WARDOGS helicopter settings, HOTAS & controller setup
How 8 WARDOGS creators set up their helicopters on mouse, and how 5 more fly with sticks, 3 with RC radios and 5 on controller. Every value comes from the creator's own settings clip, video or chat command, with the date it was published.
Mouse heli settings, side by side
Two camps show up in the numbers. Among the 5 creators who published dedicated helicopter-settings guides, the 4 who state a pitch value run it at 6–10% (median 8%), and 4 of the 5 turn every flight assist off. The big streamers' quick settings clips sit at 25–100% with Stability Assist on. Air-vehicle multipliers range from 0.25 to 2.00 (default 0.50). 5 put roll on the mouse; HutchMF and LewF20 put yaw there instead.
Low pitch with assists off is the pilot's setup: precise, but it takes practice to hover. If you're new to flying, start from a streamer setup with Stability Assist on and lower the sliders as you get comfortable.
| Creator | Air multiplier | Mouse left/right | Pitch | Roll / yaw | Axis isolation | Invert Y (air) | Assists | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| shroud | — | — | 50% | 50% | 0% | On | Stability, Auto-hover | 2026-09-11 |
| Stodeh | 0.50 | Roll | 100% | 100% | 50% | Off | Stability | 2026-09-10 |
| HutchMF | 0.25 | Yaw | 25% | 25% | 0% | Off | Stability, Auto-hover, Envelope limits | 2026-09-11 |
| Hieb | 2.00 | Roll | 6% | 28% | 0% | On | All off | 2026-09-20 |
| ProLosco | 0.70 | Roll | 10% | 50% | 0% | On | All off | 2026-09-12 |
| GhostGaming | 1.00 | Roll | 8% | 8% | 0% | On | All off | 2026-09-12 |
| YourChopperPilot | 1.50 | Roll | — | — | 20% | — | All off | 2026-09-13 |
| LewF20 | 2.00 | Yaw | 8% | 7% | 50% | On | Stability | 2026-09-07 |
Clips were read frame by frame and checked against where each slider's knob sits; videos and commands are quoted with their timestamps below. "—" means the creator didn't show or state that setting, so we don't list it. These are September 2026 values on an Early Access build.
shroud: Linked from his own !wardogsheli command. He switches Auto-Hover on during the clip; the swipe mapping and vehicle multipliers are scrolled out of view, so they're not listed.
Stodeh: Linked from his own !helicopter command. The clip goes on to his rotary-vehicle keybinds (collective raise/lower, cyclic, yaw).
HutchMF: Linked from his own !heli command. Mouse left/right turns the nose (yaw) instead of banking — the opposite choice to Stodeh.
Hieb: His !wd (2026-09-20): "6% pitch sens | 28% roll sens | 2x aircraft multiplier | ALL ASSISTS OFF", collective on W/S, yaw on A/D, Q/E roll, Space pitch-up. Silk credits him as the reference for roll-on-mouse flying.
ProLosco: From his guide (multiplier 1:05, pitch/roll 2:57, isolation 3:22, invert 4:14, assists 4:50). Battlefield-style keys: W/S collective, A/D yaw, Q/E roll; turn coordination off too.
GhostGaming: Pitch/roll 8% from his 2026-09-12 video (4:49) — down from 50% in his 2026-09-03 quick-start guide. The air multiplier (1.0) is from the 09-03 guide; the later video is ambiguous on it.
YourChopperPilot: Multiplier 1.5 is "experimenting" (he started near 0.2; 4:44). Pitch/roll left at default. Cyclic and roll also on his G502's side buttons.
LewF20: "Rifle aim" layout: mouse yaw + pitch, A/D roll, W/S collective (5:29–7:20). Recorded on the pre-launch build.
Roll or yaw on the mouse?
