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11 WARDOGS does not explain itself in much depth, and several of its most important systems are easy to miss for the first few hours. This page is the short version of what a new player needs to know before the systems start paying off.
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33 What Actually Wins a Match
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55 One hundred players are split across three teams. Every thirty seconds, whichever team has the most players inside the Control Zone earns a point, and the first team to one hundred points wins. That is the entire win condition.
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77 Two things follow from it, and they are the two things new players most often get wrong. First, the unit of scoring is players present, not kills, so standing in the zone doing very little contributes more than a high kill count somewhere the zone is not. Second, the count is taken again every half minute, so ground has to be held rather than taken. A squad that clears the zone and then leaves to chase kills hands the next tick straight back.
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1010 There Are Three Teams, Not Two
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1212 This changes almost every fight. While your team fights one enemy, the third is somewhere else, usually watching. Committing everything to one engagement is how a team loses the zone to a side that was not even in the fight. Sometimes the correct move is to let two enemy teams grind each other down and take the zone afterwards.
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1414 The three sides are Lonestar, Valkyra and Manticore. They play by identical rules with no asymmetric abilities, so a colour tells you who to shoot and nothing else. See Factions.
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1616 Your First Cash
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1818 Every account starts with $10,000, and the balance carries between matches rather than resetting. That makes early spending a real decision rather than a formality.
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2020 The most common early mistake is buying an expensive loadout, dying thirty seconds later, and having nothing left. A cheap reliable kit that does its job is usually the better buy. Save the large purchases for moments where they change something: your team needs anti-vehicle, needs transport, needs logistics, or is making a push that a vehicle would carry.
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2222 The other half of the economy is that teamplay pays. Reviving, transporting teammates, spotting, supplying and holding the zone all earn cash, and players can tip each other on top of that. A new account short on money will build a balance faster by ferrying people to the fight than by trying to win gunfights with gear it cannot afford. See The Cash Economy.
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2424 Picking a Job
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2626 There are no classes. You buy into a role each life, so the question is not what you are but what the team is missing right now.
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2828 If your team...BuyIs short of bodies in the zoneA reliable primary, enough ammunition and basic utility. Get there and stay usefulKeeps losing people it could have savedMedical equipment. Keeping players on the objective beats walking them back to itHas no answer to enemy armour or aircraftAnti-vehicle equipment. Nothing else in a kit substitutes for itIs spawning a long way from the fightA transport vehicle. One of the best paid jobs in the gameNeeds to hold a chokepointBuilding equipment and a forward operating baseHas plenty of everythingOptics and a marksman kit, used to spot and call targets rather than to farm kills
29-Roles and the six progression tracks behind them are covered under Combat Roles.
29+Roles and the progression tracks behind them are covered under Combat Roles and Progression Tracks.
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3131 Building, Briefly
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3333 Building runs through hammers, in three tiers, each unlocking more than the last. The thing worth knowing early is that building is not only about walls. The Large Hammer unlocks mortars, anti-air, repair and refuel stations, and drill rigs, and a drill rig can pull the Hot Zone toward ground your team already holds. A new builder who learns the drill rig contributes far more than one who spends a match putting sandbags down. See Fortifications and Structures and Towers and Drills.
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3535 The Hot Zone
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3737 Inside the Control Zone sits a smaller Hot Zone that moves during the match. Players in it count double toward their team's presence and earn double cash. Reading where it is drifting, and being there before it arrives rather than chasing it, is one of the clearer differences between new and experienced players.
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3939 Talk
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4141 The game uses proximity voice, and it is not restricted to your own team, so nearby enemies can hear you as well. Useful information is short: where enemies are, what vehicle is coming, which direction the push is from, whether you need a medic. Listening matters as much as talking, because gunfire, engines and footsteps arrive before the people making them do.
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4343 Common Early Mistakes
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45-MistakeWhy it costsTreating kills as the scoreThe score is a head count in the zone taken every thirty secondsSpending the whole balance on one lifeCash carries between matches, so a bad buy sets back more than one gameTaking the zone and immediately leavingThe next tick goes to whoever is standing there, not to whoever cleared itForgetting the third teamTwo teams fighting is an opportunity for the one that is notDriving a full transport into a prepared positionA vehicle is a large purchase and it takes its passengers with itBuilding a drill rig and never bringing fuelWithout fuel it does nothing at allWandering off alone as a new playerSticking with a squad means more firepower, more revives and faster learning
45+MistakeWhy it costsTreating kills as the scoreThe score is a head count in the zone taken every thirty secondsSpending the whole balance on one lifeCash carries between matches, so a bad buy sets back more than one gameTaking the zone and immediately leavingThe next tick goes to whoever is standing there, not to whoever cleared itForgetting the third teamTwo teams fighting is an opportunity for the one that is notDriving a full transport into a prepared positionA vehicle is a large purchase and it takes its passengers with itBuilding a drill rig and never bringing fuelWithout fuel it does nothing at allWandering off alone as a new playerSticking with a squad means more firepower, more revives and faster learningSwitching to the winning team lateOnce a team is more than 10 points ahead, a switch locks you in for 15 minutes and hides your map until you reach the zoneKilling teammatesThe victim can vote to punish, and punishments build toward kicks and bans
4646 Finding a Server
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48-Pressing Deploy offers four choices: Official, Community, Infantry Mode or Low-Level servers. The last two are community servers running modifiers that the studio wants more players to find, though as of 14 October 2026 it has not published exactly what each one changes. Official servers rely on player reports and anti-cheat, while community servers have admins who can act on the spot; see Servers and Anti-Cheat.
48+Pressing Deploy offers four choices: Official, Community, Infantry Mode or Low-Level servers. The last two are community servers running modifiers that the studio wants more players to find, though as of 16 October 2026 it has not published exactly what each one changes, and it has said Limited Mode servers without power weapons and vehicles are coming soon. Official servers now enforce a ping limit that depends on their region, so a player who stays over it for a sustained period is kicked; the server browser shows maximum ping tags and can filter by them. Official servers rely on player reports and anti-cheat, while community servers have admins who can act on the spot; see Servers and Anti-Cheat.
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5050 Before You Buy
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5252 Two practical points that are not gameplay. The game is online only, with no offline or single player mode, so it needs a connection and a populated server. Linux is not officially supported: the developers have said Proton compatibility is still being worked on and have advised refunds for anyone who bought expecting it. Hardware requirements are under System Requirements.
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54-Season 2 is scheduled to begin on 15 October 2026 and brings balance changes to weapons, helmets and the factions, so advice written during Season 1 may not hold afterwards. As of 14 October 2026 the studio had not said in writing what the new season resets.
54+Season 2 began on 15 October 2026 and changed weapon damage, armour, suppression, prices and unlock levels, so advice written during Season 1 may not hold. Three changes matter most for a new player: experience comes much faster, with role track level 20 taking less than half the playtime it did; the AK74 is now unlocked by default on the Assault track and the PP-19 Bizon on the Medic track; and the Rebuy Last Loadout button now fills the vendor with your previous kit so you can adjust it before buying. Helping an empty server fill up also pays a reward and a vendor discount once the match starts. As of 16 October 2026 the studio had not said in writing what the new season reset; see Season 2.