The Stingray is Wardogs’ answer to enemy armor that refuses to move. It is a remote-controlled, long-range UAV with an explosive payload, launched from a buildable fortification and flown manually into a target. It is also one of the more expensive single-use purchases in the game, so it pays to know exactly what you are buying before the drone leaves the rail.
Quick answer: Build a Stingray Launcher with a Tier 3 (large) hammer, walk up to it and press B to buy a UAV for 900 spare parts and $5,000, then fly it with Shift to boost, Ctrl to brake, and Alt to free look. Each purchase is a single shot, and the drone loses signal at roughly 3 km.
Stingray Launcher build requirements in Wardogs
The launcher sits at the top end of the hammer tiers. A small hammer covers sandbags, barriers and barbed wire, a medium hammer unlocks gates, HESCO walls and doors, and the Tier 3 hammer is what gates the heavy equipment — anti-air guns, mortars, drill rigs and the Stingray Launcher. Without it, the structure will not appear in your build menu at all.
Placement is the part that trips people up. The build hologram turns red and throws either CAN'T PLACE ON SURFACE or OBSTRUCTED depending on what is wrong. The first means the ground itself is rejecting the footprint, the second means something is in the way. Step back, find flat open ground inside your FOB’s build radius, and rotate the piece before committing.
Once the hologram turns valid, hammer it up as you would any other fortification. Like everything else in a forward operating base, the launcher is destructible — it is a temporary asset, not a permanent installation, so building it deep inside a defended position rather than on an exposed ridge is worth the extra walk.
Stingray UAV cost: 900 spare parts and $5,000 per shot
Building the launcher does not give you any ammunition. Walk up to the structure’s terminal and press B to open the purchase screen, then buy the UAV itself. Every round is bought individually, and the drone is consumed whether you hit something or fly it into a hillside.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Spare parts per UAV | 900 |
| Cash per UAV | $5,000 |
| Shots per purchase | 1 |
| Build tool required | Tier 3 (large) hammer |
| Purchase prompt | B at the launcher terminal |
For context on the cash side, players start each match with a $10,000 balance, so a single Stingray is roughly half a fresh wallet. The spare parts cost also competes directly with the rest of your FOB’s construction budget, and those supplies have to be trucked or flown in from headquarters at the edge of the map. Firing a Stingray is a squad-level decision, not a personal one.
In the item database, the Stingray is filed under ammunition. It deals 120 damage per round and takes up 3×2 inventory slots.
Stingray flight controls and HUD readouts
After purchase the screen reads DEPLOYING... and then hands you the drone’s camera feed. Control is deliberately simple, but the airframe is not forgiving — this is a fixed-wing drone with poor turning authority, so the heading you launch on matters far more than any correction you make later.
| Input | Effect |
|---|---|
| Left Shift | Boost |
| Ctrl | Brake |
| Alt | Free look (does not steer) |
| Mouse | Steering and aim |
The HUD gives you speed in SPD KM/H and altitude split between ALT AGL and ASL, so you can read height above the ground separately from height above sea level. That distinction matters in the mountainous terrain, where flying at a comfortable-looking altitude still puts you into a ridgeline. A battery gauge sits in the middle of the screen and is the real clock on the flight.
Targeting vehicles with the Stingray
Vehicle detection is automatic. When a vehicle enters the camera’s view, a tracking box snaps around it, which is your confirmation that the drone has found something worth spending on. You still have to steer into the target yourself — the box marks, it does not guide.
Because the drone turns badly, moving targets are a poor investment. The Stingray earns its cost against things that are parked or crawling — tanks holding a firing position, artillery vehicles that have pressed F to stabilize and cannot reposition quickly, and enemy mobile spawn vehicles. An SPH-2 sitting still to fire is effectively a stationary target for the entire 12-second flight of its own shells, and that is exactly the window a Stingray wants.
Tip: line up your approach on the map before you buy. Aiming the launch correctly costs nothing, while discovering mid-flight that your target is behind you costs 900 spare parts and $5,000.
Stingray range limit and signal loss
The drone runs on limited battery power and has a hard practical ceiling on distance. Measured against the map grid, a Stingray reaches roughly 3 kilometers from its launcher before the feed cuts to // SIGNAL LOST... and the flight ends. There is no recovery after that — the drone and the money are gone.
Three kilometers is generous against a 2×2 km Control Zone but small next to a 256 km² map, which makes launcher placement a range decision as much as a safety one. Build too far back inside friendly lines and you will spend most of the battery just reaching the fight. Build inside the contested area and you keep almost the full flight envelope for hunting, at the cost of a structure the enemy can level.
Why a Stingray run fails
- Wrong hammer tier, so the Stingray Launcher never appears as a buildable option.
- Placement rejected with
CAN'T PLACE ON SURFACEorOBSTRUCTED, usually from uneven ground or nearby geometry. - Launcher built but no UAV purchased — the structure alone does nothing.
- Launched on a bad heading, which the drone’s weak turn rate cannot correct.
- Target beyond about 3 km, ending the flight at
// SIGNAL LOST....
Wardogs entered Steam Early Access on September 10, 2026 at $39.99, and systems like this one are still being tuned, so treat costs and handling as current behavior rather than settled balance. For now, the Stingray works best as a planned squad expenditure aimed at one specific parked vehicle — not as a tool you reach for every time armor appears on the horizon.
