The Wardogs helicopter controls are quite complicated, particularly if you’ve never played a shooter that features rotary aircraft – then again, even if you’ve played Battlefield, you might have a rough time in Wardogs. As well as learning how to fly at all, you’ve also got to bear in mind that ammo is limited, and repairs can only be done back at your HQ. So, to help you master flight and increase your Pilot level, here are the controls and some tips for flying helicopters in Wardogs.

Wardogs helicopter controls

Flying a helicopter in Wardogs can be tricky because of how twitchy and unstable they can feel – in fact, I highly recommend loading up the firing range and practicing there until you become confident enough to start flying your fellow troops in real matches.

I also reckon that piloting a helicopter is far easier with a controller over mouse and keyboard, mainly because you don’t have to tie your fingers in knots quite so much while trying to pitch, roll, and yaw – sometimes all at once.

Here’s a quick rundown of all the important controls you need to bear in mind when flying a Wardogs helicopter:

Wardogs helicopter tips

Now that you know the basic helicopter controls for Wardogs, I’ve laid out some tips for aspiring chopper pilots so that you hopefully won’t crash and lose lots of cash:

• Use pitch, roll, and yaw to turn: Yaw is great for turning on the spot or at low speeds but if you’re flying in for a hot drop for your passengers, you need to master using a combination of yaw and roll to pull off sharp high-speed turns to go back to HQ. Then to keep things level, you also need to throw in a little bit of pitch as well. This takes some practice, but the crucial thing is to be gentle with the controls, particularly for the larger helicopters – roll a little too much and you’ll plummet straight to the ground!
• Pitch is a bit like your throttle: How you tilt your helicopter’s nose (that’s pitch) is the main way you can control its speed. Tilt the nose down with collective lift applied and you’ll start going forward. Too much pitch down and you’ll move very quickly but also down towards the ground, so you need to find a balance. Then you can also pitch the nose up if you need to suddenly slow down.
• Change your camera angle: Make use of Wardogs’ first-person, third-person, and free camera options when in the pilot’s seat, letting you get a clear view for any situation. I like third-person for regular flying but switching to first person is a good idea if your chopper has guns, as you can much more accurately aim them with a cockpit view. As for the free camera, this is very useful if you’re coming in to land as you can see all around you for a clearer view of your landing area.
• Avoid trees at all costs: This sounds incredibly obvious but if you’re used to other games, you might be surprised by quite how much damage a little brush with a branch can do. To keep your chopper intact, I strongly recommend keeping it well above the tips of trees as it can be quite unclear from which point a tree can be harmlessly clipped through or violently crashed into.
• Go back to your HQ to repair and resupply: Land (or gently hover just above the ground) at your HQ and refuelling and repairs will begin automatically, draining the necessary funds from your in-game earnings. As for getting more ammo and countermeasures, you need to open the shop by holding B on mouse and keyboard or D-Pad Right on controller while at your HQ, then buy ammo and flares from there.
• Listen for lock-on warnings: These beeping noises give you a rough indication for when an enemy has locked onto you and has fired. Deploy countermeasures to hopefully get any incoming missiles off your scent but then fly away as quickly as possible, because it’s likely that follow-up shots will seek you out shortly after.
• You will start as a flying taxi service: Wardogs features lots of helicopters, including the Havoc attack helicopter, but you can’t use any besides the MH-6 transport helicopter until you’ve increased your Pilot level. To do so, you need players to hop into your chopper and then take them to the control zone or wherever they want to bail out. You’ll get Pilot XP for every player that jumps out while you’re flying, and more if they make it to the ground alive – you can even get assists if they go on to kill any enemy players.

If you want to know when Wardogs console versions are coming out, you’ll be waiting a while, unfortunately.

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