WARDOGS uses a familiar keyboard-and-mouse layout: W raises the collective to climb, S lowers it to descend, A and D yaw left and right, mouse forward and back controls pitch, and mouse left and right controls roll.
If your helicopter does not respond to mouse and keyboard at all, check whether HOTAS is enabled without a flight stick connected. That single setting disables keyboard and mouse flight input entirely and is the most common reason a helicopter feels dead.
AI concept artThe default keyboard and mouse layout
These bindings come from the official keybind and helicopter controls FAQ posted on the Steam discussions during Closed Beta 02, so they are the developer-side reference rather than a community guess.
The arrow keys are available as an alternative input for cyclic control if you prefer them to mouse movement.
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| W | Collective raise (climb) |
| S | Collective lower (descend) |
| A | Yaw left |
| D | Yaw right |
| Mouse forward / back | Pitch |
| Mouse left / right | Roll |
| Left Alt (tap or double-tap) | Return control from free look |
The HOTAS trap
This deserves its own section because it produces a symptom that looks like a broken game. Enabling HOTAS support without an actual flight stick connected disables keyboard and mouse flight input.
The result is a helicopter that starts, sounds correct and simply will not respond the way you expect. Players naturally assume a bug rather than a settings conflict.
Check this first whenever pitch or roll feels unresponsive. The game does have genuine HOTAS support and it works well with a stick, throttle and pedals correctly bound — but only if the hardware is actually there.
If flight input is dead, verify HOTAS is disabled before troubleshooting anything else.
Flight assists: start on, move off
For a first flight, the official recommendation is to enable the Flight Assists master toggle along with Stability Assist and Auto-Hover Assist. These keep the aircraft level and forgiving while you learn what the inputs do.
Experienced pilots typically turn the master toggle off to gain manoeuvring freedom, accepting that the airframe becomes considerably harder to keep stable in exchange.
There is a specific diagnostic worth knowing: if the helicopter seems to actively fight your inputs and resist aggressive manoeuvres, Auto-Hover Assist is the first thing to disable.
The experienced-pilot configuration
Once you are past the basics, the widely used community setup enables Rotary Vehicle Mouse Control and maps helicopter mouse swipe so that left and right is roll while up and down is pitch.
From there the assists come off: Stability Assist, Auto-Hover Assist, Envelope Limits and Turn Coordination are all disabled. Collective stays on W and S with yaw on A and D.
The trade is real. With mouse control enabled and assists disabled the aircraft becomes far more responsive, but nothing is holding it level for you any more.
Taking off and hovering
Raise the collective gently rather than holding W. Helicopters gain energy quickly, and the usual beginner failure is climbing far too fast and then over-correcting into the ground.
A hover is an active state, not a parked one. You are constantly making small corrections against drift, which is why Auto-Hover Assist exists as a training aid.
Free look is bound to left Alt, and a tap or double-tap hands control back to the aircraft. Getting comfortable with this early is what lets you watch a landing zone without losing the helicopter.
Landing without crashing
The core technique is to lower the collective as your speed decreases, so the airframe settles downward rather than ballooning upward. Slowing without reducing collective is what sends new pilots climbing away from the pad.
In the final few metres, level the aircraft before contact. Touching down with roll or pitch still applied is how you catch a rotor or a skid.
Approach with a plan for where you are stopping. A controlled descent onto a spot you chose early is far easier than trying to arrest a fast approach at the last moment.
AI concept artWhich helicopter to learn on
The MH-6 is the light transport most players fly first, and it is the aircraft most introductory tutorials use as their example.
At $6,250 it is also considerably cheaper than an attack helicopter, which matters when you are still crashing. The Havoc at $18,000 is not a training aircraft.
Aircraft access is gated by your Pilot level specifically, so time spent flying is what unlocks more flying rather than any other progression track.
Known keybind issues
The official FAQ documented several problems present during the beta period, and they are worth checking against current patch notes rather than assuming you have misconfigured something.
Those included a hidden weapon function bound to spacebar that could not be removed, rebinding one key unexpectedly affecting other bindings, a bug where mouse pitch and roll input could stop working, and Y-axis inversion incorrectly inverting roll as well.
If you hit one of these, check the current patch notes before spending time reconfiguring. Some may have been resolved since the beta.
Understanding collective and cyclic
The two flight concepts behind the keybinds make the layout much easier to remember than memorising individual keys.
Collective controls total lift, which is why it sits on W and S. Raising it climbs, lowering it descends, and it is the input you are constantly adjusting rather than holding.
Cyclic tilts the rotor disc to move you horizontally, which is the mouse: forward and back for pitch, left and right for roll. Yaw on A and D rotates the nose without moving you anywhere.
A sensible learning order
Trying to learn everything on a live transport run with a squad aboard is how most new pilots write off an expensive aircraft and several teammates.
Start with the assists enabled, and practise only lifting off and setting back down until that is boring. The MH-6 at $6,250 is the appropriate aircraft for this, not an $18,000 attack helicopter.
Add horizontal movement next, then landing on a chosen spot rather than wherever you end up. Turning assists off is the last step, not the first.
Helicopter questions answered
Short answers to the most common flight problems.
- Helicopter does not respond at all — Check whether HOTAS is enabled without a flight stick connected.
- How do I climb and descend? — W raises the collective, S lowers it.
- It fights my turns — Disable Auto-Hover Assist first.
- Should I turn assists off? — Not while learning. Start with them on.
- How do I land? — Lower the collective as speed drops, and level the aircraft in the final few metres.
- Free look is stuck — Tap or double-tap left Alt to return control to the aircraft.
- Inverting Y also inverted roll — A documented beta bug. Check current patch notes.