Fight hard and become a glorious warrior in War Thunder!

Fight hard and become a glorious warrior in War Thunder!

The War Thunder Wiki is a community effort, only a WT forum account is required to join us. We need YOU for this ultimate guide! War Thunder is a next generation MMO combat game dedicated to World War II military aviation, armoured vehicles, and fleets. Available for Windows, Linux, SteamOS, PS4 and Mac. System requirements for all systems. War Thunder is a cross platform vehicular combat MMO developed by Gaijin Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, and Shield Android TV. It will soon be released for Xbox One. The game is based around combined arms battles on air, land, and sea with vehicles from the Spanish Civil War to the Cold War period with an emphasis on World War II. Players have access to more than 800 playable aircraft, tanks, and ships from the Soviet Union, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Japanese Empire, the United States, Italy, France, and China (only on the Chinese server). Other nations, such as Canada, Australia, and Romania, are also featured as part of the arsenal of the seven main nations.

Most in-game maps are either directly or indirectly based on real battles of the era such as in Stalingrad, Russia, or Peleliu, an island in the Palau chain, though there are exceptions, such as a speculative German invasion of Britain inspired by Operation Sea Lion. Game Modes War Thunder is divided into three main game modes based upon the amount of assistance provided to the player (e.g. through the interface) and the type of maps and missions played. Players may choose to participate in a battle with joint ground forces and air forces in tank battles or may choose to operate air vehicles only in air battles. Arcade Battles In this mode, the game draws two teams of players (of up to 16 players on each side) with vehicles from different nations of similar combat performance. It is possible to see vehicles of the same type on different teams, and different countries on the player's own team. Damage and physics are greatly simplified (e.g. in very high speed dives planes do not have their wings ripped off and are still controllable, ground vehicles receive a boost in engine power), but retain some realism (e.g. bombers are not as maneuverable as fighters, aircraft have limited ammunition available but are able to reload midair). For aircraft, games are played in either "Ground Strike," where in order to win players must destroy all enemy ground units, shoot down all enemy aircraft, and destroy the enemy airfield and bombing points; "Domination", which consists of seizing enemy airfields by touching down on them for about five seconds, causing the enemy team to lose points; or "Air Domination", which requires players to have total control over an area of airspace for long enough to capture it. Also, to help simplify aiming, a 'leading marker' appears when an enemy plane is in range. This shows a prediction of where the enemy plane will be by the time the bullets of the smaller calibre weapon arrive if the plane continues its current trajectory, greatly improving user accuracy.

For ground forces, "Domination" revolves around the capture of three strategic zones on the map, with "Conquest" featuring only one. In "Break", the two teams must capture a series of points in order, while in "Battle", each team has its own base zone and must prevent it from being captured. Similarly to how aircraft have a "leading marker", ground forces have a reactive crosshair that factors the ballistic drop of the vehicle's primary weapon at range. It is also color-coded to indicate whether the vehicle the player is targeting can be penetrated by the ammunition they are using at the range they're sighted for, or whether they're targeting an enemy or allied vehicle. Realistic Battles Previously called "Historical Battles", this mode is designed for more advanced players and offers realistic physics and damage modelling while retaining some of the interface and control simplifications of Arcade. In Air Realistic Battles, Fighters must take off from the airfield. Interceptors will start airborne. Attackers will also start airborne but higher than Interceptors. Bombers will start about 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) off the ground. More realistic damage models makes long-range "sniping" difficult, and there is no 'leading marker' to assist with aiming. Also, due to realistic G-forces, making tight maneuvers at high speeds can cause pilots to black out or their planes to rip apart, and the views available are the same as in Arcade Battles. Once ammunition is used up, players will have to return to their airfield to reload and repair. For the majority of matches in this mode, players are selected to have only one nation per team, making it possible to recreate a real scenario, such as the Battle of Stalingrad between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

