Making Money

Cash pays for nearly everything in Wardogs: gear, weapons, vehicles, role unlocks and factory investments. Every action in a match pays some cash, and the end-of-match bonus adds more. This guide shows which actions pay most, what the side routes (passive missions, wagers and the Gold Exchange) actually return, which gear is worth buying early, and which running costs take cash back out. Each figure is taken from the article linked next to it.

Where cash comes from

A player starts with 10,000 cash, and the loading-screen tip says cash carries over between matches (Currencies). Each action pays a base amount from its reward table. The table below picks the biggest payers for each role. Role XP is a separate number and does not add cash.

Role Action Base cash
Assault Kill from artillery while standing in the open 5,000
Assault Kill with a default weapon 250
Driver Heavy tank destroyed 5,000
Driver Humvee destroyed 500
Pilot Havoc attack helicopter destroyed 6,000
Pilot MH-6 destroyed 800
Medic Revive with bare hands 1,500
Medic Revive with a defibrillator or resuscitator 1,000
Medic Heal with an Individual First Aid Kit 1,000
Medic Heal with a Bandage 400
Support Destroy an enemy forward operating base 5,000
Support Place a forward operating base 1,000
Support Deploy a large supply crate 150
Recon Destroy a target the player spotted 50 to 500
Recon Spot a target 15 to 275
Any role Hot Zone event (contested or owned) 600
Any role Control Zone event (contested or owned) 150

Sources for this table: Cash and Rewards, with the role pages Assault, Driver, Pilot, Medic, Support and Recon.

What changes the amount

  • Zones. A kill in a Hot Zone counts with a weight of 10, and a kill in a Control Zone with a weight of 5. A kill in the enemy’s own Hot Zone counts with weight 4 (Cash and Rewards).
  • Repeat victims. Each repeat kill on the same player pays 24% less, up to four repeats. Each streak kill adds 50 to the base, up to five (Cash and Rewards).
  • Teamkills. A teamkill pays a negative amount, so it costs cash (Cash and Rewards).
  • Artillery inside a zone. The same artillery kill pays 100 when the attacker is inside a zone, against 5,000 in the open (Cash and Rewards).
  • Enemy structures. Destroying a Bunker or an Indirect Fire Shelter pays 200 cash and 50 Role XP. Destroying an enemy claymore, C4 or anti-tank mine pays 100 each (Cash and Rewards).

Tips that follow from the numbers

  • An artillery kill in the open pays 5,000, which is 20 times a default kill at 250. The same artillery kill inside a zone pays 100.
  • A Hot Zone event pays 600 and a Control Zone event 150, so one Hot Zone event is worth four Control Zone events (Cash and Rewards).
  • A bare-hands revive pays 1,500, more than a revive with a defibrillator (1,000). (Cash and Rewards).
  • A Bandage costs 200 in the shop, and a heal with one pays the healer 400. An Individual First Aid Kit costs 800 and pays 1,000 for a heal (Shops, Cash and Rewards).

End-of-match bonus

The winning faction is paid the most at match end. First place gets 0.30 times the match cash (capped at 100,000 cash input) plus a flat 200, second 0.25 times plus 150, and third 0.20 times plus 100 (Cash and Rewards).

Passive missions and wagers

Passive missions pay Intel, not cash

The three passive missions (Earn Cash, Earn Role XP and Time Played) have five tiers each. Every tier pays Intel, and the data gives Intel no use, so passive missions add nothing to a player’s cash. The tier goals are 5,000, 12,000, 30,000, 80,000 and 200,000 cash earned for Earn Cash, 500 role XP for each Earn Role XP tier and 1,800 seconds played for each Time Played tier (Passive Missions, Currencies).

Wagers

A wager is a goal a player takes on with a stake of cash. The stake is between 2,500 and 100,000 cash, and a single payout is capped at 5,000,000 cash (Wagers).

