WARDOGS Season 3 weapon tier list & meta: best guns and when they unlock

Season 3 gave assault rifles, LMGs and DMRs their torso damage back, put HP and AP rounds on several role tracks and pushed the AMR 50 deeper into Recon. This guide ranks the primaries by how fast they kill at each range and shows when each gun and round unlocks. Every number comes from the site's ballistics model run on Season 3 data (build CL-533731). To change range, armour or round yourself, open the live tier list.

Short answer.

• Close, up to 50 m: M14, 3 hits and 231 ms against Level 2. Among automatics, Super-45 with 5 hits and 343 ms.
• Mid, about 100 m: M14 3 hits, 293 ms; M4 6 hits, 494 ms with the lowest climb of the fast rifles.
• Long, 200 m and beyond: AMR 50, one chest hit through Level 3, now at 41. M14 4 hits, 509 ms.
• Against Level 4: HP to the thighs. Every DMR kills in 2 hits, a 5.56 rifle in 4.
• Budget: T-21 at 3 for $1,200, 6 hits and 457 ms at 50 m. SKS at 5, 4 hits.
• Fastest AP: Recon. 5.56 AP at 27, 7.62x39 AP at 28, .308 AP at 35.

All times assume an upper-chest hit, a vest and helmet of the same level, FMJ rounds and every shot on target. TTK runs from the first shot to the kill and includes bullet flight.

What changed for weapons#

Season 2 cut the upper-chest multiplier of rifles and machine guns to 0.9735. Season 3 sets it to 1.10 and raises the middle and lower torso. DMRs got bigger multipliers on every zone, and their calibre penalty shrank.

Hits at 50 m, upper chest, FMJ, Season 2 → Season 3:

Every DMR now kills an unhelmeted head in 1 hit (was 2). SMGs, pistols and bolt-action rifles kept their numbers. The TCX-SPR stays at 6 hits on Level 2, so the M4 now matches its 449 ms with 432 ms and a 910 m/s bullet against 700 m/s. Every changed weapon number is in What changed.

The hidden SKS penalty#

The patch notes do not mention it, but the Season 3 infantry damage table adds two rules for 7.62x39 fired from a marksman rifle, which only hits the SKS: ×0.80 damage through helmets and ×0.85 damage through vests. Without them the SKS would gain more:

The SKS still kills unarmoured targets in 2 chest hits or 1 head hit, and thighs carry no plate, so HP to the legs (2 hits) ignores the penalty.

When everything unlocks in Season 3#

Season 3 raised the XP per level back toward Season 1, so each level below takes longer than last season. Weapons still unlock on one role track each. Ammunition now unlocks on several tracks at once: whichever track gets there first opens it for every role.

Weapons by stage of the wipe#

Recon holds four of the five fastest guns at 50 m: SKS at 5, SVD at 12, BMR-308 at 20 and M14 at 25. A Recon player has a 3-hit Level 2 kill from 12; no automatic weapon kills in fewer than 5.

HP and AP rounds on every track#

Every HP round now costs $15,000 to unlock (was $5,000) and every AP round $75,000. Season 2 sold all of them on the Wardog track only. Tracks are listed fastest first; the Season 2 level is in the last column.

What this means in practice:

• Recon is the AP track. It reaches 5.56, 7.62x39, .308 and 7.62x54R AP before any other role. Level Recon to 35 and the whole squad's rifles get AP.
• 5.56 HP at 7 gives M4 and M249 players the 4-hit thigh kill on Level 4 within the first evenings.
• .308 got slower. HP sits at 26 or 31, AP at 35. On the Wardog track AP moved from 140 to 170.
• Medic owns pistol-calibre rounds. 9 mm HP at 8, .45 ACP AP at 41.

Magazines and other moves#

• AMR 50 5-round magazine moved with the rifle to 41; the 10-round one to 49.
• M14 30-round magazine: 36 → 32, $50,000. The 20-round one stays at 31.
• Super-45 30-round magazine: 43 → 42. Galil 50-round magazine: 15 → 16.
• Broadhead Arrow for the Compound Bow is now unlocked by default (was 16).

Limited Mode: FMJ only#

Limited Mode sells no HP or AP rounds and no Level 3 or Level 4 armour. There the close and mid tables below, FMJ against Level 2, are the whole meta, and the 6-hit 5.56 rifles and 3-hit DMRs set the pace. Cash and progress carry over to standard servers.

Close range, up to 50 m#

Key picks:

• M14 25: 3 hits, 231 ms (50 m, Level 2). 2 hits without armour, 1 to an unhelmeted head.
• SVD 12 and BMR-308 20: 3 hits, 314 and 324 ms.
• Super-45 35: 5 hits, 343 ms. 13-round magazine until 42. 9 hits at 100 m.
• M249 SAW 20: 6 hits, 410 ms. 100-round magazine as standard.
• FAL 35 and Evo-3 Ultra 30: back to 5 hits, 430 and 407 ms.
• M4 28: 6 hits, 432 ms. TCX-SPR 20: 6 hits, 449 ms.
• MP43: 2 shells, 107 ms at 15 m, no unlock, $400. The model counts every pellet as a hit.

