How to Start in WARDOGS: Your First Match Step by Step

Your first WARDOGS match drops you onto a server for up to a hundred players, next to a vendor full of gear and on a base several kilometers from the zone everyone is fighting over. The plan is simple: pick a team, buy a cheap loadout, get into the Control Zone and make sure every life ends in the black. This article walks you through the first match step by step, the controls you need right away, how to handle your inventory and magazines, looting the fallen, and the mistakes that cost beginners the most money.

Before you jump into your first match

The game has a firing range where you can try out weapons and practice flying a helicopter. Spending a few minutes there before your first real match pays off, because in a match you pay for every bullet.

There is no matchmaking. You pick a match in the server browser, which since patch 0.11 (14 September 2026) is split into official servers (Official) and community servers (Community). Once you connect, the team selection screen comes up. The three factions, Lonestar (blue), Valkyra (red) and Manticore (green), play exactly the same: they all start with the same resources, the difference is the color, the starter rifle and the starting position. You cannot pick a full team, and the match will not start until enough players have gathered. When the selection screen stalls for a long time, it is usually because players avoid the blue team, so Lonestar tends to have room.

You create or join a squad (a group of players within your team) in the match menu. It pays off even for solo players: squad size is not limited, members see each other on the minimap and share their own voice channel that nobody else hears. There is more on playing with friends in the article on squads and voice chat.

Step 1: shopping at the vendor

Every player starts with $10,000 and the money carries over from match to match. You buy your gear, the loadout, at the vendor for each life separately, and it only applies to that match. If you die and nobody revives you, you lose it. That is why your first purchase should not be expensive. How the whole economy works is covered in the article on money in WARDOGS.

For your first few lives, this is enough:

• The starter rifle is free on every life, you only pay for ammo. Each faction has its own: Valkyra the A-91, Lonestar the Bushmaster M17S, Manticore the KH-2002.
• Magazines and loose ammo. The weapon, the magazines and the ammo are bought separately, and by default a weapon comes with a single magazine. Take one or two spare magazines and the rest as loose ammo, which takes up less space.
• Bandages for healing yourself and your teammates. If you want to play Medic, take more of them.
• The Emergency Resuscitator is free, one per life, and it speeds up reviving a downed teammate.
• Binoculars for $75. The cheapest tool that actually earns you money, see the tips below.

A red dot sight is worth adding to your kit as soon as possible. When you die, you do not have to put the gear together again: the Re-buy Loadout button at the vendor buys the same kit as last time, and you can remove items from it before confirming. The game cannot save your own loadout presets yet.

Step 2: getting from base to the zone

The main base (HQ) sits roughly 3 km from the Control Zone. You can drive to the zone, fly there by helicopter or walk, which is the slowest option. Vehicles are bought with money from your account just like gear.

For a beginner, the best move is not to drive to the zone. Wait for a teammate’s transport helicopter, which is considerably faster than a car, and you can tip the pilot for a good ride. Later in the match you can also spawn on the APC, an armored personnel carrier that works as a mobile spawn. It appears at the bases once one of the teams reaches 20 points, and you can only spawn on it while it is stationary. The details are in the article on the Control Zone, and flying is covered in the helicopter guide.

Step 3: what to do in the zone

Points are not earned for kills. Every 30 seconds, one point goes to the team with the most players in the Control Zone, and the first team to 100 points wins. Inside the zone there is a smaller Hot Zone moving around, shown on the map as a yellow circle: anyone standing in it counts twice for their team and earns double money. For a newcomer that boils down to one simple rule: stay in the zone, and whenever you can, in the Hot Zone.

In the top right of the screen you can see your account balance and, next to it, a green or red number, your profit or loss for the current life. It tells you whether your current playstyle is paying off.

The controls you need right away

The keys in the table are accurate as of 15 September 2026. The game is in early access and they can change with patches, so check the control settings if anything is unclear.

Key	What it does
Shift (while aiming)	Steadies the weapon for a moment and zooms in slightly. Works with every weapon, including assault rifles.
R	Swap to the next loaded magazine.
C (in the inventory)	Refills magazines from loose ammo.
Left mouse button (hold with binoculars)	Marks an enemy for the whole team (spotting).
B (in a vehicle)	Opens the ammo and supply shop.
L	Locks or unlocks a vehicle.
V (in a helicopter)	Releases flares against guided missiles.

Inventory and refilling magazines

The inventory is a grid and items take up different numbers of cells in it. Your grid space comes from your backpack. A tactical vest does not add storage space, it only unlocks extra quickslots bound to keys and speeds up reloading. And watch the weight: the game sorts it into weight classes, and heavier gear makes you slower.

Empty magazines do not refill themselves. This is how you do it:

1. Open your inventory.
2. Check that the magazine you want to refill is in your backpack together with loose ammo.
3. Press C. The game starts moving rounds into the magazines and it takes a while, so do not do it in the middle of a firefight.

That is why carrying one or two extra loaded magazines and the rest as loose ammo beats carrying a pile of full magazines: you save both money and space.

When you get shot down

Getting shot down does not kill you outright. You lie on the ground and either wait for someone to revive you, or give up (Give up) and respawn. Anyone can revive you: bare-handed it is slow, with a resuscitator or a defibrillator it is faster. While you are down, you can post a bribe for whoever picks you up and improve the odds that somebody runs over to you.

If you give up or nobody revives you, you lose the whole loadout. So waiting for a medic pays off mainly with expensive gear. Watch out for proximity chat, the distance-based voice chat: nearby enemies hear it too, so do not announce out loud that a medic is on his way to you. Reviving and healing are covered in detail in the article on the Medic.

Looting bodies

Every dead body can be looted and stripped of all its equipment. For a beginner, this is the cheapest way to upgrade a basic loadout: head out with the starter rifle and take better gear off fallen enemies.

Tips for your first few hours

• Buy binoculars and spot. For $75 you mark enemies for the whole team and get paid for it, plus XP in the Recon tree. If the marked target goes down right after, you get an assist on top.
• Play inside the zone, ideally in the Hot Zone. That is where the points are collected, and the Hot Zone pays double.
• Revive and heal your teammates. It is one of the best ways to earn without firing a shot.
• Try building. Putting up fortifications with a hammer pays XP in the Support tree as well as money, and you do not have to expose yourself to fire while doing it. How to go about it is described in the article on building and the FOB.
• Play cheap and loot. The starter rifle, bandages and binoculars are enough. Take better gear off the fallen.
• Do not drive to the zone unless you have to. Wait for a helicopter or for the APC spawn.
• Destroying an enemy APC pays well. The other team loses a mobile spawn and you get a decent reward.
• Treat every life as an investment. The goal is to earn more than the gear cost. The green number in the top right tells you whether it is working.

The most common beginner mistakes

• Spending everything at once on an expensive loadout. A couple of deaths with a full kit and you are nearly broke.
• Playing outside the zone. Camping a tower with a sniper rifle or sitting at your own FOB (forward operating base) collects no points and does not help the team.
• Leaving base without spare magazines, bandages and the tool for your role, such as binoculars or a hammer.
• Moving the APC at the base. As long as the vehicle is moving, nobody spawns on it.
• Abusing exploits for quick money or XP. The developers hand out bans for it and wipe your money and XP.

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