WARDOGS Support Guide: Heavy Gunner Loadout, Suppression and Ammo

The heavy gunner is the player who locks down an area. With a belt-fed machine gun on a bipod, you can stop an entire enemy push, keep heads down while your Assault players move, and turn a F.O.B into a fortress.

You’re also the player who keeps the faction stocked with ammunition, whether that’s sharing magazines with riflemen or keeping your F.O.B’s emplacements loaded.

Heavy gunner in one line: Pick a strong position, suppress everything that moves, keep the ammo flowing, and move before the enemy pins you down.

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Heavy Gunner at a Glance

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The Heavy Gunner Loadout (Season 2)

Unlock levels below are Support track levels unless stated. Prices are approximate vendor prices per life.

Which Machine Gun Should You Use?

• PKM – belt-fed, hard-hitting and one of the strongest weapons in the game. In Season 2 it unlocks earlier (Support 15), making it the go-to machine gun.
• M249 SAW – slightly lighter-hitting but cheaper, and it uses STANAG magazines like the riflemen’s, so your squad can share ammo. Comes with 100-round fabric and 200-round box options.
• Evo-3 Ultra – the new Season 2 top-tier machine gun for players with the cash.
• Shotguns – the starter option. Great in buildings, useless at range.

Weight Is Everything

Machine guns and their ammo are heavy. A PKM alone is around 7.5 kg before you add belts.

• Don’t stack heavy armour on top unless someone is driving you to the fight.
• Fill your backpack with ammo, not luxuries.
• Ride with a driver or pilot whenever you can. Walking a heavy kit across the map is slow and dangerous.

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How to Play Heavy Gunner

1. Suppress, Don’t Just Shoot

Your biggest contribution isn’t kills, it’s keeping the enemy’s heads down.

• Fire controlled bursts at enemy positions so they can’t peek.
• Suppress the enemy while your Assault players move across open ground.
• Tell your team when you’re covering them: Suppressing the treeline, move now.
• Keep firing at a building or ridge even if you can’t see anyone. It stops them returning fire.

2. Choose Your Position Carefully

A machine gun is a defensive weapon. Set up somewhere that gives you a long view of ground the enemy has to cross.

• Cover open ground, roads, bridges and approaches to your F.O.B or the Hot Zone.
• Deploy your bipod on a wall, a window ledge or while prone. It makes you far more accurate.
• Fire from inside a room or behind sandbags rather than out in the open.
• Have cover on both sides so you can’t be flanked easily.

3. Always Have an Exit

Once the enemy knows where you are, you become their number one target.

• Pick your fall-back position before you start firing.
• When snipers or grenades start landing on you, move.
• Use smoke to cover your relocation.

4. Keep the Ammo Flowing

Being the ammo player is part of the job.

• Share ammo with your squad. If you’re running an M249, you use the same STANAG magazines as the riflemen, so coordinate with them.
• Reload behind cover, and refill from loose ammo between fights.
• F.O.B emplacements (machine gun nests, mortars and other built weapons) need Ammo Supplies:
  1. Buy Ammo Supplies from the vehicle vendor while in a vehicle’s driver seat.
  2. Load them in a Small Crate on a vehicle with crate space (Ural, Kodiak, Humvee variants or the Z20 Lakota).
  3. Drive into your F.O.B’s radius and drop the crate near the emplacement.
• Ammo Supplies only stock buildable weapons inside the F.O.B radius. They won’t reload your own gun.
• Ammo Supply Pallets unlock through your Wardog level and let your team stock up in bulk.

Team Tip: Lock the vehicle when you leave it at the F.O.B, so nobody drives off with the remaining ammo.

5. Work With Your Team

• Recon spots targets for you. Ask them to call positions so you know where to suppress.
• Medics keep you alive. Stay close to cover they can reach.
• Assault players are the ones you’re protecting. Talk to them.
• You’re not an anti-vehicle player. If armour shows up, call it out and let your Engineer deal with it.

6. Hold the Objective

• A well-placed machine gun can hold the Hot Zone on its own against small groups.
• Watch the approaches to the next Hot Zone position before it moves there.
• Help defend Towers your faction has captured.

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Common Heavy Gunner Mistakes

• Running around with an LMG. It’s a defensive weapon. Set up and hold.
• Firing from the same spot all match. You’ll be found and removed.
• Heavy armour on foot. You’ll be too slow to reach the fight.
• Running dry. Bring more ammo than you think you need.
• Fighting vehicles. Call them out instead.
• Forgetting your bipod. Spraying unsupported wastes ammo.

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Pre-Deployment Checklist

• Machine gun and bipod
• Plenty of spare belts or boxes plus loose ammo
• Cheap sidearm
• Bandages, smoke and a frag
• Medium armour (heavy only if you’re driven in)
• A lift to the fight, and a position planned on the map

Remember: You might not top the kill feed, but every enemy who couldn’t move because of your fire is a fight your team won.

Unlock levels and prices are for Season 2 (Update 0.2.0). WARDOGS is in Early Access, so check the in-game vendor for the latest values.