WARDOGS Season 3 vehicle guide: helicopters, tanks, anti-air and unlocks

Season 3 made the attack Littlebird cheaper and much deadlier against infantry, gave the AH-6R its own 70mm rockets, moved the 9K333 Verba six levels earlier and pushed every tank deep into the Driver track. This guide explains what each change does in a fight. Every number comes from the Season 3 client files (build CL-533731) and the site's ballistics model; the few figures that only BULKHEAD published are marked as such.

Short answer.

• Best early aircraft: AH-6M [Miniguns] at 8, now $10,480. Its miniguns kill a Level 2 soldier in 4 upper-chest hits instead of 6.
• Counter it: 9K333 Verba at 8 for $800 (unlock $50,000). The Vanguard CIWS now tops out at 60° elevation, so keep it away from the spot helicopters fly over.
• AH-6R [Rockets]: the same 100 damage and 6 m blast as before, but the pods spread 25 MOA instead of 6. Aim it at vehicles and FOBs, not at lone soldiers 300 m away.
• Tanks: T-72B3 35, SPH-2 40, Flakpanzer Gepard 45, L2A6 50. Hand grenades and 40mm launchers do far less to them, and Molotov fire does nothing.
• Cheapest armed truck: Kodiak [M249] at 6 for $6,250.

What changed at a glance#

Smaller shifts on the Driver track: Dune Buggy 9 → 12, Humvee 14 → 15, Humvee [M249] 24 → 25, Ural Defender 15 → 16 and Ural Defender [M249] 22 → 20. Tanks also sit on the Wardog track now, so whichever track gets there first opens them.

Helicopters#

The minigun buff in hits to kill#

Three vehicles carry miniguns: AH-6M [Miniguns], Z20 Lakota [Miniguns] and Humvee [Minigun]. All three fire .308 Win (45 damage per round) at 1,500 rounds per minute. Season 3 raised their infantry hit-zone multipliers by 50% to 78%:

The game multiplies these by the shared infantry values (1.1 on the upper torso, 1.0 on the head, 0.6 on the thigh). One FMJ round to an unarmoured upper chest now deals 46.3 damage instead of 28.2. Hits to kill, Season 2 → Season 3, FMJ, without range falloff:

At 1,500 rounds per minute the gun fires every 40 ms, so a Level 2 chest kill needs 120 ms of fire instead of 200 ms if every round lands. Spread decides that. The AH-6M and Humvee guns spread 25 MOA with an 800 m effective range; the Lakota's door guns spread 10 MOA with 1,500 m.

Cockpit glass and hull#

Pilots and co-pilots of the MH-6, AH-6M, AH-6R and both Z20 Lakota versions take less damage from bullets that reach their seat:

The .50 Cal belongs to a separate class, so neither reduction covers it. The hull rules changed too: against all three Littlebirds, both Lakotas and the Havoc, AP bullets deal +20% and HP bullets −20%. Shooting at a helicopter with HP now wastes ammunition; load AP if you expect air.

AH-6R [Rockets] switches to Hydra 70mm#

In Season 2 the AH-6R [Rockets] shared the 122mm HE Rocket with the Havoc. It now fires the new Hydra 70mm: $450 for 3, no unlock. The projectile copies the 122mm numbers: 100 damage, 6 m blast radius, full damage within 2 m, 10 minimum damage, 1,430 m/s, and −45% against infantry. The pods kept 350 rounds per minute, but their accuracy went from 6 to 25 MOA.

The full-damage zone is 4 m across, so at 300 m a rocket aimed at a lone soldier can now land outside it. A tank, a truck or a FOB wall is bigger than the cone, so the AH-6R still hits them at range.

The Hydra also carries its own rule on every vehicle. The table lists that per-vehicle rule only; it is not a full damage calculation.

Unarmoured trucks and the T-72B3 take the most from Hydra rockets, and rocket duels against other helicopters are close to pointless.

Z20 Lakota and Havoc#

The Z20 Lakota stays the fastest transport at 445 km/h with 13 seats, from 10. The Havoc costs $2,000 less to buy, but $100,000 more to unlock at 35. Both lost part of their protection against the CIWS (next section).

Anti-air#

9K333 Verba at Support 8#

The 9K333 Verba moved from 14 to 8, the same level as the AH-6M on the Pilot track. It costs $800 and $50,000 to unlock, locks on aerial vehicles only, and Limited Mode keeps it in the vendor. Every Littlebird and Lakota carries 2 flares, so fire after the pilot spends them or when he cannot see you.

