Get to da chopper.
Flying in Wardogs is hard as nails. That’s the first thing to understand before you spend a single dollar at the vendor, because the skill system in this FPS rewards you for actually doing things: spotting enemies, healing allies, ferrying passengers to the battlefield. That last one is where pilot experience comes from, and pilot experience is what makes you a better pilot.
So the loop is simple and slightly cruel. You get good by flying. You get to fly by not crashing.
Start with the little bird, not the fancy one
Helicopters are the only aerial vehicle in Wardogs right now, and there are a few types. Ignore most of them.
The MH-6 is the cheapest, the easiest to fly and the one you want. There’s no point putting money into the Z20 Lakota or the Havoc until you can fly safely without thinking about it, and the AH-6 variants with weapons are a distraction, since your job here is pilot first and everything else second. It’s also a moot point early on: the MH-6 is the only chopper you can buy until you’ve earned more pilot experience.
Put the mouse down, seriously
Kane Allard, a senior producer on Wardogs, told me at Gamescom that he recommends pilots abandon mouse and keyboard entirely and switch to a controller whenever they’re flying, because it’s much easier to control. I tested the theory. He’s bang on the money.
With a controller, yaw (the direction the helicopter is facing) sits on the shoulder buttons by default, which feels far more natural given that ascent and descent live on the triggers.
Hold the right trigger to start the collective ascent, spin the propellers and eventually take off. Once you’re airborne, you’ll travel in whatever direction you’re pointing. To slow down, pull back on the left stick to create more wind resistance, and hold the left trigger to descend. Do that gingerly. Come down too fast and you’ll hit the ground harder than you expect, which damages the vehicle or destroys it outright.
No controller nearby? Remap yaw off the Q and E keys and onto the mouse. Head into the controls settings, enable “rotary vehicle mouse control,” then change “helicopter mouse swipe left/right” to yaw. Leave the up/down option on pitch and the helicopter will face wherever you move your mouse. This one’s purely personal preference, so try both and keep what sticks.
Read the bar at the bottom of your screen
The UI down there is doing more work than you think. It tells you what speed you’re traveling at and how parallel you are to the ground. The two horizontally-pointing arrows on each side get closer to the middle the more level you are, and the curved vertical bars show whether you’re climbing or dropping.
For turns, pair roll and yaw together and the maneuver comes out much smoother. Roll is A and D on keyboard, or the left analog stick on controller. When it’s time to land, small adjustments only. Every control in this thing is constantly interacting with every other one, so minor inputs go a long way.
The firing range is where you earn the right to carry people
Before you take real passengers into a real match, go practice. Buy the MH-6 from the vendor, then take off, fly for a bit, land on stable ground, repeat.
Then make it harder on yourself, because battle won’t hand you a flat clearing. Practice landing on bridges, on narrow roads, on sloped ground. Those are the drop-offs you’ll be attempting when things are going badly.
Your passengers may not wait for you to land
Plenty of them will buy parachutes and jump when the moment’s right. Keep track of how many soldiers you’re actually still carrying, and once everyone’s bailed, turn around and go get more. You can also stock your helicopter’s inventory with parachutes so anyone without one can grab a chute mid-flight.
But don’t idle at spawn waiting for a full load. One or two passengers is enough. Get them into the fight and come straight back, because every second you and your teammates spend sitting around is a second nobody’s fighting to win the match.
Drop passengers inside the hot zone and you’ll earn much more money, since it rewards double the cash. It’s also the hot zone, which makes it slightly more dangerous. Fair trade, usually.
Watch your surroundings while you’re up there. Wardogs is fairly forgiving about treetops, which won’t destroy your propellers, but buildings and walls will wreck your expensive chopper in a hurry. And if missiles are incoming, deploy those flares.
Being a pilot is an essential role in Wardogs. It’s also one you can fail at loudly, in front of everyone. If you’re crashing and killing your passengers on too many journeys, go practice in the firing range. If you’re still doing it after that, play a different role.