Mid range, about 100 m#

Key picks:

• M14: 3 hits, 293 ms (100 m, Level 2). SVD 380 ms, BMR-308 384 ms.
• M249 SAW: 6 hits, 471 ms. Best prone or on the bipod.
• M4: 6 hits, 494 ms. 0.84 MOA, 910 m/s, climb 10.4 per 10 shots.
• TCX-SPR: 6 hits, 529 ms. Its climb fell from 15.9 to 12.6 per 10 shots and its sideways drift by about a third, but the 700 m/s bullet still costs time at range.
• Galil 10: 6 hits, 575 ms. Lowest climb of any rifle (10.1) and the fastest bullet (950 m/s).

Long range, 200 m and beyond#

Key picks:

• AMR 50 41: 1 chest hit through Level 3, 234 ms at 200 m. $14,800, six levels later than in Season 2.
• M14: 4 hits, 509 ms (200 m, Level 3). SVD and BMR-308 4 hits, 644 ms.
• SV98 18: 1 head hit through a Level 2 helmet, 260 ms at 200 m. 2 chest hits through Level 3. Bolt-action numbers did not change. Outside the top 10 above, which ranks chest hits.
• M4: 7 hits, 707 ms. The best automatic at 200 m apart from the M249 (679 ms).

Against Level 4 vest and helmet#

Key picks:

• M14 with .308 AP 35: 3 hits, 231 ms. FMJ: 5 hits, 403 ms.
• SVD with 7.62x54R AP 34: 3 hits, 314 ms.
• TCX-SPR with 7.62x39 AP 28: 6 hits, 449 ms.
• M4 with 5.56 AP 27: 7 hits, 507 ms. FMJ: 9 hits, 657 ms.
• Super-45 with .45 AP 41: 7 hits, 443 ms.

HP to the thighs beats all of it. No vest covers the thighs, so armour level does not matter:

Keep HP away from plates: the M4 with HP needs 16 chest hits against Level 2. See every weapon this way in the tier list with HP to the legs or in Ballistics.

Budget and early wipe#

Key picks:

• T-21 3: 6 hits, 457 ms (50 m, Level 2). $1,200. Fastest rifle until 12 brings the SVD.
• SKS 5: 4 hits, 499 ms. $2,400. 2 hits on unarmoured players, which early in a wipe is most of them.
• AK74: 6 hits, 521 ms. No unlock, $800. 5.45 HP at 6.
• Galil 10: 6 hits, 516 ms. $2,000, the best early rifle past 100 m.
• MP5 4: 7 hits, 589 ms. 9 mm HP at 8.
• Free recruit rifles (A-91, KH-2002, Bushmaster M17S): 6 hits, 501 ms on paper, but semi or burst only and no attachments.

On paper vs in the hands#

Numbers vs handling.

• M14: first at 50, 100 and 200 m, but the TTK assumes semi-auto fire at its full cadence. It has the highest climb we measured (31.3 per 10 shots; M4 10.4), a 10-round standard magazine and no foregrip slot. The 30-round magazine at 32 adds ×1.22 vertical recoil.
• SVD and BMR-308: 3 hits at 50 and 100 m against Level 2. Both carry 10 rounds or fewer: the SVD starts with 5 until 17.
• M4 vs TCX-SPR: same 6 hits on Level 2. The M4 fires faster bullets with less climb; the TCX-SPR is one hit better against Level 4 and gets AP at 28.
• FAL, PKM, Evo-3 Ultra: 5 hits again. The PKM unlocks at 15 for $4,100 and has the steadier bipod (vertical ×0.2 against the Evo's ×0.4).
• Compound Bow: arrows fly at 240 m/s instead of 160, so a 50 m shot lands in about 0.21 s instead of 0.31 s (straight line, no drag). One arrow still kills through Level 2.

Compare the pairs: M4, TCX-SPR and Galil, M14, BMR-308 and SVD. The DMRs suit the long streets of Sabatulo.

Method and limits#

• Every number comes from the site's ballistics model on Season 3 data, build CL-533731. Ballistics and the tier list show the same values.
• Assumptions: upper-chest hit unless stated, vest and helmet of the same level, 100 health, every shot hits at the listed fire rate. TTK = (hits − 1) × fire interval + bullet flight time.
• Unlock levels and cash come from the same build. A preview card in the patch notes shows .308 AP at other levels; the table above follows the shipped data.
• The model leaves out recoil feel, visibility, sound and shotgun pellet spread. We did not test in game; the tiers weigh numbers against handling, magazine, unlock level and price, so they include our judgement.

Further reading#

• Live tier list: the same ranking for any range, armour level, round and role level.
• Ballistics: hits and TTK for any weapon, zone and distance.
• Loadout builder: what a weapon with its build costs you on death.
• What changed in Season 3: every changed weapon and unlock number.
• Season 3 patch notes: the full update with Sabatulo and Limited Mode.
• Season 2 weapon meta: last season's numbers for comparison.