What actually fits

Backpacks advertise a capacity, and the number is technically correct: it tells you how many individual cells exist. It does not tell you whether those cells are arranged in a way your gear can actually use.

WARDOGS stores items as rectangles on a grid. A magazine is a small block; a launcher is a long one. A pack made of narrow pockets can hold dozens of tiny items and still reject a single wide item, even with "room" left. That is why the loadout builder shows the actual grid instead of a capacity figure — the figure is not the constraint.

Look at the Pouch. It claims 6 capacity, and its grid is 5×2 — which would be ten cells if it were one compartment. It is not. It is three sealed vertical pockets of 1×2. Six usable cells, but only in three narrow strips.

That means the Pouch can never hold anything two cells wide, no matter how empty it is.

This logic runs through the entire range:

• Field Backpack — three 2×2 pockets
• Assault Backpack — a 3×5 centre plus two isolated 1×3 side columns
• Operator / Ruck — true open grids (3×5 and 4×6), which is why they accept awkward shapes without complaint

The solid packs behave the way players expect. The segmented packs behave the way the grid forces them to.

Read the last column and the curve is obvious: capacity gets steadily more expensive per slot, then stops improving entirely. The Ruck, Gunner and Arsenal all hold 24. Past the Ruck, you are not buying space — you are buying slings, at roughly $1,100 each.

A sling carries a weapon outside the grid. That is the entire feature.

Whether it is worth $3,500 or $5,000 depends on one question: do you need to carry more guns than your grid can hold?

• If you run one primary and a sidearm, the Ruck is the end of the useful range. Extra slings are wasted money.
• If you carry a launcher or marksman rifle alongside a primary, a sling is the difference between bringing it or sacrificing half your pack.
• If you are the squad's supply runner, two slings plus 24 slots is the maximum a single player can physically move — and logistics is its own job.

New players pack a weapon and then discover they can only fit two magazines. Ammunition is the majority of what a loadout occupies.

A drum holds far more rounds than a standard mag but consumes far more grid. With 41 magazine types across 15 calibres, the shape matters as much as the ammo count.

Two habits solve most packing problems:

• Choose the magazine before the pack. The magazine decides how much room you need.
• Avoid mixing calibres unless you have a reason. Every calibre adds another block of ammo competing for the same rectangles, and the second gun rarely earns its keep.

Protection ranges from 30 to 65, priced from $200 to $3,000, with durability scaling alongside it.

The jump from Light to Medium is 10 protection for $300 — the best value in the list. Beyond that, you pay steeply for diminishing returns. Because of the refund rule (you recover 90% if it survives), the real cost is tied to how often you extract, not how much protection you wish you had.

1. Pick your weapon and magazine first. These are the largest, least flexible rectangles.
2. Count your ammunition in magazines, not rounds. Three is a working minimum for rifles.
3. Choose the pack.
4. Add medical and utility items last. They are small and fill whatever remains.
5. Check the shape, not the total. If the builder refuses an item despite free slots, those slots are in a different pocket.
6. Leave room for extraction loot. A full pack means you could not pick anything up.

The loadout builder enforces all of this using the real grids — including sealed columns — so anything that fits there fits in the game.