Beginnger’s Guide To War Dust: Everything You Need To Know For This Battlefield Style VR Shooter

Beginnger’s Guide To War Dust: Everything You Need To Know For This Battlefield Style VR Shooter

If you’re new to (or just about to enter) War Dust, the massive 32 vs 32 player FPS by Stand Out: VR Battle Royale developer Raptor Lab, you might be thrown off by some things that aren’t immediately obvious. That said, War Dust is very simple in its current early access state despite a few non-intuitive elements to basic gameplay, which aren’t entirely spelled out for you as a new player.

You could always ask the other players in your squad for advice, but I’ve gone ahead and listed out some of the essential things you should know how to do in War Dust before you can expect to start dominating the enemy team.

Choose the Right Class

Each of War Dust’s 4 unique classes are varied in such a way that you’ll have a pretty different experience with each one.

  • Assault – Comes with your standard assault rifle, handgun and grenade combo. Extremely versatile and probably best for new players to start with.
  • Engineer – Has a rocket launcher and a handgun. The rocket launcher automatically reloads over time, and the initial one you get has a built-in target lock feature which you can use to take down helicopters and tanks
  • Support – Gets a submachine gun, a medi-kit, a placeable barricade and a grenade. Take note that this is the only class that can heal other players.
  • Sniper – Gets a sniper rifle, a handgun, and a smoke grenade.

Customize Your Loadout

You can slowly unlock additional tools and toys for each class as you gain XP and level them up. However, you do start off with a single additional option for both the Assault and the Support classes that offer you a very small sense of variation but also help you out in a big way.

The first thing you should do before playing either class is select the Red Dot sight as a default sight option. It makes shooting infinitely easier at the very beginning of your experience in War Dust and should pave the way to help you gain XP much faster.

Beyond that, there really isn’t much customization happening at the very beginning of the game. As you progress, and as the game receives more updates, that should hopefully change.

Spawn on Your Squadmates

War Dust is the type of game where you will ultimately spend the most time running around with your squad across its super large maps, jumping from point to point and defending or manning vehicles against members of the other team.

Spawning on your squadmates isn’t only a great way to give them a little bit of XP, it’s also pivotal for sticking together with your squad. If you haven’t played this type of large-scale conquest game before, squads are your lifeline and you’ll find it much simpler to succeed if you each work together to hone your unique abilities.

You Can Dual Wield

This isn’t so much a tip, as it is something you might want to be aware of for tight situations. Off the bat, you’ll want to aim down your sights as often as possible to conserve ammo and shoot more accurately. However, there might come a time when you’re surrounded by enemies in a very short range and you need to use as much firepower as you possibly can.

Luckily, recoil is practically non-existent in this current iteration of War Dust and you can fire weapons however you’d like to. From the hip, down the sights, or otherwise. Unless you’re playing Support (which only gets the SMG- no handgun), you can use both your primary and your handgun at the same time to quickly neutralize anybody who gets too close to your face before you have a chance to aim.

Climb Basically Everything

On the Oculus Rift, you can use your bottom and top facing buttons (A+B and Y+X) to “grip” an object and pull yourself up onto it. Using this function, you’re able to climb practically anything you’d be able to logically climb in real life. You can vault through windows, leap over barricades, even climb onto the back of somebody’s ATV and hold onto their shoulders while they ride.

Instead of pressing a button to hop onto a helicopter as a passenger, you will literally hoist yourself up into the interior and hold onto the grips of the miniguns. You can also use this function to climb ladders and climb up onto tanks as a passenger. I’ve even made a quick escape through a window using War Dust’s climb function, which felt pretty great in practice.

Practice Piloting Often

War Dust doesn’t really give you much time and space to learn its mechanics. You’re immediately thrust into battle, with the heat of battle set directly ahead of you. Luckily, the game gives you plenty of chances to fail, as spawn points and vehicles are plentiful across each map.

What you will benefit from spending a lot of time doing is trying and failing at driving and piloting vehicles in War Dust. I didn’t immediately understand it when I first picked it up, and I used the grip buttons too often while fiddling with the controls despite them ejecting me from my vehicle each time. That said, do not use the grip buttons once you’re in the driver’s (or pilot’s seat) unless you’re looking to exit your vehicle.

Everything important is controlled with the left and right triggers, and you actually will maneuver the vehicle around by moving your headset and controllers around. For example, you turn the helicopter around with your controllers like you’re pulling on a rudder.

Use Smooth Turning

I personally find it easier to do well in FPS games with smooth turning enabled, and this is because it gives me a more consistent spatial sense. Snap turning makes aiming jittery if you’re going for precision and you don’t always want to turn around in your physical space. That said, ignore this one if smooth turning makes you motion sick.

Reloading Handguns vs. Primary Weapons

Your handgun is probably the easiest weapon to reload in War Dust. This is because it (seems to) drop the clip on its own when it’s empty, and slide back on its own when you enter a new clip, making it simple and quick to reload.

