There is just something special about shooting your opponent free of charge without having to deal with its consequences in real life. A point that makes games rather special—is that they provide experiences that would otherwise prove lethal in the real world. In this way, games have provided entertainment in a form that cannot be rivaled for years to come.
Of course, there are some that still wish to be able to simulate real life anyway, without the cartoonish or comedic aspects of games past. And thus, realistic simulation games were born. The nitty and gritty aspects of life are turned to the extreme. If a person can do anything, then they can do anything in that game.
And like Thunder in a Bottle, War Thunder Mobile is such a game. A mobile port made by Gaijin Entertainment, War Thunder Mobile provides the same realistic experience right in your phone. In it, you become the commander of terrifying military vehicles. Hellbent with one goal in mind: pure and utter victory.
Of course, no one can just achieve that by just bull rushing to your destination. Even if this is its mobile version, War Thunder is notorious for being a hard game to grasp on its own. You will have to fight tooth and nail in order to win. You will have to put yourself in the mud and barely scrape off the edges. If you really want to win, then you’re going to be the dirtiest of them all.
After all, no one’s going to blame you if your opponents have lost.
And that’s why, in this Beginner’s Guide for War Thunder Mobile, you will learn how to conquer your enemies the way Sun Tzu did in the Art of War. You will be hammered to the head with these tips, tricks, and strategies so that you’ll survive a bit longer in the field. After all of that, when the dust settles, you’ll come back for more. Victory is quite the addicting taste, after all.
Now that I have gotten your attention, recruit… let’s get started.
The Basics of War Thunder Mobile
Let’s understand first what War Thunder Mobile is as a game. It is known as a ‘vehicular combat multiplayer game’. As said before, you’re going to commandeer vehicles of war into combat. That alone can be quite chaotic once you start an actual game. So, let’s just go through this bit by bit for you to understand it clearly.
War Thunder Mobile has two ‘campaigns’: the Tank Campaign and the Ship Campaign. The Aviation Campaign is largely absent in this game, and airplanes themselves are instead integrated into both campaigns as ‘power-ups’. Each campaign has its own separate levels of progression, with different vehicles to choose from.
Let’s go through each campaign and see what these two can offer.
Tank Campaign
The Tank Campaign is self-explanatory. Acting as the Ground Realistic Battle of the Mobile Port, this specific campaign has you against tanks of different shapes and sizes. You’ll be controlling tanks in this campaign, with the chance to control airplanes under specific conditions. Of course, you should expect what you would expect from a tank in this scenario.
Slow, lumbering, hard-hitting. Because War Thunder Mobile wants to be as realistic as possible, expect that any stray shot will inevitably put you closer to a killing blow. However, compared to War Thunder’s Ground RB which lacks any indication if your shot hits, this version allows you to know whether you’ve made a killing blow to your opponent. In short, as close to PC’s Arcade Version as it still is realistic.
That aside, there are two game modes in this campaign: Domination and Conquest.
Domination Mode
In Domination mode, your team’s job is to ensure that you have Points A, B, and C captured and controlled during the duration of the match. Through this, you can gain an advantage that allows you to unlock several features in the campaign, such as aerial fights or so. Even then, your overall goal is complete dominance. Destroy your enemies until there’s none of them left.
Conquest Mode
The same goes for Conquest mode. While everything else is still the same like Domination mode, Conquest Mode only has 1 strategic point. Because of this, matches in Conquest mode tend to be far shorter as there is only one strategic point to contest. Even then, because of its nature, maps that are in Conquest Mode tend to be jam-packed.
Now that we have a clue as to how these modes work, let’s peek through another layer that makes the Tank Campaign complicated: Aerial Fights.
Air Fights
Once you’ve reached specific conditions in a battle, you now have the ability to control an airplane. You will then be immediately spawned in one in the skies, as you can now attack in different angle with it. Despite the fact that there are two aircraft options to choose from (if given the chance), two things are constant. You will be able to shoot other aircraft, and bomb tanks from below, and experience G-Force when needed.
However, commandeering an airplane comes with a certain ‘risk’. When you are going to enter an aircraft, your tank will become immobile. This paints a massive target on your back, especially if you try to control one while you’re on open ground. Once your tank is destroyed, your airplane is also rendered dead in the process.
Platoons
A tank commander would want to have their own set of weapons to choose from, and that is where Platoons come in.
Platoons serve as your primary choice of weapons when it comes to fights. The first tank, as seen in the image above, is the first tank that you will get in the Platoon. Every subsequent tank is unlocked later on the higher the Platoon Level is. And the higher the Platoon Level is, the more upgrades that you can get in the future.
