1-Introduction
Strategy
2-Battle Rating (BR), Rank, and Matchmaking for battles (A bit dense, if you prefer can only look the examples table and the implications)
3-Silver Lions, Golden Eagles, Research Points, and Experience
4-Types of maps and how to achieve victory
5-Repair costs
6-Aircraft development.
7-Crew experience 1: Pilot and Logistic services
8-Crew experience 2: Priorities
9-How to learn from the best players you've played with
10-Weapons convergence
Tactics
11-Basic combat tactics: The beginning
12-Basic combat tactics: Climb to maximum altitude?
13-Basic Combat Tactics: How to aim
14-Basic Combat Tactics: Situational Awareness
15-Combat tactics: Deflection shooting
16-Combat tactics: Boom and Zoom
17-Combat tactics: Head-Ons Confrontation
18-Combat Tactics: Wasps that appear dead still sting

"Everything is very simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult."
Carl von Clausewitz

This is a guide intended for arcade air battles and aimed for newcomers mainly, with some tips which can be useful for more experienced players too. I explain what I think is most important to know in order to properly focus your progress and some useful combat tactics. It's also designed to help you optimize your progression in a cost-effective way. It is focused on propeller fighters, as what I like most about War Thunder are the aerial combats.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there is a difference between the ranks up to 3 and those from rank 4 and beyond. In the first three ranks, it's not difficult to keep financial stability of Silver Lions, because with average performance in battles, it shouldn't be too hard to earn enough silver lions to pay for repairs and upgrades of planes. If you keep reading, I'll explain the factors that can help you to achieve this. Most of the tips in this guide apply to all levels, but they will be particularly useful in the first few ranks, for propellers.

You have to keep in mind that many of the tips you may see in videos or read about the game don't take into account that, as a beginner, your planes aren't optimized and your crew doesn't have enough experience, so there are maneuvers that will be difficult for you to execute well. For a simple example, with an undeveloped plane and inexperienced crew, when diving to destroy a ground target, your plane won't be able to turn and ascend as quickly as it should, and many times you'll crash attempting a maneuver that, with more development, would be successful.
The main advice you have to follow is that your basic goal should be to on average earn more silver lions than it costs you to repair your planes after the battle. If you do this, it's just a matter of time to accumulate enough to add the upgrades you research to your vehicles and to buy new ones that you unlock. There will be battles where you lose Silver Lions and others where you win, but this economic balance is what will allow you to keep progressing in the game. You can also buy silver lions by exchanging them for golden eagles, but even so, it's better to use the golden eagles for other things. The economic result of the battle, positive or negative in silver lions, is available to you in Messages, Battles.

And another thing, don't be afraid of getting your planes shot down in battles in the early ranks. Of course, it's better if it doesn't happen, but to achieve good results, you'll have to take risks. As long as you see that you maintain this stability between your income and the expenses of repairing and rearming your planes, you can keep playing, gaining experience and developing planes and crews that will eventually make your battle results better. In this guide, I will try to help you know how to optimize this process, so that while you enjoy the game, your progress is as fast as possible while making as few mistakes as possible.

First, an important clarification: BR is not the same as Rank. For example, there are planes with a BR of 3.3 that are Rank 2, while others with a BR of 3.0 are Rank 3. Keep this in mind for Daily Tasks, as you can complete the first one with at least one Rank 2 plane, but the Medium Task requires at least one Rank 3 plane.

For matchmaking in battles, there are two important things to know:

A player can face planes with a BR difference of +1.3 with their highest BR plane. While it seems that you should only face a maximum of four players with this difference, often it will be less.
Only the average BR of your vehicles is considered for matchmaking, obtained using the formula explained below. Therefore, your vehicles will be valued the same for matchmaking whether they have no upgrades or are fully upgraded, the same goes for crew skills, and your experience and in-game results don't matter. A player who has played for a month and shot down only 40 planes can be matched with one who has played for five years and shot down over 25,000.

For matchmaking in Arcade mode, the BR of the three highest BR planes in your lineup for the battle is taken into account. The formula used is: BR = A/2 + B/4 + C/4, where A is the BR of the highest vehicle, B is the BR of the second-highest vehicle, and C is the BR of the third-highest vehicle. With adjustments explained in the following paragraphs. To give you an idea, I have created the table below, where you can easily see the consequences of these rules.

