How it works

HOWL is the unofficial community ranked ladder for WARDOGS. One ladder, seven tiers from Stray to Alpha, built from play on the HOWL server.

The game

Official WARDOGS gameplay footage. WARDOGS is developed by Bulkhead Interactive and published by Team17. HOWL is a community project, not affiliated with or endorsed by either company. Watch the full trailer.

From join to rated

1. Join

Open WARDOGS, find the HOWL server in the Server Browser, join. No signup, no Discord, no password.

2. Play

Rounds are King of the Hill, three factions, first to 100. Play as many as you like.

3. Get rated

HOWL reads the scoreboard live. Every round that runs long enough with enough players on each faction moves your HOWL Rating.

4. Claim it

Your profile exists under your in-game name. Sign in with Steam if you want your Steam name and avatar on it.

Rating and tiers

HOWL Rating

Your HOWL Rating (HR) is powered by OpenSkill, the same Bayesian rating family used by major competitive titles. Three factions per round, so it rates a three-way result, not a win or a loss.

New players start in placements: ten rated rounds with the rating hidden. Time on the server matters: a full round moves your rating more than ten minutes of one.

Stop playing and you decay off the leaderboard until you return.

The seven tiers

STRAY

HOUND

TRACKER

HUNTER

STALKER

WARLORD

ALPHA

ALPHA is positional: only the top 100 players per region hold it, and they defend it every week.

Ready to play?

How to join View leaderboards