Upgrades can then be spent on whether you can increase the firepower of your tank, the effectiveness of the Platoon’s crew, or the overall maintenance. Choose wisely when picking what to upgrade, as they all share the same upgrade points. If you want to learn more about which ones to upgrade first, then we can talk about it later on when we get to the tips.
As for what you can upgrade, here they are in a table:
| Category | Upgradeable Part | Description |
| Fire Power | Rate of Fire | Main weapon’s reload speed. |
| Fire Power | Aiming | The main weapon's aiming speed. |
| Fire Power | Accuracy | The main weapon's accuracy. |
| Crew | Enemy Detection Range | How far you can detect enemies from your field of vision. |
| Crew | Crew Switch Time | The time it takes to switch out the disabled crew. |
| Crew | Vitality | Crew’s resistance to any incoming damage. |
| Maintenance | Spare Parts | How many consumables can be used in battle? |
| Maintenance | Braking Force | Shortening stopping distance when braking. |
| Maintenance | Repair Speed | How long it takes to repair in battle. |
And depending on your campaign level, you can choose which Platoon to choose from. Remember that Platoons have their own ranks and levels, with varying battle rewards when playing with said tanks. While it may seem like the system would discourage you from using another tank, playing with a different Platoon sets you in a different game with the same ranking.
If you get tired of one Platoon, you can swap it out for another. No need to beat a dead tank if it’s already failing.
Starting Platoon Recommendation
As for picking which one you would want for your beginning steps, a good recommendation would be the Pz. IV F2 and Pz. IV G afterward. They have good starting penetration and front protection, allowing you to be reckless in earlier encounters. You would want to swap them later on for tanks that have faster turret rotation, however.
As for what statistics you would want for your future tanks, keep on reading this guide to learn more.
With that, you now have a good understanding of the Tank Campaign. It’s fast, it’s deadly, and it’s straight to the point. Only those who dare win, but those who do tend to die faster than the rest. If that’s not what you want out of this game, there is another campaign that is far more ‘treacherous” than the other.
Ship Campaign
Compared to the other campaign, the Ship Campaign can be described as a ‘long-drawn-out bar fight’. First would be tension, then it would be complete and massive mayhem left and right. It may sound like an exaggeration, but that’s what is actually happening in this game mode. Ships are more durable in this campaign, and it shows that there is only one game mode for it: Encounter.
Encounter
Encounter acts more of a typical 5 versus 5 match, allying and pitting you against ships of the same rank. You and your allies are on one side, your opponents on the opposite end. Compared to the objective-based strategies of the Tank Campaign, the Ship Campaign is just straightforward: complete and utter destruction of the other side.
Of course, the strategy here is not out of the question. There is a lot more nuance with how ship battles in here work. We’ll break it down into three parts: Approach, First Shots, and Close Up. Do take note that these terms are rather specific to this guide, only to describe what is going on during the entire battle’s length.
Approach
In the early stages of the game, you will be starting from your side. Your entire armament is completely out of the enemy’s range, and you have many options to choose from here. We’ll be discussing that later on in the guide, as for now this is relatively the ‘strategizing” phase of the battle. Not much will happen by then other than the slow crawl towards the middle.
You only have a brief idea of where your opponents have started, and they also have the same rough idea as well. In the image above, you can see that you only have a rough estimate of them drawn in the minimap. They are drawn as blurred red instead of the usual pointed ones, indicating that they are still out of our reach.
But once you spot a ship in a 10 km radius, the next part of the fight commences.
First Shots
Once you and your enemy ship see one another, the First Shots part begins—named after the fact that your frontal cannons will fire the first volley of rounds. At this point of the game, you will essentially be doing potshots at one another in order to weather them down. While damage from this stage of the battle isn’t as lethal, a minor difference in crew and ship strength can still be the game changer.
This moment of tension is only brief, as the moment you reach any closer to a ship’s 7-kilometer radius is when it gets dangerous.
Close Up
The crescendo of ship battles, the Close Up part of a battle is where everything can be decided. Everyone is now in complete lethal range, and you can fire your broadside weapons with deadly accuracy. Compared to the Tank Campaign which allows you to revive with another tank in your Platoon, ships only have one life on their own.
Once a critical section of the ship is hit, or if your crew is rendered useless, consider yourself gone from the rest of the match.