If the difference between the second or third vehicle and the first is greater than 0.6, then A-0.6 is used in the formula instead of the BR of the vehicle with that greater difference. This is of great importance to avoid including a plane with a much higher BR than the rest, or the overall BR of the lineup will be raised too much.

If the difference between the second or third vehicle and the first is greater than 2.0, then A is used in the formula instead of the BR of the vehicle with that difference. Including vehicles with more than that difference will not reduce your BR in the battle.

The result is also rounded to one of the BR values where there are planes. For example, you may have noticed that there are only planes with the following BRs between 1.0 and 3.3: 1.0, 1.3, 1.7, 2.0, 2.3, 2.7, 3.0, 3.3. This means that if the result of the formula is 1.86, you will be matched with a BR of 2.0, and if it's 1.84, you'll be matched with a BR of 1.7.




Let's see the implications this has on your vehicles lineup strategy. Only the 3 highest BR planes are taken into account. So, if you have 2 planes at 1.0 and also 3 at 3.0 BR, you will be included in battles at BR 3.0. That's why you should avoid the mistake that I think most of us made when we were beginners, of rushing to research the highest possible BR planes, for example, 3.3, when we still don't have our biplanes "spaded", that means fully developed, and as soon as we have it, we include it in our planes lineup for the battle.

Remember that it's very important to go into battles with planes that have the most similar BR possible, because otherwise, you will find yourself with only one or two planes in the middle of the battle's BR range, and the rest will be well below. If we add to that the fact that our highest BR planes most likely have almost no upgrades yet, this put us at a great disadvantage compared to our opponents. The best approach is to fully upgrade the planes we are playing with to take advantage of their best capacity and only include new planes in the lineup that are slightly higher BR than the ones we had previously.Of course, you can start doing this once you have passed the first moment in which you only have the initial 3 biplanes and some planes we have researched, because in that first moment, you have no choice but to add the planes you have, because in any case, you will be often matched with 2.0 BR planes. But after that first moment, remember to gradually add new planes to have the closest possible average BR of the battle.

Keep in mind that after perhaps a brief grace period, just starting out, you can already be matched with players who have a lot of experience, with their planes fully developed and their crews at maximum level, which I will explain in more detail in the corresponding guide section about how much they influence. Also, due to the matchmaking rules, if you go out with your 1.0 BR biplanes, you can find planes up to 2.3 BR in the same battle, and that makes a significant difference.

Silver Lions: are the basic currency of the game, with which you can mainly pay for instant repairs of your planes, without having to wait several hours or days, buy upgrades for your planes as you research them, buy new vehicles (not the Premium ones, those can only be purchased with Golden Eagles or received as a prize in an event), and also pay to give a crew a qualification boost (increasing their experience level when upgraded to expert). They also allow you to add another crew. Lastly, but not least important, they allow you to change the daily tasks assigned for a price.

Golden Eagles: This is the premium currency. It is used to buy premium vehicles, increase crew experience, add new crews, or accelerate vehicle upgrades. Instantly raising a crew's experience to the level of Ace can also be done using Golden Eagles. In summary, to speed up processes that would otherwise take a lot of time. They could be obtained for free, for achieving objectives with the Golden Eagles wagers, but as far as I know, they can now only be obtained receiving a reward for inviting a friend when they reach rank V, selling ítems received in events in Gaijin Market and buying then GE, in addition to the few given at the start. That's why it's important to use them carefully. For example, adding another crew and increasing the experience of some crews seems like the best use for them, considering that you would only be able to buy a low-rank premium plane with the GE received when opening a new account.
Another good use of GE can be buying a Talisman for one of your planes (Premium vehicles have Talisman since the beginning). This gives a 100% boost in research points for that plane, so it also increases the speed of improvement of your crew. Very useful if you want to level up a crew that will be used for a bomber or strike aircraft that needs to develop not only pilot but also defensive gunners.

Research Points: These are used to unlock upgrades for your planes and to unlock new vehicles. They are earned through battle results, meaning they are not something that is earned over time but depends on earning points while playing.

Experience Points: These are earned the same way as research points, but they are used to level up crews. We will discuss priorities when applying them in the corresponding section. Have in mind that Research Boosters or Talismans also increase your crew experience.

What you should keep in mind is that, despite being an airplane game mode, destroying player`s planes hardly counts towards victory in most modes. What discounts the most tickets from the score is destroying ground targets, including bombing bases. In other words, the game heavily favours bombing over air combat for victory. On the other hand, to get a high score there are two ways that yield the most points: Destroying player´s planes and bombing bases. Playing with fighters, you can influence victory (Reducing enemy team tickets) by either attacking ground targets or destroying bot planes when the map includes then. Shooting down enemy bombers and planes that are attacking the ground or giving cover to your team mates will give you score points but almost do not reduce victory tickets.

