2022 Update! This guide has been re-created in video format and updated for 2022:



I'll be leaving the rest of the guide live for historical purposes. However, please note that not all information in the written guide is up-to-date. Thanks!

War Thunder is a free, online multiplayer game. Set in pre WWII to the Korean War, the game allows you to take to the skies in a variety of aircraft from 5 different nations. Each nation has it's strengths and weaknesses. Learning to use these strengths to act upon your enemies weaknesses is an essential part of playing this game. If you do not learn this, you will more than likely become frustrated. Diving into the game will be hard because of it's steep learning curve. This guide is built to help new players conquer that curve and come out on top. It won't teach you everything, but it will teach you what you need to know to get started on your War Thunder journey.

Note: Please read every section. Each one is equally important, even if it seems boring. Also, I have not included many pictures with this guide. It is fairly bland! If you would like me to spice it up with pictures, just comment. If there are sections you think I should add/change let me know. Lastly, if I have said something that is incorrect, please tell me! I am still learning too, so I am by no means perfect.

Thanks for reading!

In War Thunder there are five factions. Each faction or nation has different abilities that allow it to use it's situations to better it's chances of success. Below are listed the five nations with a brief overview of their strengths and weaknesses.

Americans
Americans are known for their strong armor and quick speeds. Their downfall is their inability to maneuver.

Germans
Germans are known for their powerful guns, however they maneuver about as well as a house.

British
The British are the best at nothing and the worst at nothing. They are best known for their maneuverability. Their armor, however, is light and they are fairly slow. Don't let this bland description fool you, though. They are not to be trifled with!

Japanese
The Japanese are famous for their insane maneuverability. Not even the British can out maneuver them. However, their strength comes with great cost. In order to maneuver they must be light. In order to be light they must have no armor.

Soviets
Soviets are a powerfull nation when played correctly. They are the jack of all trades. They have the 2nd best armor, the 2nd best armament, and the 3rd best turning.


Use this information to select the nation that you would like to play.

So, you've picked a nation and you're ready to play. Well, not quite. First you need to get to know your nation. Knowing your nation is very important. If you try to dogfight (a process in which planes try to out maneuver one another) as an American you will fail. However, if you play your faction correctly, you will usually come out on top. Below I have detailed how each nation should be played.

Americans
Americans are mainly good for something called Boom and Zoom (BnZ)

BnZ requires superior altitude. When an enemy is spotted below, the BnZer dives, picks up speed, and attacks the enemy. After the pass the BnZer climbs to safety using the speed he retained from his dive. This process can be repeated on multiple enemys. In most cases, they will be unable to catch you. Once you reach a high altitude, you simply repeat the process.

Germans
Germans are also made for BnZ, however there are are a few differences in the style

While Americans have heavier armor and higher speeds, (meaning they are able to escape easier) Germans have less armor, less speed, but more powerfull guns. (meaning they get the kill easier, but if they fail the first time the enemy can catch up/kill them easier)

British
The British were made for dogfights.

A dogfight is a situation in which multiple planes of different factions gather and duke it out. The british have high turn rates, allowing them to stay on an enemie's tail until they shoot him down (this is called tunnel vision because you are ignoring all the planes surrounding you), however in most dog fights it is better for the British to move from target to target as they can be out maneuvered by the Japanese.

Japanese
The ♥♥♥♥ were made for one soul purpose: Tunnel vision. They are able to follow or escape almost any other plane. Their guns, however, can take a while to shoot other planes down.

Soviets
The Soviets are best used in a mixture of BnZ and Dogfighting

As a Soviet, you generally have a very high climb rate, but at the same time a decent turn rate. This enables you to dogfight for a few seconds, then go into BnZ mode. You want to use this mixture, because your turn rate is not the best, meaning if you dogfight for too long you are sure to be outmaneuvered by someone who notices you killing many of their teammates. This way, you are not noticed as much, allowing you to get a kill in a dogfight here and there in between your BnZ's.

There are many different kind of guns that come on the various planes you buy in WT. Below you will find a general overview of what each type of gun does. I will not be covering aim in this section. It will come further down the road.

MG's
There are several different calibres of MG's. They differ slightly (ex. 7.7 and 7.62) so I will simply be saying something like "7mm" since they are all fairly similar.

