WARDOGS Controls

WARDOGS is a PC-first tactical FPS. BULKHEAD has said controller support is limited in current builds and that the studio is working on Proton/Linux rather than promising a console launch. This page records how to think about binds, sensitivity, and voice before Early Access on 10 September 2026. It is not a legally complete default-key table for every menu that still moves between betas. Open Settings in your client and rebind before you spend the first $10,000.

What you should be able to do without thinking

At minimum, one key each for:

• Move and sprint (including any combat-sprint toggle testers mentioned).
• Aim, fire, reload, and change fire mode.
• Interact / hack (towers, terminals, FOB captures, dragging bodies).
• Use medical / defib.
• Voice: proximity talk, and a separate radio/team bind if your build has one.
• Map / objective overlay so you can see the Control Zone without opening a Wikipedia tab.
• Enter/exit vehicle, plus a helicopter collective/cyclic pair if you intend to fly.
• Spot / mark.
• Lean if present in your build.
• Drop or share ammo.

If any of those share a key, fix it now. Tower hacks that require holding interact while your defib is on the same button are how codes get thrown.

Keyboard and mouse is the intended skill floor

Official messaging and the “10 Reasons NOT to Buy” video both treat gamepads as a compromise. If you insist on a controller, expect to fight the UI in the vendor and in helicopters. HOTAS for aircraft is a community wish, not a launch promise. Do not buy the game because you want a flight-sim bind set on day one.

Rebinding in the August beta was possible for combat keys. Some vehicle axes and menu shortcuts lagged behind. After every patch, open the bind screen again — Early Access will reshuffle names. Screenshot your layout so you can restore it.

Sensitivity and the 256 km² problem

You will fight stairwells at 10 metres and ridgelines at 400. A single insane hipfire sensitivity from arcade shooters will dump your first DMR life. Practical approach:

1. Set a hipfire sense you can track a sprinting target with at 15 m.
2. Set ADS / scope sense independently if the game allows it.
3. Zero optics to the ranges your current map actually offers.
4. Turn on whatever accessibility camera-comfort options Steam lists if motion in helicopters makes you ill.
5. Cap frames before you “tune recoil” — a GTX 1660 on minimum spec with destruction popping will feel like bad aim when it is just hitching.

Voice, chat, and the social binds

Proximity VOIP is a designed feature, not an overlay you can ignore. Bind push-to-talk. Open-mic in a 100-player zone is how you get shot. Learn compass calls (“northeast, tower, two on stairs”). Type tower digits in team chat as X5X so the next hacker can brute-force. See tower codes.

Text chat still matters for codes when VOIP is chaos. Bind chat to something you will not hit while leaning.

Vehicles and the extra layer

Helicopters in playtests punished people who treated them like Call of Duty killstreaks. If you fly:

• Separate look from collective if the options exist.
• Practise landing before you taxi eight teammates into the Hot Zone.
• Bind a parachute use key you can hit after a bail.

Ground vehicles need enter/exit, seat swap, and a horn/light if you are running taxi money. The vehicles page explains why that job pays.

Accessibility and anti-cheat

Steam lists camera-comfort accessibility and Easy Anti-Cheat (kernel-level). If EAC fails, you are not changing binds — you are not in the server. Community troubleshooting for beta errors included deleting the EasyAntiCheat folder and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Wardogs then rebooting. Try official Steam verify first.

Related pages

• Getting started
• System requirements
• How to play
• Vehicles
• Official links