Field manual

01How a match is won

Up to 100 players split across three factions on a 16 by 16 kilometer map. The fight happens inside a 2 by 2 kilometer control zone that lands somewhere different every match.

• Score ticks. On every tick, the faction with the most players inside the zone gets a point. First to 100 wins.
• Kills do not score. They pay you, but only bodies in the zone move the needle. Matches can run past an hour.
• The Hot Zone. A smaller circle moves around inside the zone. Anyone standing in it counts double for score and earns double cash.
• Towers pull the Hot Zone. Take tower terminals to collect code digits. Enter the full code and the Hot Zone moves toward a tower your team holds.
• Three sides, no safe flank. Push hard into one enemy and the third faction hits you from behind. Whoever leads is everyone’s target.

02Your money

WARDOGS is the shooter where dying costs you. Your kit is bought with in-game cash, and your bank follows you from life to life and match to match.

• $10,000 once. Every account gets it one time. It is seed money, not a per-match allowance.
• Die and stay down, lose the kit. Unspent cash stays in the bank and anything you unlocked stays unlocked.
• Broke is not out. Every life you get your faction’s recruit rifle (you pay for ammo) and one Emergency Resuscitator free.
• New recruit discount. Below Wardog level 9 the vendor halves weapons and gear. Not ammo and vehicles.
• No real money. Cash cannot be bought, and there is no battle pass or pay to win during Early Access.
• Gold Bars. The cosmetic currency, bought with cash at a rate that moves daily with supply and demand. It is a one way trade.
• Season 2 reset, October 15. At the reset your cash converts into Gold Bars automatically. Gold Bars and cosmetics carry over.
• Do not farm the economy. Since patch 0.11, exploiting it earns a timed ban and a full cash and XP wipe; advertising exploits is a permanent ban.

Price your kit in the planner before you spend it.

03What pays

Support play is how people get rich here. A strong medic life can bank tens of thousands with far less risk than fragging.

Community-tracked, not official. Downed players can also bribe a medic with up to $500 to get picked up first, and teammates can tip you.

04Roles and levels

There are no fixed classes. Your role is whatever you bought this life. What you do earns XP in separate tracks, and each track opens more of the shop. An unlock costs a level plus a one time cash payment, and then it is yours.

Wardog is your overall level. The Season 1 changelog slowed levelling on purpose: level 20 now takes 124 percent more XP, about 20 to 25 hours for most players. Every unlock is in the armory.

05Factions

Bulkhead has not said whether factions differ beyond their recruit rifle, and nobody has confirmed faction-only weapons or vehicles.

06Maps

Every map is set in Kolchia, the war-torn industrial mountains of Eastern Europe, where the fight is over PV-1, a rare resource. Each map is 16 by 16 kilometers with about 60 named locations, most of them on the valley floors.

07Playing as a squad

• Bring a mic. Voice is proximity only. Your squad hears you, and so does anyone close enough to kill you.
• A pilot, a medic and two riflemen who talk to each other print money. Revives are nearly kill money and keep everyone’s kit alive.
• Wait for the revive. Giving up throws your whole loadout away.
• Take the helicopter taxi. A 30 second wait beats a five minute drive, and the pilot gets paid for every passenger delivered.
• Build a FOB. A forward operating base lets your side build bigger, refuel, rearm and repair near the zone.
• Hunt their APC. It is the enemy’s mobile spawn and it pays well.

Find a stack on the run finder, or grab a crew kit.

08Early Access

Out since

September 10, 2026, on Steam (PC)

Made by

Bulkhead, published by Team17, on Unreal Engine 5

Price

$39.99, or $49.99 for the Supporter Edition. Bulkhead plans $49.99 at about a year in and $59.99 at full release.

How long

About one to two years in Early Access

Coming

More maps, weapons and vehicles including fighter jets, deeper progression, a seasonal meta game, more objective types and better logistics. Bulkhead has also said not to expect regular content drops; the focus is systems and balance.

Consoles

PS5 and Xbox Series X|S are planned for 2028. It is PC only today.

Linux

Proton and Linux support is in development

Anti-cheat

Kernel level. Some setups hit Secure Boot errors.

09Patch log

1. Sep 9
   Season 1 changelog. Levelling slowed (level 20 takes 124 percent more XP). FOB repriced from $2,500 to $7,500 and the Large Hammer unlock from $25,000 to $75,000. The Z20 Lakota replaced the UH-1Y and helicopter turret rotation was capped. Voice chat, crash and exploit fixes.
2. Sep 10
   Launch hotfix. Fixed failed server joins, mid-match kicks and queue delays after the launch day queues.
3. Sep 12 to 14
   Patch 0.11. Community and official servers split in the browser, community server IDs stick, economy exploit rules with bans and wipes, cash exploit and GPU crash fixes, more capacity in Asia.
4. Oct 15
   Season 2. Cash converts to Gold Bars at the reset. Teased: weather and possibly a new map.

10Will it run