Seven Milimeter: These guns are rapid fire, low damage guns. They generally have high ammo supplies, and take a long time to overheat. They are found on many 1-2 tier planes, especially with the British.

Twelve Milimeter: These are the same as .50 cal bullets. They are found throughout all tiers, although they are most common in tier 2-3. The Americans seem to use these a lot, especially in tier 3.


This is a 12.7mm bullet (.50 cal)

Cannon
Cannon are very powerful, somewhat inaccurate, low rate of fier guns. If you can manage to score a hit with a cannon, it usually does very high amounts of damage. Cannon range in size from 20-75mm. (only two planes have a 75mm cannon) Most cannon will either be 20, 30, or 37mm.
I will touch more on how to use these guns in the aim section. Just know that the bigger your guns, the easier it can potentially be to shoot someone down. This doesn't say anything about saving yourself from being shot down, so don't automatically pick Germany. :D


This is a 20mm shell compared to a 12.7mm bullet.

Here is a 75mm shell, just to put things in perspective.

So, we've gone over what guns your aircraft comes armed with. How about what kind of bullets they use? Here are the many different kinds of ammo belts that can be used in your guns. Each nation has different ammo types, so don't expect all of these to be usable on your favorite aircraft. I'll tell you now, that for shooting down other planes, I've found AP bullets to do the trick. Any other function the bullet has (such as AP-I) is an added bonus :D
Many people say that AP bullets aren't best for other fighters, but I disagree. AP is really good at doing 2 things. Pilot killing, and the destruction of tail ailerons, both of which usually generate an instant kill.

Machine gun bullets
Ball - Omni-purpose
T - Tracer
I - Incendiary
IT - Incendiary tracer
AI - Adjustment incendiary
IAI - Immediate-action incendiary
AP - Armor-piercing
AP-I - Armor-piercing incendiary
AP-I(c) - Armor-piercing (cermet core)
AP-T - Armor-piercing tracer
API-T - Armor-piercing incendiary tracer
Cannon shells
P - Practice
T - Tracer
IT - Incendiary tracer
IT* - Incendiary tracer (self-destroying)
FI-T - Fragmentation incendiary tracer
FI-T* - Fragmentation incendiary tracer (self-destroying)
AP-I - Armor-piercing incendiary
APHE - Armor-piercing high explosive
HEI - High-explosive incendiary (minengeschoß)
HEI - High-explosive incendiary (minengeschoß, night tracer)
HEF - High-explosive fragmentation
HEF-I - High-explosive fragmentation incendiary
HEF-SAPI - High-explosive fragmentation (Semi-armor-piercing incendiary)
HVAP-T High-velocity armor-piercing tracer

So, this is the part I'm going to go to town on. Below I outline how you should aim, what kind of gun you should use at what distance, and many other important things that will help you shoot others down.

The first thing is how to aim. If you play Arcade Battles (AB) you will see a aiming reticle when you are within gun range. This means you should point directly at that and unload everything you have into it, right? WRONG! This will make it harder to kill your adversary.

First off, the aiming reticle is simply a measurement of how fast the enemy is going, and in what direction. It does not account (very well, at least) for if the enemy is turning, climbing, or diving. This is where practice makes perfect. You must learn to compensate for that movement on your own. If you point directly at the aiming reticle you will miss most of your shots.

Another tip is to aim slightly ahead of the aiming reticle. With some practice, you will find the right amount of how far ahead you need to aim, and you will start hiting multiple shots in a row instead of the occasional lucky bullet.

Now, here comes the hairy part. I'm going to tell you what I have done and what has given me the best results. It's your choice if you want to follow my lead or not.

I bound my 7 and 12mm guns to mouse 1, but NOT MY CANNON. I bound cannons AND 7 and 12 mm to mouse 2. When you are far away from someone, just hold down mouse 1. Because most 7 and 12mm have high ammo capacity, you can afford to take far range potshots, even if you miss most of them and the ones you do hit don't do overwhelming dmg. However, once you get into a good range (usually .35 miles or .55 km) and the enemy is not turning and diving wildly, you click mouse 2 and (if your aim is good) get a kill within a few seconds.

