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My advice: always underestimate your teammates and always overestimate your enemies

Best Advice i can give is: find people to play WT with because random teammates will 98% of the time let you down, don't rush high tier tanks, don't play like a tungsten statue if you want to have fun, and always make sure to have enough SL in reserve just in case you get a new tank.

One important thing I learnt about War Thunder is, "Fun is a finite resource in this game". Everytime you are winning, someone is loosing (and vice versa). Everytime you do your victory dance, someone is malding and coping hard. Sometimes you just have to swallow your pride and keep on moving, and if the game gets too tough, take your well deserved break. Do not let the game consume you friends, know your limits.

The part about not using WT content creators as reference is really important. I've seen dozens of videos titles "let's play X, the absolutely worst vehicle I ever played" and then they get 13 kills in a single match with it. This really, REALLY skews your view on your own skills.

Best advice I can give: Don’t play to grind. People have been complaining about economy recently and we can all agree it’s bad. But your overall goal shouldn’t be just get to top tier. Find a tank/aircraft in a tree to focus towards or even if you find a vehicle before that one that you enjoy, play it for a time, or use it as a fallback vehicle to play and enjoy. I did this for the T-34 1942 a few years ago and have well over 3 k kills with it just because it’s entertaining and fun. I’m doing it more recently with the object 906 because it’s an overall fun tank and lineup to play. I’m done with 3 ground trees and still enjoy 9.3 and lower. Top tier and cool modern mbts might look cool but they are not enjoyable to play (imo) especially with helis ruining the fun.

First way to get better is to learn weak points on tanks and angling. Second is to learn play styles of tanks, get used to ranges, and using Rangefinder/Spotting Third is positioning. Getting to a good positioning or power spots is key to succeeding often, only after the first two skills.

Don't be afraid to do Arcade Air/Ground/Naval. Yeah, Realistic is super cool but also requires a lot more brainspace than Arcade. Whatever mode you play, have fun.

On the bit about don't compare yourself to KZfaqrs, this is why I love to watch OrangeFan's "First Ten" series. He shows the first ten battles in a tank no matter how bad the battle was. Gives a far more realistic view of how things pan out initially.

"don't cap points, just uncap enemy ones" me who needs the rewards: "no i don't think i will"

Here's a tip from me, have fun. Not even joking if you just do not stick to the meta, you can have fun. The Churchill with 50 smokes and 10 shells, playing the strv m/39 at 6.3 to get god mode(20,000 sl). Note be respectful when having fun so your poor teammates don't get ligma. Guess this got the God Mode community assembling, cool!

RN i have +450 hours of playing and there were surprisingly 2 tipps for me .The only thing i can say to new players: Everything comes with experience . The more time you play the better you get .Also don´t rush for the modern tanks ,planes,..... You will only loose fun while playing .Try to set urself smaller goals like firts reaching lvl 10 then getting ur firts rank3 vehicle and most important have fun

Finally, I have long anticipated this video… my prayers have been answered

On the point about avoiding frustration: Even if you are having a pretty good series of rounds, stop at the "I don't think I'll be able to top that today." when those happen. Everything will pale in comparison, and the morale boost may make you throw caution to the wind in future matches.

one thing i have learned in my 700+ hours of WT is to plan your next actions in battle carefuly, for example: don‘t rush towards the enemy spawn asap, look for spots from where you can ambush an unexpecting enemy and wait for your team to get there.

3000+ hours into the game and yeah. i still learn new and interesting techniques to this day. it's always important to try and improve yourself. but one of the big tips i can give is. play to have fun. not play to win. with the last winter event. i had to push myself trough frustration so often to get my tasks done that it sucked the fun out of the game. even though i didn't play much differently than i would without the event.

Step one: at no point should you use French or Italian tanks, unless you have a padded cell to have mental break downs in Step two: feeling down? Not enough lions? Go back to RB low Tier, trust me it’s fun. Step three: go the unexpected rout, try not to take main streets and stick to buildings when you thing enemy’s are nearby. Step four: Remember it’s a game about tanks.

Another tip is to find people to play with as this WILL improve your experience. Luckily for me I had 3 other friends who essentially started playing at the same time as me. Now I’m sitting at 1.7k hours and still enjoying this game from day to day and I think that my enjoyment is caused by being accompanied by them.

There's a reason Spookston has a high K/D but bad stats everywhere else. I wouldn't play like him if I were you. My advice, play in a way that will give your team the greatest chance of winning. Try to cap points when possible, but know when to avoid the caps. Play as a counter-flanker on maps where you can have your team slaughtered by just one guy flanking. Defend your teammates but never trust them to defend you. Use CAS, not to revenge bomb, but to target the people doing the best on the enemy team or the people who are defending/holding/capping points. In ground battles K/D is not the stat that shows how good you are, it's your win rate and average position on the leaderboard. And last but definitely not least, PLAY LINEUPS. It means, that you shouldn't play a tank if it's the only tank you have at that BR. Find a lineup of tanks all at the same BR and play that instead. If it means you're not playing that cool new tank you just unlocked, so be it. You can play it later when you have more vehicles at that BR.