That doesn’t mean you can’t use your arsenal to close the gap or increase it. This part isn’t the end-all-be-all, as you can still change your distance from your opponent and whittle them away. As for any more in-depth strategy, we’ll discuss that later on in the tips and tricks section.
For now, all you need to know is that ship battles drag out more than tank ones in these conditions because of the ability for them to heal without stopping. Even then, you still get wrecked if your opponent manages to calculate where you’re supposed to hurt more.
Ship Details and Upgrades
While this may be a little thing to point out, you can only use one ship in a battle in the Ship Campaign, as opposed to a Tank Platoon in the other. It makes a lot of sense anyway considering they pack a lot of punch and survive the same amount of it. And that’s where their gameplay revolves around, as opposed to hitting weak spots easily from a mile away.
And from there, you have the option of upgrading your Guns, Machinery, or Torpedoes. Here is a table of what you can upgrade:
| Category | Upgradeable Part | Description |
| Guns | Shell Damage | How much damage ship guns can deal. |
| Guns | Fire Accuracy | How precise guns are in battle. |
| Guns | Reload Rate | Faster ship armament reloads. |
| Guns | Anti-Aircraft Fire Accuracy | Accuracy of ship anti-aircraft guns. |
| Guns | Anti-Aircraft Fire Distance | Effective distance of anti-aircraft guns before falling off. |
| Machinery | Crew | The amount of crew a ship has, as well as its endurance. |
| Machinery | Speed | Maximum ship speed. |
| Machinery | Turning Time | How long it takes for the ship to turn with respect to degrees. |
| Torpedoes | Travel Distance | Maximum range of launched torpedoes. |
| Torpedoes | Torpedo Ammunition | How many torpedoes your ship can have in battle. |
Aircraft and Submarines
Aircraft is still in play in this campaign, and it depends if your ship can allow it rather than need points. Still the same controls, you basically have one chance to demolish opponents before they could even land deadlier blows on you. But still, don’t expect it to be easy knowing that they can strike back at you.
But there is also a reason why we added “Aircraft and Submarines” as one section entirely. That’s right, the Ship Campaign also features submarines as alternate options for marine combat. Found in later options when increasing Campaign levels, submarines give you another dimension of combat due to it being covered more by water than others. If you’re not quite attentive on your screen, chances are that you’ve let one slip and it’s game over.
That doesn’t mean to say that submarines aren’t exactly an easy way to counter ships. Compared to the tanky ships that you have to deal with, one good shot on a submarine is basically game over. Even if it is lackluster, they just lack the ability to withstand high volumes of firepower once found out. All the more reason to understand how to use them later on in the guide, as you’ll see.
Congratulations, recruit! You’ve managed to understand what you need in order to survive in field operations out there. Knowing how to fight is half the battle, and knowing the enemy is just a fourth of it. The other one-fourth that you need? Definitely just in the tips and tricks down below, as we’ll explain more about how you can not only thrive—but also dominate the field with your vehicles.
War Thunder Mobile Tips, Tricks & Strategies
The next step in your training course is a few things that have to be drilled into your brain. Beating your opponents isn’t enough. You have to outcompete them in any other regard, which is why we’re giving you these tips, tricks, and strategies (heh) to dominate the battlefield. Once you’re done here, you’re going to be a more level-headed commander.
Although, just remember that you’re still fragile. That’s something you don’t need a guide for, anyway.
Log in Daily
Building a habit is one of the easiest things to do, but it is hard to maintain it in the long run. But the benefits that you get from doing so give you a lot more rewards in general. In this case, for this tip, we’re going to make a habit out of logging in daily. So, why’s that?
A case in point is the image above us. As you can see, logging in daily gives us quite the amount of rewards. This ranges from getting Lions, this game’s shop currency, or a neat avatar to flex onto other players. And once you reach a week or the second week, you’ll be able to get the chance to obtain a free tank platoon or ship without any costs.
If all you need to do is to attend class daily, then there’s no doubt you can do it here as well.
Another short detail to know is that you don’t just get Daily Reward trophies popping up on you. The shop frequently gives you free stuff every day. That means you have a guaranteed 10 Lions, 1000 Eagles, and a lot of consumables to use in the long run. In a game that is resource-intensive, even a single fire extinguisher can mean winning or losing the game entirely.
So, don’t be afraid to log on every day, even if you don’t want to play at all. Hell, there’s not even a single task in the game that you have to do daily aside from just opening War Thunder Mobile and then dipping. Quite an understanding game, don’t you think?
