LONESTAR
A private military contractor rather than a nation-state force, drawn from the Western para-military world.
Confirmed2026-02
World / factions
Three sides, one map
Every match runs three teams. It has not been announced whether the factions differ mechanically, with their own weapons, vehicles or abilities.
VALKYRA
A restorationist force in an alternate timeline where the USSR never dissolved.
Confirmed2026-02
MANTICORE
Deniable operations run out of Tehran, in a timeline without the 1979 revolution.
Confirmed2026-02
Factions3All three officially confirmed
Mechanical differencesUnannouncedNo faction-locked content confirmed
Three teams, and what that changes
Every WARDOGS match runs three teams rather than two, and that is a structural difference rather than a cosmetic one. In a two-sided fight, winning an engagement is unambiguously good. In a three-sided one, a fight you win is a fight the third team watched you spend ammunition, position and health on — and they are still at full strength.
The practical consequence is that committing everything is rarely right. Holding a reserve, breaking contact once an objective is secured, and being wary of a fight that is going suspiciously well are all reasonable instincts here that would be over-cautious in a two-team game. The map is large enough that a third party arriving late is a routine event rather than bad luck.
Whether the factions differ mechanically has not been announced. No faction-locked weapon, vehicle or ability has been confirmed by the developer or observed in a build. We are not going to fill that gap with speculation — a made-up faction trait would be repeated as fact within a week, and it would be wrong in a way that is hard to correct.
Balance in a three-way match is not the same problem as in a two-way one. If the factions do turn out to differ mechanically, the usual intuitions about symmetry stop applying: an advantage that would be decisive against one opponent can simply make you the team the other two deal with first. That is a reason to be patient about claims of a strongest faction, and another reason not to publish one on the basis of a few matches.
What is confirmed is the three factions themselves and the date each was announced, which is what this page records. Each carries its evidence tier: Confirmed means an official source stated it. If faction differences are announced, or observed consistently in a build, they will appear here with the same labelling.