WARDOGS is not won by racking up kills. Every 30 seconds, one point goes to the team with the most players in the Control Zone, and the match is won by the first team to reach 100 points. What decides the game is how many people you can get into the zone and keep alive there. This article covers how the scoring works exactly, why a player in the Hot Zone counts twice, how to pull the Hot Zone toward you using the towers and the code or using a drill, when the mobile APC spawn appears, how the three factions differ and how many maps the game has.
The basic rules: points for holding the zone, not for kills
A single server holds up to 100 players split into three teams. The map covers 256 km² and somewhere inside it the Control Zone is picked at random, a 2 × 2 km control area. All three teams fight over it at the same time.
- A tick every 30 seconds. The point goes to whichever team has the most players in the zone at that moment.
- The target is 100 points. The first team to collect them wins.
- Numbers in the zone decide it. Points are counted from the players inside, not from kills. The game does pay for kills, but they bring no points.
The position of the zone is drawn at random, so the route to it changes from match to match. Team bases are usually about 3 km from the zone, which is why so much depends on how fast a team can get players from the base into the zone.
Hot Zone: the player who counts twice
Inside the Control Zone there is a smaller sub-zone on the move, the Hot Zone. On the map you spot it as a yellow circle inside the big zone. The developers at BULKHEAD describe two benefits it brings:
- A player in the Hot Zone counts twice for their team. Ten people in the Hot Zone carry the same weight at the tick as twenty people elsewhere in the zone.
- The Hot Zone pays double. The extra money comes in continuously just for standing in it.
Destruction pays off in the zone too. Destroying an enemy vehicle is worth more inside the Control Zone and worth even more in the Hot Zone. What exactly the game pays for is explained in the article on money in WARDOGS.
Towers and the code: how to pull the Hot Zone toward you
Several Towers stand around the zone. Whoever captures them can move the Hot Zone toward themselves for a while. Here is how:
- Wait until the tower can be captured. Towers have a cooldown at the start of the match and again every time they change owner.
- Run up to the control room on the middle floor of the tower.
- Hack the terminal. For every captured tower your team gets one digit of the code.
- Enter the full code on the keypad at the main terminal once your team has all of it.
- The Hot Zone Magnet activates. It pulls the Hot Zone to the tower for a limited time, after which it returns to its place.
Towers are valuable beyond the code as well. They are good firing and defensive positions with a view, and teams often build a FOB (Forward Operating Base) around them. Just be careful not to end up camping the tower with a sniper rifle while points are being collected in the zone without you.
Drill: the Hot Zone at your own FOB
The second way to pull the Hot Zone toward you is a drill, a drilling rig. A team can build one at its FOB. An active drill pulls the Hot Zone to your base, so everyone around starts earning more.
The drill burns fuel, though. A team that relies on it needs someone to haul fuel supplies to the FOB. How to set up a FOB and what to stock it with is described in the guide to building and the FOB.
APC: the mobile spawn from 20 points
Every team has one armored spawn vehicle, the M113 APC in the team’s color. The rules worth knowing:
- The APC appears at the bases once one of the teams reaches 20 points. Until then you drive, fly or walk to the zone from the base.
- You can only spawn on it while it is stationary. As long as somebody is driving it, the team cannot deploy from it.
- The driver earns. Whoever brings the APC in and parks it gets money and XP in the Driver tree for every teammate who spawns on it.
On the other hand, destroying an enemy APC is one of the most useful things you can do: the other team loses its fast route back into the zone and you get a high reward. What to use against armor is covered in the article on anti-tank weapons.
Three teams and factions
| Faction | Color | Free starter rifle |
|---|---|---|
| Lonestar | blue | Bushmaster M17S |
| Valkyra | red | A-91 |
| Manticore | green | KH-2002 |
In gameplay terms the factions do not differ. They all start with the same resources, the difference is the color, the starter rifle and the starting position on the map. You pick your faction on the team selection screen and you cannot choose a full team. On top of that, the match will not start until it has enough players. Since release, players have been avoiding the blue Lonestar team, which is why team selection sometimes stalls precisely because of it.
Maps
Early access launched with three maps, each with three variants, and a new map is due to arrive during early access. The game is set in mountainous Eastern Europe with run-down industrial areas, and the developers gathered their references for it in Georgia.
What the rules mean for your own game
- Be in the zone, and in the Hot Zone whenever you can. That is where the points are collected and where the money is doubled.
- Do not just sit at the FOB or on a tower. Defense has its place, but points only come from players in the zone.
- Get a ride into the zone. A helicopter is considerably faster than a car, and from 20 points there is the APC.
- Spot. Binoculars for $75 mark enemies for the whole team, so your teammates know where they are standing in the zone.
- Hunt enemy APCs and leave your own parked somewhere safe.
If you are only just starting with WARDOGS, go through the guide on how to start as well, where the first match is laid out step by step.
FAQ
Every 30 seconds, one point goes to the team with the most players in the Control Zone. Kills do not award points.
One hundred. The match is won by the first team to collect them.
A smaller moving zone inside the Control Zone, shown on the map as a yellow circle. A player in it counts twice for their team and earns double money.
Capture the towers by hacking the terminal in the control room. Each one gives your team a digit of the code, and entering the full code on the keypad activates the Hot Zone Magnet, which pulls the Hot Zone to the tower for a while.
Once one of the teams reaches 20 points. You can only spawn on it while it is stationary.
Not in gameplay terms. They start with the same resources and differ in color, starter rifle and starting position.