Do Your Activities
Even then, you still have much work to do. By playing the game, you essentially get more rewards than the ones you’ve obtained on the victory screen. This means more ways to get capital, and that’s hardly something to miss.
As such, Battle Pass activities are just missions or tasks that you have to do while playing the game normally. It’s as easy as finishing a battle without deserting (meaning you just quit the game immediately), or as hard as hitting a mile-high shot. Not much of a price to pay just to get more loot out of everything.
But doing Achievements is what you can consider as a way to get more out of the game. Not only do you get rare Tanks or Frames, but you can also get Eagles. Those are fairly rare currencies that you can use to buy premium tanks or Backups in the game—lifelines that can make or break any battle. One way to do so is to just check if there is an achievement you can do from time to time, and finish the easier one so it won’t be a hassle.
And finally, consider finishing the Promo section of the Activities. Once you finish these missions, you will be able to get exclusive Avatars and Nick frames, as well as a free tank and ship. The M4 is a sturdy beginner’s choice that can rival anything else, and the IJN Hatsuzuki favors completely pounding the enemy with its cannons more than its speed.
Plus, getting free stuff can lift any burdens on your Lions’ spending, that’s for certain.
If you have some activities to do, maybe it’s high time we take on to the field. Get on a battle… and wait.
Know Your Enemy and Yourself
Let’s be honest for a moment. No matter how many times you put yourself into training, one good shot is really all it takes to put you down for good. War Thunder Mobile does not make any exceptions unless the shot counts as a stray. And you’ll quickly realize that sooner than later.
To be able to efficiently be effective on the field, you would have to first understand what your tank, ship, submarine, or aircraft can do. It is not as bulky as it seems, and it can be taken down in just a single blow from a well-placed shot. But that also means one thing—you can do the same to your opponents.
While we’ve tragically ignored the following in the basics, let’s familiarize ourselves with how our weapons of war work.
Tanks
As said before, you are completely vulnerable with your tank. Shots can either ricochet or penetrate, and it is made worse that you and your enemy know when exactly a shot can hit. And your turret gun is good for just putting down tracks and nothing else, or other than to use for other means we can discuss later.
Your turret will move slowly, and you go back even slower. The only way to even be faster is by just going forward and rotating in the direction you want to go. And depending on your tank’s composition, your front or your side can be your most exposed point. That and whatever side armaments you can use on the field. Before going to a battle, be sure you know exactly what your tank is even capable of doing.
You can do so by checking on your Tank Platoon, by tapping on the tank’s name above the ‘To Battle” button in the menu. That way, you’d understand immediately what your tank is capable of and what you need to change on what to bring on the battlefield. You don’t want to be caught with your pants down with the wrong piece of equipment, after all.
Ships
Ships are bulky. And they are horribly slow. Even then, there are only two things to worry about ships. Looking at the front, and firing at the side. And when you are firing at the side, you are giving yourself the risk of being shot on the most important parts of your ship. That also includes your enemy if they have the funny idea to do so.
And because ship battles tend to be prolonged, expect to see yourself spamming the repair button at all times. You’d be surprised how much you’re going to waste more on that as opposed to the other functions of the game.
As for submarines, they play in the same vein as ships… but are much more fragile and have less utility overall. They are meant to be subterfuge fighting units, not direct assault ones.
Aircraft
Finally, the barons of the sky. These terrors, while completely agile, are laughably flying in thin paper. Well-placed shots to their vehicle are enough to put them down… as well as terribly bad flying.
An easily common mistake that a player can make is immediately doing quick turns, ascents, and descents. A good thing is that the game immediately reminds the player that it is a real-life simulation by telling you the amount of G-Force your pilot is experiencing as well as the slowly darkening vision they have. If the shots don’t kill you, it’s your control that will.
That’s quite a depressive turn of events, don’t you think? But that’s just how War Thunder Mobile goes on with its life. It is intended to be a realistic battle simulation, and it treats its players in it as such. One moment you’re in the open field, the next you see some random tanker hiding between a wall’s wedge just to put you out of your misery.
But you could also do the same thing as well. And that’s the beauty of it. Because everyone is on an equal footing regardless of the tanks they wield, you can do the same tricks that they can do as well. If you ever find them doing the same thing, don’t doubt that you can give them the revenge you so deeply desire.
Play Like It’s Real
But of course, War Thunder Mobile isn’t all about revenge. There is a lot more to its strategies than just ‘point gun and fire’. Given that you know about the game’s simulation-like qualities, you can take it to your advantage to level the playing field on your own. In fact, you can even mimic certain strategies from famous battles just to get a win.
