Wardogs: How to Open Locked Doors (Halligan Bar)

Locked doors in Wardogs are not a puzzle or a lockpick minigame. They are a purchase. A compound on the Control Zone with a sealed door stays sealed unless somebody on your team brought the right tool out of HQ, and there is exactly one tool sold for the job.

Quick answer: Buy the Halligan Bar from the Equipment Vendor under Items > Tactical for $1,100, then move it into the Traversal slot in your inventory before you deploy. With it equipped, hold your interact key at a locked door to pry it open.

Player holding a melee tool inside the safe zone while teammates gear up nearby — Kitting out in the safe zone before deploying. Image: Bulkhead

Halligan Bar cost, slot and limits

The Halligan Bar is a tactical tool, not a weapon and not a building tool. It costs cash every life you take it out, so a death means buying it again. Against your $10,000 starting balance that is a noticeable but manageable bite, and prying doors feeds the Assault XP track rather than Support.

Detail	Value
Vendor path	Equipment Vendor > Items > Tactical
Cost per life	$1,100
Unlock cost	Free
Weight	Around 2 kg
Slot	Traversal (quick slot)
XP earned	Assault
Durability	Limited
Works on	Locked doors only — ineffective against gates

The item card spells out the boundaries plainly. It is used to pry open doors, it is ineffective against gates, and it has limited durability. Treat it as a small number of entries per life, not an all-access pass to every locked room on the map.

Buy the Halligan Bar at the Equipment Vendor

While you are still at HQ in the safe zone, walk up to the Equipment Vendor NPC and interact to open the purchase menu. This is the same vendor you use for weapons and gear, so you can sort the rest of your loadout in the same visit.

Equipment Vendor menu open on the Overview tab with the Primary Weapon slot selected — The Equipment Vendor opens on the Overview tab, where loadout slots are listed. Image: Bulkhead

Move to the Items category, then open the Tactical tab. The Halligan Bar sits in this list alongside the other utility gear rather than under weapons or equipment.

Select the Halligan Bar and confirm the $1,100 purchase. The description panel restates the important parts before you pay, including the gate restriction and the limited durability.

Move the Halligan Bar into the Traversal slot

Buying the bar is not enough. It arrives in your backpack, and a tool sitting in your backpack does nothing at a door. It has to occupy the Traversal slot so it can be pulled out with a button press instead of a menu dig.

Open your inventory and find the Halligan Bar in your backpack contents.

Inventory screen showing loadout slots with backpack contents listed alongside — The inventory screen, where backpack items are dragged into loadout slots. Image: Bulkhead

Drag it onto the Traversal slot. The slot label updates to show the Halligan Bar with its durability readout, which is how you confirm the swap took.

Check what you displaced. The Traversal slot is also where items like a wrench or a fuel can live, so decide before you deploy whether doors or vehicle repairs matter more for that life.

Player carrying a fuel can in the safe zone, one of the other tools that competes for the traversal slot — A fuel can in hand — the kind of utility item the Halligan Bar competes with for the slot. Image: Bulkhead

Prying a locked door in a match

Out on the map, walk up to the locked door, pull out the bar from the quick slot, and hold the interact key. The pry animation plays, the door opens, and it stays open for everyone — including the enemy squad that watched you do it.

First-person view moving through an industrial yard with weapon raised — Approaching a locked compound in an industrial yard. Image: Bulkhead

Tip: the animation locks you in place in the doorway, which is the worst position on the map if the room is occupied. Throw smoke on the hinge side or clear the room with a frag first, and stand off the frame rather than square in it.

Why the Halligan Bar is not working

There are only a few reasons a pry attempt fails, and none of them are subtle.

You are at a gate, not a door. The bar has no effect on gates at all, so find another entrance or blow a hole with a C4 charge instead.
The bar is still in your backpack. If it is not sitting in the Traversal slot, there is nothing to deploy at the door.
Durability is spent. The bar breaks down over repeated use, so opening every locked room you pass will leave you with nothing when you reach the one that matters.
You died and respawned. The $1,100 is charged per life, so a fresh spawn needs a fresh purchase.

Note: a hammer will not substitute. Hammers exist to place sandbags and F.O.B. structures on the Support track, and no amount of swinging one opens a locked door.

The practical rule is to buy the bar only when your plan involves buildings. Locked compounds inside the Control Zone, tower interiors and shophouse rooms are worth $1,100 and two kilos of load. A ridge position or an open-field push is not, and that money is better left in the bank for your next loadout.