What your PC can handle
The Steam requirements show what the developers aim for: the minimum is 1080p Low at 60 fps with upscaling (GTX 1660 / RX 590, 16 GB RAM), the recommended spec is 1440p Medium at 70+ fps native or 4K Medium at 60+ fps with upscaling (RTX 3070 / RX 6700 XT).
Where to find the settings
Graphics settings are in Settings → Video, on the Quality tab. Start with Overall Quality: the presets are Potato, Low, Medium, High and Overkill, and the Auto-detect Hardware button picks settings aimed at a smooth 60 fps. At the bottom of the screen the game shows how each option affects your GPU, CPU and VRAM. IGN suggests starting at Medium, dropping to Low and, if needed, to Potato, and only then tuning individual options.
Recommended settings
Sources: IGN (Season 1, raw performance), the Steam guide "Wardogs Optimal Graphics Settings" (Season 2, clarity and FPS) and wardogsxp.gg (Season 1 game files). Where they disagree, we show both options.
| Option | Recommendation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Display Mode | Windowed Fullscreen | IGN and the Steam guide. wardogsxp prefers Fullscreen, with Windowed Fullscreen only if you alt-tab a lot. |
| Resolution | native | Turn on upscaling instead of lowering the resolution. |
| Frame Limit | Off | Unlimited is required for DLSS Frame Generation. |
| VSync | Disabled | All sources agree. |
| NVIDIA Reflex | disputed: On or Disabled | Steam guide and wardogsxp: On (around 10 ms less latency). IGN: Disabled. Frame Generation requires Reflex. |
| Sharpness | 1.20 | IGN and the Steam guide. |
| Brightness | adjust | wardogsxp: raise it until the WARDOGS logo on the left is barely visible. |
| FOV | 100 | Steam guide. 60 only on a very weak PC. |
| Picture-in-Picture Scope | OFF | The scope renders a second camera every frame: around 30% FPS according to the Steam guide. |
| Mesh Detail | Medium or Low | Steam guide: Medium, IGN: Low. |
| View Distance | Medium | All three sources. It does not reveal hidden enemies sooner. |
| Shading | Low (FPS) or High (looks) | IGN: Medium or Low. |
| Global Illumination | Off | One of the most expensive settings. The image gets darker. |
| Shadows | Low or Medium | IGN: Low, the others: Medium. |
| Reflections | Low or Potato | IGN: Low, Steam guide: Potato. |
| Effects | disputed | IGN: High, Steam guide: Potato. wardogsxp: in the Season 1 files all tiers have the same values, so the slider changes nothing. |
| Particle Spawn Rate | disputed: Low or Potato | IGN and wardogsxp: Low (Potato makes bullet tracers jump). Steam guide: Potato. |
| Post Processing | Low | Potato blows out the contrast. |
| Motion Blur | Off | IGN. |
| Bloom | disputed: Off or On (Low) | Player guides: Off, IGN: On. The FPS impact is small. |
| Textures (World, Character, Effects) | disputed: High or Low | Steam guide and wardogsxp: High, with Texture Streaming based on VRAM. IGN: everything Low. |
| Texture Filtering | Medium | Steam guide. |
Texture Streaming by VRAM (wardogsxp, Season 1 files): Potato for 2–3 GB cards, Low for 4 GB, Medium for 6 GB, High for 8 GB, Overkill for 12 GB and more. The Steam guide simplifies it: High with 8–16 GB, Potato below that.
Upscaling and Frame Generation
Anti-Aliasing Method offers FXAA, TAA, NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, Intel XeSS and None. DLSS internal resolution: DLAA 100%, Quality 66%, Balanced 58%, Performance 50%, Ultra Performance 33%.
- NVIDIA: DLAA at native resolution, or DLSS Quality or Balanced for more frames. IGN goes further and recommends Ultra Performance, but the image looks clearly soft.
- AMD: FSR 4 only works on Radeon RX 9000 cards. On the RX 7000 series and older, the game uses an earlier FSR version.
- What to avoid: according to the Steam guide, TAA blurs the image and causes ghosting, and XeSS shimmers. Don't play with no anti-aliasing at all either.
DLSS Frame Generation only works with NVIDIA Reflex on and Frame Limit set to Unlimited. Modes above 2X are Multi Frame Generation for the RTX 50 series. Keep in mind: frame generation smooths motion, but it does not cut latency.
Not everyone agrees. The "Best Config AMD / NVIDIA" guide on Steam tells you to turn off DLSS, FSR and Frame Generation and play at native resolution, because its author says upscaling adds latency and micro-stutters. If you have a strong card, test both options yourself.
Launch options
None of these options are official. BULKHEAD and Team17 have not published a list of launch options. These are tips from players and fan sites.
