WARDOGS Helicopters Guide: Little Bird, Lakota and HAVOC (Season 2)

Helicopters are the fastest way across a WARDOGS map and the fastest way to lose a bank. A Z20 Lakota can drop eleven passengers at the edge of the Control Zone in the time a truck takes to leave HQ, and a minigun Little Bird can tilt a tick on its own — but every one of them can be knocked out of the sky by a buildable that costs the enemy a few hundred supplies. Season 2 (15 October 2026) made the armed helicopters later and dearer to unlock, raised their spawn prices and cut the damage of their miniguns. This guide covers all six, what each is for, how to learn to fly, what you will be shot by, and what a crash really costs.

The six helicopters

BULKHEAD lists the gates and prices; the seats, speeds and resistances are community measurements, labelled so. Three of the gates below — Lakota, AH-6R and HAVOC level — are Season 1 values the Season 2 notes didn't restate.

Learn to fly on the MH-6

Every new pilot should spend the first hour in the MH-6 Little Bird. It needs no unlock and it is cheap enough to lose, and community guides say the Firing Range spawns every vehicle for free — the right place to learn take-offs, hovering and landings before a real match. TechWiser's vehicle list warns that a small bump on landing can damage a rotor, and that repairs need a wrench or a drill.

1. Firing Range first.Ten take-offs and landings on flat ground, then ten on a slope or rooftop.
2. Fly empty in a quiet lobby.Do runs between HQ and the zone edge without passengers until you stop clipping trees.
3. Land short, not on top.Set down behind cover a few hundred metres from the zone; hovering over it is how Little Birds die.
4. Carry people only when you'd trust yourself as a passenger.BULKHEAD's own Season 2 notes tell players to "trust a pilot" before boarding — be that pilot.
5. Then start the money runs.Players and pallets, chained for the delivery streak.

Flying for money: passengers and pallets

Season 2 lowered the base payouts for logistics and added streaks, so long chains of deliveries now beat single trips. From BULKHEAD's notes (Control Zone values):

The Lakota is built for this: community sheets give it 2 crew and 11 passengers, a large trunk and flares. A full Lakota is eleven player deliveries in one trip — and eleven reasons to fly carefully. The cash farming guide covers the rest of the payout table.

AH-6M and AH-6R: the Little Bird gunships

BULKHEAD was blunt about the minigun Little Bird in its Season 2 notes: it "was too strong for how early it unlocked, so it now unlocks later and costs more" — Pilot 8 instead of 4, $125,000 instead of $50,000, and $12,000 a spawn instead of $7,000. The same notes cut .50 Cal damage by 16%, including vehicle miniguns on the AH-6M, the Lakota and the Humvee. The AH-6R carries rocket pods and costs $18,800 a spawn (was $12,500); its Pilot 20 gate is a community-reported Season 1 value.

The HAVOC

The HAVOC is WARDOGS' attack helicopter: two crew, an autocannon and rockets, about 400 km/h and an 800 HP airframe in community measurements. Season 2 raised its unlock from $500,000 to $650,000 and its spawn price from $18,000 to $28,000; destroying one pays the enemy $14,000. It has also been patched more than any other vehicle. Update 0.1.2 (29 September) fixed a bug that made it take extra damage from 20 mm and 30 mm cannon fire, and the 2 October CIWS hotfix set the CIWS to destroy a HAVOC in about six seconds instead of twelve, after BULKHEAD judged an earlier change an overcorrection. BoostPirate's rule: spawn a HAVOC only when you know where every enemy CIWS stands.

What shoots you down

Your counters: altitude and speed, terrain between you and their buildables, and the Lakota's flares (smoke screens and flares were fixed for late joiners in Season 2). The tanks guide explains the Gepard from the driver's side, and the anti-vehicle guide the infantry side.

Crashes, parachutes and passengers

A crash costs you the spawn price. In Season 1, community tracking also logged a $1,500 charge per passenger killed in your crash — the Season 2 notes did not restate it, so treat it as a likely but unconfirmed cost. Run the numbers for a full Lakota under that rule:

Season 2 also made parachutes open more slowly and not at all below roughly 10 m. If the helicopter is going down near the ground, your passengers are better off riding it in than jumping; high up, bail early. The Sport parachute is a Wardog 34 unlock ($700 a spawn), the basic one costs $500 since Season 2.

Pilot XP: how flying levels up

The Pilot track pays for helicopter transport and supply runs, and door-gunner kills on your helicopter add XP. Since Season 2, helicopter repairs pay Pilot XP too (ground-vehicle repairs went to Driver). The track's main gates are the AH-6M at Pilot 8 and the HAVOC at Pilot 35, and the Season 2 role curve needs 111,500 XP for level 20 and 1,150,000 for level 50. The classes guide compares the six tracks, and the vehicles and unlock levels guide lists every gate.

Helicopters and Season 3

BULKHEAD's "Road to Season 3" post (6 November 2026) dates Season 3 to 12 November 2026 and announces a new urban map, Sabatulo, with a patch-notes preview due early the following week. Urban maps mean short sightlines for buildables and rooftops for landings — and CEO Joe Brammer has said Season 3 also brings Limited Mode servers "with no power weapons and no vehicles". The Steam page lists fighter jets among the Early Access plans, with no date. Levels reset with the season, so the Pilot 8 gunship has to be earned again; check the Season 03 notes for new prices.