WARDOGS Factions Guide — LONESTAR, VALKYRA, and MANTICORE

What are the three factions?

Every match divides 100 players among three factions, confirmed by BULKHEAD in February 2026: LONESTAR, VALKYRA, and MANTICORE. None is good or evil — all three are military machines fighting over the same ground, and all three draw from the same shop, the same weapon arsenal, and the same cash economy. The quick profile:

Who is LONESTAR?

LONESTAR is the heavy-hitter of the Western para-military world, described in official material with “Texas-tough grit.” Crucially, it is the only one of the three factions framed as a private contractor company rather than the armed arm of a state: LONESTAR is what happens when a Western PMC grows to the scale where it can fight a nation-state’s war on contract. On the battlefield that reads as the most conventional, NATO-flavored force of the trio.

Who is VALKYRA?

VALKYRA is dedicated to returning the Soviet People’s Republic to greatness — a restorationist force, not a successor state. The setting’s alternate history is doing quiet work here: in WARDOGS’ timeline, the USSR never dissolved in 1991, so VALKYRA is not nostalgic cosplay but the standing continuation of a superpower that simply never stopped. Expect the aesthetic and doctrine that implies: massed armor, attritional defense, and firepower over finesse.

Who is MANTICORE?

MANTICORE is “Tehran’s shadow army” — the deniable covert arm of the Kingdom of Persia. The alt-history flip is the same as VALKYRA’s in reverse: without the 1979 revolution, Persia’s monarchy endured into the present day, and MANTICORE is how it punches above its weight without fingerprints. Of the three factions it is the one explicitly framed around deniability and asymmetric operations rather than open conventional force.

Does your faction change gameplay?

Not as far as anyone has announced. As of the closed beta, no source confirms faction-unique weapons, vehicles, abilities, passive traits, cosmetics, or economy effects — and none have been ruled out either. The arsenal in the weapons list is shared, and progression runs through personal XP tracks and your persistent wallet, not through faction allegiances. Until BULKHEAD says otherwise: choose on identity, play the same game. We will update this page the moment faction gameplay differences are confirmed or denied.

Why three sides instead of two?

The three-way split is a deliberate map-design lever. With only two factions, a fight settles into a static front line; with three, attacking one enemy always exposes your flank to the third, so no position can harden. Combined with the moving Control Zone and Hot Zone mechanics described in the gameplay overview, the triangle keeps a hundred players rotating around the map instead of trench-locking — and keeps third parties a permanent tactical reality. New players can survive that chaos with the habits in the beginner’s guide.

What is the setting?

WARDOGS plays out in an alternate present where the 20th century’s biggest collapses never happened: the Soviet Union never dissolved, and revolutionary Iran never replaced the Kingdom of Persia. The result is a world where three blocs — a Western contractor company, a Soviet restoration government, and a Persian shadow army — fight open, quasi-contractual wars over territory. The 256 km² combat region of Kolchia, with its randomized 2×2 km Control Zones, is the launch battlefield, and three maps are planned for Early Access.