Is it totally unnecessary even for a beginner? Yes. But is it quite fun to do so?
Definitely. But let’s not go into that territory yet, we have to understand how we can win optimally. Step by step, we’ll learn a few tactics to ease our way to victory. We’ll also divide the following into two sections once again for each campaign. Granted, because both campaigns don’t play the same on their own.
Tank Campaign Strategies
Don’t Attack Directly
We can take advantage of one thing first: the fact that tanks have to slowly turn their snail of a cannon into your target. But that’s an advantage that is uncommon to see if you’re going front-face into a tank. While this means that you are on an equal footing with your opponent, it all boils down to who can shoot a critical part first. A ricocheted shot or an injured crew doesn’t mean much when your opponent just wrecked yours.
By the off chance that you really don’t have any other choice, then take your shot. And if you are as close to them at that point… do not let go of the forward button. A halting tank is a dead tank.
If you don’t want to be any of the above, just position yourself far away from the fight. If you’re moving and you spot a target, just stop and shoot. If your opponent spots you, better that you disengage immediately and find another place to fire from. There’s not much of a point to hold a position that they’re now aiming at.
While we would discuss a lot more about concepts like hull-down and turret-down, War Thunder Mobile’s maps do not allow any of those concepts to be usable. Every map that you are going to is completely full of buildings or obstructions and is completely flat in nature. Might as well find a way to bait a shot and fire back.
Use Your Surroundings
Even if the maps are completely flat, there are still a lot of ways to take advantage of the situation at hand. One of these is by using your surroundings to camouflage yourself or to take an enemy off-guard. The perfect example is the image above, as the tank’s turret is completely unaware that another player (us) is ready to fire off another round on its unsuspecting figure.
Just remember that you don’t put yourself in the same position, as that aluminum fence can be penetrated by any tank shot.
And while ‘camping’—the modern gaming term for annoying staying still at one spot—is frowned upon in other games, you are completely encouraged to do so in this game. Combining the previous tip before with now, the image above is a perfect example of what enemy tanks should not fall into (and you as well). While they may see your name and hope for the best, you have the distinct advantage of being able to fire immediately should they go out of that rubble that protects them.
There are a lot more areas that you can take this to your advantage: sharp corners, narrow streets, etc. The tanks here won’t bulldoze any of those buildings, and even tank controls can be quite janky on their own. Taking those into account, setting up ambushes is far easier to do in this game just to rack up kills.
Flank Your Opponents
But if you do feel ballsy, or you can’t get a good shot at your opponents, flanking them is a good idea in general. While it takes time for a group of tanks (or you by your lonesome) to circle around to the enemy’s side, it can be quite the tactic in Conquest Mode maps that only have one point to capture. This allows you to completely rattle their position, and thus force them into retreating.
After all, you know that they can’t rotate their cannons that quick.
But be very careful that you don’t encroach on the enemy’s side of the attack. Doing so will put you in every enemy team’s minimap for display, and thus put you at complete disadvantage. You certainly don’t want to be on the receiving end of a tank barrage from miles away.
Make sure that you are only just a few meters behind enemy lines, and strike immediately from there.
Group With Other Tanks
And if you can’t do any of the following, there is always power in numbers.
In a realistic simulator, there’s nothing wrong with just trying to gang up against a superior force. Frankly? It just works. If one of the tanks does fall in battle, chances are that someone else in your tank column already shot the offender. Anyone with a working brain would immediately retreat at the sight of a numerically superior force in real life, after all.
That does not mean that the downsides of being with a group are forgotten. Looking at the image above, you’d see that a fellow friendly tank is blocking your way for a possible retaliation. Frankly, you’d want to space out the rest of your column by about a few degrees so that it would not only be harder to hit the other one but also allow everyone to fire in the same direction.
Of course, it’s quite obvious that the first image for this strategy isn’t also the best thing to do as well. A well-placed artillery strike or a passing air bomber can make quick work of any fops that got stuck on a rock.
Utilize Your Arsenal
And since your opponent can use artillery, so can you.
Compared to the rather obnoxious “you have to aim at an angle”-type of artillery, all you need to do is press a button, point at a target, and watch as clumped-up enemies have their day ruined. Anything in that crosshair center in the image above is completely flatlined, no matter what kind of tank they use.
If all of those above still fail, you can always just go for the retreat. Literally.
