Combat & Loadouts

Step by step

1. FMJ: aim wherever you can hit. It is the universal round precisely because it never collapses.
2. HP: arms and legs, almost exclusively. Torso and head are where the plate is, and HP does 6-9 damage there.
3. AP: chest and head. AP is wasted on limbs, where it is the worst of the three rounds.

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Why it works

Practical consequence nobody states explicitly but the numbers imply: as enemy armor tier rises, the exposed flesh area shrinks (Super Heavy takes the pelvis and upper arms away too), so the accuracy demanded by a hollowpoint build rises with the season. Miss two HP rounds into a plate and you lose the trade. Maplewood's one exception to always-FMJ is a player who always shoots legs, which is the HP rule above from a third creator.

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Why it works

Each round type has its own multiplier against flesh and against armor material, and those multipliers scale in opposite directions across tiers. AP's armor multiplier climbs with each tier while its flesh multiplier stays poor; FMJ and HP fall off. The crossover happens to land between Light and Medium. Geck0 reaches the same verdict without the table: HP falls flat against armor, and AP does more to the plate without meaningfully shortening time-to-kill, so he does not unlock either any time soon. Maplewood gives the same rule from play: always FMJ, and HP only against unarmored targets, which he says realistically means the first minutes of a match, a tighter window than the first days of a season, or if you always shoot legs.

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Why it works

Defibrillators and binoculars can also be picked up off the ground and used by anyone regardless of class level: the gear grants the capability, not the class. This is why "revive every teammate you see go down" is good advice for every player, not just medics. It costs almost nothing, it passively levels medic in the background regardless of your main role, and it unlocks better tools to do the same job. Twinsticks & Ties treats revives as a free second income stream on a recon build: when a teammate drops near your spotting position, pick them up. RageGamingVideos adds the pilot case: if a passenger dies on board, land somewhere safe, drag the body out, revive and heal it, and a dead fare becomes medic income.

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Why it works

Armor weight feeds the weight-class ladder, and each bracket up costs ADS speed, strafe speed, sway, movement and stamina.

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Why it works

This substantially softens the "picking the wrong class wastes hours" warning: your attachment unlocks are account-wide value even when your weapon unlocks are not. Practical consequence: buying one good optic is an investment across your whole arsenal, and it is the thing to buy during the 50%-off window under Wardog 9. Maplewood's example is the TDG grip: he says it is tied to your overall level rather than to the Infantry track, works across many weapons, and is at its strongest on the M4.

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Why it works

What you actually need to fit: two magazines, one loose ammo stack, bandages, a revive item, and one utility item. The smallest pack is free: Hudi's day-one kit runs on the free scout backpack, and RageGamingVideos says the small pack is there only to carry spare magazines. Maplewood sizes the pack by how long you usually survive: stay on the scout pack with one or two reserve magazines, and only buy a bigger pack once you are reliably turning a profit.

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Why it works

The reciprocal trick: two players bandaging each other both get paid. Two players bandaging themselves get nothing. If you are both hurt and both have bandages, swap.

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Step by step

1. Hold Shift while aiming to hold your breath. This also applies a small zoom, which makes longer shots more accurate with any sight including iron sights. Not just a sniper tool.
2. Press X to holster your weapon onto your back and run noticeably faster, PUBG style. Worth it for the game's large dead spaces; you are obviously defenceless while it is on your back.
3. Q and E lean around cover. Note this collides with default helicopter yaw bindings, so if you rebind either, check the other.
4. Hold Shift while descending a ladder to slide down it fast. Useful for getting off a tower under fire; it does not guarantee you survive what is waiting at the bottom.

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Step by step

1. Walk up until a green icon appears. It sticks to the ground or to objects, including moving vehicles.
2. Wait out the short placement animation before the charge is armed.
3. Right-click to detonate. This starts a phone-call animation of four to five seconds, it rings, and only then does it explode. Airwingmarine: "You got to dial. You got to order yourself pizza."
4. For a genuine trap you must trigger it well before the target arrives. Otherwise plant and run.

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Why it works

Offensive uses beyond anti-vehicle, per RageGamingVideos: throw C4 over a wall to kill people, or use two charges to blow a door or wall and walk into a FOB. The mechanic almost nobody knows: an IED you planted stays live and detonatable if you get downed and are then revived. So do not give up immediately when knocked. If a teammate picks you up, you may still control a bomb that is now driving around on an enemy vehicle. Maplewood's role argument: explosives are cheap, and when you have no defibrillator or binoculars to bring, being the teammate with the RPG or IED is one of the strongest things you can carry.

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Why it works

Firefights have gaps, and without utility your only income during the gaps is the passive zone tick. With it you fill dead time reviving, spotting enemy helicopters and FOBs, or destroying vehicles. TacticalNed's phrasing: going without is "pretty much handicapping yourself on how much money you can be making". RageGamingVideos and Hudi both make binoculars the default: carry them in every combat kit whatever your class, spot between fights, then swap back to the rifle. If the fight goes badly the spot XP and cash are already banked; if it goes well you earned twice. Hudi's one exception is a life spent purely building. RageGamingVideos adds why range matters: at medium range you have the seconds to pull binoculars mid-fight, up close you do not.

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Step by step

1. Speed. It revives instantly. Early in a season very few players have defibs, so you beat everyone else to every downed player nearby. DemoMan0351's word for this is "revive sniping": "Defibrillators early in the season allows you to snipe basically every revive that happens in your area."
2. 35 HP instead of 10. The revived player comes back at 3.5x the health of every other revive option, which means they survive long enough to generate you follow-on income.
3. Payout. $1,200 outside the hotzone, $2,400 inside, against a $30 battery cost on a high-capacity battery.

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Why it works

Once you have defibs, TacticalNed's advice is to stop carrying resuscitators entirely and run defibs only. The one exception he allows: keep the free Emergency Resuscitator on your body for your own sake, since a medic can strip it off you if you go down. SwoleBenji agrees on the conclusion from the XP side: paddles unlock at Medic 11 [S1], they are instant and reusable, so they level medic fastest, and medic levelling is slow until then. He also says paddles pay fewer points per revive than resuscitators, which conflicts with TacticalNed's payout figures; see the revive ladder.

