All prices and values are from Season 1 (Early Access). Season 2 arrives October 15, 2026 and may change them.
The helicopter roster
Helicopters in WARDOGS are bought from the vehicle vendor inside your faction's safe zone. None spawn in the world during a match, so if one is on the map, somebody paid for it. Every armed airframe sits behind a Pilot level and a one-time unlock fee before you can start paying the per-life price. The table below shows the Season 1 roster as printed on the vendor tiles.
| Helicopter | Seats | Pilot gate | Unlock fee | Per-life price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MH-6 | 6 | None | $0 | $6,250 |
| AH-6M [Miniguns] | 2 | Pilot 4 | $50,000 | $7,000 |
| Z20 Lakota | 13 | Pilot 10 | $35,000 | $7,400 |
| Z20 Lakota [Miniguns] | 13 | Pilot 25 | $75,000 | $8,000 |
| AH-6R [Rockets] | 2 | Pilot 20 | $250,000 | $12,500 |
| Havoc | 2 | Pilot 35 | $500,000 | $18,000 |
A few things to notice. The MH-6 is the only airframe with no unlock, which makes it the default air taxi for new pilots. The AH-6M is the cheapest gunship and the fastest route into air combat: Pilot 4 is a short grind, and the per-life cost is a fraction of the Havoc's. The Lakota is the squad mover with 13 seats and one of the fastest top speeds of any vehicle in the game. The Havoc is the actual attack helicopter and also the most expensive vehicle in WARDOGS. Losing one costs more than seven basic ground vehicles, so the unlock fee is only the start of that commitment.
Season 1 changed several of these numbers, including raising the AH-6M unlock from $25,000 to $50,000 and lowering the Lakota unlock to $35,000. Expect more changes. Check the tile in front of you rather than a number you read somewhere.
Air vehicle XP
Kills scored from an air vehicle feed your Pilot track. In Season 1, the XP for a player kill from an air vehicle was reduced from 300 to 250. That rebalanced flying toward transport and objective play rather than farming kills from the sky.
This matters for how you level Pilot. Seat time in the Lakota running insertions earns steady team-action income and XP. Circling the map hunting kills pays 250 XP per kill and risks a very expensive airframe. The XP math favors the taxi.
Controls: check the in-game menu
Bulkhead has not published an official flying guide or recommended control scheme. The correct reference is the controls menu inside the game. Open it, read the helicopter bindings, and rebind anything that fights your instincts before your first flight.
The practical basics are consistent across the airframes. Fly in fast and low toward the landing zone, dump speed with a banked turn, and touch down rather than hovering into the open. A helicopter that floats into a landing zone at walking pace is a gift to every rocket gunner on the map. Land behind cover, drop troops, and leave. The Little Birds handle the same way in the air, so time in the cheap MH-6 transfers directly to the armed variants.
The air taxi: your best early role
New pilots should fly transport, not gunships. The job is simple: load a squad at the safe zone, fly a fast low approach to the zone edge, drop them behind cover, and go back for the next load. Thirteen seats at $7,400 per life works out to under $600 per seat, which makes the Lakota one of the cheapest ways to move a team in the game.
Two habits separate good taxi pilots from expensive ones. First, never orbit the zone. One pass, one drop, leave. Second, watch for anti-air before committing. A Lakota that eats a missile on approach deletes $7,400 plus whatever the squad was carrying.
Crashing is a cash problem, not a skill problem. Every airframe is paid for per life. A lost Havoc costs $18,000 to rebuy, more than the $10,000 every account starts with. Fly the MH-6 and the Lakota until Pilot 20 arrives on its own, keep a cash buffer well above the per-life price of whatever you fly, and treat every armed sortie as a single pass rather than an orbit. See the money guide for budgeting rules.
Transport vs gunship: when to fly which
Fly transport when your squad needs bodies in the zone, when Pilot level is still climbing, or when enemy anti-air is active. The Lakota with logistics crates doubles as a supply run.
Fly the gunship when there is armor or grouped infantry worth deleting and anti-air has been scouted. The AH-6M with twin miniguns handles infantry and trucks. It cannot trade with tanks, and pretending otherwise is how you donate $7,000 to an L2A6's frontal plate.
Fly the Havoc when you have the cash buffer, the Pilot level, and a scouted sky. It is the only airframe built to fight armor, and it is priced like it.