Ive been playing war thunder for a while (well its kind of a when i feel like taking it up again which could take a lot of time) despite that I'm not very good at the game, I've been watching tutorials and KZfaqrs to try to learn, but I just couldn't find much helpful advice. Until I saw this video, where I got the true piece of information I needed. To never play when frustrated for any reason. I found out that most times I play im frustrated about something most of the time, whether it's a previous match or something else. This video definitely opened my mind to the real reason of why I struggle in the game sometimes. Thank you for making this.

great video bro for me there are 3 rules. Knowledge of tank and rounds which I am using, knowledge of enemy tanks and their weakspots and the most important is knowledge of map and great spots

I've been playing War Thunder for nearly eight years now. I spent the first 6 years or so as a free-to-play account. I didn't get a premium account, golden eagles or premium Vehicles until just over two years ago. I agree with everything spookston put here. Some of the things here were good reminders for me, and others were new things. The best advice I could give is to not take it too seriously. At the end of the day, it is just a video game. If you play every second to have fun, sometimes it even makes dying pretty funny. Thanks for the video Spookston!

For me the most important thing is awareness, especially in RB. Pay attention to the mini map, listen for engine sounds, watch the kill feed so you know who's killing who and where. If you know where the enemy is, it's easier to kill it. Everything else comes with practice: angling, positioning, where to shoot... etc.

You‘re so right with that point about having the mindset to get at least one good game before turning off, it‘s so frustrating having bad batches and not knowing what you did wrong this time. Totally right playing something different and hop inside when having motivation again

When it came to airplanes I was even close to decent in air rb for years and even now after 7 years of playing I can’t say I’m some insane pilot, this game has such a different skill level compared to other games I’ve played

I’ve learned that if you plan your attack before the battle by looking at the map while the game loads and planning where to go and what to do helps a lot. If you just go right into the game with no plan you might get confused or quickly decide where to go and die. On battles I didn’t plan on I died very quickly with maybe 1 or 2 kills while if I plan I get double or triple of that.

Actually a great, quick breakdown of what is best and how you can utilise simple mechanics that the game offers. Loved it

How to win more games: bring lineups instead of being a one spawn XM-1 at 11.0.

Lets not forget custom battles and the test drive. Custom battles give you map knowledge, and some experience before taking a vehicle out. With regard to test drive it's great to improve gunnery skills. Sit in the cap zone and have unlimited ammunition. I use this to practice manually controlled rockets. BTW, turn off auto repair.

For those who prefer air combat: Don't underestimate how much arcade can help with aiming. Keep mind of your speed, anything below 250 is the danger zone. When in a dogfight, don't aim where they are, aim where they will be when your nose comes around. Don't be afraid to run. If someone looks like they want to dive on you, head for the ground so they need to give up their altitude. Cannons do much more damage but have less ammo, use them only when you're sure of a hit. Most importantly of all: look at the map. Always.

Lowkey the best video I’ve ever watched for a “ here’s how to play the game” video. Like so simplistic, yet so informative. He’s not telling you to bind this key and that key for these game breaking key binds or little cheats at the game. He really just straight up explained the KEY key features ti get started playing the game, the mindset so to speak. LOVE the work my dude, got a subscriber out of me 💯

Probably the best advice i can give its, don't get stressed out with war thunder, just try to chill and have fun i had really bad health problems because of stress.

With moments of you being spawn snipped or screwed by volumetric i would like it if you tried to find a way to include it in your videos. Not sure if anyone else feels the same?

In all my time playing I find I lose the most when the team pushes into enemy spawn after asserting dominance and followed promptly by dying and losing. If you already have the advantage, don’t push, let them come to you.

I was suffering in an M4A3E8 and then I check YT to see you upload this. I feel attacked

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="107">1:47</a> "I see people just holding W to the nearest point far too often" That has really stuck with me, it's great advice

Great advice all around. One thing that I find helpful is to wait to spawn initially and spend a minute or two looking over the vehicles your team is using. I use that knowledge to chose my vehicle before I spawn. By then the first wave vehicles have started to take each other out. I watch the mini map to see where problematic enemy are and adjust my plan. This way, the push W til I die crowd has probed and softened the enemy and I arrive in time to hold ground until my teammates respawn and return.

i remember when i switched from AB to RB , i learned playing in the sdkfz 234/2 because its really a great "tank" , good gun , very fast but no armor

As a WT veteran myself, another tip I'd like to give is this: do NOT put only a single vehicle of high BR in your lineup unless you're extremely confident in playing the lower BR vehicles. This doesn't really apply for small BR jumps (e.g. 5.3 to 5.7), but it does for bigger jumps. As always, there is an exception to the "rule." Light tanks with high mobility and the ability to scout aren't as hampered by this, because you can still contribute to your team by scouting enemies, decapping points, and flanking.