Roll makes mouse left/right bank the helicopter, so you turn the way a real helicopter does: bank, then pull. Yaw (the "rifle aim" layout) makes it swing the nose instead, which is closer to aiming with the mouse. Whichever one you put on the mouse, the other stays on its keybind (Rotary Vehicle keybinds: collective, cyclic, yaw). The swipe setting also changes what the second sensitivity slider controls (it reads Roll or Yaw sensitivity), so set it first and tune after.
Neither layout wins outright. Silk flies yaw on the mouse and recommends it to new pilots because he thinks it has the highest ceiling. ProLosco flies roll on the mouse and finds circle strafes harder with roll on the keyboard.
Aiming the Little Bird miniguns
The minigun Little Bird is the hardest aircraft to aim in WARDOGS, and the creators who teach it agree on the same handful of things. Each tip links to the moment in the video where they say it. These are Season 1 values; Season 02 (2026-10-15) may move them.
- The guns aren't at the crosshair. There's one minigun on each side of the airframe, and the two streams converge at about 30 m (ProLosco, citing a post by Bulkhead's CEO). The crosshair is only exact at that distance. (ProLosco 2:10)
- Aim by range. Close in, aim below the centre and pick one gun's stream (bottom-left or bottom-right), because aiming dead centre puts the target in the gap between them. At about 30 m, aim dead centre. Further out, aim in the top-right quadrant, just right of the top line. All three creators place the long-range point in the top right. Rockets on the Havoc and AH-6 rocket variant go dead centre. (ProLosco 2:48 · Silk 4:11 · GhostGaming 12:01)
- Correct off the tracers. Watch where the rounds hit the ground and walk them onto the target instead of trusting the reticle. (GhostGaming 6:25)
- Slow down to aim. You aim the whole helicopter, and the faster you fly, the less the nose answers your input (Silk calls it the weathervane effect). ProLosco says you have full control below about 100 km/h. Viewers clocked Silk starting his strafes at 0–30 km/h and finishing at 80–100 km/h. (Silk 2:22 · ProLosco 8:51)
- Big turns on the keys, fine aim on the mouse. Point the nose in the general direction with yaw (or keyboard roll), then make the small corrections with the low-sensitivity mouse axis. (ProLosco 10:32 · GhostGaming 9:48)
- Circle strafe to stay on target. Fly slightly past the target, pitch down, then roll and yaw toward it and keep balancing roll so you don't drift out. Feather the collective rather than holding it. Close to overhead is the hardest angle for anti-air guns (CIWS) to track you. (ProLosco 11:54 · Silk 9:11)
- Make the first rounds count. Settle the crosshair before you pull the trigger. Inaccurate first rounds scatter infantry, and accurate ones land before anyone reacts. Use your whole arm to fight the helicopter's movement and save the wrist for micro-adjustments. (Silk 4:18 · Silk 3:33)
- Against another helicopter, shoot the pilot. Without AP rounds, aim for the pilot, which is the left side of a Little Bird facing you head-on. With AP rounds you can shoot the airframe itself. (Silk 10:46)
- The sliders that matter in first person. GhostGaming found the air-vehicle multiplier only changed third-person handling; in first person the Heli Mouse Pitch and Roll sliders set the feel. He runs both at 8% on 1600 DPI. He also found DLSS Quality draws thicker, easier-to-see tracers than DLAA. (GhostGaming 3:36 · GhostGaming 1:42)
- Practise in the firing range. Take a Little Bird into the firing range, fly low, and rehearse attack passes on a structure: approach fast, strafe, break away. You don't need targets to build the collective, yaw and roll coordination. (ProLosco 21:30)
