WARDOGS Mortar Guide: Range, Aiming & Ammo
A WARDOGS mortar is the L81, a FOB build that needs the large hammer and 150 supplies. It reaches about 700 m on flat ground and holds 3 shells per load. You aim by distance, not sight: count map squares (about 100 m each when zoomed in) or use a Range Finder, fire one ranging shot, adjust, then fire for effect. Ammo is $600 for 10 rounds and comes out of your FOB's storage.
Mortars are indirect fire: the shell arcs over walls, so a team behind Hesco can still be hit. That makes the mortar the main tool for cracking a dug-in FOB, and the reason defenders build shelters against it. It is also dodgeable. Infantry who hear the first impact and move rarely die to the second.
How to build a mortar
| Requirement | Value |
|---|---|
| Tool | Large hammer (Support level 8) |
| Supplies | 150 |
| Health | 3,000 |
| Footprint | 4.5 x 4.5 m |
| Ammo | 81 mm, $600 per 10, drawn from FOB storage |
Place it inside the FOB, not up on a high outer wall, because the wall can block the shell's arc. Keep it apart from your drills and anti-air so one enemy strike cannot hit all of them. The FOB layout guide shows where it fits.
How to aim a mortar
- Get the distance. Ping the target and count map squares. Zoomed in, a square is about 100 m; zoomed out, about 1 km; the smallest squares are about 10 m. For an exact figure, a Range Finder ($400, Recon level 8) reads it straight off, or a Recon teammate can call it.
- Fire one ranging shot. Watch where it lands against the target.
- Adjust and fire for effect. Correct closer or further, then send the rest of the load.
- Keep the tube busy. Press C to skip the shell camera and R to reload while the last shell is still in the air. The rhythm is fire, C, fire, C, fire.
Coordinates work too: right-click your position and the target on the map, read the X and Y of each, and the straight-line distance between them is your range.
Can a mortar destroy a FOB?
It can wreck what is built around a FOB, but no one has published a tested shell count for the FOB box itself, so treat any number you see as a guess. What the data does show is how tough the targets are:
| Build | Health |
|---|---|
| L81 Mortar | 3,000 |
| Talon 9K-SAM | 3,000 |
| Vanguard CIWS | 5,000 |
Drills tucked inside an Indirect Fire Shelter take no splash at all. Unfinished builds have far less health than finished ones, so shell a base while it is still going up. To actually end a FOB, attackers finish it on foot with 1 IED or about 5 C4, covered on the attack a base page.
What to shell first
Hit what hurts your team most. Anti-air and the CIWS go first so your helicopters can fly. Then the drill, which steals the Hot Zone fight, and the spawn vehicle, which pays well to destroy. If the enemy builds its own mortar, that jumps to the top: a mortar duel goes to whoever silences the other first.
Mortar vs the SPH-2 artillery tank
| Stat | L81 Mortar | SPH-2 artillery |
|---|---|---|
| Range | ~700 m | ~2.7 km |
| Shell | 81 mm, $600 per 10 | 155 mm HE, $120 per 2 |
| Cost | 150 FOB supplies | $8,000 per deploy |
| Unlock | Large hammer, Support 8 | Level 90 |
| Where it fires from | Inside your FOB | Anywhere you can park, ideally 1.6 to 2 km back |
The SPH-2 is a late-season tool. Park it, stop the engine and stabilise the turret from the radial menu so the crosshair holds after each shot. Reloading is a quick W, A, S, D key sequence after you press R, and starting it right after firing speeds up the next shot. Ask for 155 mm shells at resupply, not tank shells.
Put drills inside an Indirect Fire Shelter, space your builds out, and repair the shelter's ceiling from underneath while shells land. Then send a squad to find the tube: a mortar has to sit within about 700 m of you.
Facts change with each patch. This page was last updated 29 Sep 2026 (Early Access).