WARDOGS Loadouts
Build a life you can afford to lose — then a life that prints the next one.
Every WARDOGS life starts at the spawn vendor. There is no locked class screen. You buy a rifle, magazines, ammunition by the box, armour or a ghillie, medical gear, gadgets, and sometimes a vehicle, then you walk into a 100-player fight knowing that death deletes the shopping list. This page is how to build those lists on purpose. Rankings live on the weapon tier list. Dollar planning lives on the budget tool. Money recovery lives on how to make money.
Prices below are community-recorded from Closed Alpha and Closed Beta. BULKHEAD can retune any of them before or during Early Access on 10 September 2026. Use them as ratios, not as a contract.
The vendor rules that catch new players
- You buy per life. Surviving with leftover magazines does not bank those magazines for tomorrow.
- Inventory size and weight are real constraints. Playtests punished players who filled a bag with extra loaded mags instead of loose ammo boxes.
- Unlocks (Infantry / role levels, or lump-sum unlocks such as the recorded $100,000 M4 gate at Infantry 20) are separate from the per-life price. You can unlock a gun and still be too poor to take it out.
- Calibre cost can exceed the gun cost over a long life. 5.56 FMJ was recorded around $1.50 a round; hollow point and armour piercing cost more; anti-materiel boxes were in a different league.
- There is no “free default AR” once you start customising. Faction starter rifles exist so you can leave spawn if you buy nothing — they are not a late-game plan.
Budget bands that actually work
Poverty / recovery (under ~$3,000). Pistol (GGX 17-class sidearms were recorded near $200), a cheap 5.56 rifle such as the T-21 or Galil if unlocked, medical, loose ammo. Hitch a ride. This is the kit you rebuy after a tank disaster.
Standard infantry (~$4,000–$7,000). Galil or M4 once you can replace it, a sight you have practised, armour, extra medical, smoke, and a launcher or IED if vehicles are ruining your ticks. This is the how to win kit: complete, replaceable, zone-capable.
Specialist (half a wallet or more). LMGs such as the recorded $3,200 M249 for denial, marksman rifles, or the AMR-class anti-materiel guns that ate most of a starting bankroll by themselves. Only take these when the account can eat two deaths in a row.
Vehicle lives. Read vehicles before you put an L2A6 on the card. Crew it. Budget the ammo. Assume it will die.
Armour slot: plates or ghillie
Playtests put a ghillie suit in the armour slot. It blocks killcam — BULKHEAD discussed this directly in feedback videos — at the cost of ballistic protection. Use it for a dedicated stalker life on the rim of the zone, not for a Hot Zone brawl. Headshots also weaken killcam information. If you are new, buy armour and reposition after kills instead of paying luxury stealth prices.
Support tools nobody else will buy
WARDOGS has no class quotas. If your faction lacks defibs, hammers, crowbars, bandages, or launchers, it is because your teammates spent the money on scopes. A winning pub stack quietly buys:
- Medical and a defib (revives pay, and bribes pay extra).
- A hammer for FOB work, mortars, drones, and SAMs on the Support unlock path. Classes is the XP track that actually opens the large hammer.
- Something that answers armour: a launcher, IED, or a teammate in a Gepard.
- A parachute if helicopters are the taxi meta.
Attachments: spend on what you can feel
Optics, muzzle brakes, and extended magazines were all priced in the hundreds in community catalogues. A $820 micro reflex on a $600 rifle can be correct if you hit more ticks because of it. A $1,020 brake on a gun you will lose in two minutes is a donation. Zero your optic to the ranges maps actually give you in the current zone — 100–300 m inside towns, longer on ridgelines.
A first-week shopping list
- Confirm system requirements so you are not tuning a loadout on 20 fps.
- Pick a faction on the players hub and note the starter rifle.
- Price a poverty kit and a standard kit in the budget tool.
- Play two matches on the poverty kit even if you are rich. Learn death cost.
- Graduate to standard infantry. Ignore S-tier streamer kits until the wallet is boringly large.
- Cross-check the tier list for your budget, not for your ego.
Official video on this page is BULKHEAD being honest about death cost and who the game is for. If that video makes you angry, buy a cheaper rifle.
Related pages
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common WARDOGS questions.
Does my WARDOGS loadout save between matches?
Unlocks and account cash persist. The specific gun and ammo you bought for a life do not survive death. Rebuild at the vendor.
What should I buy with the starting $10,000?
A replaceable 5.56 rifle, pistol, medical, and ammo — not a tank. Walk through numbers on the budget tool.
Is the ghillie suit worth it?
It blocks killcam and occupies the armour slot, so you are easier to kill if spotted. Use it for stalker lives, not Hot Zone brawls.
Why is my cheap sniper so expensive to run?
Ammunition is priced per box and per calibre. Anti-materiel and premium loads can cost more than the weapon over one life. Check how to make money.