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Step by step

1. Check the minimap for the FOB marker. If the terminal is reachable, hack it rather than breaching. Walk up, press hack, hold. It takes a while and triggers an audible siren, but it is free and hands you everything they built: turrets, mortars, walls, the lot.
2. If the terminal is not reachable, find a door, not a gate. Pry it with the Halligan bar or crowbar.
3. If it is a gate, you need two C4 charges, or you go over the barbed wire instead: press X to punch barbed wire apart in roughly 12-13 punches, and it makes very little noise, so defenders get no audio cue.
4. Kill a defender on the way in and check their body for a large hammer. Base builders almost always carry one, and it works as a pry tool for the interior doors.

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Why it works

The peek mechanic, both directions: ADS at a door or gate and the prompt changes from Open to Peek. Tap F to crack it open just enough to see and shoot through. To close a door you peeked, release ADS first; pressing F while still aiming widens the gap instead. A peeked door can be shoved the rest of the way open by anyone walking into it, from either side. A peeked gate cannot. If you need a peeking position that the enemy cannot force, use a gate.

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Step by step

1. Enter the firing range from the main menu.
2. Pull the lever beside a dummy to fit it with the armor class you want to test.
3. Fire single shots at the torso with each ammo type and read the damage number on screen.
4. Repeat at the head and at a leg. Write down the four numbers for your gun.
5. While you are there, shoot each unowned weapon you are considering grinding toward. Soulgrot's specific advice is to try both level-35 payoff weapons before committing dozens of hours to a track.

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Why it works

Range ballistics are "entirely replicated in the live version of the game", so what you learn there transfers exactly.

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Step by step

1. Reviving a teammate with it pays money and Medic XP that you spent nothing to earn.
2. It makes you the fastest reviver in the area, which means you win revive races against players who did not take one.
3. If you die wearing one, a medic can strip it off your body and use it on you, which makes you cheaper to pick up. Wearing one helps you even after you go down.

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Why it works

Twinsticks & Ties applies the same logic to every free item the vendor offers, including the free backpack: it costs nothing, so take it. Geck0 pairs the free resuscitator with a stack of bandages as the baseline for every life, then unlocks paid resuscitators so he can carry more than one while levelling medic.

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Why it works

Players you kill cannot review where the shot came from, so you can hold one hide for far longer. Compare the three states: body kill gives them your exact position, headshot gives them a direction, ghillie gives them nothing. TacticalNed's advice is to wear it anywhere, not just in foliage, for exactly this reason.

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Why it works

This is a UI design flaw rather than an exploit, and arranging your grid before pressing C is clever play, not bug abuse.

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Step by step

1. Body kill: the victim's death camera zooms in on you. They get your exact position.
2. Headshot kill: the camera only turns toward your direction. They get a bearing, not a location. You need to shift to the next window, not evacuate the building.
3. Killed while wearing a ghillie suit: no killcam at all. They get nothing.

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Why it works

Downed players in this game hang around waiting for a revive rather than respawning away, so the person you just shot is still nearby, motivated, and his squad already knows roughly where you are. Once they know roughly, a teammate with a spotting optic can mark you without ever finding you precisely, and counter-sniping becomes easy.

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Step by step

1. Look at the enemy. If they are visibly plated and you are running FMJ or HP, do not fight the torso.
2. Drop your aim to the thighs and hold there. The recoil pattern helps you, not hurts you, at this aim point.
3. If they are unhelmeted and you have a marksman rifle, the head is still better. The leg meta is the answer when the head shot is not available or the helmet will survive it.
4. Once you actually have AP unlocked (Wardog 82+), invert this: AP is wasted on limbs, so aim chest and head.

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Why it works

Armor applies its reduction only at the hitbox it covers, and no tier covers legs. A 65% Super Heavy plate does nothing at all for the thighs, so the most expensive enemy in the lobby has a permanent 100%-damage region on his body.

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Why it works

WARDOGS does not model partial helmet coverage the way Tarkov does. There is no exposed face hitbox to aim at, so the head is a binary: either you beat the helmet or you do not. That pushes all the "find the gap" play downward onto the limbs.

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Why it works

The even more extreme version, which TheTacticalBrit calls "the devilish option": bring nothing to the front line, so your death costs zero, and pillage your entire kit off the first body you find. Infinite margin at the cost of being defenceless until you find a corpse. Given that everyone around you is buying armor and medical supplies and dying, and that you can loot all of it, this is genuinely viable when you are broke. Also: the corpus reports "free starter equipment available if balance goes negative" (games.gg). You cannot actually be stranded. SwoleBenji adds a free source that needs no corpse: a placed FOB includes free medical supplies you can take for yourself, so a naked respawn at a friendly FOB still leaves with meds. RageGamingVideos and Hudi build their floor kits on the same free core: the free rifle with its magazine, the free resuscitator, the free scout backpack and a couple of bandages. RageGamingVideos takes the free Bushmaster with one full 20-round magazine into every kit, even a pure driving or flying run, because it is the only free weapon and defending yourself with it still levels Infantry. Hudi adds binoculars every life unless you are only there to build, loose 5.56 and a small tac vest.

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Step by step

1. Approach the downed teammate. Drag them into cover first if they are in the open.
2. Open their inventory from the revive prompt.
3. Take the resuscitator (or bandages) from their body.
4. Revive them with it.

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Why it works

Is this fair play? Yes, and the creators are unanimous about why. RageGamingVideos explicitly distinguishes it from stealing: using the downed player's own respirator to pick them up in a tough spot leaves them happy, because they wanted to be back in the fight. TacticalNed's version is to simply ask first; "most players are happy to agree". DemoMan0351 frames the social convention precisely: stealing someone else's revive is rude; taking a rebreather off a corpse to revive faster is fine. Effect on your economics: it removes the consumable cost from reviving entirely. Combined with the free Emergency Resuscitator, your marginal cost per revive can genuinely be $0.

