WARDOGS Cash Price List: What Everything Costs in Season 1

WARDOGS runs on one number: Cash. Every life you buy a fresh loadout from the in-match vendor, and every item — from a $150 pack of binoculars to a $500,000 Artillery Tank — has a price tag in that little in-game $ currency. The problem is that BULKHEAD does not show you a master list anywhere in the game. As one r/WarDogs player put it, asking for a cost breakdown at the end of a round: "one thing I'd love to see as a summary at the end of your life... A breakdown showing where your XP and money came from." It doesn't exist yet.

So here it is. This is the consolidated WARDOGS Cash price list for Season 1, built from BULKHEAD's official "Pre-Load Live & Season 1 Changelog" (posted to Steam on 2026-09-09, and re-verified against the live Steam feed for this guide) — the only patch notes that list actual prices. Every figure below is a launch-Season-1 number. These prices are season-scoped: Season 2 begins 15 October 2026, and BULKHEAD has confirmed "each season we will have a different XP curve with different item orders," so treat this as the current snapshot, not a permanent chart.

Key Takeaways

• You start with a one-time $10,000 grant. It is not paid every life — Cash persists match to match on your account. Spend it, and you have to earn it back.
• Two things gate every item: a level on the right track (unlocks access) and Cash (the per-life price). XP unlocks it; Cash buys it. Dying doesn't un-unlock anything — you just re-buy it next life.
• The single most expensive thing in the game is the Artillery Tank: $500,000 Cash and Career level 90. The Heavy Tank is far more realistic at Driver level 35.
• The cheapest way to build a bankroll is teamplay, not kills — reviving, hauling teammates to the zone, building, and sitting in the double-paying Hot Zone.
• BULKHEAD will never sell you Cash. Their pledge is verbatim: "We will NEVER monetize in-game cash or gold bars, they must be earned through play." There is no cash shop in WARDOGS.

How WARDOGS pricing actually works

Before the tables, the mental model, because most guides get it wrong.

Cash is dollar-denominated in-game. The UI literally shows a dollar sign. Per the Steam store page: "Every player starts their journey with $10,000." That grant is a one-time account balance, not a per-life stipend. This is the single most repeated myth about WARDOGS — you do not get $10,000 every time you spawn. Cash persists from match to match, so a big purchase now is a real dent in your bank.

Every purchasable item has two gates:

• A level on the relevant progression track — this makes the item available to buy at the vendor. There are six tracks named in BULKHEAD's own patch notes: Career, Medic, Support, Driver, Pilot and Recon.
• Enough Cash — this is the per-life purchase price you pay at the in-match vendor every time you want that item.

So "how much does a tank cost" has two answers: the level you need to unlock it, and the Cash you pay to buy it each life. Losing the vehicle when you die does not reset the unlock — you simply pay the Cash again next spawn. Keep that in mind for everything below.

WARDOGS vendor prices (Season 1)

These are the per-life Cash prices that changed in the Season 1 rebalance. BULKHEAD's stated reason: "Forward Operating Base and Large Hammer vendor prices have gone up to make them" meaningful purchases, and the whole supply-crate curve was rescaled "so low value items are priced sensibly and cannot be abused."

Item	Track	Old price	Season 1 price
Forward Operating Base	Vendor	$2,500	$7,500
Large Hammer	Vendor	$1,600	$2,400
Artillery Tank	Career	$400,000	$500,000
6-10x MRAD scope	Recon	$25,000	$40,000
6-10x MOA scope	Recon	$30,000	$45,000
Medium Hammer	Support	$10,000	$25,000
Large Hammer	Support	$25,000	$75,000
Small armoured supply crate	Pilot	$5,000	$10,000
Little Bird with miniguns	Pilot	$25,000	$50,000
Z20 Lakota	Pilot	$50,000	$35,000
URAL	Driver	$50,000	$35,000
Dune Buggy	Driver	$35,000	$25,000
Kodiak Flatbed	Driver	$15,000	$35,000
Music Tape H	Driver	$5,000	$2,500

Note the two directions of travel: defensive/support gear got more expensive (the FOB nearly tripled, the Support Large Hammer tripled), while the two big vehicles got cheaper (Z20 Lakota and URAL both dropped from $50,000 to $35,000). BULKHEAD's design goal was "a satisfying escalation through attack vehicles" on the Driver track.

