M500
M500 is a shotgun in WARDOGS, chambered in 12 Gauge. It weighs 3.52 kg. It costs $1,200 and unlocks at Support Lvl 10. On the tier list it is B tier.
Details
- Category
- Shotgun
- Price
- $1,200
- Share of $10,000 budget
- 12%
- Unlocks at
- Support Lvl 10
- Unlock cost
- $50,000
- Rewards
- Support XP
- Weight
- 3.52 kg
- Tier list
- B tier, #27 of 37
Weapon stats
- Rate of fire
- 120 rpm
- Fire modes
- Semi
- Muzzle velocity
- 480 m/s
- Effective range
- 70 m
- Accuracy
- 1.5 mrad
- Deviation
- 24°
- Zeroing
- 100 m, fixed
- Melee damage
- 35
- Suppression
- ×1
The platform's own figures from the game files, before any attachment moves them. 1 mrad is about 10 cm of spread at 100 m.
In-game vendor card
M500
Shotguns
3.52 kg
$1,200
- –Semi automatic
- –12 Gauge
RewardsSupport XP
6-shell pump action shotgun. Devastating in close quarters combat.
Reach Support Lvl 10
Unlock: $50,000
The vendor's own card, as shown in the Closed Alpha. The level it opens at and the one-off unlock come from a progression snapshot dated 2 September 2026, and are reported rather than confirmed.
Attachments
Optics
5All 5 change ADS zoom, aim time and zeroing range. The build names the attributes; it does not publish the amounts, so neither do we.
| Optic | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| $520 | ||
| ||
| $650 | ||
| ||
| $640 | ||
| ||
| $740 | ||
| ||
| $880 | ||
| ||
These are the attachments the game pairs with the M500 in the alpha. The pairing is the game's own rather than a menu we opened, so read it as what the game associates with this weapon — accurate to the build, and worth checking in game before you plan a loadout around it.
A further 3 are paired with it that we cannot yet name, with no vendor entry we have seen. Those are held back until they have one — why we do that.
Ammunition
The M500 fires 12 Gauge, bought separately from the weapon. Which weapons take which calibre is the game's own association rather than a menu we opened, and it agrees across all three places the build records it.
| Load | Per round |
|---|---|
| — | |
| — |
Per-round prices are arithmetic — a loaded magazine's price minus the empty one's, over its capacity. How much difference each load makes has never been published. Everything we have on 12 Gauge.
At $1,200 the M500 is 12% of a full loadout budget, leaving $8,800 for everything else you carry. What a complete kit costs.
What “Support XP” means on that card
WARDOGS has no fixed classes. Progression runs on six XP tracks, and Bulkhead has confirmed they are earned by using specialist gear rather than picked from a menu — so the REWARDS line is not flavour, it is the rule. Carry the M500 and the XP goes to Support, whatever the rest of your loadout is doing.
That makes the vendor tab a progression choice as much as a combat one. Every weapon we saw in the alpha pointed at exactly one track, and the tracks split along the vendor tabs: rifles fed Assault, SMGs fed Medic, shotguns and LMGs fed Support, everything long-range fed Recon.
Which is the argument for picking a weapon by what it leaves you rather than by what it does: what a full kit around the M500 costs decides whether the track is affordable to grind, and where the M500 lands once cost is the tiebreak is a different question from raw damage.
Six tracks and gear-driven progression are confirmed by Bulkhead. Which weapon feeds which track is our Alpha 1 reading, and it can change.
Other shotguns in the vendor
The rest of the tab the M500 is sold under, cheapest first.
Also earns Support XP
Different vendor tabs, same progression track — carry any of these and the XP goes to the same place.
Guides that cover the M500
Where this weapon sits in the game
The skin for the M500
Two Tone Desert M500 — with the gold bar price of each, and what a bar costs today.
Where the M500 ranks
The tier list, and why cost decides it more than damage does.
Complete builds by what they cost
What a full kit around this weapon leaves in the balance.
Every weapon we have recorded
The full Closed Alpha roster, by category.
What a round actually pays
One complete payout, line by line, and the loadout refund on death.