What should you unlock first after the WARDOGS Season 02 wipe?

By George In The Meta · 15 Oct 2026

Short answer: vehicles, or air. Tanks, artillery and Havocs have been doing so well that I'd push for them first. It's the easiest way to make the money to farm everything else, and the vehicle unlock grind is the slowest in the game, so it's the one to start on day one.

What does the Season 02 wipe reset?

Your cash and your XP. Season 02 starts on 15 October 2026, everyone goes back to zero, and whatever cash you had left is turned into gold bars for cosmetics. Every unlock you had is gone. I've covered what carries over in what the Season 02 wipe resets.

Why unlock vehicles first?

Because vehicles pay for everything else, and they take the longest. Land vehicles sit on the Driver tree and helicopters on the Pilot tree, and the good ones are a long way up. In Season 01 that was the armoured Ural Defender at Driver 18, the Humvee with the M249 at Driver 20, the L2A6 tank at Driver 35, and the Havoc at Pilot 35. I've listed the Season 01 unlocks in which levels unlock the vehicles.

Season 02 reshuffles the Driver track, per BULKHEAD's Season 02 patch notes. The Ural Defender drops to Driver 15 and the Humvee with the M249 moves up to Driver 24. Three new armed vehicles arrive on the way: the Wolf-110 with an M2 Browning at Driver 16 ($125,000 to unlock), the T-72B3 tank at 20 ($250,000) and the Flakpanzer Gepard anti-air vehicle at 25 ($300,000). The SPH-2 artillery moves from Wardog 90 into the Driver track at 31, for $350,000 instead of $500,000.

Air gets pricier. The Little Bird with miniguns moves from Pilot 4 to 8 and now costs $125,000 to unlock, up from $50,000, and the Havoc unlock rises from $500,000 to $650,000.

Hitting the level isn't the whole price, either. When I reached Driver 20 on 12 October, the Humvee with the M249 still needed a $125,000 cash unlock before I could buy one for $3,750. So vehicles cost you levels and cash. In Season 02 each Humvee with the M249 costs $8,500 to buy, per the patch notes.

WARDOGS vehicle vendor: Humvee [M249] tooltip showing Unlock for $125,000, with the land vehicle list and their Driver level gates — 12 October, Driver 20: the Humvee [M249] still needs a $125,000 cash unlock, then $3,750 each time you buy one. Tap to enlarge.

It's the one I wish I'd done earlier in Season 01. I started as a driver, took a long break from driving, and I'm back on it now: I went from Driver 10 to 20 in the run-up to the wipe, just to unlock the armoured Humvee with the gun, and got it on 12 October.

WARDOGS: driving an armoured Ural Defender behind a regular Ural in a convoy along a forest road — 12 October: my Ural Defender (Driver 18) behind a regular Ural, heading back in. Name blurred. Tap to enlarge.

WARDOGS: driving the armoured Ural Defender loaded with supply pallets along a road — The Ural Defender loaded with supplies, heading for the hotter areas. Chat and kill feed blurred. Tap to enlarge.

WARDOGS: the loaded Ural Defender driving past a friendly self-propelled artillery piece on a grassy hillside — 12 October: my Ural Defender driving past our team's artillery, the SPH-2, which unlocked at Wardog level 90 in Season 01 and moves to Driver 31 in Season 02. Tap to enlarge.

Will that change with Season 02's new vehicles? Potentially. BULKHEAD's preview adds the Wolf-110 transport, the Wolf-110 Assault with an M2 Browning, and the T-72 tank, which I've covered in what's changing in Season 02. The patch notes put them at the levels above. But vehicles are still where the money comes from.

What will everyone else unlock first?

Snipers, I think. Infrared range finders come back in Season 02, after being removed in Season 01, and depending on how good or bad the thermals turn out, a lot of people are going to head straight for a sniper. I covered why they went in the first place in why the IR range finder was removed. The patch notes confirm the infrared range finder now runs on batteries, about 80 seconds of active use per battery, and costs $3,200 instead of $1,200.

Which class should you level first?

If I'm not doing vehicles myself, I'd do a mix: building and recon, so I've got the hammer and the spotting. One of them does about 90% of the work. I'll build with the hammer, and when I think I've got enough built, I go and look for things with recon.

Be careful what you carry while you do it, because the class icon on each item decides which class it levels. I've written up how that works, with the XP for every action, in how to level fast in WARDOGS Season 02.

What's locked now that wasn't in Season 01?

A few things that used to be free or early now sit behind levels, per the patch notes:

Supply pallets: the Mechanical pallet now unlocks at Wardog 5 ($10,000), Ammo at Wardog 9 ($25,000) and Fuel at Wardog 16 ($50,000). All three were unlocked by default before.
Defibrillator: Medic 22 and $110,000, up from Medic 11 and $50,000.
Medical Bag: earlier, at Medic 14 for $50,000 instead of Medic 24 for $75,000.

The class levels themselves come faster: reaching level 20 in any class now takes 111,500 XP instead of 250,000.

Is anything a waste of money early?

No. I don't think anything's a waste of money in this game, even with vehicle unlocks costing six figures. I've still got $1.2 million after unlocking everything I can, every time I can unlock it, which you can see in the top corner of my screenshots. If you're struggling for cash in WARDOGS, I can't fathom how badly you'd have to be playing.

Written 12 October 2026, before Season 02 launched, from my Season 01 play; updated 15 October with BULKHEAD's Season 02 patch notes (14 October), which set the new unlock levels and prices. I'll update it once I've played Season 02.