WARDOGS unlock levels (Season 1): what you pay in XP

The other half of every price is the level gate. These are the only official unlock levels BULKHEAD has published — the Season 1 changelog. Everything else you see on wiki-style sites is invented, so this is the honest list.

Career track:

• Sports Parachute — level 35 (was 36)
• Large Backpack — level 55 (was 56)
• 762x54mm AP ammo — level 82 (was 83)
• 556mm AP ammo — level 83 (was 85)
• Deagle — level 85 (was 90)
• Artillery Tank — level 90 (was 55) — the marquee endgame gate

Medic track:

• PP-19 50-round drum magazine — level 29 (was 33)
• Defibrillator — level 11 (beta figure, per PC Gamer; one battery = five revives, batteries cost extra)

Support track:

• Large Hammer — level 8 (was 7)

Driver track (rebuilt for a smoother vehicle escalation):

• URAL — level 3
• Kodiak Assault — level 6
• Dune Buggy — level 8
• Kodiak Flatbed — level 10
• Large Supply Crate — level 16
• URAL Covered — level 18
• Music Tape H — level 23 (moved off Pilot 28)
• URAL Attack — level 25
• Humvee with minigun — level 30
• Heavy Tank — level 35 (moved off Career 35)

The takeaway most players miss: there are two tanks with wildly different costs. The Heavy Tank sits at Driver 35 and is the one you can realistically reach in your first weeks. The Artillery Tank is a Career 90 + $500,000 endgame flex that BULKHEAD explicitly designed for the top 5% — dev framing on launch was that "during actual launch, players will not see a tank for weeks." If you're deciding which one to save for, our breakdowns of when you actually get a tank in WARDOGS and whether the tank is worth it on the Driver track go deeper on the trade-off.

Why the XP side got so much more expensive at launch

The Cash prices above are only half the pain. In Season 1, BULKHEAD deliberately slowed leveling, which makes every level-gated item take much longer to reach. In their own words:

"Looking at the data we have decided to slow levels down around 10 to 20, and flatten the curve from 35 onward. This means our median players, at 20 to 25 hours, will be around level 20, and those wanting the big-ticket items, the top 5%, will need to grind."

The published XP band table (role tracks) shows exactly how much slower:

Level	Beta XP	Season 1 XP	Change
6	8,750	9,250	5.7% slower
10	25,000	35,000	40.0% slower
15	54,750	110,000	100.9% slower
20	111,500	250,000	124.2% slower
25	192,000	325,000	69.3% slower
30	293,750	400,000	36.2% slower
40	551,250	650,000	17.9% slower
50	838,000	1,000,000	19.3% slower

Two XP events also changed: an air-vehicle player kill dropped from 300 to 250 XP, and selling a supply-crate item worth under $75 dropped from 25 XP to 1 XP (to stop low-value selling being farmed).

How much you actually earn (and why it's not per-kill)

WARDOGS pays for winning the match, not for fragging. The store page is explicit: "Every teamplay action you perform rewards cash. From reviving squadmates, transporting friendlies to the zone, or controlling the objective." The best multiplier in the game is the Hot Zone — the shifting sub-zone inside the Control Zone that "yields DOUBLE CASH" and counts double toward zone control. If banking Cash quickly is the goal, our guide to making money fast in WARDOGS covers which actions pay best.

BULKHEAD has published almost no exact payout numbers. The one first-party example they gave: "an RPG with rockets could cost you about $3,000, but could earn you $10,000 if you destroy a packed enemy little bird." Everything else circulating online comes from PC Gamer's beta hands-on — and the author explicitly warned those figures would change:

• Each productive hammer swing: ~$15
• Completing a build: $1,200–$1,500 ("more than getting a kill")
• Reviving a teammate: ~$900
• A bandage heal: ~$200
• Binoculars: $75; defibrillator $1,600 plus $150 batteries

Treat all six of those as beta figures, subject to the Season 1 rebalance — the changelog above moved a dozen prices, so the earn side almost certainly moved too. There is still no official per-action payout table in the game, which is exactly why players keep asking for one.

One live earning bonus worth knowing: as part of Patch 0.11, community servers were given a temporary +5% end-of-match Cash bonus to encourage grinding there. It was announced as a roughly one-week window from 2026-09-12, so it has since expired — check the current patch notes before relying on it.

