WARDOGS Compass Callouts and Bearing Format

A callout in WARDOGS is only useful if the teammate receiving it can act on it immediately. “Enemy over there” is noise. “Two-seven-five, forty metres, second-floor window” is a callout. This page is the reference for the bearing system, the landmark vocabulary the community uses on the Kolchia map, and the syntax rules that make a callout a decision prompt instead of a distraction.

The bearing format

WARDOGS uses a standard military-style compass bearing: three digits, clockwise from North.

Bearing	Direction
000	North
045	North-East
090	East
135	South-East
180	South
225	South-West
270	West
315	North-West

Callouts always lead with the three-digit bearing. You can abbreviate a full bearing to two digits when the last digit is zero: “two-seven-zero” or “two-seven-oh” for 270°. Dropping digits creates ambiguity — “west” (270°) and “west-southwest” (225°) are not the same direction.

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The full callout syntax

Bearing + Distance + Landmark is the complete format. Not every callout needs all three parts.

Full format: bearing-distance-landmark

“Two-seven-five, forty metres, second-floor window.”

Break this down:

• 275 — bearing in degrees
• 40m — distance estimate (a rough guess is better than silence)
• second-floor window — landmark that a teammate can look for

Short format: bearing-landmark

Use this when distance is unclear or the landmark is large enough to find without it.

“Two-seven-five, tower.”

Bearing only: emergency

Only in an emergency, when a teammate already has eyes on the same area and just needs confirmation of direction.

“Two-seven-five!”

Landmark vocabulary for Kolchia

The map is the vocabulary. Without agreed names for map features, a callout of “two-seven-five, building” is useless. The community has settled on approximate names from in-game visual features.

Common building types

• Tower — any of the tall radio or observation towers inside the zone. Call which one.
• Warehouse — large rectangular structures, usually near roads.
• House — smaller residential structures.
• Barn — rural structures with pitched roofs.
• Factory — large industrial buildings, often near the zone edges.
• Office — multi-storey buildings near roads or the zone perimeter.
• Hotel — taller buildings near the zone centre.

Floor and level references

• Ground floor — street level
• First floor — one level up (European first floor, not American)
• Second floor — two levels up
• Roof — top of the building
• Basement — below ground level
• Stairwell — specify which end of the building

Directional modifiers

• Near — close to your position but not exactly at the landmark
• Far — at or beyond the landmark in the bearing direction
• Between — between two named landmarks
• Over — across an open space from your position
• Behind — opposite side from where you are looking

Common mistakes that make callouts useless

1. Bearing without a landmark

“Two-seven-five” is not a callout. The teammate receiving it has to spin 360° and guess. Add a landmark.

2. Landmark without bearing

“Enemy in the tower” is a guess. The teammate has to scan every tower. Add a bearing.

3. Emotional description

“He’s right there!” is not a bearing. “Three-five-zero, twenty metres, warehouse door” is.

4. Out-of-date information

“Enemy at two-seven-five” when you last saw that contact thirty seconds ago is misleading. Update or clarify: “possibly two-seven-five, warehouse — I lost eyes.”

5. Overcalling

Calling every contact you see generates noise. Call contacts that are relevant to teammates: enemies near the zone, enemies near your position, or enemies that pose a threat to the current plan.

Tower callouts inside the zone

Tower terminals are numbered. When you interact with a terminal, the game displays which tower number it is. Call the tower number and the digit that appeared:

“Tower three — digit is seven.”

Confirm in team chat. The tower codes page has the full digit assembly process.

How to practise

• Load into a practice match and call out every static landmark you can see using the bearing format, even if no teammates are listening.
• Watch one recognised streamer and note how they format callouts — copy the syntax, not the accent.
• In a squad, agree on a landmark shorthand before the match starts. If the zone is in a specific area, name that area on your squad call.

Related pages

• Communication hub — the parent hub
• Team coordination — roles and rally points
• Maps — Kolchia landmark reference
• Tower codes — digit assembly