Some ground targets can be destroyed with machine guns and cannons (anti-aircraft guns, boats, and armored cars), while others can only be destroyed with bombs, such as tanks, bunkers, ships, bases, and airfields. Attacks with machine guns on "hard" targets cause almost no effect. But there is a way to win through air combat, and that is if one team manages to eliminate all of the other team's player planes, there is a rapid decrease in victory points that makes the team that eliminated all enemies win. This is the only way to win by destroying planes and it happens very rarely, the battle almost always ends due to the destruction of ground targets except in Domination maps.

Ground Attack
Destroying ground targets moves the victory score as destroying bot planes. The ground targets that blink count, while the others give you some points but do not discount victory points from the score. There are three bases that must be destroyed and also affect the victory score. Once the three bases have been destroyed, you start destroying the airfield, which, if completely destroyed, will result in a ticket discount every few seconds until it reaches zero and you win. The other way to automatically win is sometimes to destroy all ground targets. Often, it is not necessary to destroy all targets because the total number of points available to destroy is sometimes greater than the ticket reserve of each team, so you can win before eliminating all them.


Frontline
Like the ground attack maps, but with more ground targets, and except for "Africa Canyon", where non-flashing machine guns do not count for victory, in the rest all ground targets count.


Domination
There are one to three airfields that can be captured by both teams by landing on them, although it is enough to fly over the runway slightly touching ground for a while. When one team has more airfields captured than the enemy, the ticket reserve begins to decrease slowly. It is important to note that there are columns of vehicles from both teams heading towards some airfields, and if they reach the objective, if there are no ground vehicles of the other team the airfield is taken and it makes impossible to capture that airfield unless all ground vehicles are destroyed.


Air Domination
It is the only mode where bombing is useless, there are no ground targets. You have to capture an area that usually starts at 750 meters and reaches approximately 4500 meters of altitude. If your team manages to have no enemy planes in the zone, and at least one of your planes is in it, it begins to capture. In a few seconds, the zone is captured and the other team's victory tickets start to rapidly decrease. In this mode, a long aerial battle usually takes place until one of the teams manages to have no enemy planes in the zone.

There is one thing to keep in mind, you may read people recommending deactivating automatic repairs after each battle to save this cost. What happens then is that your planes will be repaired without silver lion cost, but it will take several hours, or even days to be available again. This makes more sense in higher ranks (starting from 4), as we have already mentioned that repairs start to be quite expensive, and it is difficult to maintain economic balance, but in low ranks, up to 3, it is better to be able to take the planes out into new battles several times a day and face repair costs. If you manage to follow the stability rule that I mentioned in the introduction, there will be no problem, and besides, it is a game. For me, the most important thing is to be able to use my planes whenever I want, to which we must add that every time you play and get points, you will improve your vehicles and crews, and this will make you earn more silver lions in the future, so even if at first you go very tight in your post-battle income and costs budget, think that you are making an investment that will make you easily earn silver lions later.

Backup vehicles have no repair cost (you have to assign them in the "Modifications" screen of each vehicle, if you have them). Once activated, you will see a number in the low right corner of the box of each plane in the grid, where it will indicate the number of backup vehicles you have available for that plane. But remember that in each battle, you can only use a maximum of one backup vehicle for each airplane, in addition to the "normal" plane. That is, you can only double the number of available planes for a battle at most. But I do not consider it interesting to pay for them, only if you get them through Battle Pass prizes or in battle trophies. Golden Eagles have better uses, such as an additional crew, raising the experience of the crews, or buying Talisman for one of your existing vehicles.

One last note on repair costs, when you add a new plane to your battle grid, in the first 10 missions, you will have no repair costs. This is something that will give you some breathing room for those first encounters in which your plane is not yet well optimized to make you win enough in battle to cover its expenses.