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Step by step

1. At the vendor, buy the magazines your gun needs (two spare is plenty) plus one loose stack from the loose-ammo tab. Alternatively hover the ammo on the gun's ammo page and Ctrl+left-click to add loose rounds instead of a mag.
2. In the field, after a fight, open your inventory and drag your emptiest magazine to the bottom-right and your fullest to the top-left before pressing C. C fills leftmost-then-topmost first, so a badly arranged grid will drain a full magazine into an empty one and leave you with two half-mags.
3. Press C. The transfer is progressive, not instant.
4. Only do this in genuine cover. Opening your inventory heavily muffles your game audio, which is how people get walked up on and meleed.

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Why it works

Reload types: tap R stows the partial magazine in your vest. Hold R drops it on the floor and is faster. If you cannot work out where all your magazines went, you have been holding R.

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Why it works

The case for medic as the beginner track: you get a genuinely strong gun at level 4 (PP-19, "manageable recoil and a solid TTK"), whereas the Infantry path waits until level 10 for the Galil. For time-to-power, medic wins, and the medic track also pays you cash the whole way up. The AMP-9 never stops being relevant. Its value is not damage, it is 1.4 kg, which is what lets you carry heavy armor and a heavy specialist item at the same time. Build SMGs for ergonomics, not recoil control: SMG recoil is very low by default, so attachments that raise the gun quicker and smooth handling beat recoil reduction. Maplewood (hedged, going by what he sees others run) says most medics stay on the AMP-9 until the MP5 and the Super-45. GhostGaming reads the PP-19 drum move from Medic 33 [BETA] to Medic 29 [S1] off the launch patch notes.

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Why it works

It lives in its own dedicated Traversal slot, so it does not compete with backpack space, only with weight. Anti-aircraft missiles become unavoidable once your pilot is out of flares. It also gets you off towers and tall buildings inside the zone.

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Step by step

1. The flat action payout. $800 bare / $900 resuscitator / $1,200 defib, doubled in the hotzone.
2. The tip. Downed players press F1 to bribe nearby players for a revive, and press F1 repeatedly after being revived to tip you. AbneyDude spams it "until it doesn't go up anymore", implying a per-revive cap, and offers $500 and $25 as bribes elsewhere in the same video.
3. The downstream cut. You earn a bonus for everything the player you revived does afterwards: every kill, every heal they perform, every vehicle they destroy, for the rest of that life. TheTacticalBrit's example is reviving someone who then gets five kills and being paid a bonus on all five.

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Why it works

The consequence for who you revive: prioritise players who will go on to be productive. A strong player in a good position pays you far beyond the flat revive fee; someone who will walk into the same gunfight and die again pays you the flat fee only. SwoleBenji turns the tip layer into a routine: when a downed player offers cash (his example is $500 [S1]), throw smoke over them first, take their own revive item off their body, revive them with it and keep yours. Geck0 chains the flat layer instead: revive, then heal the same player straight away, and leave bag space for one extra revive item so the chain does not stop. Maplewood states the downstream cut independently: after a revive you get partial credit for what that player does for a period afterwards, and he says selling someone gear works the same way. TheTacticalBrit says the cut lasts the rest of that life; nobody has timed it.

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Why it works

Large batteries are better value per revive and save an inventory slot; take them whenever available.

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Why it works

The case for: early in a season nobody has armor, and shotguns are devastating against unarmored players. Airwingmarine recommends running them "right off the rip" while levelling Support. DemoMan0351 runs a shotgun every life while grinding Support and says the eventual pump-action with slugs is "an absolute monster" midseason. Geck0 is the third creator: he calls the double barrel extremely strong against no armor or Light armor, and its kills feed Support XP. The MP43 is the game's break-action double barrel on the wiki. RageGamingVideos, recording on launch day, calls the double barrel devastating up close against unarmored players and ties that to the opening days, when few players wear plates. He rates SMGs as the medium-to-close option.

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Why it works

Sniper XP only registers on an assist or the killing blow, and a rifle that cannot close kills produces essentially no XP while also revealing your position every time you fire. Stodeh: "it doesn't even one-shot headshot without a helmet. Forget it exists." The one counter-example is not a defence of the gun: Twinsticks & Ties added a scout rifle to their cheap recon build after a full match of finding targets they could not shoot. That is a wish for any gun, and the T-21 answers it better. Maplewood gives the same order: go pure spotter with a normal weapon and buy no recon rifle until the SKS.

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Why it works

What each rifle actually does: SKS (Recon 5) - roughly a three-shot upper-body kill on low armor, two shots unarmored, one-shot headshot on anyone without a helmet. The first rifle worth fighting with; Stodeh's tip is to remove the scope and use iron sights when you expect close range, and SKS hip fire performs well. Mosin (Recon 10) - the inflection point where recon becomes a kill-based earner; cheap and brutal at long range, and critically it will one-shot a Light helmet where the SVD will not. SVD (Recon 12) - the most versatile long-range weapon in the game per Stodeh, completely replaces the SKS, two-shots through most armors with easy follow-ups, 3x zoom for medium and 6x for long; Recon 12 also unlocks the rangefinder, take both. Choice at Recon 10: if you prefer close-range run-and-gun, skip the Mosin and stay on the SKS until the SVD at 12; if you want passive long-range play, buy the Mosin. SV98 (Recon 19) - effectively a Mosin with better rate of fire, reload, magazine size and handling; Stodeh's verdict is that reaching this is all most players need long term. MK22 (25) and AMR 50 (35) - only worth taking for safe tower camping at extreme range, or against Heavy (level 3) armor; they cost far more and hurt far more to lose, and the AMR at 12.5 kg will destroy your weight class on its own. Compound Bow (17) - silent, 1.3 kg, cheap to run at $800, situational; Soulgrot's call was that it would be "disgustingly overpowered at launch" because early in a season nobody has Medium armor and it one-shots anything in Light or below, and that its value falls off a cliff as the playerbase levels up. That window has now largely closed. Skip the bipod: Stodeh does not buy one, because breath control covers the ranges you actually fight at.