This really helps and here is why:
Cannon have low ammo. At ranges where it is harder to hit people, it is a waste to use them.

Cannon can be very inaccurate. This adds on to the difficulty of hitting people from a distance.

Cannon have a short overheat time. If you use them when you are far away, you are likely to be overheated by the time you get in range, forcing you to stop shooting, or to risk jamming your guns.

MG's, however, are harder to overheat, and they usually have a lot of ammo. They also fire very rapidly, meaning you are more likely to hit people from a long distance simply because there is more lead flying their way.

If you are worried about losing your zoom capabilities (default bound to mouse 2) I have a fix for that too. Simply bind it to scrolling your mouse wheel. This is even better than just pressing a button for it because it allows you to controll how far you zoom in or out. This is very helpful because you can zoom in on closer targets, when normally you would zoom too far.


Some final tips:

Upgrade your guns. It seems like it may not help much, but upgrading your guns makes them much more accurate.

Set your convergance distance to 300-500 meters. (300-500m is .3 - .5 km and .18 - .31mi)
If you don't know what convergance distance is, it is mainly for wing-mounted guns. It sets when the bullets will join together. (as if they had been fired from the nose of your plane) (this is why nose mounted guns are so much better) Once they coverge together, however, they will continue to fly away from each other. I'm bad at explaining it, so here is a picture to help you.
If you are dogfighting, it is probably better to use 300-400. If you are BnZ it is probably better to use 400-500.

So, now you know HOW to aim. This doesn't mean you know where to aim.

With enemy fighters, it is probably best to aim at the wings. This is because the fuel tanks are stored there, and hitting one could cause a fire. Secondly, if you have cannon, it is possible to shoot the wing right off. This is an instant kill. Hitting a wing when you are directly behind someone is hard. If you can't hit those, try to hit the tail. It is vital too. The worst place to shoot a plane is directly in the center. You can shoot it to hell and the plane will still be able to fly.

With enemy bombers, you have a few viable options. They are slow moving, so you can snipe their pilot. This involves swooping in from above and firing down into their cockpit. You can also shoot at the cockpit from the side, although the results are not always as good. The second way is to aim for their engines. The engines on a bomber aren't much stronger than the engine on a fighter. They just have more. If you can knock out the engines, the plane won't get far. There is also a high probablilty of starting a fire. The third place is the wing. It is possible to take the wing off of a bomber, however it is difficult because they are so big.

Secondary weapons are weapons that can be researched and attached to your fighter/attacker.
Secondary weapons include bombs, rockets, torpedoes, and extra cannon. Below I have specified how to use each of these.

Bombs:
When applied as a secondary weapon, it is generally best to cary the largest amount possible even if they are small. Why? Because they will come in very handy for destroying tanks. It takes about 5 mins for secondary bombs to reload, so bombing airfields and such is not very practical.

Rockets:
Rockets are excelent weapons when used correctly. The best use for rockets is shooting down bombers from a close distance. They can be used to destroy bombing targets, but they do low damage. They can also be used to destroy tanks, but often they will need to hit the tank directly, and that is easier said than done. However, when used on bombers, they will usually destroy it very rapidly.

Torpedoes:
These are tricky to use. You must fly low above the water, and release it at a low speed. The torpedo will then propell through the water until it hits something. It is usually best to drop torpedoes 1km from the ship you are trying to hit. Be sure you lead your target!

Extra Cannon:
These are exactly what they sound like. Use them as you would your normal cannon.

I'm not going to talk much about this, however I would like to say a few things.
There are two ways of upgrading your plane. The first is to your factions strengths. If you are playing Germany, you could upgrade your guns first for maximum firepower.

The second is upgrading against your factions strengths. This would be like researching survivability upgrades on a Japanese plane. It's what you don't have much of, so you may as well upgrade it first, right?

Anyway, you can pick how to upgrade your planes. It doesn't matter too much. If you are having a hard time shooting others down, upgrade guns. If you are dying too much, upgrade airframe and other such upgrades.

Flaps are a very important part of the game that is often ignored, especially by new players. This function allows players to change the way their plane flies, giving a bonus to one of a few things depending on how much they are raised/lowered. Note that not every plane has every flap setting, and some beginning planes don't have flaps at all! I also added airbrakes below. They aren't really flaps, but work in much the same way.