How WARDOGS handles sticks, radios and pads
- Flyable aircraft are helicopters only: the MH-6 / AH-6 Little Bird variants, the Z20 Lakota and the Havoc. (Steam: Season 1 changelog, 2026-09-09)
- Fighter jets are planned ("new vehicle types including fighter jets" in the Early Access plan) but have no date. (Steam store: Early Access plan, 2026-10-01)
- HOTAS / flight sticks are read natively — the game has its own HOTAS settings page, and switches to the stick when you get in a helicopter and back to mouse and keyboard when you get out. No vJoy or Joystick Gauge workaround is needed. (PCGamingWiki, 2026-09-21)
- Helicopter input damping now applies to every input device (not just mouse). (Steam: changelog, 2026-09-09)
- Gamepads are supported (XInput / Xbox prompts, hot-plug, mixed input) with separate Infantry, Ground-vehicle and Air-vehicle tabs. Remapping and DualSense-specific features aren't confirmed, and patch 0.1.2 was still adding gamepad support to menus. (PCGamingWiki + patch 0.1.2, 2026-09-30)
- Mouse flying is direct control, not point-to-fly: Rotary Vehicle Mouse Control maps mouse swipes to roll or yaw (left/right) and pitch (up/down), with Stability and Auto-Hover assists. Collective, cyclic and yaw also have their own keybinds. (Steam FAQ thread, 2026-09-03)
- The Stingray is a first-person kamikaze drone you launch from a FOB and steer with mouse and keyboard — it is not a free-flying FPV quad. We found no one flying it with an RC radio yet. (GameRant, 2026-09)
- RC radios work as flight sticks: a RadioMaster Pocket in EdgeTX USB-joystick (HID) mode shows up on the HOTAS page and flies helicopters. (OneShotStudios video, 2026-09-06)
HOTAS, dual-stick and RC radio setups
What the stick pilots set. The pattern across them: stick sensitivity at or just above 1.0, tiny or zero deadzones on pitch and roll, and the collective on a throttle axis with its own lower sensitivity. RC radios show up as a normal USB joystick on the HOTAS page.
| Creator | Device | Hardware | Settings | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tote Torres | HOTAS | Logitech G940 (stick, throttle, pedals) + head tracking | Roll, pitch and yaw sensitivity 1.05Deadzones 0 on every axis except a small one on yaw (worn pedals)Collective sensitivity 0.65, self-centering collective offNo response curves; all flight assists offCockpit FOV 110 (testing; was 90) | 2026-09-15 |
| Captain Deadwake | HOSAS | VKB Gladiator NXT EVO Space Combat Edition (right) + Gladiator NXT EVO Omni Throttle (left), no pedals | Stick sensitivity 1.2 on all axes (default 1.0; still experimenting)Collective on the throttle's main axisOn mouse: rifle-aim layout (mouse yaw + pitch, Q/E roll) at 6%, air multiplier 2 | 2026-09-17 |
| Sim Controls | HOTAS | VKB Gladiator + Thrustmaster TWCS throttle | Pitch/roll deadzone 0.02; none on yaw (twist self-centres) or collectiveCollective sensitivity 0.6, axis inverted and calibrated to full throttle travelNever set stick sensitivity below 1.0Pitch/roll centring springs removed, soft-centre curve in VKB's software | 2026-09-07 |
| DTOX | HOSAS | Virpil Constellation Alpha + VKB Space Combat Grip on a Gunfighter MK IV base, VKB MK IV rudder pedals | Dual sticks + pedals, confirmed while flying WARDOGS on streamAdded a slight collective deadzone on stream (value not stated)Same hardware in his StreamElements !sticks (2026-05-14). Primarily a Star Citizen streamer. | 2026-09-16 |
| Adam Taylor Gaming | HOTAS | Logitech X56 | Flies first-person; bindings, deadzones and curves are shown on screen at 1:47–2:16 | 2026-09-16 |