Developing your aircraft is something that can be done in a reasonable amount of time and has a huge effect on the performance of your vehicles. Leveling up your crews is a much slower process but equally important to fully utilize the potential of your aircraft.
Vehicle development affects three main parameters: the first column (Flight performance) influences speed, climb rate, and how quickly the aircraft can turn, the second (Survivability) affects resistance to shots and also airplane performance, and the third column (Weaponry) improves the performance of your offensive weapons, increasing their accuracy, decreasing their chance of failure, and allowing you to use new types of ammunition and sometimes bombs or rockets. I won't go into technical details of how these improvements affect the aircraft, but I will summarize the difference in the Russian LaGG 3-66, with a BR of 3.0 at the time of writing this guide. When the aircraft has all the modifications activated, its main attributes improve by:

Speed: +35.4 km/h

Climb rate: +3.2 m/s

Turn time: -1.2 seconds

Vehicle strength (resistance to shots): +15%

Time between machine gun and cannon failures: +23%

Although they may not seem like big differences, this approximately 10% improvement in performance is the difference between being able to turn and getting behind a rival who has the same aircraft and crew development, but hasn't fully modified the vehicle, or having your rival achieve this instead.

What should be the criteria for choosing the order of the different upgrades? I think this way; if the opponent can't maneuver as well as you, you won't need your aircraft to be more resistant, and choosing performance upgrades first serves both to improve your defense in terms of ability to avoid being hit and your offensive capabilities, as it will be easier to get into a good position to open fire on your opponent. The next upgrades are for survivability because they not only increase your resistance to shots but also improve your maneuverability. Finally, the cannon and machine gun upgrades, because that's the icing on the cake when your aircraft is capable of maneuvering at its full potential. But it's up to you to choose the order you prefer, after all, that will depend on what your improvement priorities are, and these don't have to coincide with my playstyle. Just keep in mind that until you have developed the performance and survivability upgrades, your aircraft will be very inefficient and an easy target.

This is a very important factor. You'll find that until you've leveled up some parameters, even if you have fully upgraded your aircraft, you won't be able to really take advantage of them 100%. For example, with turns, even if the aircraft can turn faster because you have already developed all the modifications for it, if you haven't sufficiently developed resistance to G-forces, when you try to make a too sharp turn, you'll experience the dreaded screen blackening that, if you continue, ends in a temporary loss of control. During that moment, you won't see the battle well and your aircraft won't react well.

Don't forget that, although aircraft development only affects that vehicle, crew development is a much more strategic factor, because what you develop will be available for all the vehicles that you add to that slot in the aircraft grid. That is, you can start developing a crew with the starter biplanes and continue improving that crew with the different aircraft you add in that same slot. That's why it's so important and the main factor that will affect all the time you play with that nation.
Let's list the most important crew experience improvements, and then discuss which ones you should prioritize. I've listed them in order of appearance, not importance.

Pilot:

Sharp vision: Visual range in the direction the pilot is looking.

Awareness: Visual range around the aircraft.

G-tolerance: The pilot's ability to withstand very abrupt maneuvers, such as sharp turns, without losing control of the vehicle.

Stamina: As the mission progresses and maneuvers with high G-forces are performed, the pilot experiences fatigue that affects both G-tolerance and aiming precision. This parameter allows you to increase the pilot's Stamina so that their effectiveness does not decrease as much over time.

Vitality: The pilot's ability to stay alive after being shot. At its maximum level, the resistance is tripled, making it possible to even withstand .50 caliber machine gun shots.

Logistics services:

Reload speed: At its maximum level, you reduce the time it takes to reload your weapons to a third of the original time.

Weapon maintenance: At its maximum level, you reduce the probability of your weapons failing when firing. It also improves the accuracy of bombs, rockets, and torpedoes.

I'm not going to talk about repair speed or repair range because that's for ground repairs, and I don't think it's worth it in arcade battles of the early ranks where the repair costs after the battle are quite affordable. Only think about it if you want to repair planes in the hangar deactivating automatic repairs, when Repair speed is fully relevant, and Repair rank is mandatory to make possible to apply the increased speed of repair to planes higher than rank 1.
Spending battle time repairing your plane, waiting for it, taking off again, and returning to the combat zone in matches that usually last no longer than 10-15 minutes is wasting a lot of time when you're not able to earn points. If your plane is damaged, it's even possible that it will fly slower, which increases the chances of being intercepted on the way to the airfield. Not to mention that while you're repairing on the ground, the enemies can still kill you while you're a stationary and defenseless target. My advice is that if you see that your plane is no longer in condition to earn points, try a very risky or suicidal last attack, or crash or abandon it (by default pressing the J key), and come out with a new one. Your goal should be to make the most of your battle time, and in my opinion, that conflicts with repairing your damaged vehicle in battle in this game mode.