You set them in Steam: right-click WARDOGS → Properties → General → Launch Options. Separate multiple options with a space.
| Option | What it is supposed to do | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
-nogpucrashdebugging | turns off GPU crash debugging, fewer micro-stutters | recommended by two independent sources. Don't use it when reporting a GPU crash. |
-precache | warms up the cache while the map loads | disputed: wardogsxp found no sign that it does anything |
-NoAnalytics | turns off telemetry | disputed: according to wardogsxp it adds no frames, but does no harm |
-ngxdisable | turns off NVIDIA NGX and DLSS | NVIDIA without DLSS only. Changes nothing on AMD and Intel. |
-corelimit=8 | limits CPU cores (enter your number of physical cores) | when background programs cause stutters |
-sm5 | older shader mode | only old cards like the GTX 10xx series, when the default SM6 is unstable |
-log | writes a startup log | when the game silently fails to launch |
Crashes: Team17's checklist
Team17's official checklist for crashes and launch errors:
- Steam → Verify game files.
- Update your graphics drivers.
- Repair Elytra: WARDOGS install folder → Elytra folder → Elytra setup → Repair.
- Restart your PC and test the game through your phone's hotspot (to rule out your network).
- Turn off CPU and GPU overclocking, and cap FPS at 60 while testing.
- Check that your antivirus, firewall or Windows Security is not blocking WARDOGS or Elytra.
- Move from Windows Insider back to a regular Windows build, and turn off Hyper-V, Windows Sandbox, WSL2 and Virtual Machine Platform.
- Turn off Memory Integrity (Windows Security → Device security → Core isolation details).
What players report: in Season 2, several people had crashes with NVIDIA driver 617.42. Rolling back to 616.92 or 610.47 helped them. For random crashes after 20–40 minutes, one player (Season 1) turned off NVIDIA Reflex and set Anti-Aliasing Method to None. Treat this as a diagnostic test, not a permanent setting.
WD-L launch errors
WD-L020 was caused by the Windows 11 update KB5124010. The developers fixed it in Update 0.1.2 (September 30, 2026). If you still see it, update the game in Steam. Before the fix, Team17 suggested uninstalling KB5124010 (at your own risk).
Team17 lists WD-L004, WD-L006, WD-L007, WD-L010, WD-L014 and WD-L020 as known and under investigation, but does not explain what they mean. A player who analyzed the launcher logs gives these unofficial meanings, among others: WD-L004 is a config fetch, WD-L006 an unavailable service, WD-L014 session priming, WD-L022 out of memory. The string after the code (e.g. -8725400ca4fe) is unique to the report and does not mean a different error.
Error 1147405308 "Failed to authenticate with online services"
One cause is a broken WinHTTP proxy. Type the commands yourself:
- Open Command Prompt (CMD) as administrator.
- Type
netsh winhttp show proxy. - If you see a proxy address (e.g.
127.0.0.1:10801), typenetsh winhttp reset proxy. You should see "Direct access (no proxy server)". - Close Steam completely and start it again.
Don't download ready-made .bat files from links in guides. The two commands above are enough. The guide's author notes that this method does not fix every case of error 1147405308.
Scope zoom stops working after rebinding keys
When you assign the mouse wheel to another action, the game saves empty entries for scope zoom, and "Reset Keybinds" does not fix it. The fix:
- Close the game completely (check Task Manager).
- Open
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Wardogs\Saved\Config\WindowsClient\GameUserSettings.ini. - In the
CustomKeybindings=line, find theScopeZoom.IncreaseandScopeZoom.Decreaseentries and replace them with:((TagName="Input.NamedActions.Player.ScopeZoom.Increase"), (PrimaryKey=(Key=MouseScrollUp,bIsCustom=True)))((TagName="Input.NamedActions.Player.ScopeZoom.Decrease"), (PrimaryKey=(Key=MouseScrollDown,bIsCustom=True)))
- Save the file. You can also simply delete both entries (including the comma).
Don't delete the whole file, or you will lose your sensitivity, graphics settings and all keybinds. The same problem affects sliding down ladders (SlideDownLadder). According to players, the fix still works after Season 2.
Quiet microphone
The game can mix up microphones when you have more than one:
- Unplug other devices with a microphone (USB headsets, webcams, controllers, VR, virtual inputs).
- In Windows: Settings → System → Sound, set the correct input and output.
- In the game: Settings → Audio, select Input Device and Output Device again (even if they are already selected) and click Apply.
- Still quiet? Close the game, unplug the devices and start it again.
Note: the Level 4 Helmet muffles audio and proximity chat on purpose. That is a game mechanic, not a bug. New to the game: beginner's guide and price, platforms, requirements.