The different settings for flaps are: Raised, Combat, Takeoff, Landing

Raised: These give your wings the least lift, but also the least amount of drag. Use these when you aren't using any other flap setting, or if you need to go quickly.

Combat: These flaps are perfect for combat because they give the wings more lift and turning power, without increasing drag too much. Use these in dogfights, or whenever you are turning.

Takeoff: These flaps are good because they add a lot of lift to your plane. This makes them very good for increasing your climbing rate. Use them when climbing at the beginning of a match, or when taking off.

Landing: These are good for slowing your plane down. Contrary to popular belief, they are not good for climbing as they add too much drag to your plane. Use these when you need to slow down or land.

Airbrakes: Airbrakes aren't flaps, but they are similar. Most starting planes do not have them, with the exception of some of the early German attackers. A few bombers and attackers have them along the way, but they really don't become common until jets. Airbrakes are used to slow down your plane when you are going to fast. As far as I am aware, you can not break them off. They can be useful in making your enemy overshoot, if they aren't paying attention. Also, if you are landing, you can use them to slow you down quite rapidly.

I don't have much to say about WEP, but since this is a beginners guide I will go over a few things.

WEP is an acronym for War Emergency Power. It is used when your plane needs some extra speed, however a common mistake new players make is using it constantly. The guidelines below are not as important for someone playing in Arcade, but they are good to get used to so that if the player ever decides to do some RB or SB they will not hurt their plane.

When NOT to use WEP

• When diving- Your plane is already speeding up too fast for WEP to be efficient in adding any speed.
  
• When dogfighting- When dogfighting, you need to turn as much as possible. Using WEP while turning adds time to your turn time.
  
• When chasing someone- When you are in shooting range of someone, don't use wep if you are already going fast enough to catch up to them. If you do and they decide to try to make you overshoot, they will have a better chance of succeeding. Only use WEP in this case if they are currently going faster than you and you need to keep up.

When WEP is a viable option

• When trying to escape someone
  
• When climbing, especially out of a dive in BnZ
  
• When trying to catch someone who is out of shooting range.

So far in this guide, I have talked only about fighters, however several people have asked for a section on bombing. Let me say this: I do not bomb very much. It is not very enjoyable to me. This doesn't mean that nobody else will enjoy bombing, so be sure to give it a try. Below I have posted a YouTube guide for bombers. I have watched the whole thing, and from what I know about bombing it is very accurate. This guide, while old, is still relavent and will give you the basics of bombing. If you are looking for more than the basics, you will have to search somewhere else, simply because I know very little about the subject. Hope you enjoy!

So, I've taught you how to aim, how to engage the enemy, how to shoot time in vital spots...this doesn't mean you will win. You can have a TON of kills and still lose. To prove it, check out the screenshot below.

As you can see, I got 13 kills and 8 ground kills but we still lost. Why? Nobody went for the objective. The objective was to destroy the enemy airfield but nobody did and as a result the enemy team destroyed our base first and we lost.

So, I've talked about winning. Now losing. Many times people get fed up with the game simply because their team loses seemingly all the time. Here's how not to lose.

Destroying enemy bombers is vital to your team's success. If they are not destroyed, they will be left free to bomb your base and bomb targets resulting in a speedy loss. If you are starting a match and you see that nobody is climbing, you should take it upon yourself to destroy the bombers for the benifit of your team.

On some maps there are anywhere from 1-3 airfields located near the middle of the map. These are, at the beginning of the round, unoccupied by any team. It is your job as a team to keep a majority of airfields so that the enemy team will lose tickets faster than you. If there are 3 airfields you need to have at least two! If there are 2 airfields you need both! Otherwise you will lose. Capturing these first and then holding them is vital. Keep in mind that capturing an airfield grants you a decent amount of lions (about 1100) so be sure to capture them whenever you can.

Some maps have a large amount of enemy ground units. These are best killed by attackers, light bombers, heavy fighters, or fighters with low grade bombs.

NOTE: Due to a recent update, you are no longer able to make decals as big. This reduces the amount of your plane you can design like this. It's still the same process, however you will not be able to cover as much of your plane as I did.

