WARDOGS Leveling & Unlocks Guide: All 7 Tracks and the XP Curve

Progression in WARDOGS is spread across seven separate ladders, and each one unlocks a different part of the arsenal. Knowing which track feeds which items — and how steep the curve gets — saves you hours of playing the wrong role for the gun you actually want.

This guide combines the full Season 1 unlock ladders, read directly from the in-game Unlock tab, with the numbers BULKHEAD published in the "Pre-Load Live & Season 1 Changelog" on Steam: the rebalanced XP curve, the two XP events it changed, every official unlock-cost change and every level move. Where the sources say nothing — for example how many XP a revive is worth — we say so instead of guessing.

The seven tracks at a glance

Every weapon, attachment, magazine, gear piece and vehicle sits on exactly one ladder. Weapons and specialist items also show an XP track in their tooltip — pistols, for example, are tied to Assault even though they unlock on the WARDOG track. BULKHEAD's own description of the system is that roles are player-defined: you buy specialist items to build a loadout, and that is how you earn XP across the role tracks.

The Season 1 XP curve

Before launch, the XP bands were tuned for weekend-long beta tests. In the Season 1 changelog BULKHEAD slowed levels 10 to 20 considerably and flattened the curve from level 35 onward. Their stated goal: the median player, at 20 to 25 hours played, should sit around level 20, while the top 5% who want the big-ticket items will need to grind. Levels below 6 did not change. The changelog lists these thresholds for the role track curve:

Read the table as the XP you need on a track to reach that level. Two things stand out. First, the wall is in the middle: level 15 now needs roughly twice the beta XP and level 20 more than twice, so the jump from 10 to 20 (35,000 to 250,000) is the slowest stretch of Season 1. Second, the late game is comparatively even: from 35 onward each five levels costs 150,000–200,000 XP, which is why the curve feels flatter once you are past the hump.

MetaBot Desktop

Track your unlocks on every track

Set your level on the seven unlock tracks and MetaBot marks what you already have, what comes next and how far away the rest is, across weapons, gear and your loadouts.

• All seven unlock tracks
• What you have & what's next
• Saved on your PC

Download for WindowsMore InfoFree download

Unlocks tracked26/58

XP events: what we know

Only two XP event values have been published so far, both as nerfs in the Season 1 changelog:

The supply crate change came together with a rescaled supply crate purchase curve — from 25–250 down to 1–200 — "so low value items are priced sensibly and cannot be abused". In other words, selling cheap crate items is no longer an XP source worth your time. Beyond these two values, the official sources describe rewards qualitatively: teamplay actions such as revives, transport, kills and spotting earn cash in the zone, and the Hot Zone pays double cash. Exact XP per action has not been published, and we do not list numbers we cannot verify.

Fastest ways to level, according to the sources

1. 1
   Commit to one role at a time

   Role XP comes from the specialist items you carry, so running the same role every life concentrates your XP on one ladder instead of spreading it across six.

2. 2
   Play the objective

   Teamplay actions are what the game rewards, and the Hot Zone doubles cash and counts you double for the team score. More cash also means you can afford the unlock costs waiting at the next level.

3. 3
   Pilots: air-to-ground kills still pay

   At 250 XP, a player kill using an air vehicle is the one combat XP value BULKHEAD has published. The AH-6M [Miniguns] arrives at Pilot 4.

4. 4
   Skip dead-end XP tricks

   Selling supply crate items under $75 now gives 1 XP. XP-farming servers are a permanent-ban offence under the policy published with patch 0.11.

5. 5
   Watch for official bonuses

   Bonuses do appear: after patch 0.11 community servers paid a 5% End of Match cash bonus for one week. Check the patch notes for the current ones.

Official unlock costs

Reaching a level is not always enough — several unlocks carry a cash cost. These are every cost the Season 1 changelog published, alongside the two vendor (per-purchase) prices it raised:

Key unlocks by track and level

WARDOG track (1–150)

Role tracks (1–50)

Two patterns are worth planning around. The best general upgrades — armor tiers and HP ammo — are on the WARDOG track, not on a role track. And each role's flagship weapons sit behind the mid-curve wall: the M4 at Assault 20, the MAAWS at Support 20, the MK22 at Recon 25. See every rung on the progression page.

Season 1 level moves

The changelog also moved several unlocks. The most notable: the Artillery Tank (SPH-2) went from Career 55 to Career 90, the Heavy Tank moved from Career 35 to Driver 35 (it is the L2A6), and the Driver ladder was rejigged to escalate through attack vehicles.

• WARDOG: Sport Parachute 36 → 35, Large (Ruck) Backpack 56 → 55, 7.62x54mm AP 83 → 82, 5.56mm AP 85 → 83, Deagle 90 → 85.
• Medic: PP-19 50 round drum magazine 33 → 29.
• Support: Large Hammer 7 → 8.
• Driver: URAL 4 → 3, Kodiak Assault 8 → 6, Dune Buggy 10 → 8, Kodiak Flatbed 2 → 10, Large Supply Crate 20 → 16, URAL Covered 30 → 18, URAL Attack 40 → 25, Humvee with minigun 35 → 30.
• Music Tape H moved from Pilot 28 to Driver 23.

Planning your climb

• Pick the role whose level-20 unlock you want most.
• Carry that role's specialist items every life.
• Save cash ahead of priced unlocks such as the Medium Hammer ($25,000).
• Stay out of the supply-crate and XP-farm traps.
• Re-check your plan when Season 02 changes the curve and item order.

Related WARDOGS pages and tools

• [Progression & unlocks](/wardogs/progression) — every track's full unlock ladder and the XP curve
• [All weapons](/wardogs/weapons) — every gun with measured damage, fire rate, DPS, price and unlock
• [Attachments](/wardogs/attachments) — every optic, grip and muzzle with its tooltip effects
• [Vehicles](/wardogs/vehicles) — every truck, helicopter and tank with its unlock
• [Patch notes](/wardogs/patch-notes) — every official change to prices, unlocks and XP
• [Weapon tier list](/wardogs/tier-list) — every class ranked on measured DPS or damage per hit