Flying in WARDOGS got more expensive on 15 October 2026. Update 0.2.0 pushed the minigun Little Bird to a later Pilot level, raised the unlock cost of three armed helicopters and the per-life price of every armed helicopter, cut the bounty enemies collect for shooting a Havoc down, and added a dedicated anti-air tank. Some Season 1 pilots on r/WarDogs now say they can't break even.
They can, but not by flying the way they did in Season 1. This guide covers what the Pilot track costs in Season 2, what each aircraft costs every time you pull it, what the patch notes say about earning Pilot XP, and the habits that keep a pilot's Cash balance growing.
Quick answer: In WARDOGS Season 2 the Little Bird AH-6M [Miniguns] unlocks at Pilot level 8 for $125,000 (it was level 4 and $50,000). The Z20 Lakota [Miniguns] unlock is $85,000 and the Havoc unlock is $650,000. Every pull also costs Cash: $12,000 for the AH-6M, $18,800 for the rocket Little Bird, $15,000 for the minigun Lakota and $28,000 for the Havoc. Repairing aircraft now feeds the Pilot track directly, so fly cheap transport, repair instead of re-pulling, and keep the cheap helicopters for transport until you can protect a $28,000 Havoc.
Updated 20 October 2026. Applies to WARDOGS Season 2, Update 0.2.0 (patch notes posted on Steam 14 October 2026, season live 15 October 2026). WARDOGS is BULKHEAD's 100-player, three-team Control Zone shooter on PC. It is not the 2016 film, not a Warhammer 40,000 unit, and not a battle royale or extraction shooter. Every price and level below comes from the official Season 02 Patch Notes unless it is marked as a player report.
WARDOGS - Cash
Get up to 5,000,000 Cash farmed for you
What changed for pilots in WARDOGS Season 2?
BULKHEAD gave one reason for the biggest change, verbatim from the Season 02 Patch Notes: "The Little Bird AH-6M [Miniguns] was too strong for how early it unlocked, so it now unlocks later and costs more."
That line covers the unlock gate. The patch also touched almost every other part of a pilot's economy:
- Unlock gates went up on the Pilot track for three armed aircraft: the minigun Little Bird, the minigun Lakota and the Havoc.
- Per-life vendor prices went up for every armed helicopter, some by close to double.
- Bounties were split by variant. The Havoc and the unarmed MH-6 and Lakota now pay less to whoever destroys them, while each armed Little Bird and the minigun Lakota got its own, higher bounty. BULKHEAD: "Every vehicle variant now has its own reward, so armed variants are worth far more than unarmed ones."
- Minigun damage went down. The calibre reductions for high-calibre rounds "also apply to vehicle weapons that fire those rounds, such as the Little Bird AH-6M Minigun, Z20 Lakota Minigun and Humvee Minigun."
- Cockpit glass works both ways. "Helicopter cockpit glass now works both ways - shooting out through it damages the vehicle the same as incoming fire." Firing a rifle through your own windscreen now damages your aircraft.
- The MGL-40 is worse from the bench. It "experiences much more inaccuracy and sway, slower ADS speed, and a reload penalty when sitting on the Little Bird bench."
- Anti-air got a new vehicle. The Flakpanzer Gepard joined the Driver track as a dedicated anti-air tank.
The XP side moved the other way. BULKHEAD cut the XP needed on every role track, writing that "Reaching level 20 now takes less than half the playtime it did in Season 1." So the Pilot track itself is faster to climb. What changed is that each helicopter costs more once you reach it.
What level do you unlock helicopters on the Pilot track?
WARDOGS uses a two-gate system. A Pilot level makes an aircraft available, and Cash pays for it. There is a one-time unlock fee, then a vendor price every time you deploy it. Losing the helicopter does not remove the unlock, but you pay the vendor price again next life.
