The rule that confuses every new player
WARDOGS runs two currencies that do different jobs, and conflating them is the most expensive mistake a new player can make.
Cash buys. XP unlocks. Levelling a track does not grant an item — it makes the item purchasable 【A】. That single sentence explains most of the “why can I not buy this, I unlocked it?” questions. The URAL appears on the vendor list at Driving 3 【B】 and still costs $35,000 【B】. Reaching the unlock with an empty bankroll changes nothing.
The corollary is the part that actually matters for planning: progression is a cash problem wearing an XP costume. A player who levels fast and spends badly finishes a season poorer than a player who levels slowly and spends deliberately, because cash persists between matches 【A】 while gear does not survive the life it was bought for 【A】.
The six tracks
Six experience tracks are confirmed, and four of them are named in the traced source list 【A】:
| Track | Fed by | What it leads to | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assault | Kills and assists | Advanced rifles | 【A】 |
| Medic | Revives and heals | Medical bag, defibrillator | 【A】 |
| Recon | Marks | Ghillie suit, claymore | 【A】 |
| Support | Repairs and building | Heavy tools, launcher | 【A】 |
| Driving | Vehicle use | The vehicle ladder below | 【A】 |
| Pilot | Aircraft use | Aircraft | 【A】 |
Two things are worth reading carefully out of that table. First, the tracks are fed by behaviour, not by time — a Medic who never touches a wounded player gains nothing from the Medic track regardless of how long they play. Second, four of the six tracks pay the player while they level, because marks, revives, heals and builds are all paid team actions 【A】. The medic economy page covers the two healing lines in detail.
The verified milestone list
This is the full list of unlocks this site could trace, with the cash needed on top. Levels without a listed price mean no price figure appears in the traced source list — not that the item is free.
| Unlock | Track requirement | Cash needed | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| URAL | Driving 3 | $35,000 | 【B】 |
| Kodiak Assault | Driving 6 | Not listed | 【B】 |
| Dune Buggy | Driving 8 | $25,000 | 【B】 |
| Large Hammer | Support 8 | $2,400 | 【B】 |
| Kodiak Flatbed | Driving 10 | $35,000 | 【B】 |
| Large supply crate | Driving 16 | Not listed | 【B】 |
| URAL Covered | Driving 18 | Not listed | 【B】 |
| URAL Attack | Driving 25 | Not listed | 【B】 |
| Humvee with minigun | Driving 30 | Not listed | 【B】 |
| Heavy tank | Driving 35 | Not listed | 【B】 |
| Artillery Tank | Career 90 | $500,000 | 【B】 |
Read the shape of it rather than the individual rows. Nine of the eleven entries sit on a single track. A player who fights, heals and scouts for a whole season and never drives will finish it with an empty garage, which is why the vehicle tier list treats Driving progression as a prerequisite rather than a preference.
How long the ladder actually takes
The publisher’s own comparison is that an ordinary player reaches about level 20 in 20 to 25 hours 【B】. Season 1 also slowed the curve between levels 10 and 20 and flattened it after 35 【B】 — so the middle of the ladder is the slow part, and the top is broad rather than steep.
Two consequences follow, and both are planning statements rather than trivia:
- The sub-level-9 discount window 【B】 is the only cheap window. Levels 1 to 8 arrive quickly, and gear bought there is discounted. A player who banks everything and buys nothing exits that window with cash and no kit, then pays full price at level 9 for the same items.
- Twenty to twenty-five hours is the order of magnitude for one milestone band, not for the whole ladder. Career 90 — the Artillery Tank gate 【B】 — sits far beyond that. Treat the top of the ladder as a multi-season project and the middle as a place to make one deliberate choice per track.
No per-level XP figure and no per-match level gain is published on this page, because neither is in the traced source list. Anything resembling “X hours per level” would be arithmetic dressed up as a game value.
The practice range is the cheapest progression in the game
The free practice range makes all weapons, attachments and vehicles available with no risk 【B】. For progression specifically, that makes it the only place where a Driving level can be gained without exposing a purchased kit to loss.
The economics are straightforward. In a live match, every vehicle you drive is gear you paid for and can lose 【A】, so the cost of a Driving session is the cost of the vehicle you bring to it. In the range, that cost is zero. If the vehicle ladder above is your goal, the range is where the ladder is cheapest to climb.
What is not confirmed
| Question | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|
| XP required per level | 【Unconfirmed】 | No per-level figure could be traced |
| Level cap | 【Unconfirmed】 | Career 90 is the highest gate traced, not a stated cap |
| Whether track progress resets at a season boundary | 【Unconfirmed】 | See the season guide for the open questions |
| Prices for the unlisted vehicles | 【Unconfirmed】 | Reload the vendor in game; prices move between patches |
A practical order of spending
- Buy within the discount window 【B】 — the items you will still want many levels later, not the items that look good at level 3.
- Skip the $5,000 GGX17 pistol 【B】 on the way. Half a starting bankroll for a sidearm the source list describes as not worth buying first.
- Commit to two tracks rather than six. Six tracks split six ways delays every specific unlock you wanted.
- Price the kit before you buy it. The budget planner turns your cash into a count of lives funded, which is the number that tells you whether a purchase is affordable rather than merely unlocked.
- Re-check after every patch. Season 1 moved the Forward Operating Base from $2,500 to $7,500 【B】. The patch notes page keeps the changes dated, and the prices page keeps the tags current.