Defensive armament:

This section is to develop the crew of defensive machine gun turrets ONLY if the plane has them. You should only develop this if you're going to use strike aircrafts or some interceptors that have a rear gunner, or bombers. It's important that you decide early on which crew or crews you're going to use for planes that have more than one crew member, and which ones you're going to use only for fighters because if that crew is only going to handle fighters, don't waste a single point of experience on this section because it won't have any influence as there's only the pilot.
Assuming we leave out bombers, where there are often more than one crew member in the turrets, and then you'll need to raise the number of expert gunners, I'll only mention that not only does Fire accuracy and Fire precision affect the improvement of accuracy when controlled by the AI, but also G-tolerance and Stamina have an influence on this. Vitality, just like for the pilot, will allow for a significant increase in the survival of the gunner.

Now, what parameters should we prioritize? The answer is not as simple as in developing the aircraft. Increasing the crew's experience, if you choose not to pay for it, is a very slow process, even taking several months. Additionally, the cost of increasing these parameters grows exponentially as you assign the first points, so even if you prioritize, for example, the pilot's tolerance to G-forces, Stamina, and Vitality, there will come a point where you have 100 points available to spend and the next level will cost you at least 150 points, while if you haven't developed the vision parameters, increasing the former two will only cost you a few points. Therefore, even if you prioritize some parameters, you will end up developing them in a fairly balanced way.

The best way to choose which parameters to focus on is to base it on the problems you detect. That is:

If your pilot is often knocked out, develop Vitality to prevent it.

If you see that you lose control or the screen goes dark when maneuvering, develop tolerance to G-forces and Stamina to counter it.

If you frequently run out of ammunition and have to reload in flight, it will be important to develop Reloading speed to spend as little time as possible without being able to shoot.

If your guns get jammed too often it is needed to increase Weapon maintenance.

Once you have fixed the most urgent problems, my general criterion for prioritizing is the same as with developing the aircraft. That is, first maneuverability, for which we will go to Tolerance to G-forces and Stamina, then Vitality, to ensure that our pilot survives more often, and then in logistics services, Weapon maintenance, and Reloading speed. Note that vision is not as important because the most important of the two is Awareness, as it affects how enemies appear on the circular mini-radar screen you have in combat, in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, and for that, you can also use the C key, which moving the mouse allows you to look around the plane directly without this parameter affecting you. And with Keen vision, just keep in mind that even at the minimum level, you already have a pretty long range of front vision, so this would be the last parameter to evolve in props in my opinion.

To finish with the topic of crew development, we'll talk about a way to quickly raise three levels in the most important crew parameters. If you go to the Qualification section in the crew menu, you'll see that you can increase the crew level to Expert by paying silver lions. But be careful, it's only for that vehicle. That means when you switch planes, that extra increase won't be available. You can also do this by clicking on the stars next to each crew parameter.
There's one more step to instantly raise the crew level using Golden Eagles. After reaching Expert level, you can increase it to Ace level. However, playing the game also allows you to level up the crew to Ace. These extra levels add up to the experience you've assigned. When you reach the maximum level, this bonus will give you an extra boost on top of the maximum experience. In other words, these quick level-ups can help you raise the crew level earlier, and when you reach the maximum, you'll get a little extra boost. To know how much points you need to unlock the Ace level by accumulating game experience with the corresponding plane, without having to spend any Golden Eagles, you can go to the "Qualification" section in the crew menu, and hover your mouse pointer on the "Expert" star or title.

Look at the replays available from the last battles you participated in. I find it a very interesting way to learn from those who achieve the highest scores, even though they may have fully developed planes and high-level crews, and it is very likely that with the same plane, you may not be able to perform those maneuvers until you reach a certain level of aircraft and crew. Therefore, if you watch the available replays from your last battles (in “Community”, at the top left of the hangar screen, expand a menu where you will see "Replays"), you can see not only your actions, but most importantly, what all the players did, even your enemies. Just click on one of the players names that are shown at the laterals of the replay screen and you will switch to that player view. This way, you can observe what people who achieve the best results do and really check what players do in action, not just what they recommend or show in a selected video of their best battles. Pay attention not only to their maneuvers but also to what targets they choose to attack or how they deal with situations in which they seem to be losing.

When you watch a video or read tactics tips, always ask yourself: What vehicles are they using and what rank are they? Is that Arcade mode, Realistic or Simulator? As well as the level their planes and crews have.