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Why it works

The slot mechanic that decides your kit: binoculars occupy the third (Specialist) slot and four bag slots. The monocular takes only two bag slots, can be hotkeyed from the bag, and leaves the Specialist slot free for a bulky item like an RPG, a Verba or a large hammer. That is why Gigabeef and DemoMan0351 both say to move to the monocular the moment it unlocks, even though binoculars work fine for pure spotting. It is also faster to raise and spot with. The rangefinder is the real breakpoint: it extends your marking range and feeds you the range number your bullet-drop holdover and your Page Up zero both need. Stodeh's summary of the fastest overall recon route is "the rangefinder paired with the Mosin, SVD, or the SV98 if cash allows" with everything else treated as optional.

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Step by step

1. It pays regardless of who kills them. Another faction finishing your marked target still pays you. There is no requirement that your own team capitalise. Twinsticks & Ties shows it on camera: a spot paid out when a third faction made the kill. Geck0 reports the same assist credit when your own team is not the killer.
2. Credit persists after the mark expires. LiteralWedgeOfCheese: "anytime anything I had spotted got destroyed, even if the spotting wasn't active at the time." So there is no reason to time your spots. Mark indiscriminately and early.
3. No damage is required from anyone. Airwingmarine: spot a helicopter, the pilot flies it into a tree without taking a bullet, you still get the Recon XP.
4. You can re-spot the same target. Stodeh says a vehicle can be spotted up to three times back to back and still pay each time.
5. Almost everything is spottable: infantry, helicopters, vehicles, enemy FOBs, emplacements, spawn vehicles, and the loot/supply crates dropped by helicopters and trucks.
6. Pinging is not spotting. A map ping pays nothing; only the recon highlight from a spotting optic pays (Twinsticks & Ties). Your own ping marker shows only on your screen, and teammates see the marked location on the map (Geck0).

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Why it works

How the spot actually works: hold the target in your recon optic. A short timer runs (the rectangle around the reticule fills), and once tagged the enemy appears on the minimap for the whole team. Through the optic you can see all spotter marks; with the naked eye you cannot, and tagged enemies carry no marker above their head in the world. Your teammates have to look at the minimap. Tell them. Priority order for spotting, per Stodeh: hold your gadget on every helicopter you see, then switch to the infantry that drop out of it, because infantry die far faster and it is the death that pays you. Position matters more than safety: set up where enemies are actively fighting and dying, not somewhere safe like a base building. TacticalNed's version: post up overlooking one or two enemy FOBs and your income becomes continuous. Gigabeef's: spotting for ten teammates already in the hotzone is worth far more than being an eleventh rifle in it. The highest-value pairing in the corpus: a spotter with a good mortar team. SwoleBenji describes the lock as holding the reticle on the target for about two beats until a diamond marker appears, and says spotted enemies pay on damage as well as on death. He rates aircraft as the best targets because they are shot down so often, and says players pay less than vehicles; that fits Stodeh's order rather than fighting it: mark the aircraft, then the infantry who leave it. For the mortar pairing, RadioGLHF shows the mechanic that makes it work: hover the cursor over a recon-tagged target and the game shows its exact distance, which the mortar crew dials in without line of sight. Geck0 recommends creeping toward an enemy FOB and marking the traffic in and out, the same continuous-income position TacticalNed describes. Twinsticks & Ties runs the whole role this way: no gun, no armor, just find, mark and let teammates kill. Maplewood adds two practical details: binoculars sit on the 3 key and a circle fills while you hold on the target, and the result is a live map and minimap marker, not a world marker. A mark does not always tell a person from an object, so a spot can turn out to be a mortar. DemoMan0351's pairing for a friend levelling on a SAM site: have nearby players tag the helicopter before the missile launches, because recon XP is the hardest XP to come by.

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Step by step

1. Drag the body into cover first. The drag mechanic exists precisely for this. Reviving in the open gets both of you killed.
2. Throw a smoke directly on top of the downed ally. RageGamingVideos calls smokes badly underutilised for how strong they are; smoking a downed ally "completely changes your ability" to complete the revive. White smoke unlocks at Medic 5 ($7,500 unlock, $100 each). TacticalNed carries two stacks specifically for repositioning to downed teammates under fire.
3. Revive from prone. Smaller profile, free.

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Why it works

And the counterpoint from the other side of the transaction: when you are the one downed, the give-up timer is generously long and you do not bleed out quickly. Wait. Waiting out an entire engagement preserves your whole kit and its purchase cost; respawning throws that money away. SwoleBenji confirms smoke still unlocks at Medic 5 [S1] and throws it over the pile of bodies before reviving. Geck0 makes it a standing rule: two smoke grenades on every kit, used both to cover a revive and to break contact when a position goes bad.

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Why it works

Everyone arriving from Tarkov assumes a chest rig is storage. Airwingmarine calls this the single most overlooked item in the game. In WARDOGS all storage is in the backpack; the vest is purely a speed-of-access item. The quick slots are what let you reach a resuscitator, bandage, smoke or defibrillator without opening your inventory, and opening your inventory muffles your audio and takes seconds you do not have. Any item in your backpack can be dragged into any free quick slot; there are no slot-type restrictions. Hold 4 to open a radial menu of everything in your quick slots rather than hunting number keys. Geck0 rates the vest a major upgrade the moment you carry more than bandages and one revive, because an item in your bag cannot be used in the field unless it sits in a quick-use slot.

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Why it works

How to check any item without memorising this: hover it in the vendor or your inventory and it tells you which class XP it rewards. jackfrags demonstrates this with the M249 (Support), the pistol (Infantry), the rangefinder (Recon) and bandages (Medic). The cross-training lever: carry an SMG while you build and you accrue Medic XP alongside Support XP from the hammer. Carry a shotgun or LMG as a builder and you double-dip Support. DemoMan0351's standing kit is an SMG or shotgun plus bandages and IEDs precisely because it covers the two highest-value XP streams at once. RageGamingVideos, on launch day, gives the same short version (assault rifle for Infantry, SMG for Medic, shotgun for Support) and notes that kills, damage and assists all pay the track.

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Step by step

1. Walk (default).
2. Sprint: hold Shift.
3. Tactical sprint: press Shift a second time while sprinting. Limited by stamina, and blocked outright if your kit is too heavy.