Wager Count range (default) Odds at the lowest count Odds at the highest count
Get Kills 1 to 25 (1) 1.001 1.2004
Dropoff People 1 to 20 (1) 1.001 1.0771
Revive Teammates 1 to 50 (5) 1.001 1.2498
Destroy Occupied Vehicles 1 to 20 (1) 1.001 1.1479

Each action has a 24-hour (86,400 s) cooldown in the data, but the data does not say whether the cooldown is per player, per wager or per match (Wagers).

The slip labels its return as the stake times the total odds, with a cap of 5,000,000 cash, but the exact settlement formula is not read from the data, and settlement runs on the server. So this guide gives no expected return (Wagers).

Tips that follow from the numbers

  • Count is a weak lever for odds. Kills go from 1.001 at one to three kills to 1.2004 at 25 kills, so going from 3 kills to 25 raises the odds by about 0.2 (Wagers).
  • Conditions raise odds, and each one is an extra rule on the wager. “Deathwish” multiplies odds by 10.0, “Time limit” by 4.0 and “No vehicles” by 3.0, while “With a $20k loadout” gives 1.05 (Wagers).
  • The data does not say whether two conditions on one wager multiply together, so do not stack them expecting the product (Wagers).

The Gold Exchange

The Gold Exchange turns cash into Gold Bars, which buy cosmetics only (Currencies).

  • Unlock. The exchange unlocks at Wardog level 35 and costs 150,000 cash to unlock.
  • Rate. The server sets the rate and it changes over time. The client holds no rate, so the cash price of a Gold Bar is not known.
  • No resale. The exchange text says a gold exchange cannot be resold or refunded.
  • Season end. At the end of a major update cycle, level progression and cash are reset. Any cash left over is exchanged for Gold Bars automatically on the server (Currencies).
  • Cost of cosmetics. The Gold Market entries cost 5 to 30 Gold Bars each (Currencies).

Because the rate is set by the server, the number of Gold Bars that a cash amount buys is not known from the data.

What is worth buying early

Armor and helmets

Armor and helmets are the clearest value question in the shop. Each tier cuts damage by a fixed share and costs more than the one before (Body Armor).

Piece Damage cut Covers Durability Price (cash) Cash per point of cut
Level 1 Armor 30% Torso 200 400 13.3
Level 2 Armor 40% Torso 220 1,000 25.0
Level 3 Armor 50% Torso 250 2,500 50.0
Level 4 Armor 60% Torso, pelvis, upper arms 300 5,000 83.3
Level 1 Helmet 30% Head 80 200 6.7
Level 2 Helmet 40% Head 100 500 12.5
Level 3 Helmet 50% Head and neck 180 2,000 40.0
Level 4 Helmet 60% Head and neck 200 4,500 75.0

The last column is derived here by dividing the price by the damage cut. It is a ratio, not a figure from the data.

With M4 full-metal-jacket rounds, an upper-torso hit does 27.3 HP with no armor, 19.1 HP with Level 1 Armor, 16.4 HP with Level 2, 13.6 HP with Level 3 and 10.9 HP with Level 4 (Body Armor, Level 1 Armor, Level 2 Armor, Level 3 Armor, Level 4 Armor).

Tips that follow from the numbers

  • The first vest removes half of the damage cut that the top vest removes, for 8% of its price. Level 1 Armor takes 8.2 HP off that upper-torso hit (derived from 27.3 and 19.1), and Level 4 takes 16.4 HP off it. Level 1 costs 400 and Level 4 costs 5,000 (Body Armor).
  • The Level 1 Helmet is the cheapest protection per point of cut in the shop, at 200 cash for 30% (Level 1 Helmet).
  • The Pilot and Tank helmets are not sold in the shop, so they are not a purchase option (Body Armor).

Weapons by price

A selection of vendor prices, lowest first (the full list is on each weapon article; for example GGX 18 and PP-19 Bizon sell for 1,000 and M500 for 1,200). The weapon articles note that the data does not decode the currency. The Shops article says vendor prices are most likely cash (Shops).