No one will blame you for going back. If anything, it’s a good idea to know when to retreat if the situation calls for it. But if you’re having a hard time not being able to make a clean getaway, using the smokescreen allows you to cover your tracks. This also removes any indication of where you are (a.k.a. your name above your tank), but this doesn’t make you completely vulnerable.
Against a veteran, they could just make a wild guess and you’re essentially destroyed while in the smoke. At that point, just make sure you know when to exactly use your smokescreen to retreat. No need for one when you’re already surrounded by lots of buildings.
Focus on the Objective
The whole ‘if all else fails” tactics may sound boring to you now, but that’s the reality of this game. No plans will survive first contact, especially when your opponents can spot you from a mile away with how names are being displayed above your tank’s turret. At that point, you only have one option left to do.
If there is an objective, at least try to get it. From there, you can essentially force the enemy team to destroy you as you will still be given a massive advantage over them. The image above isn’t exactly a good example either as it is the only tank left in its team (indicated by its ridiculously low bar), but having something is better than nothing.
In the event that where everyone is still alive (and fighting, of course), getting objectives allows you access to artillery strikes, smoke screens, and airplanes. The latter alone allows your team to have complete dominance all over the battle, allowing you to take better measures in a game that otherwise punishes you for being ballsy.
Just take whatever you can do, recruit.
Ship Campaign
Long Range Bombardment
Weapons can be quite lethal in a campaign where there are no respawn mechanics attached to them. Frankly, this means that a completely viable strategy is to just sit it all out and take potshots at an opponent. Does it take a very long time to do so? Yes. But is it effective? Definitely so.
And if you’re good at maneuvering your ship to keep its distance away from the enemy ship, whilst firing back at it, chances are that you’ll have its firing modules disabled long before it can even do any decisive action barreling to you. And even then, your team approaching the middle of the battlefield would have a nice long conversation with it.
Flanking
In the image above, you will see our ship sadly wedged by two well-positioned ships (the other is a submarine, actually). Considering the low crew percentage it has, and its smoke screen completely on cooldown, a flank was successfully done to us. And it’s still quite the viable strategy even in the seven seas.
What you would do in order for this to occur is to immediately charter a course that properly predicts where the Close Up part of the battle would commence. You steer far away from it and slowly encroach on the enemy side in order to get an angle they’re not prepared for. From there, they can’t do any evasive tactics as all of their sides are now vulnerable to heavy fire.
This is a far more common tactic for those using submarines, as direct fights are something one cannot do with it. That is, only, if your team can still live before you can even make decisive blows. You don’t want to be the star of a cartoon fight after that brawl.
Spam Smoke if Possible
In a game mode where shooting your opponent is the obvious goal, removing that target essentially makes them blind ducks. Use smoke screens to your advantage whenever you play in the Ship Campaign, as they are not only good ways to obscure your enemy’s vision, but also allow you to retreat to better positions.
They can also allow you to gauge what might be the best course of action. Or, if ever an unwitting ship actually gets enveloped by the smoke screen, you can use their temporary blindness to your advantage and annihilate them before they can come to their senses.
Besides, it’s their fault for ever being there to begin with.
Quite the long tip for such a short phrase, don’t you think? But it is as expected, considering that you do need to understand the nuances of what the game considers realistic to get the best scenarios in fights. And since you’re here now, that means you finally understand what it means to fight dirty.
We’re not done yet, however. We still have a few more things to go through…
Aim For The Weakpoints
Tactics won’t be enough. Until you see your opponent burst into flames, don’t consider your job done. Once you’ve managed to get a shot of your opponent, the end of the battle finally begins.
Aiming for your opponent’s weak point is crucial in War Thunder Mobile. It can mean them getting away scot-free, or getting a free kill without even trying. Knowing exactly where to aim can also help you in killing your opponent faster. That’s why in this section, we’ll be helping you where to point that cannon of yours.
Again, we’ll be splitting this section into two parts. We won’t dive deep into airplanes and submarines considering how horribly fragile those two are.
Tank Weak Points
There are two ways to destroy a tank:
- Knocking its crew.
- Hitting crucial components.
The image above shows what exactly can happen when you hit your shot if you want to kill the crew. They’re not all knocked out yet, and you still have to hit the other driver. At that point, you have a small time window to hit the final crewmate. If you haven’t hit your shot, chances are that the crewmate shifts sits with one of the other disabled crewmates.
And while the tutorial does teach you where tank crews can be seated, it’s not usually a set rule for them to be at that same position for every tank. This all goes back again to understanding your opponent. If you don’t want to dabble more on where a tank’s crew is usually seated, just aim for the center mass if ever.
