Teams

Three colors, one vendor

Pick a banner for friends and silhouette literacy. Early Access factions share guns, vehicles, and XP. The advantage is not a hidden tank — it is not feeding the third team a free hill.

EA provisional · verify in-game

Early Access / Season 1 figures. Treat as a planning aid and verify the vendor and payouts in-game before you spend.

Blue

Lonestar

Western / Texan private military contractors

Pitched as the heavy hitters of the private-contractor world. Loyalty to a paycheck, not a flag. Blue markings in the chaos of a 100-player match.

Supporter Edition themed a Bushmaster finish toward Lonestar. Flavor only — same vendor as everyone else.

Blue is easy to spot on Eastern European winter palettes. Do not assume a blue silhouette is a teammate until the nameplate agrees — three teams, bad lighting, proximity voice.
Contractor fantasy tempts expensive kits. Lonestar does not get cheaper tanks. Rebuy math is identical.
If your friends stacked Lonestar, the gameplay edge is comms, not a hidden rifle.

Red

Valkyra

Soviet People's Republic restorationists

A Russian-coded force built around returning the SPR to greatness. Red markings. A-91 is the recruit rifle people associate with the skin pack.

Supporter A-91 finish leans Valkyra. Still a no-attachment burst rifle underneath the paint.

Red is the color most players already treat as ‘shoot this.’ Be extra clean on nameplates when two red-adjacent silhouettes cross in smoke.
Restoration lore does not unlock extra 5.45. AK74 is still an Assault 3 cash gate like it is for the other two teams.
When Lonestar and Manticore brawl, Valkyra is often the third that should walk into the Hot Zone instead of joining the 1v1.

Green

Manticore

Kingdom of Persia — Tehran’s shadow army

Deniable operations rather than a regular standing army. Green banner. KH-2002 is the flavor recruit rifle.

Supporter KH-2002 finish leans Manticore. Same burst, no rails.

Green blends into summer trees and ghillie stories. Recon on this team still needs plates; the palette is not a perk.
Shadow-army fantasy is not a stealth class. Proximity voice still gives you away. Suppressors do not make you faction-unique.
If the other two colors are stacked on one lip, Manticore’s job is the same as anyone’s: put bodies in the zone they forgot.

Three-team habits

Factions are cosmetic

Bulkhead’s Early Access teams share weapons, vehicles, XP tracks, and vendor prices. Pick the color you can read at 200 meters and the friends you can hear. There is no hidden Lonestar tank bonus.

The map is Kolchia

Fictional Eastern Europe, inspired by locations the team visited in Georgia. Matches fight over PV-1, a rare resource. The Control Zone is a randomized 2×2 km cut out of a much larger sandbox. Your opening route changes; the priority does not.

Third-faction rule

When two teams fully commit, the third should take the Hot Zone, not ‘help’ the brawl. You count as two in the Hot Zone. A clean backdoor capture beats a heroic 12-person stalemate.

Proximity voice is the diplomacy layer

You will hear enemies. That is intended. Do not treat a friendly-sounding stranger as a teammate, and do not dump a magazine into a taxi that is dumping your color into the hill.

Squads are optional, seats are not

You can solo and still help by standing in the zone or flying supplies. If you bought a Kodiak or MH-6, fill it with whoever is on your color — squad or not.

Factions are a silhouette and a third-team problem, not a locked class. The vendor is shared. If two colors brawl on a lip, the third color owns the Hot Zone — that is the loadout conversation.