On the other hand, every primary weapon except for the Engineer’s missile launcher might seem difficult to reload if you’re new to VR FPS games. When you’re using either an assault rifle or submachine gun, you will want to grip the magazine to remove it from its locked position. You will then need to insert a new magazine and pull the slider back on the weapon. For the sniper’s beginning rifle, the AWP, you will need to pull the bolt all the way back each time you fire.


War Dust is a grand-scale, 64 player VR FPS that you can now find in Early Access on Steam for $24.99. It’s currently quite underdeveloped in execution, but the core loop is fun if you’re willing to overlook polish. If you’re interested in seeing our livestream of War Dust gameplay, check it out here.

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Hands-On: War Dust Mostly Delivers On Its Ambitious ‘Battlefield In VR’ FPS Promise

Hands-On: War Dust Mostly Delivers On Its Ambitious ‘Battlefield In VR’ FPS Promise

The best VR experiences are always the ones that really make you take a step back, pick your jaw up off the floor, and think about what you just experienced. Whether it’s emotional and moving moments in Dear Angelica, the sheer sense of pure immersion in Lone Echo, or an epic feeling of grandiose presence during set piece moments in The Gallery, VR is pure magic when done well and hyper-polished to a glimmering sheen.

But that doesn’t mean it can’t be janky, rough, and nearly broken while still retaining the core of what it means to be fun along the way too. War Dust falls into this chaotic and unrefined second category of VR experiences. War Dust is a massive-scale VR shooter that pits two teams of 32 players against one another. Similar to Conquest game modes in Battlefield, you’re tasked with taking and holding control points spread across a massive map with access to jets, helicopters, tanks, and more. It’s utterly incredible that it works as well as it does.

Watch 64-Player VR FPS Like Battlefield VR from UploadVR on www.twitch.tv
For every expertly modeled and balanced bullet you shoot in Epic Games’ Robo Recall, there’s a tank glitching through a mountain or an avatar falling through the map in War Dust. And I love it.

Growing up as a teenager during the early days of 3D gaming on the N64 and PS1, I’m used to games being janky. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that it can foster a more charming, approachable aesthetic at times. War Dust is an early access VR shooter in development by Raptor Labs, the same team behind Stand Out: VR Battle Royal, Deus Vult, The Art of Fight, and IrreVRsible. Three out of their five VR games, including War Dust, are waffling around in the pits of Early Access game development with no end in sight.

War Dust has a ton of issues, but it’s so earnestly ambitious and throws caution to the wind to deliver its vision, it’s hard not to love it. There just isn’t any other VR game out there that lets me fly a jet over a war zone, shoot missiles at real players, eject out and parachute down to a control point, shoot a rocket launcher at a tank, gun down some enemies, manually reload my gun with my hands, and then duck down behind a rock for cover while I wait for backup to arrive. All while I’m surrounded by dozens of other real players.

Well, sort of. All of that is possible and it has happened to me, but you’re not always surrounded by real players. Similar to Stand Out: VR Battle Royale and Pavlov VR, War Dust will fill matches with bots if there aren’t enough players. Honestly, this doesn’t bother me. I’d rather have a full match than an empty one and frankly, there just aren’t enough people with VR headsets to sustain a game like this on actual human body count alone.

Visually it looks about like a late PS2 or early PS3 era game. Textures are often muddy with lots of jagged edges, maps are empty outside of the densely designed areas, and visual effects like lighting and shadows leave more than just a bit to be desired. But nevertheless, it’s addicted, fun, and absolutely exhilarating to play.

War Dust works so well because it’s what VR gamers are hungry for. Onward scratches that Arma-meets-Ghost Recon itch, Pavlov satiates the Counter-Strike crowd, Firewall Zero Hour is there for fans of Rainbow Six, and Stand Out is a serviceable stand-in for a VR PUBG, but there isn’t an option for fans of large-scale FPS games like Battlefield. Well, until now.

According to the Steam page they plan for the game to be in Early Access for about 12 months, meaning it should, theoretically, hit full version 1.0 by October or November in 2019. Since it first released in Early Access on October 19th, 2018, it’s already received big updates introducing multiple new maps, new weapons, and more.

War Dust is currently available on Steam in Early Access with support for Rift, Vive, and Windows VR headsets at the price point of $24.99. As long as you don’t have a hard time with VR sickness, can deal with some janky bugs, and are looking for that large-scale VR shooter fix, I definitely recommend War Dust.

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War Dust VR Livestream: Watch Us Play A Battlefield-Style VR FPS On Twitch

War Dust VR Livestream: Watch Us Play A Battlefield-Style VR FPS On Twitch

War Dust is only in Early Access on Steam and is quite rough around the edges, but it’s certainly nailed the thrill of large-scale combat already. Pitting two teams of 32 players against one another, this is the largest scale VR shooter we’ve seen yet, channeling vibes from Battlefield with jets, helicopters, tanks, and more across various objective-based maps. Just yesterday the developers have introduced another brand new map.