Spookston made a video to tell you to: Git Gud

The best advice i can give: play war thunder as a real war learned about enemy's you will face the most try to learn about there weakness . If you are starting a new game I will say play arcade mode for the first week or 2 if you jump straight in the realistic mode you are doomed . Please play for fun not to grain play your favourite tank in history you will be happy 😊

My tip: pay attention, keep checking your surroundings, listen for engines, the one who notices the other first has clear advantage

Im a noob coming from wot blitz and just unlocked M10 and M4A1 as well as M24 chaffee. The game tells you to use your binoculars in the little tips, and its actually excellent advice. I have quite bad spatial awareness in realistic, and the binoculars allow me to take a very good look at my surroundings while remaining in cover. You arent sure whats over there ? Binoculars. Searching for targets in a big open space, barely poke out your cupola, and BINOCULARS. Same for any chaotic environment with lots of smoke and fire, they help a lot to see whats alive and whats dead, and great overall for taking a peek to whats behind your cover. You can also point your gun at the target from there, and once it rotated go to your gunner optic and properly aim for a nice juicy kill.

Being patient is the key, also familiarize maps, esp slopes that gives you advantage.

Best Advice: Learn the strengths and weakness of your tank and the tanks you will be facing at your BR. Knowing the maps can be extremely helpful as well. Play to have fun. Don't worry about the grind just play and have fun. You can literally play any tank you want and grind up a vehicle. So find a tank you like and play that. Edit: Oh, as a new player coming into the game play either America or Russia as they are far easier trees to play for starting players. Once you start getting the hang of the game then you can play Germany or other nations. Don't assume that Germany has the best tanks because of WW2. While they are very good in War Thunder they require I high player skill ceiling to do well in them.

And then there is the ST-A1 which acclerates incredibly slow and has a maximum of 75mm of armour, at BR 6.3. At least the cannon is average.

Thanks Spookston! Not the top tier guide i wanted, but the Advice we all needed

Stay in low tiers until you absolutely know what you are doing. This means don't buy a premium vehicle above the tier you are playing at until you know how to survive battles and get score.

best advice for new players: you dont win by capping... you win by holding the most caps

I kinda hate how the words "war thunder" just means tanks now

Spookton YOU ARE THE BEST PLAYER IN WARTHUNDER I LOVE AND SUPPORT YOU PLS MAKE MORE VIDS WE ALL LOVE YOUR VIDS

I've been getting back into it and the best thing to do is find your spot. Yesterday I went on a 10 kill streak game, and the next one I had 6 kills. Always be patient and play around cover, never think your safe and use your eyes to examine your surroundings. Even though the gameplay is slow enemies can pop up on you faster than you can even blink.

My only problem is top tier SPAAs…that’s it… It’s almost impossible to CAS at top tier.

Is there a chance for a video on the M41 Walker Bulldog?

Playing warthunder is like being in the hyperbolic time chamber. You get so mad so fast that you learn forms of anger that take decades to develop.

looking up where the crew position is really a helpful advice I learn a lot from that one advice and improve my game trying to shoot at good position and mostly hull down, thank you

I quit WT because i'm done being angry

Step 1: stop playing.

I think you should've touched on the concept of getting "Gaijin'd", i.e. ghost shells, non-pens, inconsistent overpressure, packet loss, etc. and that folks should really *expect* these things in the game and accept them now versus being driven to rage quit or uninstall because of them. At 1500 hours it's one of the biggest factors I find that turns new players away, other than the matchmaking.

Refreshing to find someone giving actual advice aside from "get good" since whenever i see that it just makes me more mad cause whenever I'm at a loss for how to get better I don't want to hear get better or get good. I want actual advice for how to play a game better so i stop dying as much.

I love how he plays the halo 3 odst song as his outro 😅

Been a teaching influence in the game since 2013, and the biggest advice I always give is play to YOUR strengths, not just the vehicle. If you thinking you can sneak around in a KV2, go for it. wanna flank in a T26? You can do that. Be effective having fun.

Thanks Spookston 🙏 I always use the "Atleast 1 good game" mindset and always get annihilated by the enemy team. Keep up the great content, my friend 💪💯

The point about frustration is incredibly important. I’ll switch to other games (usually calm single-player stuff) to cool off after any string of bad games.

