Buying a loadout, and what the guides actually disagree about
There is no loadout you keep in WARDOGS. You buy one every time you spawn, out of a balance the store page puts at $10,000 to begin with and says carries between matches. Three guides all start you on a free rifle or a cheap one. Where they part company is what to buy next, and that turns out to be three different questions.
The first rifle: they agree, and it is cheap
| Guide | Its pick | The case it makes |
|---|---|---|
| Overgear | T-21, $600 per life | 28 damage at 750 RPM with full damage out to 300 metres, which it puts close to the M4 for $2,200 less, and it takes a lot of attachment types. |
| G2A | A free rifle or the T-21, then the AK74 as the first unlock | Its starting advice is the same as Overgear’s. Its ranked list is of unlocks: the AK74 at level 3 first, at $10,000 to unlock and $1,600 per life, which it calls expensive enough to matter and still cheap enough that several deaths will not empty a healthy bank. |
| skycoach | KH-2002, free | Its starter build fields the free rifle and spends only on spare magazines, on the logic that at the bottom of the economy nothing else is worth the risk of losing. |
So the “best weapon” disagreement mostly is not one. What differs is the question each guide is answering: Overgear ranks weapons by what you get per dollar, G2A ranks unlocks by when they pay back on a track, and skycoach builds a whole kit around what you can afford to lose. A pick only means something once you know which of the three you are reading.
G2A is the one that says out loud what the prices imply: the FAL at level 35 is a rifle you buy because it fits the fight rather than because you reached it. At $6,500 per life it costs more than the Galil, a helmet, armour and a tac-vest put together.
What a loadout is made of
skycoach’s builds use one slot list, and all of it is bought per spawn: primary weapon, its attachments, sidearm, a special item, helmet, armor, tac-vest, backpack, a traversal slot for a parachute, and whatever is loaded into the backpack. The consumables are the part that surprises people on the bill rather than the gun: in its Medic build the bandages and first aid kits come to $4,200, more than twice the rifle.
The store page states the rule the whole thing rests on: “Each life, you purchase a custom loadout from a wide selection of weapons, gear, utility, and vehicles to help your team win the match.” From WARDOGS Steam store page What each weapon costs to unlock and to field is on the weapons page.
Three worked builds, priced row by row
skycoach publishes itemised builds, which makes them the only ones anyone can actually price. Two of the three add up exactly. The third does not, and the gap is large enough to matter.
Zero-to-Hero
- Primary: KH-2002, $0
- Attachments, sidearm, spec item, helmet, armor, tac-vest: none, $0
- Backpack: Starter Backpack/Pouch, $0
- Traversal: Parachute, $100
- Backpack contents: 2× spare 20-round magazines, $80
- Resuscitator: $0
Stated total $180; the rows above add up to $180. Reconciles exactly.
AK74 Medic
- Primary: AK74 with optic and 30-round magazine, $1,940
- Spec item: Defibrillator, $1,600, needs Medic 11
- Helmet / armor / tac-vest: $200 / $400 / $100
- Backpack: Field Backpack, $650
- Backpack contents: 3× spare AK74 magazines, $240
- Medical: 5× bandages, $1,000, and 4× first aid kits, $3,200, which need Medic 9
Stated total $9,330; the rows above add up to $9,330. Reconciles exactly — and the bandages and first aid kits are 45 per cent of it, more than twice the rifle.
Sniper Starter Kit
- Primary: Scout Rifle TD with optic and suppressor, $2,780
- Sidearm: GGX17, $200
- Spec item: Monocular, $150
- Armor / tac-vest: $400 / $100
- Backpack: Starter Backpack, $0, plus one spare magazine at $47
- Ammunition: 80× loose rifle rounds, $120
Stated total $4,845; the rows above add up to $3,797. The only one that does not reconcile: $1,048 of the stated total is not itemised anywhere in the table.
The fourth build on that page, a Galil with an RPG, does not even try for a total: it gives a known subtotal of $6,820 and says outright that armor, vest, backpack, magazines and attachments are excluded from it. Which is the honest way to do it, and a reminder that a headline loadout price is only as complete as the rows under it.
What a death actually costs
The number that matters is not the price of a loadout, it is how many spawns your balance buys. The store page starts everyone at $10,000. From WARDOGS Steam store page skycoach’s Galil-and-RPG build reaches a known subtotal of $6,820 before armor, vest, backpack, magazines and attachments are priced in. A kit built around a $2,200 rifle is most of a starting balance for one life. The free rifle in its first build is the same guide answering that.
The studio’s own worked example runs the other way: an RPG that “could cost you about $3,000, but could earn you $10,000 if you destroy a packed enemy little bird.” Said in Steam announcement — WARDOGS: Tactical Depth & Teamplay Note the wording it chose: could, about, could. Read against these loadout prices, an expensive purchase is a bet on one engagement rather than a tier you unlock into. How the cash comes in is on the economy page, and the machines worth spending a rocket on are on vehicles and helicopters.
Before you copy a build
Check two things. First, which build it was written against: G2A’s guide already accounts for Season 1 slowing the middle levels, but the launch changelog moved prices and unlock levels across six tracks at once, and a list written before that will have the wrong levels in it. The patch timeline is where the next move will show up. Second, where its damage numbers come from. The rate-of-fire and damage figures in the table at the top are Overgear’s, and it does not say how it got them. Your side does not appear in any of it, and the factions page has why; what a season reset does to the kit you bought is on the reset page.