| OneShotStudios | RC radio | RadioMaster Pocket on EdgeTX | Runs as a native USB joystick, no vJoy layer needed | 2026-09-06 |
| BW BedWetter | RC radio | RadioMaster TX15 (current) and Pocket ELRS, vs dual VKB Gladiators | Compares the radio against dual-stick HOSAS side by side; prefers the Pocket's sticks | 2026-09-28 |
| Creator | Flight controls (own chat commands) | As of |
|---|---|---|
| CDNThe3rd | RadioMaster Pocket · Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog!flightcontroller 2026-09-14 says he flies with the Pocket; the Warthog is from his 2020 !hotas. | 2026-09-14 |
| IceManIsaac | MOZA MHG Flightstick on a MOZA AB9 FFB base · MOZA MTP Throttle · MOZA MRP Rudder Pedals | 2026-09-02 |
CDNThe3rd's flight kit
IceManIsaac's flight kit
Controller setups
| Creator | Device | Hardware | Settings | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swaguley | Controller | Sony DualSense (stock) | Horizontal 2.3 / vertical 1.6, ADS multiplier 35Linear look acceleration, multiplier 4.7, threshold 1.0Vehicle multiplier 0.5, air vehicle multiplier 0.8Custom deadzones: left stick 13% centre, right stick 3% centre; triggers 0.05Recorded on the beta build, before Early Access. | 2026-09-02 |
| Riotmaker650 | Controller | Xbox controller | Horizontal 3.5 / vertical 1.7, ADS multiplier 37Look acceleration on (standard curve), multiplier 1.6, threshold 0.9Deadzones: move stick large, look stick medium, triggers noneRecorded before the closed beta. | 2026-09-02 |
| AbradantMatthew | Controller | Xbox controller remapped as a virtual HOTAS (vJoy + UCR) | Battlefield-style helicopter layout on a padListed as what he flew, not a recommendation. vJoy and UCR run outside the game, and WARDOGS bans tools that automate inputs (wardogs.com/enforcement), so check the rules before copying this. | 2026-09-02 |
Creators in our WARDOGS roster who list a controller in their own setup. Most of them play other games on pad too, so this is the pad they own, not proof they fly WARDOGS helicopters on it.
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Flying guides worth watching
- The ULTIMATE WARDOGS Helicopter Guide — Silk, 2026-09-13 · 563K views
- Air Force Pilot's ULTIMATE WARDOGS Helicopter Guide (HOTAS, Mouse, Controller) — IceManIsaac, 2026-09-03 · 374K views
- A Quick Start Guide To Flying Helicopters — GhostGaming, 2026-09-03 · 298K views
- Pilot Guide: J-Hooks & Double Your Profit — OnMapleWings, 2026-09-02 · 262K views
- REAL PILOT Teaches How To FLY (Beginner) — Cologne TM, 2026-09-02 · 145K views
- REAL PILOT Teaches J-HOOKS — Cologne TM, 2026-08-27 · 609K views · beta-build footage
- An Expert Pilot's Guide to Helicopter Controls & Settings — ProLosco, 2026-09-12 · 105K views
- Expert Helicopter Flying & Landing Guide: Master the J-Hook — ProLosco, 2026-09-19 · 47K views
- You're Aiming the Little Bird Wrong (minigun & circle strafe) — ProLosco, 2026-09-27 · 46K views
- The Secret To Aiming Miniguns (settings & sensitivities) — GhostGaming, 2026-09-12 · 111K views · views read 2026-10-04
- How to Fly Smarter, Survive Longer & Get More Kills — Tote Torres, 2026-09-20 · 27K views
HOTAS & dual-stick setup
- WARDOGS HOTAS Setup Guide: Better Controls & Sensitivity — Sim Controls, 2026-09-07 · 117K views
- How I Set Up My HOTAS for War Dogs Helicopters — Tote Torres, 2026-09-15 · 56K views
- My HOSAS Settings for WARDOGS — Captain Deadwake, 2026-09-17 · 19K views
- WARDOGS HOTAS Setup Guide: What Works + What Doesn't at Launch — Nota Greengo, 2026-09-11 · 12K views
- HOTAS Mega thread — r/WarDogs, 2026-08
- HOTAS & Flying Mega, Part 2 — r/WarDogs, 2026-09