Which faction to pick

Every WARDOGS match pits three mercenary teams of 33 against each other: Lonestar, Valkyra and Manticore. Here is what really sets them apart, what is just lore, and why the blue team pays better in Season 2.

In short

Bulkhead has described no gameplay difference: weapons, vehicles and prices are the same for every faction. Only the uniform, the colour and the free starter rifle differ — and the rifles share the same stats.
In Season 2 Lonestar gets a cash and XP bonus for winning and for teamplay actions. It is official, lasts one season and comes without figures. Want to earn more? Play blue.
The free rifle is no reason to pick a faction: the A-91, KH-2002 and Bushmaster M17S all kill in 0.34 s.

The three factions

Faction	Colour	Free rifle	What is officially known
Lonestar	blue	Bushmaster M17S	An established PMC backed by one of the world’s leading economies. Won noticeably less often than the other two in Season 1
Valkyra	red	A-91	No official description
Manticore	green	KH-2002	No official description

The faction backstories that circulate in guides — Valkyra from the “Soviet People’s Republic”, Manticore from the “Kingdom of Persia” — do not appear in any Bulkhead or Team17 material. They are community lore and have no effect on play.

What the studio has said

Lonestar is the only faction Bulkhead has written about separately. From the Season 2 preview and patch notes (October 2026):

One team had a noticeably lower win rate than the other two in Season 1. The studio gave no figure, but the context makes clear it means blue.
The main reason players avoided blue was sentiment around the team, not its gear.
In Season 2 Lonestar gets a cash and XP win bonus and cash and XP multipliers for teamplay actions: revives, transport, supply. Both are “Season 2 only”.
Lonestar uniforms are more desaturated, so the soldiers stand out less against the terrain.
Community server hosts seen exploiting the faction bonus will be punished, Bulkhead said.

If any of this changes, watch the patch notes.

The free rifles

Each faction has its own starter rifle, issued free and painless to lose. All three are stat twins: semi-auto and burst, no full auto, no attachments, 0.34 s time to kill against level 1 armour. Details are on the A-91, KH-2002 and Bushmaster M17S pages.

Your first $600 should still go on the T-21: it fires full auto, reaches further and takes attachments.

What else changes in Season 2

All three faction spawns on Bakurani have been moved and rebuilt. Distances to the zone from Season 1 guides no longer apply — see maps.
A team at least 40 points behind second place gets a 20% vendor discount — that is about match position, not faction, and helps any team.