WARDOGS keeps its shotguns, machine guns and rocket launchers on one progression track, and it charges you twice for each of them. Reaching the level only opens the door. You still hand over a one-time unlock fee before the weapon ever shows up as something you can buy, and then you pay its list price again every time you kit out for a life.
Quick answer: Shotguns and launchers all sit on the Support track. Hit the listed Support level, pay the one-time unlock fee at the vendor, then buy the weapon with in-match cash each time you deploy.
How the Support unlock gate works
Progression is split between your overall WARDOG level and six separate tracks: Assault, Support, Medic, Recon, Driver and Pilot. Support is the one that covers LMGs, shotguns, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, mines, repair tools and buildable FOB equipment. General gear like pistols, ammo types and armour hangs off your career level instead.
These are progression tracks, not classes. Nothing stops you from carrying an SMG with a rocket launcher, or a sniper rifle with defibs. The only limits are what you have unlocked and how much cash is in your account. If you are unsure which track a piece of gear feeds, hover over its icon and the game tells you which class earns the XP.
The part that catches people out is the money. Cash persists between matches, you get a one-time $10,000 starting balance, and anything you lose on death stays lost. A $50,000 unlock fee is a real dent, and the weapon still is not free afterwards.
Support weapon unlock levels, fees and prices
| Weapon | Support level | One-time fee | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 MP43 (shotgun) | None | None | $400 |
 RPG-7 (launcher) | 5 | $30,000 | $2,000 |
 M500 (shotgun) | 10 | $50,000 | $1,200 |
 M249 SAW (LMG) | 15 | $100,000 | $3,200 |
| 9K333 Verba (launcher) | 16 | $50,000 | $800 |
 MAAWS (launcher) | 20 | $125,000 | $2,600 |
 PKM (LMG) | 30 | $150,000 | $4,500 |
 MGL-40 (launcher) | 35 | $200,000 | $6,000 |
Ammunition is bought separately by calibre, so a cheap weapon on an expensive calibre is not a cheap loadout. Budget for magazines, armour and medical gear on top of every price in that table.
Shotguns: MP43 versus M500
The MP43 is the shotgun you can carry immediately. It is a 12 gauge double-barrel, break-action, 3.20 kg, and costs $400 with no level gate at all. Two shots, then a reload, which is the real constraint rather than any theoretical fire rate. It hits well beyond the range most players expect from a break-action, so tree lines and hillside paths are not automatically safe from it.
The M500 is the upgrade, and the reason people grind Support in the first place. It is a semi-auto 12 gauge with a listed 120 RPM, weighs 3.52 kg and costs $1,200 per loadout, behind Support level 10 and a $50,000 fee. The point of it is not raw damage, it is not having to break the gun open after every second target in a container yard or a warehouse stairwell.
Launchers: what each one is for
RPG-7 (Support 5)
The first launcher you can realistically own, and the one to learn on. It fires an unguided 93mm rocket from a reusable tube, which makes it a solid answer to armour and emplacements and a frustrating one against aircraft. Rockets cost money, and a moving helicopter will eat several of them before you connect, so save it for ground targets unless you have a very short, very obvious shot.
9K333 Verba (Support 16)
This is the dedicated anti-air option, and it behaves nothing like the RPG. The Verba fires a 72mm anti-air missile, requires a lock-on, and is single use. It does 200 damage per shot, 30 through body armour, with a 10.8 m explosive radius and a max zeroing range of 1,000 m. Armour treats the hit as explosive rather than a bullet. Muzzle velocity is only 20 m/s, so the guidance is doing the work, not the launch.
At 17.25 kg it is also by far the heaviest thing in this group. Equipment weight feeds directly into movement speed, inventory space and weapon handling, so slinging a Verba turns you into a slow, committed anti-air specialist for that life.
MAAWS and MGL-40 (Support 20 and 35)
The MAAWS is the late anti-tank pick, firing 84mm ammunition from a reusable tube, which makes it far less punishing to miss with than the single-use Verba. The MGL-40 is a different job entirely, a six-shot 40mm grenade launcher for suppressing infantry positions and built defences. Both sit behind the two largest unlock fees on the track, $125,000 and $200,000 respectively.
Fastest ways to level Support and pay the fees
Support is the widest track in the game because almost everything counts. Kills with shotguns, LMGs and launchers all feed it, but so does grabbing a hammer from a vendor or supply crate and building. FOBs, walls and base structures are the steady, low-risk way to climb, and they pay cash at the same time.
- Shotgun, LMG and launcher kills
- Building FOBs, walls and fortifications
- Repairing friendly vehicles
- Destroying enemy vehicles and emplacements with explosives
The fees are the slower half. Cash comes from kills, healing, reviving, spotting, building, transporting teammates, delivering supplies, and simply holding time inside the combat zone and the hot zone. Spotting is the cheapest earner of the lot, because marking targets from a safe position pays out without risking the loadout you already bought.
Helicopters come from the Pilot track, not Support
Support gets you the weapons that shoot aircraft down. It does not get you the aircraft. Helicopters, along with cassettes and supply cases, sit on the Pilot track, which levels through transporting players and supplies by air and through helicopter kills. Vehicles are then bought from the same persistent cash pool as your rifle, and a squad can lock a vehicle so only squadmates can crew it.
If your plan is to be in the air rather than under it, that is a separate grind running alongside the Support one. The two do not feed each other.
How to confirm the unlock went through
Buy the unlock when your balance can absorb it twice over. Paying $50,000 for the M500 and then dying with $1,200 of shotgun on your back, on a night where nothing else goes right, is how players end up finishing a session with a sidearm.
Work upward rather than reaching. The MP43 costs nothing to unlock and will carry you through the early Support levels, the RPG-7 at level 5 turns you into a genuine threat to vehicles for a fee you can actually afford, and the M500 is the first purchase that meaningfully changes how you fight rooms. Everything past Support 20 is a long-term goal that a steady building habit pays for on its own.
