Hello there! If you're reading this guide, you probably just joined War Thunder, and are ready to play and shoot down some planes!

At first when you first download, install, and make an account to this game, and also got through the log-in screen, you will be presented by 5 pictures, showing countries. You have to pick one to start off with. Personally, I would agree with most other people that wrote guides to choose British, as their lower tiers (1-2) are very friendly towards the unskilled and the over-achievers. There, You jump into your first battle by pressing the battle button.

Congratulations! You have showed your competence and finally found the "battle" button! Now, as you are first in game (guessing you're gonna be playing arcade), you will find the game very beautiful. Remember, mouse aim in third person mode is recommended.

As your slow biplane lumbers finally near an enemy, you have to check the following:

1) Are Teammates near by?
2) Is the enemy alone?
3) Is the enemy superior or inferior to my aircraft (best used later on)

If they are all in good shape, then you should head towards the target. When you are in FIRING position of the enemy, the game shows you a lead indicator, a circle. But the indicator is... a lie. Aim about 1-2 cm ahead of it to acheive best results. And also, remember to NOT hold down the trigger for too long, as your gun WILL jam, and take 20 seconds to reload (if crew untrianed).

After that, your target should be sustaining damage. if he is to do evasive manueveres, think about where is to go next, and follow him, unless he leads you into his team. And finally, when he's tired, kill him.

And after that, congratulations! Your first kill! After that, if you wasted too much ammo, press "Y" to reload, and look for a new target.

After your first battle, you should realize that War Thunder is a different kind of game to those of tanks and such. It has semi-realistic "flight models" and semi-realistic "damage models". So, don't expect your average arcade TOP-GUN manueveres and surviving 30mm cannons to the chest. Also, if you want to actually SURVIVE the battle, read the following.

Since War Thunder is mostly filled with fighter jockeys, many of them likes to be in groups and fight other groups. Once they "merge" together, it becomes chaos. A furball occurs. But it isn't all that bad. When a "furball" occur, it is the PERFECT oppurtinity to kill, and get killed. As a british pilot, your plane will be very manuverable. Furballs are pretty much it's specialty. Usually, no tactics are used between furballs, just a **** ton of turn fighting. Remember during a furball to:

1) not go INFRONT of enemies
2) Not go INFRONT of team mates (Allies are deadlier in this case...)
3) Choose the wise targets, help out your team mates
4) Don't shoot down blue, shoot red.

But, sometimes in the rare occasions a furball doesn't happen, say, a ground strike match, planes are a LOT more scattered. At that gamemode, the best idea is usually to climb and gain altitude. 20 degrees is the best imo. Dive on enemy targets, and try to avoid your average group of friendlies, chasing an I-16, as they will SHOOT through YOU. Also, when you manage to dive on your enemy, hope he doesn't turn. Also, if no other enemies are supporting that target, you may turnfight him (if he is worse than you) and finish him. After that, gain altitude. Altitude is life, no matter what country you're playing as.

As I've mentioned, War Thunder has a xxxx ton of aircraft, divided into 5 countries. There's the Americans, The RAF, Ze Luftwaffe, the USSR, And the Imperial Japanese Air Force. Here's the strong and weak points of each country:


Americans: Great at low tiers, painful at mid tiers, and average at high tiers. At first, the Americans are really, really damn powerful. Their freedom guns sets you on fire everytime! And they are really, really damn fast. But as you progress towards the middle tiers (3-4), you'll realize that you would constantly say: "WTF? AMERICANS SO UNDERPOWERED!" Their guns aren't too competetive, and ze Luftwaffles will kill you everytime. At the high tiers (4-5), Americans regain their firepower with their M3 Brownings, and their cannons. They are also usually the quickest at their tier. Then, Americans starts to be fun, once again.



Ze Luftwaffe: Terrible at low tiers, overpowered as xxxx in mid tiers, and pretty overused in high tiers. The luftwaffe was known in World War 2 as a very formidible enemy in the air. Therefore, perhaps most people playing War Thunder would just use Germans. At first, the Germans are just weak. Their HE-51, the crappy HE-112 and their lower tier Bf109s are just... uncompetetive. They barely can kill anything, and can't manuvere. But then comes the Mid tiers, (3-4). There, you would commonly say, "lol Russian noob, tried to head on me". You are usually fit with A 20mm cannon on the BF109F-4 and above. You can then UPGRADE and get another 2. Which makes.. 1+2=3! 3 CANNONS! AT TIER 3! And it gets better. German (better spell it right, and probably will get people laughing when pronounced incorrectly.) Fockewulfs are just... pretty overpowered. They first get 4 20mm cannons at tier 3, then you level up, and you get the FW190 A-5/U2. It seems weak with the 2 20mm cannons. But before you realize it, you maxed out the plane, and you got another suspension for the plane, extra... get ready for it... 4 CANNONZ. 4+2=6. 6 GERMAN ENGINEERED CANNONZ. These babies will slow you down, but scare the xxxx out of any other pilot facing you. After all your fun, you level up, and you soon get the BF109 G-6 and all those above. You get 30mm cannons on them, and you can also get gunpods for even more. But it gets better. During patch 1.39, Gaijin Entertainment (please tell me you know what this company is) gave Germans even more planes to fill their oversized tech tree. It is unbelievable. An Me-262 with a rocket engine (making 3 engines), and MiG-15bis and the Canadair F-86. Two of the most powerful aircraft, in one tree.

The RAF: Famous for its glorious victory at the Battle of Britain, the RAF is a very formidable enemy. Usually the second most manuverable in all battles, the RAF will instantly kill you with their hard hitting hispanos. At first, the RAF is already the top performer, being the most manuverable, seconds most powerful, and second quickest planes. The Spitfires at the low tiers will scare any other pilots. As you level up and such, you get even more and more powerful aircraft, the tempests, typhoons, Beaufighters, and Mosquitos. These planes are filled with 20mm cannons, and cause havoc when pointed at you. Then to the top tiers, the Meteors are the setback. The British Jets are post world war 2, but just not enough to really, effectively and easily, compete with the Korean War era jets. But even so, Meteors are wonderful when used correctly.


The USSR: Glorious socialist planes made from grand sovietitium and stalinwood, it would protect the RODINA, and make comrade Stalin proud. The USSR, in my opinion, are the most OVER RATED country. Everyone calls them OP (overpowered), even though they don't succeed in any categories. The only thing that they are the best at are probably the jets (inline with the 'Muricans) and their UFO biplanes. Their mid tiers are.. meh, and mid to high tiers are... mediocre. The USSR is mostly advised to be used for entertainment purposes.
Soviet Premiums are also pretty damn overpowered, heheheheheheheheh.....


The Japanese: Honorable aircraft ready to turn fight anyone. The most manuverable, third most powerful, and worst armor aircraft in the planes. The will TURN fight you to your death, shoot you with powerful High-Wasabi Cannon rounds (found in every ammo rack), and get set on fire a LOT of times. Their low tiers are "meh", But then comes the mid tiers. Their mid tiers, where you get your first Zeros (A6Ms) are the pinnacle state of the line. Here, you'll realized that playing the Japanese are pretty intresting compared to any other country in the game. Then comes the high tiers. There, the Japanese begins to fall a bit behind. Their props are still rather good (N1K2-Js, old UFOs of War Thunder). Due to patch 1.39, they get the American F-86, which makes the high tiers flyable once again. But they do become to be known as more of a grind than a plane. Their planes are just.. not so intresting much more. You just turn fight in them, and occasionally energy fight.