All prices and values are from Season 1 (Early Access). Season 2 arrives October 15, 2026 and may change them.
What WARDOGS is
WARDOGS is a 100-player tactical first-person shooter from Bulkhead, published by Team17. It entered Steam Early Access on September 10, 2026, sold 3 million copies in its first 18 days, and peaked at 428,666 concurrent players. (Some outlets report slightly different day counts; these are the official announcement figures.)
Three teams fight over control zones on a large destructible map. Infantry combat decides most fights. Vehicles and fortifications shape where those fights happen. The system that shapes every decision is the cash economy:
- You start with $10,000 as a one-time account seed. It is not a per-life allowance and it does not refill.
- Before every deployment you buy your loadout again: rifle, sidearm, armor, equipment.
- Cash you do not spend stays with you across lives, matches, and sessions.
- Gear you carry when you die is gone. Bulkhead has not published any refund figure, so plan as though a lost loadout is fully spent.
That last point is the whole game. WARDOGS punishes expensive habits. It rewards players who spend in proportion to their income.
The three free rifles
Every faction issues its own free rifle, and all three are genuinely usable:
| Rifle | Price | Damage | Fire rate | Fire modes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A-91 | $0 | 28 | 700 RPM | Semi / burst |
| Bushmaster M17S | $0 | 28 | 700 RPM | Semi / burst |
| KH-2002 | $0 | 28 | 700 RPM | Semi / burst |
They share the same listed stats: 28 damage per shot, 700 RPM within bursts, 5.56x45mm. The practical difference between them is small. Pick the one your faction issues and learn it. A free rifle in practiced hands beats a $2,800 M4 in the hands of someone who has never held it.
Two limits to know. First, burst fire punishes you up close, where full-auto weapons get more chances per second to land a hit. Second, 28 damage per shot is the baseline for every 5.56mm rifle in the game, so nothing you buy in that caliber hits harder per bullet. You buy up for fire rate, handling, and full-auto convenience. You do not buy up for raw damage.
How to spend your $10,000
Your seed money looks generous until you do the division. A $6,500 FAL plus armor and attachments can erase most of it in two bad lives. The safe opening purchase:
| Item | Price | Below level 9 |
|---|---|---|
| T-21 rifle | $600 | $300 |
| Parachute | $100 | $50 |
| Total | $700 | $350 |
That is the core recommendation: one T-21 and a parachute, then stop. You keep $9,300 in reserve while you learn how you die.
Why the T-21 specifically:
- It costs $600, the cheapest full-auto rifle in the game.
- It fires 28 damage at 750 RPM, matching the M4's damage per shot at a fraction of the price.
- It has no level requirement, so you can buy it in your first match.
- Below level 9 the vendor charges half price, so early deaths cost $300 a rifle instead of $600.
The parachute is worth the $100 because WARDOGS maps reward vertical movement, and a bad landing without one ends your life before it starts. (Equipment prices come from the official Season 1 patch notes of September 9, 2026.)
What not to buy yet: anything with a five-figure opening cost. The AK74 looks tempting at $1,600 per life, but making it purchasable costs Assault level 3 plus a $10,000 one-time payment. That is your entire seed for a sidegrade. The M4 and FAL cost $100,000 and $200,000 to open. Those are mid-game goals, not first-hour purchases.
Your first hour, in order
1. Learn the zones before you learn the guns
Matches are won at control zones, not in the open field. Spend your first two or three deployments walking the map: where zones sit, which buildings overlook them, where vehicles spawn. Dying while learning is cheap if your loadout costs $700.
2. Earn cash with team actions
Kills pay. They are unreliable income for a new player. The steadier sources are team actions. Reviving allies and building fortified positions pay consistently, and supply deliveries by truck pay well once you learn the routes. These teach you where fights actually happen while your aim is still warming up.
3. Stay on the free rifle or the T-21
Your first hour is for learning, not for shopping. The free rifles and the T-21 cover every infantry range you will fight at. If you find yourself dying before firing a shot, the fix is positioning and map knowledge. A more expensive rifle does not fix either.
4. Watch your deaths per dollar
A useful rule: never field a loadout that two quick deaths would bankrupt. With a $9,300 reserve after your opening purchase, a $700 T-21 loadout survives 13 straight deaths. That is the margin you want while learning. Shrink it only when your income per match reliably covers your spending.
5. Ignore vehicles for now
The Dune Buggy costs $25,000 and the Lakota $35,000 at the vendor (Season 1 patch notes). Losing one erases two and a half seed accounts. Let richer teammates drive while you learn infantry play.
Mistakes that end runs early
- Spending the seed on one life. A $6,500 FAL feels like power until a grenade ends the investment. Expensive guns are for players with income, not for players with savings.
- Assuming gear comes back. Bulkhead has not published what, if anything, you recover from a lost loadout. Treat every purchase as spent the moment you deploy.
- Building expensive habits before Season 2. Season 2 arrives October 15, 2026 with a progression wipe. Cash and XP reset. Your cash converts to gold bars, and gold bars are kept. Hoarding cash into the wipe is fine because it converts. Learning to depend on $6,500 loadouts right before every price potentially changes is not.
Season 2 wipes cash and XP on October 15, 2026. Cash converts to gold bars, which survive the wipe. Avoid expensive loadout habits in the final days of Season 1.