WARDOGS money: every published way to earn cash, and what everything costs after Season 1

The wiki's Game Mechanics page, which tracks BULKHEAD's own descriptions, lists the cash-earning actions: reviving squadmates, transporting friendly players, killing enemy players, spotting enemies, controlling the objective, and 'other teamplay actions'. BULKHEAD's February FAQ puts it more bluntly: 'Revives, transport, kills, spotting, and MORE! Teamplay isn't encouraged, it's rewarded.' The Hot Zone doubles cash for anyone inside it, and it also counts each player twice for control, so the richest place on the map is also the most contested one.

Cash persists between matches. That is the design's central promise and its central risk: you can save across many sessions for a $500,000 Artillery Tank, and you can also spend three matches of earnings on one life that ends in a ditch.

New players conflate them, and the Season 1 changelog is the clearest place to see the difference. Cash is what you spend on loadouts and what the wiki's list of teamplay actions pays out; it persists, it can be converted to Gold Bars, and it can be reset to zero as a penalty. XP is what levels the six progression tracks — Career, Medic, Support, Recon, Pilot, Driver — and what gates items: the Heavy Tank at Driver 35, the Artillery Tank at Career 90, the Large Hammer at Support 8. An action can pay both (a build gives 'Support XP and a bit of cash', per PCGamesN) or mostly one (an air-vehicle kill is a 250-XP event in the changelog's XP list).

The changelog also shows how BULKHEAD tunes them separately. The XP bands were stretched — level 15 from 54,750 to 110,000 XP, level 20 from 111,500 to 250,000 — while prices moved item by item in both directions. So a player can be cash-rich and level-poor (a saver who plays safe) or the reverse (a builder who dies a lot). The unlock ladder is on the classes page; this page is about the cash side only.

PCGamesN's guide opens with a warning that is the whole philosophy: 'A couple of deaths with a full loadout and you'll basically be on nothing.' Its methods, lowest risk first:

1. Build. Buy a hammer from the vendor, ride to the tower nearest your spawn, and use the FOB's supplies to put up walls, barricades and a door. 'Each successfully constructed building earns you Support XP and a bit of cash — and you won't have to take a bullet in the process.' 2. Hold the zone with a free kit. The base rifle costs nothing; only ammo does. Stay inside the Control Zone for passive income and pick off stragglers. 3. Loot. Enemy bodies let you 'upgrade your loadout for free'. 4. Taxi. Ferry players to and from the zone; 'any assists your passengers get after you drop them off award you bonus cash', and passengers can tip. Start with a car that spawns at match start rather than buying one. 5. Mobile spawn point. Drive the APC to a safe spot inside the zone: a lump sum on arrival and more cash 'for any subsequent spawns'. The guide's caveat: 'it takes absolutely ages to drive from spawn to the zone, so strap in.' 6. Supply shop. Buy supply crates at spawn, fill them with ammo, building supplies or bandages, fly them into the zone, and 'anyone who interacts with your crate and buys any of the supplies inside puts cash right back into your account.'

BULKHEAD has never published a payout table. Two outlets have printed numbers from their own beta play, and because that is the only quantified data anyone has, we list it — with the caveat both authors attach. PC Gamer's Morgan Park (9 September 2026): 'Bulkhead has stated the economy of the beta will change for the early access release, so some of these figures might change at launch.' Dexerto (7 September) gives helicopter figures without a method. The Season 1 changelog of 9 September changed prices and the supply-crate curve, so any of these may already be different.

The table is labelled by outlet and date. It is not a table of BULKHEAD values, and this site will replace it the day the studio publishes one.

The 9 September changelog is the only official price list we have, and it only lists items whose price changed. The FOB tripled ($2,500 → $7,500) and the vendor's Large Hammer rose ($1,600 → $2,400) 'to make them more of a choice'. The Support track's Large Hammer tripled ($25,000 → $75,000) and its Medium Hammer went from $10,000 to $25,000. Recon scopes rose $15,000 each. The Pilot track's Little Bird with miniguns doubled to $50,000 and the small armoured supply crate doubled to $10,000. Three vehicles got cheaper: the Z20 Lakota ($50,000 → $35,000), the URAL ($50,000 → $35,000) and the Dune Buggy ($35,000 → $25,000). The Kodiak Flatbed went the other way ($15,000 → $35,000). The Artillery Tank is $500,000, up from $400,000.

One more economy change matters for sellers: the supply-crate purchase curve was 'rescaled from 25 to 250 down to 1 to 200, so low value items are priced sensibly and cannot be abused', and the XP for selling an item under $75 fell from 25 to 1.

There is no official price list for the full loadout catalogue — only the changelog's list of changed prices — so we cannot tell you what a ghillie suit, a launcher or a basic armour set costs. There is also no published payout table: how much a revive pays, how much per minute in the zone, what a taxi fare is. Anyone printing 'a revive earns $X' is inventing it. What the Steam description does say is directional: 'spending big on better gear, equipment, or a vehicle at the right time has the potential to turn the tide of battle and could yield massive returns', and 'You could chase the Hot Zone to earn double the cash, purchase a ghillie suit and snipe from a distance, or ferry supplies to teammates by helicopter.'

The HUD, in BULKHEAD's own press screenshots, shows a cash figure at top right that updates during a life — the 'Fat Stacks' achievement ('$100,000 net profit in a single life') is measured against that running number, which means profit is tracked per life, not just per match. That is consistent with PCGamesN's advice to treat each life as a trade: cost of loadout in, cash actions out.

Patch 0.11 (announced 12 September, delivered in the 14 September maintenance) added a temporary edge for grinders: 'for the next week community servers will offer a bonus 5% End of Match cash bonus. So if you're looking to grind, we suggest jumping in a community server.' Community servers are hosted through BULKHEAD's approved partners — QONZER, BisectHosting and xREALM — and the patch split the server browser so you can find them.

Spending has two outlets. Loadouts are the obvious one. The other is Gold Bars: cash can be exchanged for them, and they buy cosmetics in the Black Market (BULKHEAD's April 2026 devlog calls the wider system 'The Black Market & Vault'). The studio's three monetisation promises apply here — no real-money cash, no real-money Gold Bars, no directly purchasable camos.

Patch 0.11 devotes a section to 'Our Stance on Economy Abuse', and it is worth quoting because the penalties are unusually specific. On abusing cash exploits and bugs: 'We will respond with a timed ban, the length of which will be determined based on any previously applied bans. We will reset your cash and XP to 0.' On making content that tutorialises exploits: 'This will result in a permanent ban… there is a difference between promoting and alerting.' XP farming is listed alongside. The same patch notes 'Various cash exploits have been fixed.'

The enforcement policy on wardogs.com, updated 7 September, covers the general case: 'Deliberately exploiting bugs, glitches or unintended behaviour for advantage, including damage, movement, spawn and progression exploits' is a bannable offence, and 'the account holder is responsible for any infraction on the account.'

Putting the sources together: spend nothing you cannot lose in the first matches, and take the roles that pay without dying. Build at the tower nearest spawn (Support XP and cash). Take the spawned car and run taxi to the zone (Driver XP, assists, tips). Stand in the zone with the free rifle when nothing else is happening; step into the Hot Zone when your team is holding. Once there is a cushion, price the next purchase against the Season 1 list rather than against beta memories — the FOB is $7,500 now, the Large Hammer $2,400 from the vendor.

For players chasing the big items, BULKHEAD set the expectation itself: 'those wanting the big ticket items, the top 5%, will need to grind.' The Artillery Tank sits at Career level 90; the Heavy Tank at Driver level 35. The classes guide lists every unlock the changelog published.