In WARDOGS you buy your gear for every single life. So the real question is not “which is better” but how many times you can afford it. Below: a calculator on real prices (— entries with a price) and the full price list.
The lists only contain entries we have a price for. An empty slot means you take nothing.
Not “the meta” — Early Access has none yet. Arithmetic: what you can assemble on the starting balance and how many such deployments it survives if every one ends in death. Prices come from the database, at the vendor's list price. Below level 9 the vendor holds −50% on everything, so every card also carries the recruit price; plan against the full list.
The standard gun is free. Die and you have lost the price of three boxes of ammo. This is the kit you learn the map with, without counting money at all.
as a recruit below level 9: $22 — that is 454 runs instead of 222
The cheapest replacement for the standard gun that you actually feel in a fight. Mistakes now cost something, but your bank survives a long losing streak.
as a recruit below level 9: $860 — that is 11 runs instead of 5
A cheap way to stay out of close quarters. The pistol is not a flourish here — it is insurance for when somebody has reached you anyway.
as a recruit below level 9: $690 — that is 14 runs instead of 7
A vehicle with a bed and two large crates. The expensive part is the machine itself, so the logistician's real question is getting there without being burned.
as a recruit below level 9: $1 800 — that is 5 runs instead of 2
More than half the starting balance in a single deployment. People play like this when they already know how to leave the map, not when they want to try.
as a recruit below level 9: $2 930 — that is 3 runs instead of 1
What a successful run brings in is a number you enter yourself: there are no official loot figures. The rest — whether this kit is worth it — the calculator works out.
// death = losing everything you took. Survive = the kit stays with you, plus the loot.
The curve is the expected result of a deployment at your numbers. Where it crosses zero is where the run stops losing money.
| Entry | Section | Class | Price | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
From cheapest to most expensive. The gap between the bottom and the top rung is dozens of infantry lives, so a machine burned within a minute costs the squad a great deal.
| Start | $10,000 in the account at the beginning of a match |
| Earning | kills, completing objectives, reviving teammates, logistics |
| Spending | a loadout for every life, vehicles, crates and building materials |
| Bankruptcy | no wipe: run out of money and you are handed a free starter kit |
Prices come from the game data; every entry carries a source label. The economy numbers move with every balance patch: patches touch prices first.
The account opens once with $10,000 and does not refill by itself. Money carries over between matches, and death takes everything you had on you.
From $45 for a kit with the standard gun and three boxes of ammo to $5,860 for a run with an M4 and a Humvee. The $10,000 starting balance covers 222 of the cheapest runs or one of the most expensive.
The $45 kit: the standard Bushmaster M17S is free, you pay only for three boxes of 5.56x45mm. Die and you lose $45. With that kit you learn the map and never count money.
When the expected profit exceeds the kit's cost weighted by your chance to survive. There are no official loot figures — you enter them yourself, and the payback calculator shows at which survival rate the run turns a profit.
From $500 for the Bobcat to $18,000 for the Havoc. Helicopters, tanks and artillery are bought with the same money as a rifle: vehicles do not lie around the map, it is a decision to put a whole life's budget into one machine.
No. If you run out of money you get a free starter kit, and progress is not reset.
Prices come from game data, and every entry carries a source label. The economy numbers move with every balance patch — patches change prices first — so we re-check them with every patch, and each change shows up in the change log with its patch number.
