Wardogs: How to Use Purchased Emotes

Buying an emote in Wardogs does not add it to the wheel you already know. The first screen of the emote wheel keeps showing the same starter set, which makes it look like the purchase never applied. The extra emotes are there, just parked on a second page that needs one more key press to reach.

Quick answer: Hold the middle mouse button and scroll down to Emotes, then press F to flip to the next wheel page, where your purchased emotes are listed. Click the one you want.

Open the emote wheel in Wardogs

While you are in a match and in control of your character, hold down the middle mouse button. The radial command menu appears on screen with the compass at the top and the minimap in the lower left, exactly as in normal play.

Player moving through an industrial courtyard with the minimap and HUD on screen in Wardogs — Normal on-foot gameplay, where the emote wheel is available. Image: BULKHEAD

Keep the button held and scroll the mouse wheel down until you reach the Emotes branch. The radial menu is split into Squad, Local, Requests and Emotes, and scrolling moves you between those groups.

If the wheel will not open, check Settings > Controls > Keybindings for the input your build uses. Reassigning a key by hand can strip it from another infantry or vehicle action, so change one binding at a time and re-test.

Press F to reach the purchased emotes page

The Emotes branch opens on its first page, which holds the emotes every player starts with. Purchased emotes are never mixed into that first screen, so scrolling further will not surface them.

With the emote wheel still open, look at the prompt in the corner. It reads [F] Close or [F] Open depending on the screen you are on, and that key is what flips pages.

Wardogs emote radial menu open with the Paper emote highlighted — The first emote page, with Paper highlighted before selection. Image: BULKHEAD

Press F once. The wheel swaps to the next screen and the icons change to the emotes you own rather than the default set.

Move the cursor onto the emote you want and select it, then release the wheel. Your character plays the animation immediately and you return to normal movement and weapon control once it finishes.

Player back in control inside the Metro warehouse, preparing to throw a grenade — Back in normal control inside the Metro warehouse after the emote finishes. Image: BULKHEAD

What sits on each emote wheel page

Knowing which page you are on is the fastest way to tell whether the F press registered. The starting page carries the basic gestures and hand signals:

Paper
Scissors
Rock
Move Up
Point
Halt

If those six names are still on screen, you are on page one and the key press has not gone through. Purchased emotes sold as cosmetics include Middle Finger, Rock Paper Scissors and Shh, and they only appear after the page swap.

Warning: The surrender emote drops your primary weapon

Not every emote is purely visual. The Surrender emote, shown in the wheel with an icon of raised hands and a rifle falling away, does exactly what the animation suggests. Playing it makes your character put the primary weapon on the ground.

Triggering Surrender in a moving vehicle leaves the rifle behind on the road. The primary weapon slot ends up empty and you are left with a sidearm or whatever else you are carrying, with no way to pick the rifle back up short of returning to where it landed.

Squad, Local and Requests on the same wheel

Emotes share the radial menu with three communication branches, so scrolling past the group you want is a common way to lose track of where you are. Squad and Local carry voice callouts such as Thanks, and Requests handles asks aimed at your teammates. Each of those screens uses its own close prompt, with Esc backing you out.

Local branch of the Wardogs command wheel with the Thanks callout selected — The Local branch with Thanks selected and the Esc close prompt visible. Image: BULKHEAD

Emotes are cosmetics, not vendor stock

The Equipment Vendor you meet in the world handles gear, weapons, armor, backpacks and loose ammo through its Overview, Equipment, Gear and Items tabs. It is not where emotes come from, so browsing it for a missing animation is wasted time. Emotes belong to the game’s cosmetic set, which is organized like this:

Cosmetic category	Example
Emotes	Shh
Bobbleheads	Grenade Bobblehead
Gear Skins	Sport Parachute (Digital Wood)
Music Tapes	Helikopter – Fazlija
Vehicle Skins	Humvee (Two Tone Desert)
Weapon Skins	AK74 (Black And Gold)

Player walking up to the Wardogs weapon vendor counter with rifles on display — The vendor counter, which handles weapons and gear rather than emotes. Image: BULKHEAD

Confirm the emote played

Two things tell you it worked. First, the wheel’s icons change after the F press, replacing Paper, Scissors, Rock, Move Up, Point and Halt with the emotes you own. Second, your character performs the animation in third person the moment you release the wheel, and nearby players see it too.

If the animation plays but you cannot find a specific emote on either page, you are looking at an emote you do not own rather than a page problem. Run through both screens once in a quiet spot before you rely on a particular emote mid-fight, and keep Surrender off the list of things you test while riding in a vehicle.