WARDOGS: How to Heal Yourself With a Bandage

Healing in WARDOGS runs through one cheap item that most new players forget to buy: the Bandage. It is sold at the Equipment Vendor, it weighs almost nothing, and it is the only thing standing between a chipped health bar and a long walk back from HQ after you bleed out. The catch is that buying one is not enough — a bandage sitting in your backpack cannot be used, and the self-heal and teammate-heal are bound to two different mouse buttons.

Quick answer: Buy a Bandage from the Equipment Vendor under the ITEMS tab, drag it from your backpack into a hotbar slot, press that slot’s number key to equip it, then right-click to heal yourself or left-click to heal a nearby teammate.

Bandage stats and what it actually does

The Bandage is the entry-level medical item, described in the vendor as a basic bandage for emergency wound care. It tops you off after chip damage — it is not a full reset, and it does nothing for a teammate who has already gone down.

Property	Detail
Where to buy	Equipment Vendor, ITEMS tab
Price	$100
Weight	0.08kg
Slot type	MEDICAL // QUICK SLOT
Effect	Heals a small amount, self or teammate
Rewards	Cash plus Medic XP

Because it barely weighs anything, there is no real argument for skipping it. Weight in WARDOGS drags down sprint, stamina, and aim speed, and 0.08kg is not what is pushing you into a heavy loadout.

Player holding a scoped rifle next to teammates under the SAFE ZONE banner in WARDOGS — The SAFE ZONE marker appears while you kit out alongside teammates before deploying. Image: BULKHEAD

Buy a Bandage from the Equipment Vendor

Head to the Equipment Vendor while you are inside the safe zone at your base. The vendor stands near the gear racks, labelled EQUIPMENT VENDOR above the NPC.

Player standing in the base safe zone facing a weapon rack and the vendor NPC — The vendor and weapon racks sit inside the marked safe zone at base. Image: BULKHEAD

Walk up until the yellow interaction prompt appears over the NPC, then press E to open the vendor. The prompt reads OPEN Vendor when you are in range.

Yellow OPEN Vendor interaction prompt highlighted over the vendor NPC during gameplay — The OPEN Vendor prompt lights up once you are close enough to interact. Image: BULKHEAD

Switch to the ITEMS tab inside the vendor menu and find the Bandage. Its card lists it as MEDICAL // QUICK SLOT, with notes confirming it heals self and teammates for a small amount and rewards Medic XP. Buy it for $100.

Tip: Buy more than one. A single bandage is one small heal, and at this price a couple of spares cost less than almost anything else in your kit.

Move the Bandage to a hotbar slot

This is the part that trips people up. Anything you buy lands in your backpack, and items in the backpack cannot be used in a fight. The Bandage needs a quick slot before it does anything for you.

Open your inventory after the purchase. You will see the Bandage sitting in your storage with the rest of the gear you just bought.

WARDOGS inventory screen open on the Inventory tab with the Storage panel visible — The Inventory tab and Storage panel, where purchased items land before you assign them. Image: BULKHEAD

Drag the Bandage out of storage and drop it onto an empty hotbar slot. Any free slot works — slot 6 is a common choice since it keeps weapons and grenades on the lower numbers.

Close the inventory and press the number key that matches the slot you used. Your character swaps to the bandage, and you are now holding it instead of your weapon.

Heal controls: Right-click for yourself, left-click for a teammate

With the Bandage equipped, the two mouse buttons do completely different jobs. Right-click applies it to yourself. Left-click applies it to a teammate you are aiming at, and they have to be close enough for the game to register them.

Input	Result
Hotbar number key	Equips the Bandage
Right-click	Heals yourself a small amount
Left-click	Heals a teammate in range

Do the healing behind cover. You are holding a bandage, not a rifle, and standing in the open to patch someone up is the fastest way to lose both of you. Pop smoke first if the angle is live, click, then move — do not linger on the same spot you just healed on.

How to tell the heal worked

A successful heal shows up in two places. Your health indicator on the HUD climbs, and the bandage is consumed from your quick slot. Using one also feeds the Medic progression track and pays out cash, so you should see the reward tick alongside the heal.

If nothing happens, the game tells you why with an on-screen message. Two show up constantly:

Message	What it means
YOU ARE FULL HEALTH	Right-click did nothing because there is no damage to heal. The bandage is not consumed.
TEAMMATE NOT IN RANGE	Left-click failed because the friendly player is too far away. Close the gap and click again.

The other common failure is not a message at all. If pressing the number key does nothing, the Bandage is still in your backpack rather than on the hotbar — reopen your inventory and drag it onto a slot.

When a Bandage is not the right tool

A Bandage heals a small amount, full stop. It will not carry you through sustained rifle fire, and it cannot pick up a downed player. Getting someone back on their feet needs revive gear — an Emergency Resuscitator, Field Resuscitator, or Defibrillator — while the Individual First Aid Kit is the next step up for straight healing. Medical Bags and Defibrillators are heavier, specialist-slot commitments.

Because deaths cost you your whole loadout, healing early is usually cheaper than winning a trade at low health. It also feeds the Medic track, which unlocks more healing items, faster revive equipment, smoke grenades, and SMGs as you level it.

Vendor interaction prompt showing OPEN as the player returns to restock supplies — Return to the vendor between lives to restock medical items before you redeploy. Image: BULKHEAD

Make the bandage part of your default buy order rather than an afterthought. Rebuy it every life alongside your weapon and ammo, keep it on the same hotbar slot so the muscle memory sticks, and you will spend far less time walking back to the Control Zone from HQ.