We’ll be playing War Dust on Rift using a two Touch controllers. We’re starting around 1:30 PM PT and we’ll aim to last for around two hours. We’ll be livestreaming to the UploadVR Twitch page where you can interact with us directly and chat among yourselves. Streaming is something we’re going to double down on doing more often very soon so you should get in on the ground floor of our Twitch community early! After today’s stream we’ll qualify for Twitch Affiliate status, which will introduce more perks for viewers (like a custom emote coming soon!) and more ways to interact during streams.

You can see the full stream embedded right here down below once it’s up:

Watch live video from UploadVR on www.twitch.tv

You can see our most recent past archived streams over on our YouTube channel right here or in the Twitch video archives here. There’s lots of good stuff there!

Let us know which games or discussions you want us to livestream next and don’t forget to follow the Twitch channel and sign up for notifications.

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War Dust Livestream: Massive 64-Player Battlefield-Like FPS Combat

War Dust Livestream: Massive 64-Player Battlefield-Like FPS Combat

War Dust features twice as many players as Stand Out: VR Battle Royale with 64 total and includes vehicles, large objective-based maps, and more to try and make your Battlefield VR dreams a reality. It’s just now in Early Access on Steam (on sale for $14.99 right now) and is quite rough around the edges, but it’s certainly nailed the thrill of large-scale combat already.

We’ll be playing War Dust on Rift using a two Touch controllers. We’re starting right around 9:15 AM PT and we’ll aim to last for around an hour or more. We’ll be livestreaming directly to the UploadVR Twitch page where you can interact with us directly and chat among yourselves. Streaming is something we’re going to double down on doing more often very soon so you should get in on the ground floor of our Twitch community early! You can see the full stream embedded right here down below once it’s up:

Watch live video from UploadVR on www.twitch.tv

You can see our most recent past archived streams over on the UploadVR YouTube channel right here. There’s lots of good stuff there!

Let us know which games or discussions you want us to livestream next and don’t forget to follow the Twitch channel and sign up for notifications.

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War Dust Is An Enormous 64-Player Battlefield-Like VR FPS, Now In Alpha

War Dust Is An Enormous 64-Player Battlefield-Like VR FPS, Now In Alpha

Stand Out: VR Battle Royale is one of the most ambitious VR games on the market right now. It’s in Steam Early Access and it pits about 30 players against one another on a single, large map in a fight to the death. It’s battle royale game of course, like Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) but it’s entirely in VR. You have to physically reload your guns, you can climb around on the environment, and even duck to take cover. Raptor Lab is a small indie studio so it’s extremely unpolished and rough around the edges, but it’s got a dedicated community and is tons of fun if you can look past the shortcomings. Well, now they’re pushing things even further with War Dust.

War Dust features twice as many players as Stand Out, with 64, and will include tons of vehicles, large objective-based maps, and more to try and make your Battlefield VR dreams a reality. It’s just now in Alpha (not even Early Access or Beta yet) so it’s even rougher than Stand Out, but it sure does sound impressive.

You can see in the trailer above that War Dust is much more than just another VR FPS. You can fly jets and helicopters, drive tanks and ATVs, and so much more. In a press release the company sent me, they say that their vision for War Dust is to “create a feeling of being a part of a real epic war” rather than just small-scale skirmishes like other VR titles.

Obviously, the concern is player count. Firewall Zero Hour is a PSVR-exclusive 4v4 multiplayer-only shooter on PSVR and even that game sometimes has down times and Sony was concerned about player counts — and there are three million PSVR headsets out there. I highly doubt there are that many Rifts, Vives, and Windows VR headsets combined but that isn’t stopping Raptor Lab.

In War Dust you and 31 other players join together for a massive 32v32 battle with all 64 of you on the same map at the same time fighting it out. Then having to worry about aerial enemies, dogfights, tanks, and more honestly seems too ambitious to be real.

It’s worth mentioning that Raptor Lab doesn’t have the greatest track record with actually finishing games. Their Steam catalog is already four games deep and now War Dust is on the horizon. Both Stand Out, their battle royale offering, and Deus Vult, a fantasy-themed melee action game, are still in Early Access and have been for a while.

Now with lots of VR FPS games on the horizon, like Zero Caliber, Warzone, Population One, Virtual Battlegrounds, and plenty of existing titles as competition, War Dust won’t have an easy time getting 64-players online at all times.

You can find more information about War Dust on the official Steam page and if you’re interested in joining the Alpha test period, which starts today on October 12th, 2018, then you can do so at the company’s official Discord server here.

Let us know what you think of War Dust in the comments below!

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