WARDOGS weapons and armour guide: flesh vs AP ammo, the leg meta, zeroing and attachments
WARDOGS launches with 37 weapons, and the stat sheets will fill in over launch week. What you need before that: buy armour every life, shoot legs on armoured targets while you're on flesh ammo, learn zeroing (Page Up / Page Down), buy attachments once because they're universal, and spend ten minutes on the firing range with the armour levers to see what your gun really does.
Armour
- Armour-piercing ammo sits behind progression, so early season nearly everyone is firing flesh rounds. Plates matter more than the gun.
- Buy armour every life. It's the difference between a three-shot death and walking away.
- Against a plated target on flesh ammo: legs. Full damage, no plate.
- Body damage example from the range: the revolver does 99 to the body in three shots, so it's a four-shot kill on an unarmoured target and worse on plates.
The firing range
Pull the levers to put armour on the targets, then shoot each weapon you're considering. Ten minutes there tells you more than any tier list, because it's your ammo unlocks and your recoil.
Zeroing
Page Up / Page Down adjust zeroing on rifles and DMRs (not pistols). Fights open at 100–200 m; a rifle zeroed at 100 with the target at 250 drops under your reticle. Zero to the range you're holding and stop guessing.
Attachments
Universal. A scope or handguard you buy fits many weapons, so an early optic purchase keeps paying across guns. Hover an item in the shop to see which XP track it feeds; kills with a shotgun pay engineering XP, which unlocks builder gear, and so on.
Ammo and the shop
- Buy ammo for vehicles before leaving base; armed vehicles are nearly empty.
- The Re-buy button rebuys your last kit in one click.
- Two grenade types look identical: smoke (cover) and signal (requests supplies, thin plume). Check before a revive.
Launchers
- The RPG is the solo player's best friend on the supply roads; support level 5 in the first beta.
- Never fire a launcher from inside a helicopter. Backblast kills the cabin and counts as team kills.
Looting
Anything anyone can buy, you can take off their body. Rebreathers off corpses revive faster; a downed enemy's rifle is free money if you live to use it.
Progression
Everything in the shop is gated by six XP tracks that reward the way you actually play; the gun you use levels the track its kills feed. Details on the progression page. Per-weapon numbers land here as the range testing and patch notes come in.
FAQ
Should I buy armour in WARDOGS?
Every life. Armour-piercing ammo unlocks late for most players, so early on everyone is shooting flesh rounds into plates.
How do I beat a heavily armoured player?
Shoot the legs. Flesh ammo does full damage there; the plates don't cover them.
Do attachments work across weapons?
Yes. Scopes and handguards fit many different guns, so one purchase carries over.
Can I loot enemy weapons?
Anything anyone can buy can be looted from them.
Sick of full servers and queues?
Rent your own WARDOGS server from an approved host and play with your mates on your rules. UK/EU: QONZER (bare metal, no slot fees). Anywhere else: BisectHosting (21 locations). Casual group: xREALM (pay by the hour). Full comparison.