracks. Each one levels from doing that job: rifle work, revives, spotting, building, hauling people around.
- Mix and match. Carry a rifle and a few bandages, and the same life levels Assault and Medic. Nothing stops you doing two jobs.
- A level only opens the door. Reaching a level lets you buy the next piece of gear. For most of it you still pay once to unlock it, then pay for it every life you carry it. A high level with an empty wallet still means basic kit.
- It all adds up. Everything you do also counts toward your overall Wardog level, which opens account-wide gear like heavier armor and bigger backpacks.
First few nights? Run Assault with the basic rifle and a few bandages, stick with your squad, and try the other jobs once you've found your feet.
How we fill a squad
Nobody gets assigned anything. But when we sort squads out in The Rally Point, we try to give each one:
- A ride. A driver, or a pilot for the long moves, so the squad shows up together.
- A medic. Somebody who's there for the revives.
- A builder. Support with a hammer when we're holding, a launcher when armor shows up.
- A set of eyes. Binoculars are cheap and anyone can carry a pair. Somebody should be marking things.
- Everyone else runs Assault. Bodies in the box win matches.
Five minutes of setup
Do these before Friday
- Set up push-to-talk in Discord. That's where our comms live — the whole night runs in the voice channels, not in-game. Test it with someone before Friday; an open mic at 9 PM with the TV on is nobody's friend, least of all yours.
- Know which mic you're on. WARDOGS has its own proximity voice, and anyone standing near you in game hears that one — enemies and complete strangers included. We stay on Discord. If you're talking and the squad isn't answering, that's usually why.
- Save your seat on the ops page so we know how many squads to build, and tap 🔔 Remind me on the Discord post.
- Pull into The Rally Point about fifteen minutes early. That's where we sort squads out. Running late? Tap ⏰ Running late on the muster call.
- Find your battle buddy. Every recruit gets paired with someone who already knows where the wheels fall off. Ask them the dumb questions — that's literally the job.
What nobody tells you
- You will be lost at first. The map is 256 km². Everyone was lost. Stick to your squad and it stops mattering.
- Ask on comms. "Where am I supposed to be?" is a completely normal thing to say and somebody will answer it.
- You don't need to be good. You need to be in the box, upright, and talking. That's the whole contribution.
How we call it
On a map this size you cannot call "by the barn." There are a hundred barns. This is the part that actually makes us better than a random squad.
- Ping it firstA marker beats any description and it's instant. Ping it, then say what it is. Nobody needs a grid reference off you when there's already an arrow on the thing.
- Compass, not clockYour heading sits across the top of your screen, so use the number. "Contact, two-seven-zero, treeline." Everyone reads their own compass and is looking the right way in a second.
- Four things, one breathWho's calling, what you see, where it is, what you want. "Minivan — two infantry, two-seven-zero, need eyes." Then stop talking.
- Say it onceRepeat only if nobody answered. Two people talking over each other is worse than silence, and the guy being shot at needs the channel.
- Say where you areA contact call is no use if nobody knows where it came from. On a map this size, drop a ping on your own spot too when it isn't obvious.
Squad SOP
None of this is competitive doctrine. It's what makes a Friday night with six guys and three beers work.
During a match
- Stay together. Two operators in the zone beat four scattered across the valley. If you can't see a squadmate, you're already too far away.
- Somebody drives. Somebody builds, somebody watches the back door. Sort out who's doing what in The Rally Point, not in a firefight.
- Revive first, shoot second. A revive is cash in your pocket and a body back in the box. It's the single highest-value thing you can do.
- Contest the Hot Zone with numbers. It's worth double, which means it's worth double to them as well. Push it as a squad or leave it alone.
- Build for the hold, wreck for the push. Cover goes up when we're defending the box and comes down when it's theirs.
- Losing badly? Reset. Peel off, rearm, come back as a group. Feeding yourselves in one at a time is how a match gets away from you.
The part that matters more
- Kids come first. Drop mid-match, no explanation needed. We'll hold your spot.
- Roast the play, not the player. Whoever put the Humvee in the ditch already knows.
- Nobody's grinding here. If it stops being fun, say so and we'll change what we're doing.
- Tactical when it counts. Cold ones the rest of the time. In that order, on Hot Zone Friday.
Still stuck?
Ask in #the-bar on the Discord, or grab your battle buddy. Nobody here minds the question — half of us are still working it out too, and the game's only been out since September.