Cash vs Gold Bars: don't confuse the two

WARDOGS has a second currency, Gold Bars, and it is easy to assume they're premium currency. They are not:

• Gold Bars are obtained only by exchanging your banked Cash — they are never sold for real money.
• They buy cosmetics only, permanently, in the GOLD MARKET.
• The Cash-to-Gold exchange rate fluctuates daily ("do you invest now or do you buy in the dip?"), and BULKHEAD has never published the ratio. We break the whole system down in Gold Bars and the Gold Market, explained.

The only thing you can spend real money on in WARDOGS is the $12.99 Supporter Pack (a few camos, an icon and two bobbleheads). There is no battle pass, no season pass, no premium currency and no cash shop. BULKHEAD's pledge is on the Supporter Pack store page, verbatim: "We will NEVER monetize in-game cash or gold bars, they must be earned through play." That's the strongest thing about this economy — and it also means the only way to skip the grind on Cash is to earn it in-game, or save your real-world time another way.

Save the grind, not the money

Because there is no first-party way to buy Cash and the Season 1 curve is punishing (over 100% more XP at level 15, over 124% at level 20), a lot of players' actual question isn't "how much does the tank cost" — it's "how many hours is that." If your time is the constraint rather than your aim, timesaver.gg runs hand-farmed WARDOGS services so you skip the repetitive earning loop and get straight to the loadout you want:

Short on time but want the big-ticket loadout? These are the demand-ranked WARDOGS services for exactly this:

• WARDOGS Cash — hand-farmed Cash so you can afford scopes, vehicles and the big-ticket buys without the grind. Fast turnaround.
• WARDOGS Career Leveling — push your Career track toward the level-90 Artillery gate and the other high-tier unlocks.
• WARDOGS Class Leveling — level a specific track (Medic, Support, Driver, Pilot, Recon) to the unlock you want.
• WARDOGS Rent a Pro — keep your own account and party up with a specialist to win rounds and bank Cash faster yourself.
• Browse everything on the WARDOGS services hub.

A word of caution worth saying plainly: WARDOGS runs a kernel-level anti-cheat, and the everplay group plc EULA (updated 10 September 2026) names paid progression and account sharing directly. Never chase in-game "cash exploits" — BULKHEAD has said abusing the economy earns a timed ban and a Cash/XP reset, and tutorialising exploits is treated as advertising cheats. Earn it legitimately, or save your time with a service; don't try to cheat the economy.

FAQ

How much does a tank cost in WARDOGS? There are two. The Heavy Tank unlocks at Driver level 35 and is the realistic target for most players. The Artillery Tank costs $500,000 Cash and requires Career level 90 — a genuine endgame purchase BULKHEAD designed for the top 5% of players. Both are Season 1 figures.

Do I really start with $10,000 every life? No. The $10,000 is a one-time account grant when you start. Cash persists from match to match, so once you spend it you have to earn it back through play. The "$10,000 per life" claim is the most common WARDOGS myth and it's wrong.

What's the most expensive item in WARDOGS? The Artillery Tank at $500,000 (Career 90), by a wide margin. After that the biggest Cash sinks are the Support Large Hammer ($75,000), the Little Bird with miniguns ($50,000) and the Recon scopes ($40,000–$45,000).

Can I buy Cash or Gold Bars with real money? No. BULKHEAD has pledged never to monetise in-game Cash or Gold Bars — "they must be earned through play." Gold Bars come only from exchanging banked Cash, and the only real-money item in the game is the $12.99 Supporter Pack. There is no cash shop.

How do you earn Cash fastest in WARDOGS? Teamplay, not kills. Reviving, transporting teammates to the zone, completing builds and controlling the objective all pay, and the Hot Zone pays double Cash. BULKHEAD's own example is that destroying a packed enemy helicopter with a ~$3,000 RPG can net ~$10,000.

Will these prices change? Yes. Every number here is Season 1. Season 2 begins 15 October 2026, and BULKHEAD has confirmed each season ships a different XP curve and different item orders — your Cash and levels reset at the flip (see what the Season 2 reset does to your Cash and levels). When the season flips, re-check the new changelog — this list will be re-verified then.