One very important thing to consider is the aiming distance of the weapons, which you can change in the options or on the pre-combat screen when selecting the plane you will use in that round. By default, the game has it at 400 meters. This means that is the distance at which your cannons and machine guns will do the most damage. As you move away from that distance, the damage will decrease due to the dispersion of the shots.

The following image explains the reason for this well. In planes with wing-mounted guns, there is a big difference between firing at convergence distance or not, while in planes with guns in the nose, like the German Bf-109 or the American P-38, this effect is not so important. The convergence point is where all the guns converge and therefore the greatest concentration of shots occurs.


There are some planes that work better with convergences at 600 meters, such as the US P-47, but the choice of distance depends more on each individual's style, with distances around 300 meters better for dogfighting and over 400 for boom and zoom or head-on engagements.
400 meters is a distance that generally works well, and if you haven't changed the parameter, it will be the one you are accustomed to using. With this convergence, for example, it will be difficult to shoot down a plane at more than 600 meters, except if you are lucky enough to knock out the pilot or set the plane on fire, but you won't have optimal firepower.
Also, keep in mind that the aiming distance applies to all your planes, so if you change it for one in particular, you will then have to change it again if you want to use another for the rest. It is not possible to leave a different distance for each plane.

At first, it will be a bit difficult to shoot down planes controlled by other players, so your easiest way to earn points and advance in the development of the vehicle and your crews will be to focus on attacking ground targets. While doing this, be on the lookout in case a situation arises where you can reach an opponent and try to shoot them down. This way, you can gradually improve to increase your chances of destroying enemy planes. But since you will surely want to try it as soon as possible, I will talk to you about some widely recognized tactics for you to use. They are not complex maneuvers, but rather, we could say, the essential manual that should not be missing from your repertoire. As you progress, you will be able to learn the multiple advanced maneuvers they talk about in so many videos.

I know that what I am about to say will be controversial for many. You may have read recommendations to climb as high as you can as soon as the battle begins. Is this useful at the lower ranks? It's true that at certain ranks (starting from rank 4), planes have a high climb rate, which leads to battles taking place at higher altitudes. Additionally, as mentioned
earlier, it becomes a priority to avoid having your plane damaged due to the high cost of repair. However, the reality is that in arcade battles up to level 3, most of the action takes place at medium to low altitudes. Moreover, to destroy ground targets, most players use diving attacks, which puts them at low altitudes. What altitudes are we talking about? After first minute after spawning, usually around 3/4 to 4/5 of players will be flying no higher than 2500 meters, and most battles will take place between 500-1500 meters. This doesn't mean that there aren't players flying very high, especially some bombers that allow for high-altitude bombing, and some players with fighters, but unless you're trying to intercept those bombers or cover your team bombers, it's better to avoid ascending to those heights. Better stay where the action is and there are plenty of potential targets. That is my opinion.

Talking about fighters flying high in arcade battles with propellers, what I call "altitude hunters". What these players usually do is to wait until some unconscious player try to reach them. When the ascending player has very low energy, what start to makes really difficult to ascend, they shoot from above to get an easy kill when they can barely manouver. It is a legitimate tactic and a smart use of creating advantage in their favour. Doing this they often manage to get a good number of take downs with a very low number of planes lost.

Why do I recommend staying at lower levels? Because if your goal is to get the highest score in the battle, unless you do altitude bombing, you'll need to be either close to the ground, attacking ground targets, or at medium and lower levels engaging with other planes. Don't get me wrong, having altitude advantage is always better, but having some altitude advantage over the enemy is usually enough in arcade so that when you need to maneuver, you can do it with more accumulated energy, which allows you to maintain good speed, or attack from slightly above, making it more difficult for them to attack you since if they have to aim upward, they'll slow down their plane, making it more vulnerable. Additionally, if they have to ascend too much, they may not be able to aim because their vehicle loses the power needed to climb, leaving their plane in that dangerous moment when you're at a speed of 150-200 km/h and maneuvering poorly or even your plane is not responding until you direct it downward to increase speed again and regain control. Do you remember "altitude hunters"?

In summary, in arcade fighters at lower ranks is a better long-term tactic to fly where the heat of battle is. Relative altitude over your opponents but not maximun altitude. Be aware, that means more opportunities to get points but more risks. If you check replays to see what the best fighter pilots do in battle you will see that most of them will be doing what I recommend to you.

