WARDOGS weapons: which gun to unlock first, and which to skip

The unlock order, gun by gun

Every level and price below is copied from the Season 02 patch notes, posted October 14, 2026. The level is the progression-track level, and the price is what the unlock costs. The notes give no per-shot damage, fire rate or magazine size, so this page does not either.

The four new guns, and how they reorder the tracks

Season 02 did not just add guns. It moved the ones already there, and the new guns are what forced the moves. Per the patch notes, three of the four arrivals land in the middle of a track and shove an older gun further down it.

The TCX-SPR is the clearest case. The patch notes list the swap directly: "M4 LVL 20 → LVL 28 (TCX-SPR takes its place)", with the M4's unlock price going from $100k to $150k, while the TCX-SPR arrives at Assault level 20 for $100k. So the decision at level 20 is no longer "save for the M4". It is whether the TCX-SPR is good enough that you never need the M4 at all. Players who have used it split on that: some find the horizontal recoil too much past short range and go back to the M4 or the Galil, others point out it takes one fewer bullet to drop a target than the other assault rifles. Both camps agree on one practical detail the patch notes confirm — the muzzle brakes that tame it unlock separately, the first of them at Assault level 32.

The PP-19 Bizon does the same job on the Medic track from the other direction. It is free, with a 53-round magazine, and the gun that used to be free — the AMP-9 — now costs level 20 and $75k. Meanwhile the MP5 dropped from level 15 and $75k to level 4 and $25k. A medic's first hour is now a free Bizon, then a cheap MP5, with the AMP-9 pushed out to level 20.

The two .308 arrivals are harder to recommend, because the same patch that added them cut .308 damage by 25 percent. The notes say high-calibre rounds were "doing close to sniper damage at a much faster fire rate", and the change "brings them closer to the other weapons in their archetype" — the FAL "still has the highest damage-per-shot within the assault rifle category, but now sits closer to the TCX-SPR and M4". The M14 unlocks at Recon level 25 for $100k and the Evo-3 Ultra at Support level 30 for $200k, so you pay end-of-track prices for guns whose calibre advantage was just reduced. Players who ran the older .308 guns say the damage no longer compensates for the price.

The biggest moves of the patch, in both directions

The patch did not only add guns. It moved eight of the existing unlocks far enough that they change what you can hold in week one. Every before-and-after below is copied from the Season 02 patch notes; the level is the progression-track level and the price is the unlock cost.

Read the eight rows together and the net effect on picking order is narrower than the numbers suggest. The two free guns decide week one, and the patch did not touch them. What moved is the middle of each track. Assault now hands out attachments early and the M4 late — the Birdcage and the CQR grip arrive long before the rifle they are meant to tame. Support splits: the PKM and its bipod come down together, while the M249 and its bipod go up together, so the two machine guns swapped ends of the track. Medic simply reorders its two starter SMGs. Our reading of the table, not a statement from the studio: the patch lowered the cost of getting a usable gun and raised the cost of getting a further one.

The weapon databases on page one of this search list current values only. They give you what a gun costs today and what level it takes today; none of the ones checked for this page keeps a previous-value column, so the moves above are visible only in the patch notes themselves.

Where players agree, and where they do not

The agreement is about the cheap guns. Across the rifle discussions, the AK74 keeps coming up as the gun you run when you do not want to spend: controllable with basic attachments, and now free. The same threads treat the FAL as the gun that lost its reason to exist — before the patch it topped rifle rankings, and after it the complaint is the same one the patch notes anticipate, that the damage no longer earns the price.

The disagreement is about what to grind toward once the cheap guns run out. One camp says the Super-45 is the strongest gun left. What the patch notes actually say about it is narrower: its damage fall-off was increased beyond 50m, "pushing it firmly into a close-quarters role". The camp that rates it accepts those limits — short range, an expensive unlock, and ammunition you cannot scavenge. Another camp never leaves the assault rifles, arguing the M4 and the Galil still win the ranges where most fights happen. A third wants a machine gun and resents the wait — though the patch cut that wait sharply, moving the PKM from Support level 30 to level 15 and from $150k to $100k, while the M249 went the other way.

One complaint shows up often enough to plan around. The parts that make a gun usable do not unlock with the gun. The M249's bipod comes levels after the gun itself, and players say the weapon is miserable without it. The TCX-SPR's first muzzle brake is at Assault level 32, twelve levels after the rifle. Budget for the accessories, not just the gun, or you unlock something you cannot shoot straight.

What the patch notes do not tell you

Two things are absent from every official page, so both stay unmarked as fact.

First, the damage figures, fire rates and in-game purchase prices that the weapon databases list. Those come from players reading the game's own files and firing range, not from BULKHEAD. Where two databases disagree — and they do, on how many weapons the game even has — there is no official number to settle it. This page quotes none of them.

Second, whether the Season 02 reorder survives Season 03. The notes move guns both directions: the PKM got cheaper and earlier, the M249 and the M4 got later and more expensive, the AMP-9 went from free to level 20. Our inference, not a statement from the studio: the unlock order is a lever BULKHEAD pulls every season, so grinding a track purely to reach one gun is a bet on that gun staying where it is. The AK74 and the Bizon cost nothing, so they cannot be repriced out from under you.

For how a match actually plays and what the factions do, see the WARDOGS game guide. For the first ten hours and the crash fixes, the tips page.