WARDOGS Ammo Types Guide: FMJ vs HP vs AP

Every conventional gun in WARDOGS can load up to three kinds of ammunition: Standard (FMJ), Flesh Damage (HP, hollow point) and Armor Piercing (AP). The game itself only describes them in words — "increased damage against flesh", "increased damage to body armor and vehicles" — and shows no damage numbers anywhere in the UI.

So we measured it. In the Season 1 Firing Range we shot the tan unarmored mannequin at about 20 m with every ammo type and recorded the damage popup for each hit. This guide gives you those multipliers, the damage they produce on real weapons, which calibers can load HP and AP, the WARDOG level each round unlocks at, and a practical rule for when to use which. Anything we could not measure — above all, behaviour against armor — is flagged as such.

The three ammo types

Here is what the in-game tooltips say about each type, next to what our Firing Range tests showed against an unarmored target:

Measured damage: FMJ, HP and AP side by side

Method: single shots at the Firing Range tan 3D mannequin (unarmored), roughly 20 m away, with the HUD weapon name checked on every run. FMJ chest damage was measured for 20 weapons. The HP and AP ratios were exact to two decimals on every caliber tested — 5.56x45mm, 5.45x39mm, 9x19mm, .45 ACP, 7.62x54R, .308 Win and .50 AE — so the HP and AP columns below are the measured FMJ value multiplied by 2.0 and 0.8.

Notice that the multiplier is applied to the weapon, not just the cartridge: the M1911 and the Super-45 share .45 ACP but hit for 45.06 and 34.67, and the three .308 guns range from 66.01 (FAL) to 118.81 (MK22). What stays constant is the ratio — HP always doubles and AP always takes 20% off, whatever you shoot it from. Headshots scale on top of that: with FMJ we measured roughly 2.14× chest damage to the head for the assault rifles, 1.82× for 9mm, .45 ACP and .50 AE, and 1.75× for the SVD and BMR-308. Compare any two guns on the damage chart.

Which calibers get HP and AP — and when

Every HP and AP round unlocks on the WARDOG track; FMJ is available from the start. The spread is huge: 9mm HP arrives at level 6, while .308 Win AP waits until level 140.

A few quirks are worth knowing. The .50 Cal of the AMR 50 only exists as FMJ. The 7.62x54R AP round (level 82) unlocks just before the AP rounds for 5.56 (83) and 5.45 (93) after the Season 1 changelog moved 7.62x54mm AP from 83 to 82 and 5.56mm AP from 85 to 83. AP also does not follow caliber order: 7.62x39mm AP for the SKS (level 63) is the earliest AP in the game, ahead of 9mm AP (75). Even so, AP is an endgame reward on every caliber.

Shells, rockets, arrows and batteries

The minimum arming distances matter in close fights: a rocket or grenade that hits closer than 16 m (25 m for the MAAWS) will not have armed. Batteries are also listed with ammunition — the standard Battery and the High Capacity Battery (WARDOG 45) recharge drills and defibrillators. Browse all 36 ammo items on the ammo page.

When to use FMJ, HP and AP

1. 1
   Default to HP once you unlock it

   Against anything unarmored, HP is a flat 2.0× — the single biggest damage upgrade in the game that we have measured. For 9mm and 5.56mm it arrives early (WARDOG 6 and 10).

2. 2
   Keep FMJ when targets are mixed

   FMJ "deals even damage to all target types". If you cannot predict whether you will face armored players or unarmored ones, it is the round with no stated weakness.

3. 3
   Save AP for armor and vehicles

   AP loses 20% on unarmored body parts but is the only type described as dealing increased damage to body armor and vehicles. Load it when armored enemies or light vehicles are what you are shooting at.

4. 4
   Think about where armor covers

   Level 1–2 Helmets cover the head, Level 3–4 add the neck. Level 1–3 Armor covers the upper and lower torso; Level 4 also covers the upper arms and pelvis. Everything else is unarmored flesh.

5. 5
   Leave vehicles to launchers

   Against vehicles, the RPG-7, MAAWS and 9K333 Verba are purpose-built; AP rifle ammo is a supplement, not a replacement.

Want to see how ammo interacts with a specific gun? Every weapon page — for example the M4 or the SVD — lists its calibers, magazines and measured damage, and the loadout builder lets you plan a full kit around it.

Related WARDOGS pages and tools

• [Ammo types by caliber](/wardogs/ammo) — FMJ, HP and AP for every caliber with unlock levels
• [Damage calculator](/wardogs/damage) — damage per hit, DPS and hits to reach any total, by ammo and hit zone
• [Magazines](/wardogs/magazines) — capacity, weight and damage per magazine
• [All weapons](/wardogs/weapons) — every gun with measured damage, fire rate, DPS, price and unlock
• [Weapon compare tool](/wardogs/compare) — put up to four guns side by side
• [Weapon tier list](/wardogs/tier-list) — every class ranked on measured DPS or damage per hit