These are the Pilot-track changes BULKHEAD published for Season 2:
| Aircraft | Season 1 unlock | Season 2 unlock |
|---|---|---|
| Little Bird AH-6M [Miniguns] | Level 4, $50,000 | Level 8, $125,000 |
| Z20 Lakota [Miniguns] | $75,000 | $85,000 |
| Havoc | $500,000 | $650,000 |
The patch notes give a new level only for the AH-6M. For the minigun Lakota and the Havoc they list the new unlock price and no level change, so we haven't printed a level for either. Check the vendor in-game before you plan a grind around a specific number. The same notes also say music tapes were "reshuffled between the Driver and Pilot tracks," so a tape you remember from the Pilot track may now sit on Driver.
If you are still working out how the two gates fit together, our WARDOGS Season 1 unlock-levels guide explains the system. The Season 1 numbers there are now out of date, but the system hasn't changed.
How much does each helicopter cost per life in WARDOGS?
This is the table that explains the "pilots can't break even" complaints. The left column is what you pay every time you pull the aircraft. The right column is the Cash an enemy collects for destroying it, from the Season 2 "Vehicle Destroyed" rewards.
| Aircraft | Price per deployment (S1 → S2) | Bounty for destroying it (S2) |
|---|---|---|
| Little Bird AH-6M [Miniguns] | $7,000 → $12,000 | $6,000 |
| Little Bird AH-6R [Rockets] | $12,500 → $18,800 | $9,400 |
| Z20 Lakota [Miniguns] | $8,000 → $15,000 | $7,500 |
| Havoc | $18,000 → $28,000 | $14,000 (was $18,000) |
| MH-6 (unarmed) | not listed | $1,250 (was $3,125) |
| Z20 Lakota (unarmed) | not listed | $1,500 (was $3,700) |
Three things stand out.
The Havoc is a $28,000 bet every time you take off. That is more than a T-72B3 ($16,000) or a Gepard ($14,000) costs per deployment. If you lose it to the first Talon you fly past, that's $28,000 gone.
The bounty is roughly half the price on every armed aircraft. Whoever shoots you down earns about half of what you paid. That makes armed helicopters a juicy target for every enemy who sees one.
Unarmed transport is cheap to lose. BULKHEAD cut the bounty on the unarmed MH-6 and Lakota by more than half. Their per-life prices aren't in the patch notes, so we can't print them, but enemies now get very little for shooting them down. That fits the job BULKHEAD seems to want transport helicopters doing.
One thing nobody can tell you honestly yet is how much Cash a pilot earns per kill. BULKHEAD has not published an infantry kill payout for aircraft weapons, and community numbers disagree wildly. Any site quoting a "cash per kill from a helicopter" figure is guessing.
How do you level Pilot fast in Season 2?
Only one Season 2 change explicitly routes XP into the Pilot track: repairs. The patch notes also publish XP values for flying people and crates and for destroying armed vehicles, but they don't say which track that XP credits. Here's what is published:
- Repairing aircraft (confirmed Pilot XP). "Repair XP now goes into the driver or pilot tracks depending on the vehicle being repaired, instead of a flat support amount." Repairing a helicopter now feeds the Pilot track.
- Air-dropping supply crates. Crates deployed from an air vehicle give 150 XP (small) or 300 XP (large). Season 1 paid 200 and 400. The Cash side is $250 for a small crate and $500 for a large one, plus the crate streak of +$100 and +50 XP per crate in a row, up to 10.
- Flying players into the Control Zone. A delivered player pays $100 and 25 XP, and the new delivery streak adds +$25 and +5 XP per player in a row, up to 25.
- Destroying armed vehicles. "Armed variants give 1.5x the XP of the default variant," and attack-vehicle bounties "increase the more kills they get." Shooting down a high-kill enemy gunship pays well.
BULKHEAD notes that the logistics Cash values are what you get "when dropped in the Control Zone." Stay inside the zone, and inside the shifting Hot Zone when you can, since it pays double Cash.
Our read on the cheapest route to Pilot 8: a streak of transport and crate runs in a cheap helicopter, with a repair between sorties instead of a crash and a re-pull. You're risking little, earning streak Cash on every return, and banking the confirmed repair XP. Watch your Pilot bar after a few runs to see how much the transport XP moves it on your account. In a separate r/WarDogs thread about missing drop-off rewards, players report that transport only pays for passengers you picked up inside the HQ safe zone, and that landing on the way can cancel the reward. BULKHEAD hasn't documented that, so treat it as a player report, but it explains why some runs seem to pay nothing.
