The criteria, before the tiers
A tier list is only as good as the criterion it sorts on, and most game tier lists never state theirs. This one uses two criteria, both of which can be checked against the Season 1 price list and the unlock milestones:
- Cost band. How much cash a single deployment of the vehicle costs, taken from the Season 1 price list 【B】.
- Unlock gate. Which track level the vehicle requires 【B】.
What is deliberately not a criterion: combat power. No top speed, hit-point, weapon damage or handling figure for any vehicle is in the traced source list. Sorting by “strongest” would mean inventing the sort key and then presenting the result as fact — which is the specific failure this site is built to avoid. If you want a combat ranking, it will have to come from a source that measures it, and that source will need to say what it measured.
There is one practical reason the cost criterion matters more than it looks. A vehicle is per-life gear 【A】: cash persists between matches, but the vehicle you bought for a life is gone when you die 【A】. So the meaningful question is not “which vehicle is best” but “which vehicle can my income replace indefinitely” — and that answer is entirely arithmetic.
The tiers
Tier 1 — Free (no cash required)
| Vehicle | Price | Gate | Note | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bushmaster M17S rifle kit | Free | Starter | Included in the free starting kit, so a first deployment costs nothing | 【B】 |
A free deployment is not a joke tier. It is the baseline against which every other tier should be judged, because surviving a match in a free kit leaves your entire bankroll intact, and surviving in a paid kit returns only about 90 percent of its value 【B】.
Tier 2 — Under $10,000 (fundable from a starting bankroll 【A】)
| Item | Price | Gate | Note | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large Hammer | $2,400 | Support 8 | Building and mortar prerequisite | 【B】 |
| T-21 rifle | $600 | Vendor | Cheapest paid weapon upgrade traced | 【B】 |
| GGX17 pistol | $5,000 | Vendor | Described as widely regarded as not worth buying first | 【B】 |
| Binoculars | ~$75 | Vendor | Pays for itself on one recon mark 【C】 | 【B】 |
Everything in this tier can be bought more than once from the $10,000 start 【A】, which makes it the only tier where a mistake is recoverable.
Tier 3 — $25,000 to $35,000 (a good match, not a starting bankroll)
| Vehicle | Price | Gate | Note | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dune Buggy | $25,000 | Driving 8 | Cheapest listed vehicle; gate is mid-ladder | 【B】 |
| URAL | $35,000 | Driving 3 | The lowest tracked gate of any listed vehicle | 【B】 |
| Z20 Lakota | $35,000 | Vendor | Aircraft | 【B】 |
| Kodiak Flatbed | $35,000 | Driving 10 | Flatbed configuration | 【B】 |
This tier is where the design decision lives. At $35,000 【B】, one vehicle costs more than the full hourly band of most activities in the money per hour table — meaning a player loses money on the vehicle unless they keep it alive across several matches. The URAL’s low gate of Driving 3 【B】 makes it the most accessible of the four, but accessibility is not affordability.
Tier 4 — $40,000 to $50,000 (expensive gear, not vehicles only)
| Item | Price | Gate | Note | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6–10x MRAD scope | $40,000 | Vendor | Optic, not a vehicle, but priced inside this band | 【B】 |
| 6–10x MOA scope | $45,000 | Vendor | $5,000 above the MRAD listing | 【B】 |
| Little Bird with miniguns | $50,000 | Vendor | Armed aircraft; highest tracked price short of the Artillery Tank | 【B】 |
Including the scopes in a vehicle list looks odd until you look at the price. A sight at $45,000 【B】 costs more than a URAL, and this is the band where “what do I buy next” gets answered badly most often. The weapons and armour page covers the optics in their own context.
Tier 5 — The long gate
| Vehicle | Price | Gate | Note | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Artillery Tank | $500,000 | Career 90 | Both walls are required; neither substitutes for the other | 【B】 |
This tier exists to make a point about how the game structures desire. The Artillery Tank is ten times the price of the next most expensive item 【C】 and sits behind the highest level gate traced 【B】. Treat it as a season-spanning goal rather than a purchase, and check the progression page for how far away career 90 is.
What is not known about any vehicle
This is the part every other tier list leaves out, so it is a table here:
| Unknown | Status |
|---|---|
| Top speed, acceleration, handling | 【Unconfirmed】 |
| Durability and whether it can be repaired | 【Unconfirmed】 |
| Weapon loadouts for armed vehicles (beyond the Little Bird’s miniguns) | 【Unconfirmed】 |
| Seating capacity and passenger payout mechanics | 【Unconfirmed】 |
| Whether vehicles unlock grid-wide or per vehicle on the Driving track | 【Unconfirmed】 |
| Current prices after any post-Season 1 patch | 【Unconfirmed】 — the vendor in game is the final word |
Because six of the seven attributes that would decide a “best vehicle” ranking are unconfirmed, the ranking is replaced by the cost arithmetic above. That is not a stylistic choice; it is the only version of the page that survives contact with the next patch.
How to choose a vehicle with verified numbers
- Calculate lives funded, not price. A $35,000 vehicle 【B】 against a $50,000 bankroll is one life and a half — the budget planner shows the remainder and suggests the fallback kit.
- Check the gate first. Unlocking URAL at Driving 3 【B】 does not gift the $35,000 【B】. Cash and XP are separate walls, and the prices page lists both columns together.
- Price the whole run, not the vehicle. A transport run pays $500–$1,000 per rider, plus $500 if they survive and $750 per kill after 【B】. Whether a $35,000 URAL pays for itself depends on the runs, not the vehicle.
- Level Driving in the practice range. The range makes every vehicle available with no risk 【B】, so the ladder can be climbed without exposing a purchased vehicle to loss.
- Never buy at level 10 what you would skip at level 9. The store discount applies below level 9 【B】 and closes permanently, which is the one progression decision with no upside to delay.
If you want the item-by-item price list rather than the grouping, the vehicle and gear prices page has every traced tag in one table, and the patch notes page records when the tags last moved.