Helicopters in WARDOGS unlock in the Pilot tree, for example the Z20 Lakota transport for 13 people ($35,000 unlock) or the Havoc gunship at Pilot 35, and after unlocking you pay the price for every unit you buy. A pilot earns without firing a shot: for rides into the Control Zone, tips and selling supplies.
| Topic | In short |
|---|---|
| Keyboard controls | Spacebar climbs, left Shift descends (check Collective Lower in the settings), W/S pitch, A/D roll, Q/E yaw |
| Flares | V key, you have to buy them into your loadout |
| Kill from an air vehicle | 250 XP since Season 1 (previously 300) |
| Taxi camo | only with the Supporter Edition or Supporter Pack, not by playing |
| Selling a helicopter back | not possible |
Unlock data are valid as of 15 September 2026, Season 1. Take-off, landing and the taxi role are explained below.
Which helicopters are in the game
Helicopters unlock in the Pilot tree. XP from driving ground vehicles (the Driver tree) does not count toward it, so you have to level flying separately. Unlocking means reaching the level and paying once, after that you pay the price for every unit you buy. Status as of 15 September 2026, Season 1.
| Helicopter | Purpose | Seats | Unlock | Unlock price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MH-6 | small transport | 6 | – | – |
| AH-6M [Miniguns] | small gunship with miniguns | – | Pilot | $50,000 |
| Z20 Lakota | large transport | 13 (2 crew + 11 passengers) | Pilot | $35,000 |
| AH-6R [Rockets] | small gunship with a rocket pod | – | Pilot 20 | – |
| Z20 Lakota [Miniguns] | large helicopter with miniguns | – | Pilot 25 | – |
| Havoc | heavy gunship (2A42 cannon and B-13 rockets) | 2 | Pilot 35 | – |
A dash means the figure has not been reliably verified yet. For moving people you have the MH-6 transport for six and the Z20 Lakota for thirteen. The Lakota got a balance adjustment in Season 1 and a fix for its sluggish pitch response. Owners of the Supporter Edition have a “Taxi” camo for the Little Bird. There are no jets in the game yet, the developers plan to add them during early access. Ground vehicles and how unlocking works are covered in the article Vehicles in WARDOGS.
Before your first take-off
- Train at the firing range. At the firing range you can try a helicopter for free and out of combat. It is better to botch your first landing there than with a cabin full of teammates.
- Board on the right side. The pilot seat is on the right, the left side belongs to passengers.
- Check the lock. The L key locks or unlocks the helicopter. In a squad you can lock it for its members only.
- Buy flares. Flares are a separate loadout item, meaning gear that you buy for every life. Since Season 1 they take up more space in it.
- Consider a controller. You can also fly with a HOTAS, pedals or a gamepad. Season 1 extended helicopter input damping to all input devices. More options are in the guide WARDOGS settings.
What are the helicopter controls in WARDOGS?
The table shows the recommended key layout. Check the key for descending in the control settings (the Collective Lower entry). By default it may not be on left Shift, which the rest of this guide assumes, so remap it if necessary.
| Action | Key |
|---|---|
| Start the engine | Spacebar |
| Climb (collective up) | hold Spacebar |
| Descend (collective down) | left Shift (check in the settings) |
| Pitch the nose forward / back | W / S |
| Roll left / right | A / D |
| Yaw on the spot | Q / E |
| Flares | V |
| Buy ammo and supplies | B |
| Lock / unlock | L |
Take-off, flight and landing
Spacebar starts the engines and holding it lifts you off the ground. You fly forward by pitching the nose with W. Careful, if you hold W for too long, the helicopter will nose-dive toward the ground. You level it out with S.
Landing takes practice. If you let the helicopter drop straight down on Shift alone, you will damage it. Go about it like this:
- Plan your landing spot and the route to it before you take off.
- Before the landing spot, raise the nose with S and slow down.
- Once you have slowed down, start descending with Shift.
- Just above the ground, alternate Shift and Spacebar so you touch down gently and do not slam into the ground.
- When the situation at the landing spot gets worse, abort the approach and try somewhere else.
How not to get shot down
A helicopter full of players is a very lucrative target for the enemy in the Control Zone, because destroying vehicles earns your opponents XP and money. The threats you have to count on:
- 9K333 Verba: a portable anti-air missile that locks onto a target and guides itself. It unlocks in the Support tree at level 16.
- Anti-air structures that opponents build at their FOBs, their forward operating bases.