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Why it works

Each step up worsens ADS speed, strafe speed, weapon sway, movement speed, sprint speed, stamina regeneration and jump height. Nothing about going heavier improves your gunplay; the only gain is the protection itself. The AMP-9 at 1.4 kg is half the weight of the next SMG and roughly a fifth of a MAAWS. DemoMan0351's flat statement is that if you want to carry a MAAWS and decent armor, "you have to run the AMP 9. You can't really run anything else outside of a pistol." Two levers to drop a bracket without giving up armor: take the parachute off your back (basic chute 2.5 kg, sport chute 9 kg), and the Adrenaline / Stim Pen, which grants unlimited tactical sprint and reduces your equipment weight class for its duration - the only consumable in the corpus that moves your bracket.

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Why it works

Because AP sits on the account-wide track, every point of XP you earn in any role pushes you toward it. You do not have to main Infantry to get the armor-beating round. DemoMan0351 uses exactly this as his argument for deferring the Infantry grind entirely. Second-order consequence: there is a predictable early-season window, "at least a few days" per DemoMan0351, during which almost nobody in the lobby has AP. In that window armor is close to unanswerable except through legs and heads, which is why buying a plate every life is mandatory rather than optional. Later in the season the community rotates to AP and players who do not switch "will not understand why they suddenly got worse". SwoleBenji reaches the same conclusion from a different angle: level Infantry last unless you are a strong shooter or have a teammate spotting for you.

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Why it works

Damage reduction is applied at the covered hitbox and durability is consumed as the plate eats hits. When durability hits zero the plate stops working entirely, which is why a 60-70% Light plate can genuinely be a better pickup than a nearly-broken Heavy one.

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Why it works

Season 1 increased these deployables' loadout space requirement. Airwingmarine says it still works, "just not to the same extent". GhostGaming reads the same loadout-space increase for 155 mm and 122 mm shells and flare deployables off the Season 1 notes, and the changelog confirms it.

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Why it works

SwoleBenji picks the same place for spotting income: targets keep arriving at an enemy spawn vehicle, so marks keep paying.

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Why it works

Airwingmarine notes you get paid even when a spotted helicopter crashes itself with no shots fired. Probably intended generosity rather than a bug, but it is the kind of thing that gets tightened. Safe to use.

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Step by step

1. Broke (under $10,000 bankroll), spend ~$1,500: Free faction rifle $0 (or T-21 $600 if you want attachment slots) / Light armor $400 / Light helmet $200 / Small Tac Vest $100 / Basic Parachute $100 / Binoculars $75 / 3 bandages $600 / free Emergency Resuscitator $0 / 2 mags + 1 loose stack.
2. Working ($10,000-50,000), spend ~$4,500: AK74 $1,600 (needs Infantry 3 + $10,000 unlock) / red dot + 2.5-3x optic / Light or Medium armor $400-1,000 / Light helmet $200 / Small Tac Vest $100 / Basic Parachute $100 / Binoculars $75 / 5 bandages $1,000 / IED $300 / free resuscitator / 2 mags + loose ammo.
3. Rich ($50,000+), spend ~$9,000-12,000: AK74 $1,600 / full attachment set (bought once, reused forever) / Medium armor $1,000 + Medium helmet $500 (Wardog 30) or Heavy $2,000 + $1,500 (Wardog 60) / Medium Tac Vest $250 / Basic Parachute $100 / Monocular $150 / IFAK x2 $1,600 / 5 bandages $1,000 / Defibrillator $1,600 + high-cap battery $300 if you have Medic 11 / Halligan Bar $1,100 if you intend to breach.

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Why it works

Committed recommendation: the AK74 plus Medium armor and helmet plus a good optic is the kit you should be running for most of the first season. TheTacticalBrit earns $50,000-$60,000 per life on essentially this. Do not buy the Galil, the M4 or the FAL until your income is comfortably above that.

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Step by step

1. Broke, spend ~$2,200: AMP-9 $900 (SMG kills feed Medic; the AMP-9's 1.4 kg is what lets you carry everything else) / Light armor $400 / Light helmet $200 / Small Tac Vest $100 / Binoculars $75 / 5 bandages $1,000 (trim to 3 if needed) / free Emergency Resuscitator $0 / 2 mags + loose ammo.
2. Working, spend ~$5,500: PP-19 Vityaz $1,200 (Medic 4, $25,000 unlock) / Light or Medium armor / Light helmet $200 / Small Tac Vest $100 / Field Resuscitator x2 $1,000 (Medic 2, $10,000 unlock) / smoke grenades $100 each (Medic 5) / 5 bandages $1,000 / Binoculars $75.
3. Rich, spend ~$9,000-13,000 - this is TacticalNed's exact kit, the one the $80,000-per-life figure was earned with: AK74 or an SMG with 2 mags and 1 stack of loose ammo / Medium armor $1,000 + Medium helmet $500 / Defibrillator $1,600 / 2 high-capacity batteries $600 = 20 revives / 2 stacks of smoke grenades / 1 stack of bandages $1,000 / 2-4 stacks of IFAKs $1,600-3,200 (flex the count with your backpack size) / free Emergency Resuscitator on your own body.

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Why it works

Committed recommendation: run the AMP-9 until Medic 4, then the PP-19, and buy the Defibrillator the moment you hit Medic 11 and can afford the $50,000. Always carry high-capacity batteries over standard ones, always carry two stacks of smoke, and always take the free resuscitator even after you have defibs.