For the full Season 2 earning picture beyond flying, see our WARDOGS Season 2 Cash farming guide.
How do you fly a helicopter in WARDOGS as a beginner?
A beginner thread on r/WarDogs this week asked the obvious question: how do you even fly these things? The most useful answers came from experienced pilots, and they agree on four points.
1. Learn on mouse and keyboard, not a gamepad. A gamepad feels easier at first, but players say it limits your aiming and reaction speed later. One pilot runs Q and E for roll, A and D for yaw, Shift and Ctrl for pitch when they need full continuous input, and the mouse for fine yaw and pitch, with sensitivity "around 10% with 1600 dpi mouse."
2. Turn the flight assists off and practise. The advice is to "get rid of almost all the assists as the guides say and in training really see what inputs do what." With assists on, the collective behaves roughly like altitude control. With them off, it behaves more like a throttle.
3. Tap the collective, don't hold it. New pilots are confused by veterans constantly tapping collective up and down. One player explained it: "if you are landing and hold down collective the whole time you'll hit the ground too hard, but every bit of up collective raises you back up." You are balancing the rotor's thrust while you descend, and there's a slight delay between input and response.
4. Respect the dangerous manoeuvres. In a tight J-hook with positive collective, "your heli will over-roll and send you down upside down." With a negative angle of attack and negative collective you lose pitch authority and keep falling. Practise both in training before you try them with $28,000 of Havoc.
Passengers have a Season 2 change to learn too. Parachutes now "won't open at all below about 10m," and opening below about 50m while falling fast means fall damage. BULKHEAD's own advice in the patch notes is blunt: "Make sure you trust a pilot before getting into their aircraft. Alternatively - drive to the control zone or fly yourself." Fly smoothly and drop high enough, and players will keep getting in.
WARDOGS - Class Leveling
Get any class taken to level 100
Do smoke countermeasures work on helicopters in WARDOGS?
A Season 2 thread on r/WarDogs asks how the new smoke countermeasures work. The answer from players testing them is that they're vehicle-specific, and the smoke screen doesn't work on helicopters, even though some players say they can buy it on certain helicopters. BULKHEAD hasn't published a full list of which vehicles carry smoke or flares. The only first-party mention is a bug fix for "a vehicle's smoke screen and flares not appearing for players who joined late."
So don't plan a helicopter loadout around smoke. Use flares where your aircraft carries them, but the real counter to anti-air is still how you fly: stay low, avoid predictable paths, and don't hover over known anti-air.
What anti-air should pilots worry about in Season 2?
Season 2 changed anti-air in both directions.
New threat: the Flakpanzer Gepard. BULKHEAD lists it simply as "Flakpanzer Gepard - Anti Air Vehicle." It sits on the Driver track at level 25, costs $300,000 to unlock and $14,000 per deployment. Destroying one pays $7,000. Expect to see more of them as Driver players climb the faster Season 2 curve.
Buildable anti-air is cheaper to build, but slower to fire. The Talon 9K-SAM build cost fell from 1,000 to 650 supplies, and the Vanguard CIWS from 1,500 to 1,200. But the Talon's reload went from 2 seconds to 5, and its restock from munition supplies went from 50 to 200, so each Talon fires less often per pallet. Destroying either now pays the builder's supply cost: $650 for a Talon and $1,200 for a CIWS.
The CIWS still shreds the Havoc. BULKHEAD's 2 October hotfix set the CIWS to destroy "the havoc in around 6 seconds as opposed to 12." Six seconds of exposure to a CIWS is a $28,000 loss.
If you are on the ground side of this fight, our WARDOGS anti-air guide covers how to bring helicopters down. For why the Season 1 skies filled up with Havocs, read why you see Havocs everywhere but no tanks.
Is it still worth playing Pilot in WARDOGS Season 2?
Yes, if you change how you play it. The player complaints in the r/WarDogs pilot thread are real. One Season 1 pilot wrote that they used to "pull 90 kill games 1st season now I cant break even." The patch notes explain why. A minigun Little Bird costs $12,000 a life, its minigun hits less hard, and every enemy on the map earns $6,000 for killing it.