Vanguard CIWS#

The Vanguard CIWS fires 20x102mm rounds (60 damage, 3.75 m blast) at 1,800 rounds per minute and has 5,000 health. Season 3 lowered its maximum elevation from 65° to 60° (the minimum stays −5°), which widens the blind cone straight above it. BULKHEAD also writes that each round now damages a vehicle section once instead of several times as it passes through. The per-vehicle values were retuned to match:

According to BULKHEAD, the Havoc and Lakota end up taking about the same total damage as in Season 2 and Littlebirds slightly less. Build the CIWS off to the side of the approach path, so attackers cross its arc instead of hovering on top of it. Limited Mode does not allow it.

Talon 9K-SAM, Flakpanzer Gepard and the .50 Cal#

• Talon 9K-SAM: a Support buildable with 3,000 health that fires heat-seeking missiles. Hydra rockets deal −70% to it.
• Flakpanzer Gepard: two 35x228mm cannons (60 damage per round) at 1,100 rounds per minute. It now unlocks at 45 for $500,000, so expect it much later in the wipe than in Season 2.
• .50 Cal: the Wolf-110 [M2 Browning] turret fires it at 90 damage per round, and the Littlebird cockpit reduction does not apply to it. At $6,800 it is the cheapest gun that punishes a low hover.

Tanks and armour#

The SPH-2 opens earlier on the Wardog track than the T-72B3. If you play several roles, Wardog 145 can beat Driver 40 to it. Aim artillery with the artillery calculator.

Grenades and 40mm#

Season 2 gave the tanks −60% against the inner radius of hand grenades and +20% against 40mm launcher grenades. Season 3 sets these on all four tanks:

The T-72B3 also lost an engine-only −95% rule against 40mm, so all four tanks now share one value. BULKHEAD lists the result: 3 launcher hits to break a track and 5 to 6 to disable an engine, the same as hand grenades. Against a tank, carry a real launcher, C4 or AT Mines.

Molotov resistance#

The Molotov Cocktail fire now deals 5 damage per tick to vehicles instead of 2, and 20 per tick to players instead of 15. In return, every vehicle got its own resistance:

Fire does nothing to a tank. The Dune Buggy and the Wolf-110 burn fastest: 3.75 and 3.5 damage per tick.

Gun trucks and transports#

The Humvee [Minigun] gains the same minigun buff as the helicopters, so at 30 it is the strongest anti-infantry truck. Before that, the Wolf-110 [M2 Browning] gives you a .50 Cal for $6,800.

BULKHEAD's patch notes also raise reverse speeds. The client files we read do not expose these values, so the table repeats BULKHEAD's figures:

On the narrow streets of Sabatulo a fast reverse gets a truck out of a dead end before a launcher finds it.

Vehicles in Limited Mode#

The Limited Mode vendor list in the Season 3 files keeps only unarmed transports: MH-6, Z20 Lakota, Bobcat, Dune Buggy, Humvee, Kodiak, Kodiak [Pickup], URAL, Ural Defender and Wolf-110. The 9K333 Verba stays, so a Support player still has an answer to a transport landing on the roof. Armed vehicles, tanks and the Vanguard CIWS are out.

Method and limits#

• Prices, unlock levels, health, seats, speeds, damage rules, projectile data and weapon spread come from the Season 3 client (build CL-533731), compared with the Season 2 client. Every changed number is on What changed.
• Minigun hits use the site's ballistics model: .308 Win FMJ, 100 health, vest and helmet of the same level, no range falloff, every round on target. Thigh hits ignore armour because no vest covers the thigh.
• Rocket cone widths treat the MOA value as the full cone angle, the same reading the artillery calculator uses.
• Reverse speeds, the CIWS per-round change and the grenade-launcher hit counts come from BULKHEAD's patch notes; we did not measure them in game.

Further reading#

• Season 3 weapon meta: the infantry side of the same patch.
• Season 3 patch notes: every change with Sabatulo and Limited Mode.
• Ballistics: hits and TTK for any infantry weapon, zone and distance.
• Progression: XP per level on every role track.
• FOB planner: where to put the CIWS and the Talon.
• Sabatulo map: routes and landing spots on the new city map.