In Ground Realistic Battles, players get to use more than one vehicle per game through the use of Spawn Points, which are obtained by destroying enemy vehicles and capturing points. Aircraft may also be used. Like the Air Realistic Battles mode, players do not have access to enemy player markers, penetration indicators, or range indicators. Simulator Battles This mode is located in the events section was called "Full Real Battles" and was based on Realistic Battles with more restrictions on the user interface and controls; only the first-person view (in the cockpit) and external turret gunner views for aircraft are allowed in flight, while tank players are restricted to the gunner's scope, the driver's port or cabin, or a commander's perspective located above the vehicle. Additionally, aircraft can only be played in "Full Real controls" (there is no 'instructor' to prevent the aircraft stalling and the mouse can only be used to simulate a joystick). Players retain the option to have flaps, trim, and engines automatically controlled in Simulator mode. The Heads Up Display is available to display speed, altitude, heading, engine/throttle settings, oil and water temperatures, and basic vehicle damage status. No player tags are given for the enemy team and friendly player and AI-controlled entity tags are only provided for aircraft within 0.9 kilometres (0.56 mi). Thus, players must pay particular attention when dealing with specific aircraft and tank types that are available to multiple nations and vehicles that can use different roundels other than their own default through personal customization. Custom Battles Custom battles, available for both air and ground vehicles, is a mode allowing for the creation of battles by individual players. The creator of the custom battle can select the map, game mode, and other settings; they can also set a password to restrict who can play. PvE PvE "Assault" was introduced in patch 1.67. This is an "Arcade" tank or plane game mode where players defend a base against waves of AI attackers. Events Events in War Thunder are officially provided custom missions usually based on one of the three main game modes, but with alternative settings regarding allowed vehicles, mission specifics, etc. Examples are the recreation of historical battles by restricting available vehicles (e.g. 'Battle of Stalingrad') or the 32/64 player 'Enduring Confrontation' mode featuring battles of multiple hours of length. April Fools Traditionally, the game developers prepare unconventional events for April Fools Day. For 2017, War Thunder made playable rank IX main battle tanks and attack helicopters. For 2016, ahead of the announcement of the naval forces update, War Thunder offered playable sailing ships of the 18th century fighting in the Caribbean. The year before, a new game mode called "Unrealistic Battles" featured inflated rubber tanks firing potatoes and carrots. Other notable examples include "March to Victory", introducing playable Mecha composed of tank parts"The Pony Nation" introducing My Little Pony as a sixth playable faction; and "Gaijilla" was a battle against a giant Godzilla-like snail.

Did you know that... You are able to zoom into the minimap by moving your mouse cursor over the map and scrolling in? You need to assign the following settings to be able to do this: in control settings, make sure "show mouse cursor" is enabled. With 3000 rounds per minute, the American 20 mm M168 Vulcan gatling gun on the M163 Vulcan Air Defense System is the fastest firing weapon in the game? Pressing with the cursor on the map seen while pressing "M" will signal the team to pay attention to the specific sector? Different steel types exist for armour? Every metal has got its own modifier e.g. cast steel is only 90% as strong as rolled homogeneous steel (which is the standard armour plate). All part of the damage mechanics, see this page for more details. Reducing the vehicles ammo load, affects the ammo storage by making them smaller and once empty disappear. Empty Ammo Racks cannot be exploded and are literally empty space. Rockets can be shot down mid-air by gun fire? By binding a button to "Manual Engine Control" under the "Full Aircraft Control" tab in the controls menu, you can control the engine settings manually in RB and SB, even when using Mouse Aim controls and potentially achieve better performance. There is no cow level in War Thunder! Torpedoes can destroy bridges too, if they hit the pillars. Further they can destroy tanks and floatplanes, if they're in the water. As most torpedoes travel at certain depths, they will detonate upon impact on shore. With a radius & penetration exceeding 30m and 300mm, killing tanks in the vicinity is possible for these swimming 270kg of pure Torpex explosives. Your aiming reticle in Arcade adjusts for the slowest bullet of your guns. Thus with the P-39 only one caliber (the slower 37mm, not faster 7.7mm) will hit in turn-fights.