Weapon Vendor price Article
GGX 17 (pistol) 200 GGX 17
Judge 250 Judge
M1911 300 M1911
MP43 400 MP43
Deagle 750 Deagle
AK74 800 AK74
9K333 Verba 800 9K333 Verba
T-21 1,200 T-21
Galil 2,000 Galil
M4 2,800 M4

Three weapons show a vendor price of 0 in the data: A-91, KH-2002 and Bushmaster M17S. Each is paired with one faction in the economy settings and is set to cost nothing for that faction (read from the setting’s name, not traced in the game code), so the 0 is a discount rather than a missing price (A-91, KH-2002, Bushmaster M17S).

Discounts stack. A Wardog level 8 or lower player pays half of the listed price, a first purchase costs 90%, and the faction that trails by 40 points pays 80% (inferred from field names). Derived: a first purchase by a player at level 8 or lower costs 45% of the listed price (0.5 x 0.9). See Shops.

Factory recipes

The first factory investment costs 200 cash and runs three production lines (Factory Investment). For the four guns that appear both in a recipe and in the shop, the recipe cost is 80% of the vendor price: AK74 640 against 800, M4 2,240 against 2,800, AMP-9 1,100 against 1,375 and Super-45 4,480 against 5,600. The factory article does not say which currency a recipe uses, so this is not a confirmed saving.

Gear that is cheap to buy

  • Tac Vests cost 100, 250 and 400 cash, but they give no damage reduction. They add quick slots (Tac Vests).
  • Backpacks run from 350 (Scout) to 1,600 (Ruck) cash, and the Pouch is free (Utility Items).
  • A Fuel Canister costs 150 cash (Fuel Canister).

What keeps draining cash

Refuelling

Restock Amount Time Cost
Refuel Station, Fast 5% of the tank 3 s 75 cash
Refuel Station, Max Up to a full tank 9 s 1,500 cash
Fuel Canister One can Timed step 150 cash, 40 durability

Each restock uses 5 Fuel Supplies, and Fuel Supplies sell for 10 cash per lot of 50 (Refuel and Repair Stations, Supplies). Refuelling at base is not free, as the in-game tip says (Fuel and refueling).

Filling a tank from empty with Fast restocks takes 20 restocks of 75 cash, which is 1,500 cash over 60 s. A single Max restock costs the same 1,500 cash and takes 9 s. Max saves time, not cash (Refuel and Repair Stations). The same comparison holds for repair: 20 Fast restocks of 100 cash give 2,000, the Max price.

Repairing

Repair option Repairs Per use Cost
Wrench Any vehicle 5 HP 180 cash
Light repair drill Vehicles 5 HP 600 cash
Heavy repair drill Vehicles 5 HP 1,300 cash
Repair Station, Fast Vehicles in the FOB radius 5% of health 100 cash
Repair Station, Max Vehicles in the FOB radius Up to full 2,000 cash

Sources: Repair and vehicle parts, Wrench, Drills.

Restocks for stationary weapons

Stationary weapons need ammunition restocked, and the cost is in Ammo Supplies or Mechanical Supplies. At the lot price of 10 cash per 50 supplies, the cash value of each restock is derived below.

Weapon Restock Supply value (derived)
Talon 9K-SAM 200 Ammo Supplies 40 cash
MG Nest 200 Ammo Supplies for 60 rounds 40 cash
Vanguard CIWS 250 Ammo Supplies for 500 rounds 50 cash
L81 Mortar 150 Ammo Supplies 30 cash
Stingray 900 Mechanical Supplies and 5,000 cash 180 cash, plus 5,000 cash

The Stingray is the most expensive restock in the data. Its 5,000 cash is a direct payment, on top of the supplies.

Tips that follow from the numbers

  • The Stingray’s restock is the largest cash outlay of the stationary weapons in the data, at 5,000 cash plus 900 Mechanical Supplies, before any build cost (Stingray).
  • Fast and Max restocks cost the same per percent of the tank or health: 15 cash per percent for refuelling and 20 cash per percent for repair. Max is faster for the same money (Refuel and Repair Stations).

See also

Sources