But the crew isn’t the only thing you can wreck against a tank. The reason why tank fights can easily finish in a second is that every single important thing is jam-packed and a stray shot to the crew can still mean a critical hit to a vulnerable section. More so when you get a good view of the sides of a tank, as seen in the picture above.
Again, if you are not willing to dive deep into understanding where a vulnerable section of each tank is, just aim for center mass. You’ll get enough experience in the future to know what tank you’re facing and where to point and aim. You can always chalk it up to muscle memory and visual recognition.
Ship Weak Points
Ships, however, are completely different kinds of beasts. Because you have the opportunity to regenerate and heal crew, you’re more likely to aim for critical sections of a ship instead. The image above shows exactly what kind of damage you’re going to deal against an enemy ship if you hit the correct spot.
What we can recommend to you, recruit, would be aiming for either their ability to fire as well as movement. We would also likely take into account what would be the easiest thing to target as well, given that you and the enemy ship will be constantly moving all the time.
This means that your viable options would be any of the following:
- Bridge
- Destroying the bridge means a small window of attack. You can slowly angle yourself so that your broadside faces theirs, without their own pointed at you. As they don’t have control of their direction, they cannot evade your attacks (especially torpedoes), or they come crashing to a nearby piece of land.
- Engine Rooms and Funnels
- Losing speed means losing the ability to dodge properly. This makes them easier targets for all broadside attacks from your end. If you manage to hit both components, they turn into a turtle in a sea full of tiger sharks. No amount of smoke screens can save them from a barrage in their position.
- Hull Below Waterline
- Easily the biggest target you can have in ships, a direct torpedo means certain doom for your opponent. Even then, getting a good hit with a torpedo also means possibly hitting the ammunition storage or the engine room, while also causing a flood inside.
That’s all you need to know on where to hit your opponents. Remember that you always have another chance as long as you’re not in a tough spot to begin with. That’s why we taught you all those tricks before we taught you to strike. After all, you can’t get a clean shot if you can’t escape a rough situation. And speaking of rough situations…
Use Free Look
Just a small tip before we wrap things up in the battle side of things in the tips and tricks section. Don’t forget free look exists.
That nifty function you see right there can save your life in the Tank Campaign more than you need to. This is because of how aiming works in the game. Wherever you are looking, your main cannon will also turn in that direction. Chances are that there’s no one in that direction, and the direction where your cannon was before is exactly where your opponent can appear at any second.
A good way to remember is that your main cannon and the body of your tank are two separate entities altogether. You can control your tank with the joystick on the bottom left, while you point your cannon with your right hand (or left—you get what I mean). If you need to check for your surroundings, just make sure that you hold on to the Free Look button to get a glimpse of your situation.
Just a little tip to prolong your life a bit longer. At this point, we’ve managed to either win or lose a battle. We’re going to tinker with a few things before we wrap up…
Upgrade Your Platoon
The higher the level that you get, the better gear that you’ll have. Not only that, you also have the option to upgrade your tank to be a much more efficient fighting force. In this tip, we’ll be teaching you where to spend your points wisely in order for them to be used properly.
Because once you spend your points, you can never take it back at all. If you want to upgrade the other portion, you’d have to play even more to do so.
Tank Upgrades
As a beginner, your goal in upgrading a tank is focused on these parts:
- Aiming (Fire Power)
- Being able to aim faster than your opponent allows you to win encounters where you’re not supposed to survive to begin with. This upgrade option also allows you to not be caught off-guard all the time, as well as getting the advantage overall. This is crucial in fights where you’re surrounded on all sides, and being able to turn around fast allows you to retaliate even faster.
- Accuracy (Fire Power)
- While being able to fire allows you to sustain damage to your opponents, missing any shots on long distances turns you into a liability. If you can’t hit your shots, your best bet is to increase the accuracy of your cannon, allowing you to keep your distance against opponents that can outclass you in closer ranges.
- This upgrade is also crucial if your gameplay is essentially being in the back lines and doing support fire, as opposed to just bullrushing.
- Spare Parts (Maintenance)
- The rest of the maintenance upgrades are trivial and won’t contribute much to the field, but having Spare Parts allows you to survive longer in the field. Remember that Spare Parts isn’t a guarantee, but rather a chance to stave off any possible stray hits that would still cripple your tank.
Any other upgrade for the tanks can be considered later on. You won’t need to reload faster knowing that you’re more likely to fall back behind your position. And your crew is quite flimsy anyway, so expecting the best isn’t the greatest attitude to have on the field.
