WARDOGS Assault Guide (2026): Breaching, Loadouts and Unlocks

Assault is the frontline gun role of WARDOGS: the person who walks into the Control Zone with a rifle, wins the fight for a building and then breaks into the enemy's forward base. It's the most popular track and, for most players, the slowest, because its XP depends on winning gunfights. Season 2 changed that a little. BULKHEAD moved destroyed-buildable and IED / C4 XP from Support to Assault, raised the kill bonus for Assault-archetype weapons and started paying every teammate in the radius of a FOB hack. This guide goes deeper than our overview of all six classes: what Assault is paid for now, the full unlock ladder, three loadouts by budget, armour trade-offs and a step-by-step breach.

What Assault does in a 100-player match

WARDOGS is three factions fighting over one Control Zone, and the faction with the most players inside it takes the point. BULKHEAD's Steam page puts it simply: the team with the most players in the zone earns points and the first to 100 wins. The community wiki wardogs.zone adds the detail that matters to Assault: a score tick lands every 22 seconds, presence scores, kills don't, players in the Hot Zone count double and downed players count as zero. Killing an enemy inside the zone takes a body off their count; that's why fights there decide matches.

So Assault has three jobs, in this order. First, clear the ground your squad wants to stand on — the building, the treeline or the ridge inside the circle. Second, take away the enemy's tools: their FOB, their emplacements, their drill towers. Third, trade well: a kill that loses you the room is worse than no kill at all. The track's XP rewards all three, but only the second one pays in big blocks.

What pays Assault XP and cash in Season 2

BULKHEAD's Season 2 patch notes changed three things for Assault. The kill bonus for Assault-archetype weapons went from $1,500 to $2,000, so rifles are paid better than other guns for the same kill. Destroyed buildables and IED / C4 kills now pay Assault XP instead of Support XP. And a FOB hack now pays the whole squad: the hacker keeps $2,500 and 250 XP, and every teammate inside the radius gets $1,000 and 250 XP. Destroying a FOB adds a bonus of up to $7,500 and 250 XP, scaled by the supplies stored in it (the cap is reached at 25,000 supplies). Capturing a hostile drill tower doubled to $1,500 and 300 XP.

BULKHEAD doesn't publish per-action XP for kills, so these are community figures from Slyther Games' class XP tables (updated 21 October 2026). Treat them as a guide to what's worth doing, not as exact values:

Two rules follow. A single hack with four squadmates inside the radius is worth more XP to the squad than several kills, and a destroyed FOB is the biggest single payout an infantry player can earn. And because buildable kills are now Assault XP, an RPG or C4 on a CIWS or an MG Nest isn't "Support's job" any more — it's yours.

The Assault unlock ladder

Every item has two gates: a role level that opens it and a one-off cash fee that buys access. Most kit is then bought again every spawn and lost when you die. This is the Season 2 order from BULKHEAD's notes, including the attachment moves that matter:

1. 1AK74 + 30 RNDdefault · $800 a spawn (was $1,600)
2. 2Birdcage brake$5,000 · was level 16
3. 3T-21$10,000 · $1,200 a spawn (was the default rifle)
4. 3STANAG 30 RNDfree · was level 6
5. 4Remote Detonator + C4moved in from Support
6. 83 Prong brake$7,500 · was level 24
7. 13Molotov$25,000 · $340 a throw
8. 14CQR grip$10,000 · was level 38
9. 172.5x Combat Opticmoved in from the Wardog track
10. 20TCX-SPR + 28 RND$100,000 · $3,200 a spawn · 7.62x39mm
11. 22Four Reticle Reflexmoved in from Medic
12. 28M4$150,000 · was level 20 and $100,000
13. 40SRD762TI-QD suppressor$40,000 · new

The FAL's unlock rose to $250,000 in Season 2 and its spawn price fell to $6,000; BULKHEAD's notes give its fee but not a new level, so check the vendor. On the shared curve, Assault 13 (the Molotov) is about 42,850 XP and Assault 28 (the M4) about 273,600 — our straight line between BULKHEAD's published points of 25,000 XP at level 10, 54,750 at 15, 206,600 at 25 and 318,200 at 30.

Three Assault loadouts by budget

Your bank carries between matches, and everything you take into a life is gone when you die, so the right loadout is the one whose cost you earn back. These three use Season 2 spawn prices; the totals are our arithmetic for the items listed.

Prices: BULKHEAD's Season 2 notes, except the bandage (a Season 1 community price the notes didn't change). Ammunition, attachments, armour and the C4 charges themselves aren't included. Level 3 armour and helmet are a Wardog 70 unlock since Season 2 ($2,500 + $2,000 a spawn); Level 4 costs $5,000 + $4,500 and the notes don't restate its gate.