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Step by step

1. Broke, spend ~$1,000: Binoculars $75. Free faction rifle or T-21 $600 as your actual gun. Light armor $400 / Light helmet $200 / Small Tac Vest $100 / 3 bandages $600 / free resuscitator / Basic Parachute $100. Do not buy the Scout Rifle TD. Spot everything; you are levelling by marking, not by shooting.
2. Working, spend ~$5,000-7,000 - Stodeh's SKS kit: SKS $2,400 (Recon 5, $25,000 unlock) with a regular scope / Light helmet + Light armor + Small Tac Vest / Monocular $150 (Recon 2, $7,500 unlock) / 12-slot bag / 80 rounds of SKS ammo / 10 bandages $2,000 / Emergency Resuscitator $0 / Basic Parachute $100 if flying in.
3. At Recon 12, his SVD kit: SVD $4,800 with an LPVO variable scope / 2 mags + 40 rounds / Light helmet and armor / Rangefinder $400 / GGX-17 pistol $200 with two 33-round mags / 1 smoke / 1 frag / resuscitator.
4. Rich, spend ~$12,000-18,000 - Stodeh's SV98 kit: SV98 $5,200 (Recon 19, $100,000 unlock) with a regular scope or LPVO / 1 magazine + 40 rounds / pistol with one spare 33-round mag / 2 sets of bandages / resuscitator / smoke / frag / Rangefinder $400 / better armor (this is where he finally invests: Medium or Heavy plate and helmet) / Strelix suppressor if budget allows.
5. Optional at this bankroll: ghillie body $3,000 + ghillie helmet $2,500 (Recon 24), remembering they replace your armor rather than supplementing it.

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Why it works

Committed recommendation: binoculars only until Recon 5. SKS at 5. At Recon 10 take the SVD route (stay on SKS, wait two levels) unless you specifically want passive long-range play, in which case buy the Mosin for its one-shot on Light helmets. Buy the rangefinder at Recon 8 ahead of any weapon upgrade; it is $400 and it improves both your income and your first-shot accuracy. Stop at the SV98 unless you are tower-camping. Skip the bipod. Skip the MK22 and AMR unless you are specifically hunting Heavy-armored targets from safety.

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Step by step

1. Broke, spend ~$1,200: MP43 shotgun $400 (level 0; shotgun kills feed Support) / Small Hammer $100 (level 0; sandbags, hedgehogs, camo tents, barbed wire) / Light armor $400 / Light helmet $200 / Wrench $150 / bandages.
2. Working, spend ~$5,000-7,000: M500 pump shotgun $1,200 (Support 10, $50,000) or AMP-9 $900 if you need the weight budget / RPG-7 $2,000 (Support 5, $30,000 unlock) + rockets at 3 inventory slots each / Medium Hammer $800 (Support 3, $25,000 unlock) / Light Drill $600 (Support 1, $10,000 unlock) + battery $150 / C4 $250 + Remote Detonator $550 (Support 2, $15,000 unlock) / Light or Medium armor / large backpack.
3. Rich, spend ~$10,000-15,000: MAAWS $2,600 (Support 20, $125,000 unlock) with AMP-9 $900 as the only primary you can afford the weight for / Large Hammer $2,400 (Support 8, $75,000 unlock, up from $1,600 and $25,000 at Season 1) / Heavy Drill $1,300 (Support 28) + high-capacity battery $300 / M249 SAW $3,200 (Support 15, $100,000) if you want the LMG instead of the launcher / Medium or Heavy armor / AT mines and claymores / large backpack.
4. TacticalNed's dedicated anti-vehicle kit: large backpack, 3-4 rockets at 3 slots each, Medium (level 2) helmet and armor, an assault rifle with 1-2 mags, a stack of ammo, and bandages. Keep the gun light; the launcher and rockets eat the weight budget.

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Why it works

Committed recommendation: RPG-7 at Support 5 is the single best purchase on this track. DemoMan0351 calls the MAAWS at 20 "a money printer" and everyday carry, and his advice while learning is to take every shot you can including ones you expect to miss, because the skill is worth the wasted rockets. Engine is the universal weak point: a truck's engine is at the front and can be one-shot. Do not unlock the Verba. DemoMan0351's closing throwaway tip is blunt: "Don't unlock the Verba. It is total dog [expletive]." Supporting evidence from the wiki: it weighs 17.25 kg, occupies 7x2 inventory slots, is single use, requires a lock-on, and can only target aerial vehicles. That is a whole loadout's worth of weight for one shot at one target type. This is SINGLE-SOURCE as an opinion, but the stat card corroborates the reasoning.

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Step by step

1. Under Wardog 9 everything is 50% off. The New Recruit Discount halves every price below. Spend it on the durable stuff you keep forever: armor, a good optic, a backpack, a vest. Not on consumables you will burn. (Corroborated by four creators. Minor disagreement on whether it ends at 9 or after 9; treat level 9 as the last safe moment to spend.)
2. Use the rebuy button. Bottom-left of the weapon vendor screen. Build your kit once properly, then one click per death. Adjust quantities with the arrows, one step at a time.
3. You start with $10,000 and it carries between matches. Losses carry too. The FOB blueprint alone is now $7,500, so if you buy one you are out of money for everything else.

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Why it works

Medic earns when teammates are getting wounded and dying around you. Run it attached to the biggest friendly group you can find, never solo or duo. RageGamingVideos puts it bluntly: the medic goes where the team goes, even if they are fighting 600 m from the hotzone. Nudge them toward the zone, but follow the crowd rather than the objective.

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Why it works

In almost every other military shooter, scope glint is what makes static sniping punishable. Its absence is why Stodeh says he endorses prone sniping here for the first time in an FPS, and it is the mechanical foundation under "bushes are your best friend in this game". Maplewood states the same rule independently and draws the loadout conclusion from it: with no glint to give you away, run the biggest scope you want.

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Step by step

1. Rangefinder on the target. Read the exact distance.
2. Page Up / Page Down to walk your zero to that range in 100 m steps.
3. Centre hold, fire.
4. If you do not have a rangefinder, use the firing range to learn your specific rifle's drop first. Range ballistics are identical to live, so what you learn there transfers exactly.

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Why it works

Fit a long-range variable zoom scope and, once unlocked (Recon 3, $7,500), a suppressor. With that build TacticalNed says you are close to guaranteed to kill anything you hit wearing low-level armor or none. The suppressor's real value is that it preserves your position across multiple shots, which compounds with the no-glint and ghillie concealment. Positioning for income rather than for safety: set up overlooking one or two enemy FOBs - the position pays three ways at once, infantry marks, emplacement marks, and marks on vehicles and helicopters arriving, on top of your own kills. Sit near the centre of your own team's player mass: you get a buffer and early warning, you pick off enemies who are already engaged with your teammates, and if you go down you are far more likely to be revived. Move after roughly two kills in one area; counter-sniping you is easy once the enemy knows the rough direction.