Taking advantage of the plane's power is very important. To avoid decreasing it as much as possible, it's better to avoid sharp turns that reduce your speed. When you want to increase your power quickly, you can use the emergency thrust (by default, the Shift key) or make a small descent that will give you that extra burst of speed you may need, either to position yourself better to intercept an enemy or to escape from a rival who has put themselves in a dangerous position.
When you miss a target and turn too much, if you see another target that will soon be within range, it's better to go for the second one. Taking advantage of the plane's power, it will be easier to get into a good position for the second one than the first one. The key is to let the plane naturally try to make the least abrupt movements, as that will decrease speed and make you more vulnerable, as well as having less power to make quick turns when needed. This doesn't mean you shouldn't pursue targets, just that it's better to take advantage of the opportunities that arise, thus achieving better results. When you get used to doing this, there will be moments when you can link two or three quick kills, making only a small slalom in your trajectory. It's all about learning to take advantage of the situation in your favor instead of wearing yourself out in a long pursuit.

The circle that appears in arcade mode in front of each aircraft for aiming is calculated on the center of mass of the vehicle at that moment. This means that on a moving plane, if you shoot there, by the time your shots arrive, the airplane will already be somewhere else. That's why when shooting, you must aim ahead of the circle.

The distance for achieving better results when shooting, as we mentioned, if you haven't changed the
convergence angle of your weapons, is usually around 400 meters from the target. Don't waste ammunition by shooting at distances greater than 500-600 meters, because the chances of causing significant damage are very remote. Only occasionally by luck. Your maneuvers should aim to position yourself around those 400 meters and only shoot at that distance. There's nothing worse than having an enemy in your sights and finding yourself without ammunition because you've been wasting it at inefficient distances. If you do this, you'll see an increase in your number of kills and a decrease in the number of assists.

This term refers to your perception of the battlefield environment and is one of the skills that will be most useful to you in the long run as a pilot. Before blindly launching yourself into a group of enemies, evaluate their situation and possible trajectory to identify both achievable targets and potential threats. Get into the habit of checking the mini radar every so often, especially trying to detect any red dot that is heading directly towards your position. Be careful, in that case, it's very likely that you've been selected as a target. It's very useful to use the "C" key to be able to turn your view without changing the trajectory of the plane, so you can observe the exact distance of any enemy you see on the radar.

Keep in mind that an effective method is to think of a bubble around you whose main cause is the convergence distance of the weapons. Most players have it at 400 meters, and even if they have changed it, in propeller planes, the cannons are usually not effective beyond 800 meters. Therefore, more than 1 km away, unless it's approaching, you don't need to worry about that enemy, just be alert just in case. If it's at 800 meters, it can quickly become a dangerous distance, and of course, at 600 meters or less, it's a direct threat. This way, you can reduce the number of targets to control and prioritize threats based on the actual damage they can cause you. As I explained regarding the aiming distance, just as you won't be effective almost never except in the narrow margin below that distance, your opponents won't be a significant threat normally either.

When the battle begins, don't dive directly into the "furball" (the derogatory term used to describe the swarm of planes fighting in a small area). The most effective approach is to look for an enemy who is separating from the main group. It is best if there's only one, or at most two, because it's quite difficult to take down an opponent when he has two team mates nearby who can take advantage of you attacking the other to launch a comfortable attack on you.
The way to approach the "furball" is to select a target, attack it as quickly as possible, and then exit the swarm of planes to position yourself close enough to re-enter but not be inside. For suitable distances, you can use those of the bubble: with 800 meters, you can be far enough away from the enemies and yet close enough to any target with sufficient speed. It's normal to end up inside more than desired, and that's when the chances of being shot down by a well-positioned opponent increase dramatically. When there are so many planes flying in circles on both sides, you always end up being within range of someone who catches you off guard. But no one said this was easy. Learning to do it is a matter of practice and getting used to this tactic.

It's also useful to occasionally check the battle leaderboard (default is TAB) and focus on at least two things: who the opponents are that are destroying the most ground targets so that you can go after them and help your team achieve victory, and, no less important, if any enemy is standing out in the number of takedowns made, be extra careful with them and don't trust yourself if you encounter them nearby. This is something you must internalize through practice until it becomes automatic.