Armour, helmets and suppression

Season 2 made heavy armour a trade-off. Damage reduction fell five points on both upper tiers, helmets gained suppression resistance, and the Level 4 helmet picked up real drawbacks:

The Level 4 helmet muffles your audio and proximity chat, narrows your field of view and fogs when you sprint — three bad things for a player whose job is to hear footsteps and clear corners. Suppression was also rebuilt around per-weapon falloff, with much stronger near-miss suppression from small and medium calibres, so a helmet that cuts suppression has real value. The community wiki adds that armour is a durability pool that each hit drains, and that limbs aren't covered at all (wardogs.zone, 20 October 2026).

Weapon damage moved too: 7.62x39mm (the TCX-SPR's round) lost 19% base damage, .308 lost 25%, and assault-rifle body shots were "slightly reduced" while torso damage became more even. In practice: aim centre mass, keep shooting through the armour, and don't count on one burst finishing someone in a vest.

How to breach and hack an enemy FOB

A FOB is a forward base a Support player builds and stocks with supplies; per the community wiki it doesn't spawn players, but it holds the emplacements that make a position hard to take. The hero diagram above is the plan. Step by step:

1. Scout the walls. Find the door and gate side, and where the MG Nest and CIWS face. Season 2's notes say doors and gates can't be hammered; the Halligan bar is the tool that breaches them.
2. Gather the squad outside the radius. Everyone who is inside the hack radius when it completes gets $1,000 and 250 XP. Four teammates turn one hack into five payouts.
3. Breach the door with the Halligan. It pays $100 once per door, now has 7 uses (was 5) and costs $885 a spawn.
4. Burn the room. A Molotov splashes fire on impact and keeps damaging anyone standing in it — throw it through the door you just opened. Rain reduces its fire output.
5. Kill the emplacements. C4 or a rocket on the CIWS ($1,200 supplies), Talon or MG Nest (650 each). The cash for a destroyed buildable equals its build cost and the XP, about a quarter of that, now goes to Assault.
6. Hack, then destroy. Hack the FOB ($2,500 and 250 XP to you) with the squad inside, then destroy it for up to $7,500 more if it was well stocked.

Two limits from the Season 2 notes: explosives and placeables can't be used from enclosed vehicle seats, so dismount before you throw, and an empty enemy crate destroyed pays half. If the FOB has no supplies in it, the destroy bonus is small and the hack is the real prize.

Fighting for the Control Zone

When there's no FOB to break, Assault's job is presence. Fight to stand inside the circle, and push into the Hot Zone when you can hold it: per the community wiki every player there counts double. The same wiki describes the drill towers: each numbered tower your faction captures reveals part of a code, and holding all of them lets you fire a Hot Zone Magnet that pulls the Hot Zone onto your tower for 180 seconds (900-second recharge). That's why a hostile tower pays $1,500 and 300 XP in Season 2 — taking one breaks another faction's code.

• Trade inside the zone. A kill outside the circle changes nothing on the scoreboard; a kill inside takes a body off their count.
• Stay up for the tick. A downed Assault counts as zero, so fall back to your Medic before you push the next room.
• Watch the scoreboard gap. BULKHEAD's notes give any faction 40 or more points behind second place 20% off at vendors — the losing side can afford heavier kit, so expect it.

C4, IEDs and the Molotov

The Remote Detonator and C4 moved from Support to Assault 4 in Season 2, and the Remote Detonator now costs $650 a spawn (was $550). C4 is Assault's answer to things a rifle can't kill: emplacements and parked vehicles. Season 2 also made IED and C4 kills pay Assault XP, so a charge on the road to the zone is a legitimate way to level.

The Molotov is new in Season 2: unlocked at Assault 13 for $25,000, $340 a throw. BULKHEAD describes it as a thrown incendiary that splashes fire on impact, can be thrown overarm or underarm, deals impact damage and damage over time to anyone standing in the flames, and burns destructible foliage. Rain reduces its fire output. BoostPirate's advice: use it to deny, not to kill — on a doorway you're about to clear, on the stairwell defenders retreat to, or on the grass a sniper is lying in.

Assault mistakes that cost you the bank

Assault in Season 3

BULKHEAD's "Road to Season 3" post (6 November 2026) dates Season 3 to 12 November 2026 and names a new map, Sabatulo, built around urban warfare and close-quarters combat — the kind of fighting this guide is about. It also promises longer seasons, action on cheating and exploits, and a Season 3 patch-notes preview the week before launch. Progression resets at a new season (BULKHEAD's Season 2 devlog), and CEO Joe Brammer called Season 3 "a proper fresh start", so your Assault level starts again; the jobs above don't. When the notes land, check the C4 and Molotov gates first.

Want the M4 or the TCX-SPR without the grind? Our Assault leveling takes your track from your current level to your target, piloted or in your squad. For the rest of the team, read the Medic guide (who keeps you standing), the Support guide (who builds what you're breaking) and the Recon guide (who marks it for you). The cash farming guide covers keeping the bank healthy.