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Why it works

A fresh, un-bled-out body in front of you means the fight that made it was recent and enemies are probably still nearby. A backpack means the threat is gone and you can loot at leisure. You can also drag enemy corpses, which is worth knowing to pull a body out of a sightline or hide evidence of your position. Loot after every fight. Corpse looting is what keeps your per-life cost near zero: medical items, ammo, and especially armor, which is the expensive item you would otherwise rebuy. SwoleBenji notes almost every corpse carries a resuscitator because most players take one, so loot one instead of buying it. Geck0 brings fewer bandages for the same reason and loots the rest off enemies.

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Why it works

The Scout Rifle TD cannot close kills, so early Recon income comes from marking targets rather than shooting them.

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Step by step

1. Pick a tower your team holds, ideally one covered by your FOB, and climb to an enclosed middle level rather than the open roof.
2. Mark the target with your spotting optic.
3. Stop watching it. Shift to another window or another target straight away.
4. If you get dropped, wait for a revive: in a held tower a teammate is usually within about 10 m.

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Why it works

An unarmored spotter who keeps staring at a marked enemy is easy to find in return, and high ground makes you easier to see as well as giving you the view. Low bushes overlooking the hotzone keep you hidden but give poor sight lines. A tower's middle floors combine elevation and cover with the revive safety net of teammates around you. Geck0 gives the same advice: follow the team, take high ground, and spot from far away, including from a tower your FOB protects.

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Why it works

The governing principle, from games.gg's money guide and echoed by several creators: "surviving a fight with a $200 kit can be more profitable than dying repeatedly with a $1,500 loadout." Your per-life profit is income minus kit cost minus how often you die, and the third term is the one beginners ignore. Loot after every fight and the second term collapses toward zero.

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Step by step

1. Get a range on the target. Either use a rangefinder (Recon 8, $400, $15,000 unlock), or have a teammate call it. You cannot judge 300 m by eye reliably and a wrong zero is worse than no zero.
2. ADS. Read the zero figure in the bottom right.
3. Page Up until it reads the target's range. Clutchbase reports the zero walks in 100 m steps.
4. Aim dead centre and fire. jackfrags demonstrates exactly this: sniper zeroed at 100, target at 300, zero to 300, centre hold, bullseye.

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Why it works

A correct zero lets you use a centre hold instead of estimating holdover.

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Why it works

The case for stopping after one rifle still holds: TheTacticalBrit's claim is that a well-attachmented AK performs comparably to the higher-end rifles and that buying up the rifle tier is a money sink. SwoleBenji rates the level-35 rifle, almost certainly the FAL given the level, as the fastest time-to-kill in the game with heavy recoil to learn; that is the top of the tree, not a reason to climb it early. What changed is which rifle. Geck0 skips the AK because it is the only 5.45 gun and he kept running dry, while the free faction rifles, the T-21, the Galil and the M4 all share 5.56. This chapter's economy runs on looting bodies, and every fresh spawn carrying a free rifle is carrying 5.56. Geck0 buys the T-21 while the New Recruit Discount applies, unlocks its 30-round magazine, and rates the Galil worth its extra cost over the AK for lower recoil and a bigger base magazine. Airwingmarine and Soulgrot also rate the Galil above the AK on handling. Committed recommendation: T-21 first; Galil once your per-life income is comfortably above $30,000 [BETA]; the AK only if you rebuy ammo every life and want its 100-1000 m zeroing band. Do not buy the M4 or the FAL until you are rich. 5.45 AP also arrives ten Wardog levels after 5.56 AP. Attachments: build assault rifles for recoil reduction plus a 2.5x or 3x optic; RageGamingVideos' reasoning is that you can still point-fire at close range while gaining damage at medium range. IceManIsaac carries a red dot alongside the main optic, and notes you can rip a scope off mid-match and use irons. Maplewood agrees on the 2.5x, names the 1.5x as the alternative, and controls the 2.5x's visual recoil with the TDG grip and a muzzle brake. He also says to skip the first scope you unlock, which he never bought, because it is poor value. His rifle notes: the Galil is a better AK with 50-round magazines early on the track, and the M4 is excellent once it carries the TDG grip.

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Step by step

1. Buy the Light helmet ($200) always, because no helmet means being one-tapped by "quite literally anything in the game".
2. Skip Medium if you are specifically buying head protection against Recon players and can afford to wait for Heavy ($1,500).
3. Buy Medium if you are mostly being shot at by rifles, where the 40% vs 30% reduction and the 100 vs 80 durability both matter.

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Why it works

"Some snipers beat some helmets" reconciles both accounts, which means the two creators are probably describing different weapon sets. A third account, weaker: SwoleBenji says the Recon 12 [S1] rifle headshot-kills most players across the map, reliably against no protection or level 1-2 protection, and not against heavier tiers. He names it as SVD, SKS and Mosin in the same breath, so the gun is uncertain, but Recon 12 is the SVD on the wiki ladder. If he means the SVD, that contradicts Stodeh's claim that the SVD does not one-shot a Light helmet. Unconfirmed until the range test is run.

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Step by step

1. Outside the hotzone, revive a teammate with a resuscitator and note the cash and Medic XP popups.
2. Revive the same teammate with the defibrillator, still outside the hotzone.
3. Compare cash and XP separately.

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Why it works

If SwoleBenji meant XP and TacticalNed meant cash, both are right and the defib stays the money pick at Medic 11 [S1].

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Step by step

1. Firing range, Medium helmet on a dummy, one headshot each from Scout TD, SKS, Mosin, SVD, SV98, MK22, AMR 50.
2. Record which kill.
3. Repeat with Heavy. Fifteen minutes settles it permanently.

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Why it works

SwoleBenji adds a third account: the Recon 12 [S1] rifle, probably the SVD, headshot-kills through level 1-2 protection. Run the SVD against both the Light and the Medium helmet, because that is where Stodeh and SwoleBenji directly conflict.