This is possibly the best method to achieve takedowns. It's based on making a trajectory somewhat perpendicular to the enemy's (close to a 90-degree angle with the enemy's trajectory) and shooting slightly ahead of the circle that indicates their trajectory in arcade battles. This can be done from the sides of the vehicle, from above, or from below. Although it's very tempting to position oneself behind a rival, this is not a very good shooting angle. From there, you are hitting the better-protected areas of the plane. Instead, by shooting at a plane intercepting its trajectory, and shooting slightly ahead of where the circle indicates, you'll be aiming at where it will be when your shots arrive, and your bullets will affect more vulnerable areas of the enemy aircraft. And of course, the target will be much larger than attacking from behind. From personal experience, I can tell you that this is how many takedowns are achieved, especially if you catch a rival while they are turning and you attack them from a trajectory that intersects theirs. Again, I remind you that for this to work, you must be close to the optimal aiming distance marked by the convergence you have selected, 400 meters if you haven't changed it.

One of the moments when this method works very well is when you are pursuing a rival, and they suddenly start turning to one side. Then you intercept them in this way. Even better is if they start ascending, then they slow down and expose the entire top of the plane. At that moment, the deflection shot, aiming slightly ahead of the circle, is devastating. Specially using stealth ammo, to prevent the enemy from realizing that you are firing at them and maneuvering to avoid being hit.

Example of deflection shoting slightly above the enemy. The burst initially aimed slightly ahead of the circle.



Another example, now of lateral deflection shooting.

This tactic involves flying higher than the target, preferably in a trajectory going in the same direction. This increases the likelihood of hitting the target by firing from slightly behind its position while exposing the entire upper surface of the enemy. Then, you dive down on the target and destroy it with a burst from above, immediately followed by a rapid climb to regain tactical advantage over your opponents. This tactic is highly recommended by many people, and while useful, you should keep in mind that as a beginner, and with low-range planes, it is not as easy to execute as with high-range planes that can ascend more quickly after the attack. Also, be careful when diving down, as your speed indicator may turn red (when you exceed the plane's maximum speed), and at a certain speed, the vehicle begins to vibrate slightly, and you lose shooting accuracy, as well as the ability to control the plane smoothly, making it difficult to aim correctly at times.

Step 1: Diving to attack a target at lower altitude than you.



Step 2: Destroying the enemy from above. Look at the smoke to see that our plane descended following the same trajectory as the enemy. The shot was fired from above.



Step 3: Climbing again to gain altitude advantage.

This is something that, as a beginner, will often give you poor results. These confrontations depend heavily on the firepower and resistance of the involved planes, and the vitality of the pilots. When your levels are low in these parameters, you are at a disadvantage in a head-on collision, and there is also a very important luck component to them. Although you can learn to increase your chances of success, the factors that are within your control depend mainly on the development of the plane and crew, which will not be optimal at first. I would be lying if I said I didn't do it quite often, but too many times both planes end up destroyed, either because both hit each other or because, even if you destroy the enemy, once they are going so fast towards you, their plane can no longer maneuver due to the damage, and you won't have time to dodge it. Head-ons are always a risky manouver.



Above all, avoid going head-on against planes with high firepower and significant resistance, such as an IL-2 or BF-110, unless you have a plane of similar firepower and capable to survive them. These types of vehicles are generally bombers and strike airplanes, but not only these, as there are also fighters with significant firepower. To have any chance against them, beyond the mere chance of knocking out the enemy pilot, you need to have a plane with cannons of a certain power. The best way to deal with these enemies is to let them get closer and then dodge them, to turn and attack them from an angle where you can take advantage of your fighter's greater maneuverability. If you choose to attempt a head-on takedown, keep in mind that convergence can cause the enemy to hit you significantly before you are at the optimal distance. For a shooting distance of 400 meters, it is best to fire from 800 to 600 meters away, because as both planes are heading towards each other, that distance decreases rapidly, and that's how you get the shots to hit at the right distance as soon as possible. Using stealh ammo helps to avoid the other pilot knowing that you have started firing or that you are aiming right.

Here you can see an example of what too often happens with head-ons, despite of having destroyed the enemy plane I can´t avoid being hit and I´m going to crash.

Something you may have already experienced, but just in case you didn't know, I'll warn you. Beware of planes that seem to be shot down (their red color is dull, almost gray or brown), they still usually have about 10 seconds of operation time in which they can destroy you if you carelessly pass in front of their firing angle. Similarly, do not abandon your plane if there is an enemy within shooting range, even if the message indicating that you have been defeated has already appeared, until it is impossible to control it. You can always achieve a last-minute takedown in those final seconds in which you can still shoot and, often, even maneuver a little.