Against guided missiles you have flares. When you hear the warning that someone is locking onto you, look around with free look, find the incoming missile and pop the flares at the right moment with the V key. You have to have flares bought in your loadout. How opponents attack helicopters and how to do it yourself is in the guide How to destroy a tank, a helicopter and a FOB.
Taxi and supplier: why it pays off
The developers treat a pilot who hauls supplies and people as a full-fledged role. Match points go every 30 seconds to the team with the most players in the Control Zone. Every teammate you deliver into the zone therefore helps directly toward the win. The game pays you for it in several ways:
- The ride into the zone. You get money for delivering teammates into the Control Zone. When your passengers then survive, a bonus comes on top.
- Tips. Passengers can send you a tip for a good ride.
- Supply crates. You buy a crate, fill it with supplies and set the prices. Whenever a teammate buys something from it, the money goes to you. The small armored supply crate unlocks in the Pilot tree and Season 1 made its unlock more expensive at $10,000. For selling an item cheaper than $75 you only get 1 XP instead of 25 since Season 1.
- Supplying a FOB. When you bring supplies to a forward operating base, you collect XP toward the Support tree. What happens to the supplies at a FOB afterwards is described in the guide Building and the FOB.
- Combat flying. With an armed helicopter you get Pilot XP for killed enemies and destroyed structures. A kill from an air vehicle gives 250 XP since Season 1 instead of the previous 300.
The best place for your passengers is the Hot Zone, the smaller moving subzone inside the Control Zone. A player in it counts twice and gets double money. How the zones work is explained in the guide Control Zone and Hot Zone. At the same time the developers threatened bans and money resets for abusing the economy in Patch 0.11, so treat the ride as a service to your team, not as a hunt for tricks.
The Taxi camo and selling a helicopter
The “heli taxi skin” is the Littlebird Helicopter ‘Taxi’ Camo, and you can’t unlock it by playing. BULKHEAD only sells it as part of its supporter content: the WARDOGS Supporter Edition (the game plus cosmetics, $49.99 on Steam in the US) or the separate WARDOGS – Supporter Pack DLC for players who already own the game ($12.99). Both contain the same items: three branded camos for starter weapons, the Taxi camo, a supporter icon on the scoreboard that you can hide in the settings, and a grenade and a helmet bobblehead.
The Taxi camo is purely cosmetic and gives you no advantage in the air. BULKHEAD has promised not to monetise the game any further during Early Access, never to sell in-game cash or gold bars and never to let players buy camos directly. Every other camo has to be earned by playing, and the supporter content is the only exception.
Can you sell a helicopter back?
No. Once you buy a helicopter you cannot sell it back to the vendor or trade it in, so treat the money as spent. What you can do is buy a helicopter for another player. If a squadmate is broke and you have the cash, you pay for the aircraft and they fly it away. That is how squads usually fund their pilot: the pilot burns money in the air while the rest of the squad earns it on the ground. After that, keep the aircraft alive: practise landings at the firing range, carry flares and let passengers pay you back through the taxi and supply income described above.
FAQ
The Littlebird Helicopter ‘Taxi’ Camo comes only with the WARDOGS Supporter Edition ($49.99 on Steam in the US) or the separate Supporter Pack DLC ($12.99); you cannot unlock it by playing. It is purely cosmetic.
Helicopters unlock in the Pilot tree, for example the Z20 Lakota for $35,000 or the heavy Havoc gunship at level 35. After unlocking you still pay the price for every unit, and XP from the Driver tree does not count toward it.
You get paid for delivering teammates into the Control Zone, with a bonus when they survive, plus tips and sales from supply crates. Armed helicopters earn Pilot XP for kills; a kill from an air vehicle gives 250 XP since Season 1 instead of 300.
On keyboard and mouse, Spacebar starts the engine and climbs, left Shift descends, W/S pitch the nose, A/D roll, Q/E yaw and V pops flares. Check the descend key (Collective Lower) in the control settings, because by default it may not be on left Shift. To slow down, raise the nose with S.
No. Once you buy a helicopter you cannot sell it back to the vendor or trade it in. You can, however, buy a helicopter for another player.
Thirteen: two crew members and eleven passengers. The smaller MH-6 takes six people.
Buy flares into your loadout. When you hear the lock-on warning, find the missile with free look and pop the flares with the V key.
At the firing range. Helicopters are free there and nobody is shooting at you.