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Step by step

1. In the firing range, put no armor on a dummy and fire one Scout Rifle TD round at the head and one at the chest.
2. Repeat with Light armor and a Light helmet fitted.
3. Record the damage numbers; if the unarmored headshot reads under 100, Stodeh and MetaForge are right for the current build.

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Why it works

It decides how much Level 1 armor is worth on day one and whether a fresh recon player can ever take a shot with the starter rifle. The skip-it advice holds either way.

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Why it works

Pistols feed the Infantry track. The GGX 17 is the cheapest way to give a bolt-action sniper kit a close-range answer, which is why Stodeh carries one. Maplewood's case against: the weight and slots are better spent on loose ammo for your primary, with the G18 automatic pistol as his only exception for extreme close range. DemoMan0351's revolver finding is a good illustration of why range testing beats reading a stat card.

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Step by step

1. Call for resupply by calibre: 155mm artillery shells.
2. Say plainly that you do not want main battle tank rounds. StratzFPS was sent the wrong shell more than once.

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Why it works

The two big-gun vehicles use different shells, and a supplier who hears tank ammo grabs the tank round. A wrong crate costs the artillery crew a full resupply trip.

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Why it works

Durability is consumed and does not regenerate in the field. A near-broken high-tier plate gives you its 55% reduction for one or two more hits and then nothing.

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Why it works

Whether the low noise is intended is unclear, and it functionally removes barbed wire as a defensive alarm. Probably a balance oversight rather than a bug; safe to use, and defenders should know it exists.

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Step by step

1. In the firing range, note your reserve count.
2. Tap R, not hold R, after firing a few rounds, and check the reserve again.
3. Repeat with a nearly empty and a nearly full magazine. If the reserve drops by a full magazine on a tap reload, it is the bug.

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Why it works

Hold R drops the partial magazine on the floor instead of stowing it, so the rounds still in it vanish from your count. That produces exactly this symptom without any bug.

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Why it works

He describes it as a physics bug he expects to be patched.

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Step by step

1. Look over the edge and drop to the AC units.
2. Work downward unit by unit. Some transitions need a jump.
3. At one point you must go left rather than straight because you cannot stand on the edge, then make a big jump to the next unit, then to a window ledge, then down.

Why it works

Pursuers hear no parachute and lose you entirely. This is clever play using level geometry, not a bug.

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Step by step

1. Stand off outside the enemy FOB's walls and fire at the turrets and emplacements you can see, instead of carrying C4 to the wall.
2. Against a vehicle aim for the engine to destroy it; if you only have a wheel or track shot, take it to immobilise the vehicle.
3. For an ambush, load supply crates of RPGs or anti-air launchers into a truck or helicopter and park it beside the route enemy drivers and pilots use.
4. Fire, then move the vehicle after each kill, because the survivors come back for you.

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Why it works

The crate in the vehicle is the magazine: it lets you fire far more launchers per life than a backpack holds. Standoff range is the RPG's edge over C4, which needs you at the wall.

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Step by step

1. Spend the first two minutes of every match blanket-marking every vehicle, crate, FOB and player you can see from a high position.
2. Go do something else entirely, collecting passive income all match.
3. Test: mark ten targets, wait for the marks to visibly lapse, then track whether payouts still arrive as they die.

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Why it works

At $1,100 with 5,000 durability it may be the cheapest way into the most expensive positions on the map.

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Step by step

1. Plant on an enemy vehicle.
2. Deliberately go down nearby to avoid being shot.
3. Wait for a revive.
4. Detonate once the vehicle has driven somewhere valuable.

Why it works

Airwingmarine states the mechanic but not the tactic.

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Step by step

1. Have a teammate tag a target with binoculars.
2. Hover over the tag and read the distance.
3. Walk your zero to it with Page Up / Page Down and fire. Repeat at three ranges.
4. If the readout matches a rangefinder each time, a sniper with a spotter can put the Recon 8 [S1] rangefinder money elsewhere.

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Why it works

Ranging is the sniper's hard problem and the tag already carries the number. The open part is whether the readout shows for every class and weapon or only on a mortar's HUD.

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Step by step

1. Load gear one item at a time at the vendor and record the kg total at each bracket change.

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Why it works

This is trivially doable and would be the most useful single table anyone could add to this corpus.

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Step by step

1. Hold your spotting optic over bushes and treelines where a sniper or spotter would sit, even when you see nothing there.
2. The lock can acquire a player you cannot see. Complete the mark and tell your team.
3. When you hide in foliage yourself, assume enemy recon can still tag you, and leave once you have been marked.

Why it works

The spot lock appears to test for a target inside the optic's view rather than for a clear line of sight, so foliage that blocks your eyes does not block the mark.

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Step by step

1. In the last minutes of a match, do not press give up when you go down.
2. Call for a revive and keep waiting, even if nobody is coming before the clock runs out.
3. If you are alive and hurt near the end, play for survival over one more kill, because the kit on your back is worth more than the kill.

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Why it works

A kit you respawn out of is gone. Hudi says the refund counts the gear still on you when the match ends, and a downed player still has his, so waiting costs nothing and giving up costs the refund.

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Why it works

Both halves are actionable: do not treat wooden walls or vehicle bodies as cover, and do build or use sandbags when you want cover that actually stops rifle rounds.

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Why it works

If true these are probably intended (the engine is described as the universal weak point) but the FOB number in particular looks like a balance bug.

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Why it works

If it drops two brackets it is a genuinely strategic item for super-heavy anti-tank builds, not just a sprint consumable.

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Step by step

1. Repeat the range test with an AMP-9, an MP43 and the AMR 50 and compare the shapes of the curves.

Why it works

Without prices there is no way to evaluate whether the AP damage advantage is worth its cost per round.

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Step by step

1. Same three rounds against a Heavy and a Super Heavy dummy.
2. This also answers whether the gap ever becomes large enough to justify carrying AP once you can buy it.

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Step by step

1. Have a teammate go down, then attempt a defib revive immediately after landing from a fall.
2. Repeat after standing still for two seconds.
3. If the second works and the first does not, it is a post-landing state lockout, which nobody has documented.

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Why it works

Candidate explanations: a range limit on the revive, a line-of-sight requirement, a state where a player is falling or has just landed, or a bug.

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