WARDOGS Controls: Honk, Emote, Inventory and Zeroing
How to Honk in WARDOGS
Press H while you are in a vehicle — that is the default horn bind on PC. On controller the horn is click left stick (L3) from a vehicle seat. Players also search for this as “beep”; it is the same button.
How to Emote in WARDOGS
- Hold the middle mouse button to open the context wheel (the same wheel used for pings).
- Move down to the emote section and highlight the one you want.
- Release the button to play it.
The free set covers rock, paper and scissors, point, move up, halt and the hands-up surrender. Emotes you bought sit on a second page of the same wheel — use the page-switch prompt shown in the corner of the wheel. Holster your weapon before the surrender emote, or you may drop it.
Controller: the published keybind lists put ping and the ping wheel on click right stick (R3), but none of them list emotes separately — check Settings → Controls on your pad.
How to Open the Inventory
Tab on PC. On Xbox it is the View button. For PlayStation, two keybind lists give the Create button and one gives the touchpad — check Settings → Controls if one does not work.
How to Zero Your Sight
Page Up raises the zero and Page Down lowers it. On controller, D-pad up is shared between cycle fire mode and increase zeroing. More on why it matters below.
Changing Keybinds
Every bind can be changed in Settings → Controls. The rebind screen is split by role — infantry, vehicles, flight, map, communication and so on — so search the right category before assuming a bind is missing.
Controls the Tutorial Does Not Cover
| Action | Input | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Adjust zeroing | Page Up / Page Down | Works on most weapons with adjustable sights; not on pistols |
| Horn | H (controller: L3) | Vehicle seat only |
| Ping / emote wheel | Middle mouse (tap to ping, hold for the wheel) | Emotes are on the wheel |
| Inventory | Tab | Xbox: View |
| Tactical sprint | Shift again while running | Duration and availability depend on your weight class; heavy kits cannot use it, super heavy cannot sprint at all |
| Unlock a vehicle | L | Once for squad only, again for everyone |
| Vendor menu in a vehicle | B | Buy ammo, shells and countermeasures without leaving the seat |
| Place a drop marker | Right-click on the map | Appears in the pilot’s HUD; short-lived, so place it just before arrival |
| Rebuy your last kit | Rebuy button, bottom-left of the vendor | Two clicks to rebuild the loadout you died with |
| Coarse aim in vehicles / turrets | A and D | Then use the mouse for fine adjustment |
| Squad chat | Esc → Create or Join | Unlimited squad size; enemies cannot hear it |
Zeroing Is Not Optional at Range
WARDOGS fights happen across a 2×2 km zone, and bullet drop is modelled. Page Up and Page Down step your sight’s zero — set it before the shot rather than holding over and hoping. The firing range is the place to learn what your zero steps look like at 200, 400 and 600 metres with the optic you actually run.
Weight Governs Movement
Your carry weight sits in one of five bands and each one degrades movement speed, stamina regeneration, jump height, weapon sway, ADS time and lean time. The two hard cut-offs:
- Heavy — no tactical sprint
- Super heavy — no sprinting at all
Most players target medium. The full table is in the loadout guide.
Voice Chat (VOIP)
WARDOGS ships with two voice channels, and the difference matters tactically:
- Squad / team chat — set up through Esc → Create or Join. Squad size is unlimited, and enemies cannot hear it.
- Proximity chat — everyone nearby hears you, including enemy players. It is a feature, not a bug: bluffing, negotiating and taunting across a treeline are part of the game’s character.
Both can be muted independently in the settings if voice is not for you. If your microphone is not being picked up at all, check the Windows privacy setting for microphone access and confirm the correct input device in the game’s audio settings before assuming the game is broken — VOIP problems were among the most common beta reports, and BULKHEAD listed VOIP explicitly as one of the systems the second Closed Beta was stress-testing at scale.
Controller and Flight Sticks
- Controller support at Early Access launch is “partial” — BULKHEAD’s own wording — with partial aim assist. They noted that without any aim assist, controller play would be “comically bad”.
- HOTAS / flight sticks work for helicopters and give smoother inputs than mouse and keyboard, at the cost of setup time. Mouse pilots should instead enable rotary vehicle mouse control and map swipe left/right to yaw and up/down to pitch — see the helicopter guide.
Two Items That Look Identical
Smoke grenades and flare/signal grenades are near-identical in the buy menu. Smoke is cover for pushes and revives; a flare is a thin vertical column that marks a supply request. Buying the wrong one is the difference between reviving a teammate and advertising your position.
Sources: TacticalNed’s mechanics breakdown, DemoMan0351’s 40+ beta tips, StratzFPS’s flight guide (Aug 2026), BULKHEAD’s Closed Beta 02 announcement (Sep 1, 2026), and the Early Access keybind lists published by Shacknews (Sep 10), BisectHosting and KeyboardControls, cross-checked with TechWiser’s emote guide (Sep 17, 2026). Binds are defaults and can change during Early Access.
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