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Built weapons will not reload

WARDOGS: can't reload mortars, CIWS or emplaced weapons after rebinding reload

Published Data as of Season 1 · 10 Sept 2026

This one is on your machine

Changing the reload key leaves the separate reload binding for built and vehicle weapons empty, and resetting keybinds in the menu does not refill it. Close the game and put a key into the Vehicle.WeaponExtension.Reload line of GameUserSettings.ini, or delete the config folder and do not rebind reload. Team17 is investigating; Update 0.1.2 did not fix it.

What you see

Your rifle reloads fine, but a mortar, CIWS, Talon 9K-SAM, artillery tank or other built weapon will not reload, even with spare ammo in the base. It started after you changed the reload key.

Also reported as: cant reload mortar · mortar wont reload · cant reload built weapons · emplaced weapon not reloading · ciws not reloading · artillery tank wont reload · WeaponExtension.Reload

Fixes, in the order worth trying

Work top to bottom and stop when the game launches. Each step is labelled with how much evidence sits behind it, so you can skip the guesses if the first ones work.

  1. 01 Close WARDOGS completely

    Confirmed

    The config is written out when the game exits, so an edit made while it is running is overwritten the moment you close it.

  2. 02 Open GameUserSettings.ini

    Confirmed

    Press Win+R, enter %LOCALAPPDATA%\Wardogs\Saved\Config\WindowsClient and press OK, then open GameUserSettings.ini in Notepad. The full path is C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Wardogs\Saved\Config\WindowsClient\GameUserSettings.ini.

  3. 03 Give the built-weapon reload a key

    Reported

    Search the file for Vehicle.WeaponExtension.Reload. On an affected install the entry reads (TagName="Input.NamedActions.Vehicle.WeaponExtension.Reload"), (PrimaryKey=(bIsCustom=True)) with no key in it. Add one inside PrimaryKey so it reads (PrimaryKey=(Key=E,bIsCustom=True)) to reload on E, or Key=ThumbMouseButton for the side mouse button. Leave everything else on the line as it is, save, and start the game. Two players on the Steam thread fixed it this way.

  4. 04 If the game keeps undoing the edit, make the file read-only

    Reported

    Right-click GameUserSettings.ini, Properties, tick Read-only. The player who first posted the fix did this so the game could not write the empty binding back. The catch: no setting you change in game will save while the file is read-only, so untick it before changing anything else.

  5. 05 Or start over from a clean config

    Reported

    Delete the files in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Wardogs\Saved\Config\WindowsClient, start the game, and do not rebind reload. It works, but every setting goes back to default, audio and graphics included, so note down what you had first.

Did this fix it for you?

Notes from other players who hit this code. Say what worked, what did not, and which region you are in — a fix that only works in one place is worth knowing about. Best-rated first, and there is no time limit: an answer from the first beta is still an answer.

No comments yet. Be the first to say whether this worked.

The shape of this bug is what makes it confusing. Your handheld weapons reload on the new key, so the rebind looks like it worked. But WARDOGS keeps a second, separate reload action for weapons you operate from a seat or a mount: mortars, CIWS, the Talon 9K-SAM, the artillery tank. Rebinding reload leaves that second action with no key at all, and Reset to defaults in the controls menu does not put one back. The player who worked it out, Ampjet, found the config stays broken even after changing the key back to R.

Is Bulkhead fixing it?

Team17 support has acknowledged it three times on the Steam thread, on 14, 17 and 24 September, most recently saying the team "is now investigating this issue." Update 0.1.2 on 30 September does not mention it, and a player reported it again the same day. Until a patch lists it, the file edit above is the fix.

If the edit changes nothing

One player on the thread said the file edit did not work for them. Check three things: that the game was fully closed when you saved, that you edited the file in WindowsClient rather than a copy elsewhere, and that the key name is spelled exactly, capital letters included. If it still fails, the clean-config route has no known misses.

The same config line causes a sibling bug: bind anything to the mouse wheel and scopes stop zooming, which scope zoom not working fixes the same way.

A different fault can look similar: if keybinds of any kind refuse to stick between sessions, that is key bindings not saving, which uses the same folder. And if the problem is a mortar you can fire but cannot aim, see how mortars and artillery work.

Source

Steam Discussions, Report a Problem: "Can't reload any built weapon", 14–30 September 2026 ↗

If that did not do it