This section really doesn't give any usefull information, but if you want to make your plane look cool where others can see your designs too, read below:

All you have to do is go to the coustomization section of your plane. To do that click on one of the planes in your crew and press that button. Once you make it there, you can add decals to your plane. Simply press Shift+MouseWheel or Shift+Alt to enlarge and rotate the decal to fit your needs. Sorry for the bad designs, but I was in a hurry when I made them XD

Here are some examples of what you can do with your planes to make them look cool:

No matter how good of a player you are, you will indubitably get shot down multiple times throughout your warthunder experience. Below are some of the damages that your plane can sustain and the negitave effects they will have on you.

Your engine is usually only damaged in one of two ways. The first is that you are chasing a bomber and take a direct hit to the engine. This will put it out of comission. The second is if you go head to head withsomeone. Chances are your engine will go ka-put. Without your engine your plane will glide down and you will be forced to land or eject.

Your wings are two of the most fragile parts of your plane. They are damaged quite easily. Sometimes you can still fly, other times they are ripped off and you will crash. Here is a picture of a damaged wing.


As you can see, it is critically damaged. Sometimes getting hit like this will result in your plane listing to one side, making maneuvers much more difficult.

Having your tail damaged makes it much harder to turn, however losing tail maneuverabiity will almost always cause a crash.

If you are going to be hit, this is the best place to take it. You can be riddled with bullets in this area and still fly very well. Here is a picture of a hole that was shot into my plane the other day. I could still fly perfectly well, although I crash landed because one of my wheels broke. Still got repairs though!


I named this hole the Stingray. XD

Excuse the stupid title ^ XD

In this section, I will be giving a breakdown of different fighters in the game for each faction. This will include what kinds of ammo to use and what to expect performance wise from your plane.

To start off, each nation has 2 main fighter lines, each with different kinds of planes. Below is a breakdown of each plane model for each nation.

America:

With America, I like to call their two lines of planes the "P" and the "F" lines.

The planes in the P line are not very maneuverable, so they are best used for BnZ. Most of them, with the acceptions of the different Cobra varients are armed only with 12.7mm MGs. They are fast and can take some damage. This line includes the famous P51-D Mustang.

The F line consists of Naval fighters. These fighters are also bad at turning, and almost all of them use 12.7mm MGs. This line is best used for BnZ, and includes the famous Corsair.

Both lines should use the stealth or the universal ammo.


Germany:

Germany's two lines consist mainly of the BF-109 and the FW-190.

Neither line is very maneuverable, but both lines are generally armed to the teeth. Use this nation for BnZ as they also generally have high climb rates. The best ammo to use for this nation would be the Air Targets as it generally contains high explosives. As most of us know, explosions and aircraft don't mix well together.


Japan:

Japan is home to the famous Zero. This plane is ultra-maneuverable, but has a terrible engine, no armor, and it's guns are peashooters. For this plane I suggest the Air Targets amunitions, when avaliable. Otherwise use ground targets or stealth. Don't expect any miraculous results though...anything you shoot at will soak up the lead.
Japan also sports the Ki line of planes. These planes are usually better armed than the Zeros, and slightly more durable, however they are still just as slow and have slightly worse maneuverability. Same as with the Zeros, use Air Targets when possible.

Russia:

Russia's two lines are the Yak and the Lagg. The yaks are generally more maneuverable than the Laggs. Both lines have decently large cannons especially early on in the game. They are maneuverable, durable, and great at low altitude fighting. Best ammo for these is either stealth or ground targets. It doesn't really matter though...they're going to kill anything they aim at.

Britain:
Here we are, my favorite nation.

This nation sports one and a half lines...The Spitfire and the Tempests. The tempests are good at turning, however not great, but they are armed to the teeth. The spitfires are less armed, but can turn like pros. Unfortunatly, Britain is hard to start with because the the profuse use of 7.7mm ammo in the early trees. The spitfires in tier 2 and part of 3 have 8 7.7mm MGs and the tempests have 12. These do not have Air targets ammo so use Omni or Ground targets. Stealth works too. Don't get too turned off from them though, once you get to tier 3 you start getting 20mm Hispano cannons. These are the best 20mm cannons in the game, in my opinion. Always use Air Targets ammo when possible.