Ship Upgrades
As to what you want to upgrade your ship with, here’s what you can focus on:
- Shell Damage, Fire Accuracy, Reload Rate
- As you are fighting against bulky opponents, your best option in the field is to pound them into seacakes. You need to hit harder, aim better, and shoot faster. All of these three things as a trinity are your goal in upgrading your guns. You can safely ignore anti-air upgrades, granted that they won’t be much of an issue knowing that there are 3 more ships willing to gun you down harder.
- All of the Machinery Upgrades
- And speaking of those ships gunning you down, being able to survive is also a must. While previous beginner’s guides would want you to specialize in killing opponents faster, being able to outlast them in this mode is a far better boon. A burning, still-alive ship is better than a dead, floating scrap heap. You’d still be able to contribute to the damage of your team, and that is a lot more to bargain in team fights.
Are you done fixing your gear? Good, looks like we’re ready to fight once again. Get on out there and kill some more ‘bad guys” for us. But wait, wouldn’t that mean the end of our training, recruit? Not yet, we still have more to cover…
Watch Ads
True to its PC version, War Thunder Mobile is also a free-to-play game. That means that the only way for developers to even earn here is via paid items and such. If you don’t have the money for that (and we’re not going to recommend buying stuff anyway), there is a better option to help the developers of the game.
You know ads. They can be 5 to 30 seconds long, they can be unskippable. That’s a truth we have to reconcile with. But, they’re not only good ways to support the developer, but to also get a lot more from the game itself. Watching ads allows us to get more loot than we can get in daily rewards, which would allow us to advance faster in the game.
As seen in the image above, we can get more daily rewards than expected. If you’re lucky, you only need to watch for about 5 seconds before you get yourself another chance to get more rewards. You also have the chance to get another, meaning you get 3 Daily Rewards trophies just for watching 2 Ads. Now that’s a banger of a deal!
This also applies to shop items. You can get free 10 Eagle, 1000 Lions, and 5 Fire Extinguishers every day. Guaranteed. Mind you, Eagles are a rare commodity in this game, and you only get 10 for each Campaign Level. Getting it every day, and watching ads, earns you a lot especially if you’re not playing.
So, what are you waiting for? Those rewards aren’t going to get itself, recruit! You can also reframe your mindset so that if you’re watching an ad, you can do so in a break. You don’t have to play all the time, maybe in intervals that could allow you to get the most out of ads. That way, you won’t bore yourself to death.
Have Fun
And finally, our last tip. Just have fun.
Compared to the rather sweaty aspect that plagues War Thunder’s PC version, War Thunder Mobile gives mobile players a more similar experience to arcade games without sacrificing the realistic aspect that makes War Thunder’s identity. It can be quite grueling for a game, yes, but it is in you to understand that playing this game won’t hurt you at all.
Take a break if you have to, especially when you’re losing. When you come back to the field, you’ll be better than ever. And maybe, just maybe, get something more out of it.
Congratulations, recruit! Looks like you’ve finished our training course. Quite a journey, don’t you think? A lot of ups and downs, and also quite some explosive moments (literally). Now then, let’s do a quick summary of what we’ve learned so far.
- Make it a habit to log in daily! You’ll get more rewards by attending, especially if you’re not in the mood to play at all.
- Try to get achievements and grind for battle-pass missions! That way, you can get more stuff out of the game.
- Knowing your enemy is crucial in your victories against them. If they think like you, then you can definitely think like them.
- Because War Thunder Mobile is a simulator, playing it like it’s a real-life scenario can help you win more battles.
- Aim for weak points! Go straight for the kill if possible!
- In the Tank Campaign, always remember to use Free Look if you want to survey your surroundings. Spare your cannon from rotating in the wrong direction!
- Upgrade your platoon or your ship frequently! That way, you can match with your foes later on.
- Watch ads in order to get more rewards, as well as to help the developers of the game!
- But most of all, have fun! This is a game, after all.
Attention, recruit! This is now the end of the Beginner’s Guide for War Thunder Mobile. Now, you have all the faculties needed in order to get an absolute victory against your enemies! Don’t be afraid to learn more out there, as this guide only covers the starting act of your journey!
If you have any tips that you’ve learned throughout the game, or you’re a veteran wanting to give a piece of your mind to the recruits, please do so by writing in the comment section below! Being able to help a recruit stand up for themselves is quite better than leaving them to the dust.
As always, that would be all, recruit! Now go out there and blow those bastards to smithereens!