The pilots who still come out ahead in Season 2 do three things:
- Fly transport and logistics while they level. It's the lowest-risk Cash a pilot can earn, the delivery streaks reward repeat runs, and the unarmed helicopters are cheap to lose.
- Pull gunships with a plan, not on cooldown. A $28,000 Havoc pays off when it can work an area with no anti-air in range. Use the tac map, look for CIWS and Talon builds, and leave when a Gepard rolls up.
- Repair between sorties. Repair XP now goes to the Pilot track, so a quick repair instead of a crash-and-repull saves Cash and earns XP.
There is a timing factor too. On 17 October, BULKHEAD said on X it is "looking at significantly bringing forward Season 3" to give players "a proper fresh start." No date has been announced yet. If you are deciding whether to spend $650,000 on a Havoc unlock now, remember the next wipe may come sooner than a normal season length. Our Season 3 release date tracker is updated as soon as BULKHEAD gives a date.
Can you skip the Pilot grind?
You can level Pilot yourself with the loop above, and Season 2's faster XP curve means level 8 comes sooner than it did in Season 1. The slow part is everything after it: the Cash for a $125,000 unlock plus a $12,000-per-life habit, or $650,000 for the Havoc.
If you'd rather spend your hours flying the gunship than earning the right to fly it, timesaver.gg offers hand-played options. Read the rules first. everplay group plc's WARDOGS EULA (§14.1) lists "boosting" and "the purchase, sale, or exchange of in-game advantages… for real-world value" as cheating, so decide for yourself whether that risk is acceptable. We stand behind our own delivery guarantee and refund policy. We can't speak for BULKHEAD's enforcement.
Want the Pilot track levelled to the helicopter you're after? Our team levels WARDOGS class tracks by hand, Pilot included, to the specific gate you name.
- WARDOGS Cash: hand-farmed Cash with a fast turnaround, for the unlock fees and per-life prices above
- WARDOGS Career Leveling: your WARDOG account level pushed up by hand, no bots
- WARDOGS Class Leveling: Pilot, Driver, Medic, Support or Recon levelled to the exact gate you want
- WARDOGS Rent a Pro: squad up with an experienced player and fly it yourself
- All WARDOGS services
FAQ
What level do you unlock the Little Bird in WARDOGS Season 2? The Little Bird AH-6M [Miniguns] unlocks at Pilot level 8 for $125,000 in Season 2. In Season 1 it was level 4 and $50,000. BULKHEAD said it "was too strong for how early it unlocked."
How much does the Havoc cost in WARDOGS? In Season 2 the Havoc costs $650,000 to unlock on the Pilot track (up from $500,000) and $28,000 every time you deploy it (up from $18,000). An enemy who destroys it earns $14,000.
Why can't I make money as a pilot in WARDOGS anymore? Update 0.2.0 raised the per-life price of every armed helicopter, lowered minigun damage, and made each gunship worth roughly half its price to whoever shoots it down. Pilots who earn on transport and logistics runs, repair instead of re-pulling, and save the gunships for safe moments still come out ahead.
How do you get Pilot XP in WARDOGS? The only source BULKHEAD explicitly routes to the Pilot track in Season 2 is repairing aircraft ("Repair XP now goes into the driver or pilot tracks depending on the vehicle being repaired"). The patch notes also list XP for delivering players (25 each, plus +5 per player in a row), air-dropped crates (150 small, 300 large) and destroying armed vehicles (1.5 times the XP of the default variant), but don't say which track that XP credits.
Do smoke countermeasures work on helicopters in WARDOGS? Players testing them report that smoke screens are vehicle-specific and don't work on helicopters. BULKHEAD hasn't published a vehicle-by-vehicle list, so rely on flares where fitted and on how you fly.
Is the Gepard on the Pilot track? No. The Flakpanzer Gepard is an anti-air tank on the Driver track, unlocked at Driver level 25 for $300,000, and it costs $14,000 per deployment. It's the newest threat to pilots in Season 2.
