Wardogs: How to Get and Use the Improvised Explosive Device (IED)

The Improvised Explosive Device is the cheapest way to own a remote explosion in Wardogs. It is a single brick that plants, arms and detonates on its own, with no separate trigger to buy and no second charge to carry. You buy it at base, you walk it out of the safe zone, and you get exactly one click out of it.

Quick answer: Buy the Improvised Explosive Device from the Equipment Vendor for $300 under Equipment → Specialist → Tactical, leave the safe zone, place it on green, then hold right-click to detonate.

IED cost, weight and slot in Wardogs

The IED sits in the Specialist equipment slot under the Tactical sub-category, and it is quick-slot capable, so the phone detonator can be drawn like any other piece of kit. There is no unlock requirement gating it.

Property	Value
Price	$300
Weight	1.5 kg
Slot	Specialist (Tactical)
Uses	One
Detonation	Remote, global range
XP earned	Support

The vendor description is short: a remotely detonated explosive that can only be used once. Global detonation means you do not need line of sight or proximity to set it off, which also means a nervous click from the other side of the map burns your only charge.

How to buy the IED from the Equipment Vendor

Head to the Equipment Vendor inside your base safe zone. The vendor stands behind a counter, and an OPEN Vendor prompt appears when you are close enough to interact.

Open the vendor menu and switch to the EQUIPMENT tab. This is the loadout view that lists every slot on your character, including the Specialist slot you need.

Equipment Vendor loadout screen with a gear slot highlighted for selection — The Equipment Vendor loadout view, where you pick which slot to fill. Image: BULKHEAD

Select the SPECIALIST slot, then open the TACTICAL sub-category. Deployable explosives live here rather than in the grenade or medical lists.

Tactical equipment list open in the vendor menu with deployable explosives shown — The Tactical list under the Specialist slot. Image: BULKHEAD

Pick IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICE, check that the card reads $300 and 1.5kg, and confirm the purchase. Assign it to a quick slot while you are in the menu so the detonator is one key press away in the field.

Improvised Explosive Device item card showing its price and weight before purchase — The IED item card, with its price, weight and quick-slot assignment. Image: BULKHEAD

The IED is a per-life purchase. Once it is spent or you die, you are buying another one, so factor $300 into your spawn budget rather than treating it as permanent kit.

Where you can place an IED

Safe zones block deployment outright. Aim at the floor inside your base and the placement silhouette turns red, with a Can't Deploy in Safe Zone warning on screen. You have to be in live territory, such as No Man’s Land, before the game lets the charge leave your hands.

Outside the safe zone, the IED takes two kinds of surface. It sits on the ground, which is how you mine a road or a choke point, and it attaches to vehicles, where the outline snaps onto a part of the chassis such as a front rack. A placed IED can be picked back up, with a PICKUP Improvised Explosive Device prompt when you look at it.

How to plant and detonate the IED

Leave the safe zone and move to the spot you actually want covered. Until you have a charge down, the HUD tracker reads NO IED PLACED.

Player moving along a forest road outside the safe zone with a green waypoint marker ahead — Moving out of the safe zone toward the road where the charge will go. Image: BULKHEAD

Press the quick-slot key you assigned to bring the phone detonator into your hands. The IED and its trigger are the same item, so drawing the phone is also how you preview the charge.

Look at the ground or the vehicle you want rigged and wait for the placement outline to turn green. Place the charge on green, then step away from the blast radius.

From cover, hold right-click to dial the detonator. A progress ring fills while the call connects, and the charge goes off the moment it does.

Detonation viewed from cover, with a fireball and smoke rising from the planted charge — The charge going off after the detonator call connects. Image: BULKHEAD

You know it worked when the call ring completes and the explosion fires. A kill on infantry or a destroyed vehicle pays into the Support XP track. Because the charge is single-use, the phone is dead weight afterwards until you buy another IED.

Distance is not a safety net for your own team. Global detonation triggers wherever the charge is, so a bomb left on a friendly supply route will still kill teammates when you press the button.

IED vs C4 Charge and Remote Detonator

The other remote option is the C4 Charge, which sticks to whatever you throw it at but does nothing on its own. It needs the Remote Detonator in the same loadout, and both pieces unlock at Support level 2, with a one-time $15,000 fee on the detonator.

Item	Price	Weight	Needs
Improvised Explosive Device	$300	1.5 kg	Nothing
C4 Charge	$250	0.57 kg	Remote Detonator
Remote Detonator	$550	0.02 kg	C4 Charges

A single C4 plus its detonator runs $800 a life, against $300 for an IED that carries its own trigger. The trade is repeats. Once you have paid for the Remote Detonator, every extra C4 brick you pack is another detonation, while the IED always stops at one.

That makes the split fairly clean. Buy the IED when you have one specific target in mind, such as a road a convoy has to use, a parked vehicle or a stairwell the enemy keeps pushing, and go back to being a rifle afterwards. Buy C4 and the Remote Detonator when you plan to plant repeatedly and can afford both. Carrying an IED and a Remote Detonator at the same time gains you nothing, since the two systems do not share parts.

One last consideration is weight. At 1.5 kg the IED is the heaviest of the three pieces, and it eats the Specialist slot that could otherwise hold a medical bag, a range finder or repair gear. If you cannot name the thing you intend to blow up before you leave base, that $300 and that slot are better spent elsewhere.