Factions
The three WARDOGS factions
Who fights over Kolchia, what each of them wants, and what is still unknown about them.
WARDOGS has three factions: LONESTAR, VALKYRA and MANTICORE. All three were confirmed by Bulkhead in February 2026, along with who they are and what they want. What has never been stated is whether they differ mechanically — nobody has announced faction-specific weapons, vehicles or abilities, and nobody has ruled them out.
LONESTAR
Western para-military
The heavy-hitters of the Western para-military world, known for their Texas-tough grit.
The private-contractor side of the board. Bulkhead describes them by temperament rather than by nation, which is the only one of the three framed as a company rather than a state.
VALKYRA
Soviet People’s Republic
Dedicated to returning the Soviet People’s Republic to greatness.
A restorationist force rather than a currently dominant one — "returning" is doing the work in that sentence. In this setting the USSR did not dissolve.
MANTICORE
Kingdom of Persia
The Kingdom of Persia — Tehran’s shadow army.
"Shadow army" implies deniable operations rather than a regular military, and a Kingdom of Persia means this timeline never had the 1979 revolution.
Emblems redrawn from the faction art in Bulkhead's public community Discord. WARDOGS and all related marks are the property of their respective owners.
Do the WARDOGS factions play differently?
Nobody knows, and that is the honest answer. This is the question the Steam discussion board keeps asking, and there is no statement to point at either way. Bulkhead has confirmed that three factions exist and given each one an identity. It has never said whether picking one changes what you can buy, drive or do.
Specifically unannounced:
- Faction-specific weapons, or whether the vendor stocks the same list for everyone
- Faction-specific vehicles, abilities or passive traits
- Whether faction affects the cash economy in any way
- How you are assigned a faction in a match, and whether that persists between matches
- Faction-locked cosmetics or a separate progression track per faction
There is a reasonable case either way. The three identities are distinct enough to carry asymmetric kit, and the Soviet-versus-Western-versus-Persian framing maps neatly onto real weapon families. Against that, WARDOGS is built on ashared persistent economy where your loadout is decided by what you can afford, and faction-locking the shop would cut across that. Both readings are speculation, and we are labelling them as such rather than picking one.
Why three factions instead of two?
This part is answered, and it is the most important thing about the factions even if they turn out to be mechanically identical.
A two-way fight settles into a front line. A three-way fight cannot — pushing hard on one enemy exposes your flank to the other, so the strongest team is constantly the one everybody else has a reason to shoot. Up to 100 players split across the three sides contest a 2 × 2 km Control Zone, and the first team to 100 points wins.
That dynamic is the reason the third faction exists, and it iscovered in more detail on the mechanics page.
What is confirmed, and what is not
| Claim | Status |
|---|---|
| Three factions exist | Confirmed |
| They are named LONESTAR, VALKYRA and MANTICORE | Confirmed |
| Their allegiances and descriptions | Confirmed |
| Up to 100 players split across the three | Confirmed |
| Whether they differ mechanically | Unconfirmed — never stated |
| How faction assignment works in a match | Unconfirmed |
| Faction-specific progression or cosmetics | Unconfirmed |
The confirmed rows all trace toBulkhead's TOP QUESTIONS post, with the same descriptions repeated in the onboarding flow of its public community Discord. The unconfirmed rows are unconfirmed because no source exists — not because we have not looked.
The setting these factions imply
Read together, the three descriptions sketch an alternate present rather than a near-future one. A Soviet People's Republic that needs returning to greatness did not dissolve in 1991. A Kingdom of Persia means no 1979 revolution. And the Western entrant is a para-military contractor rather than a national army, which is the detail that makes the other two make sense: this is a war fought by proxies overa 256 km² stretch of Kolchia.
Bulkhead has not published a timeline, a date or any backstory beyond these three descriptions, so everything in the paragraph above is inference from the words it did use. It is not lore we have been given.
Related: how WARDOGS actually works, the Kolchia map, and the weapon categories.
Common questions
- What are the three factions in WARDOGS?
- LONESTAR, VALKYRA and MANTICORE. LONESTAR are Western para-military heavy-hitters, VALKYRA want to return the Soviet People’s Republic to greatness, and MANTICORE are the Kingdom of Persia’s shadow army out of Tehran. Bulkhead confirmed all three in February 2026.
- Do the WARDOGS factions play differently?
- Unknown. Bulkhead has never said whether the factions differ mechanically — no faction-specific weapons, vehicles or abilities have been announced, and no statement rules them out either. Treat any site telling you one faction is stronger as guessing.
- Can you choose your faction in WARDOGS?
- Bulkhead has not published how faction assignment works in a match, or whether a choice persists between matches. The community Discord does let you pick one on joining, but that assigns a Discord role and is not a game mechanic.
- Why does WARDOGS have three factions instead of two?
- Because a three-way fight cannot settle into a front line. Pushing hard on one enemy exposes your flank to the other, so the leading team is always the one everybody else has a reason to shoot. That is the design reason Bulkhead gives for three teams rather than two.
Last verified: 9 August 2026. Faction names and descriptions are Confirmed, sourced to Bulkhead's TOP QUESTIONS post and corroborated in its public community Discord. Everything about mechanical differences is Unconfirmed, because no statement exists in either direction.