Hi! I've recently learned how to easily get to the top 3 places in your team 80% of the time: Step1: unlock UDES and VEAK for Sweden Step2: get one person in your squad to shittalk with for fun Step3: try and find camping spots with the 20 degree depression on UDES and learn when to fire proxy with VEAK. I keep getting a ton of kills with this setup. If i'm unlucky i die fast, if not, i usually rake in a ton of kills.

I'm not exactly what you can call a good player, 1-3 kills per vehicle during a match, but what I can say is always assume you're going to get shot. there's always gonna be some level 100 player hiding in a bush somewhere ready for you to turn that corner, so always check corners, and everytime you hold down a position, there's always a chance some random light is gonna accidentally stumble upon your tank from the opposite direction, so always check behind you. Everytime I introduce a friend to this game, the first thing I tell them when we join a Realistic battle is, "We are taught to look left and right before you cross the road, but in this game, always look behind too"

The Subnatica soundrack in the background going hard tho. Thanks for the tips

been playing for 2 years and ive seen a lot of improvement, specially the reaction time

War Thunder is like a school subject. You can not possibly learn it in one night and you will always learn something new like Spookston said at the beginning of the video.

I know I'm here late, but here's advice that seems obvious but helped me a ton: stay aware. Always use the c key to pan around, look behind and in front of you. Constantly hop on and off your binoculars and captain optics to look out far into the distance. This will allow you to get a pick or two and even spot those stupid foxes formula racing behind your spawn. Best to also keep your gunner optics zeroed for an engagement distance you're anticipating - say there's a line of tree out on your 12, and your rangefinder says it can't read beyond 800 meters. It's easier with APDS and APFSDS shells, which lose less velocity, just have it set to ~1000 meters, or shoot so that your 800 meter mark is on the top or right above the target. At BRs 6.0 - 9.0 and sometimes above, this is pretty easy to do, even with the learning curve (mostly for first timers at this br) taking place at this BR , approx.

I’ve played world of tanks for 10 years, and I think knowing the tanks and how they work in real life kinda helps. The main learning curve was understanding the actual game setup. After a week I’m pretty average which is better than most players.

I actually needed to see this video. I’ve had war Thunder for a while but just now heavily got into it. My first couple days playing I was doing pretty well, two or three kills on the ground and maybe two more in the air. But these last couple days (all this week) I’ve just been getting mollywopped. Lucky to get one kill. When you said “if you get frustrated just walk away and do something else” spoke to me lol. Thanks!

Finally, a link I can put into WT chat when I need to tell someone to “get good”.

Phlydaily actually did a video of typical games for him and I respect him for his honesty

If your wondering what the faint music in the background is it's the Subnautica ship down soundtrack

Great advice. Especially about not letting frustration get to you. Along those lines, I’d add - by all means do your best to defend against aircraft but treat destruction from the air as just bad luck. It’s easy to get frustrated after driving all the way to the action, only to be bombed by a plane suicide diving or pulling up from a valley with zero throttle so you don’t see or hear it coming, before you’ve even seen an enemy sometimes. There are situations where nothing you could have done would have saved you, getting frustrated or beating yourself up is just counterproductive. Torpedos in naval can be the same. Sure, there are things you can do to minimise your chances of being torpedoed, but sometimes someone from the mosquito fleet creeps up or you’re too busy fighting to align yourself to an island to protect from torpedos. I started enjoying myself a lot more when I stopped letting bombs or torps frustrate me and just considered them an act of god much of the time. The same applies in general but not as much, for a regular death. Sometimes the enemy gets the drop on you, sometimes you run into two or three vehicles and the teammates you were advancing with have all just died. Much like a real battle, there are huge elements of luck in combat. As long as it’s battle type randomness and not RNG, I’ve learned to be OK with it.

This helped me so much lol. Average game is like 2-3 kills where it used to be like 0 kills and 3 deaths

this game is magic, havent played in forever and just came back, immediately get 3 pretty good games at a br im not usually good at (as in, with vehicles i dont really like)

Thanks Spookston. I knew most of this advice already, but have a long way to go before mastering it. Great video.

That whole "don't play if you're frustrated part" was an eye opener really. I would do this and then feel bad that my abilities are trash which they aren't.

I really want to see a video of Spook just going map to map and showing us where he likes to go and why he likes going there.

Good advice to get better on Warthunder, Spookston!!!

My best bit of advice is to switch tech trees. The grind can seem intimidating at first, but even as neutered as tank battles are with RP gain, you can get to mid tiers relatively quickly if you don't do terribly. It's a great way to bring variety to playstyles to the game and beats the HELL out of trying to main one nation. Plus, a lot of times your brain will just click with certain trees more than others. WT is a big game, don't be afraid to experiment.

I have been dying for a video like this

iv been watching your videos from some time and missed this one some how but it really helped me relax and rember i play games for fun its supper ez to fall into screaming how bad my team was or even just how bad i did but shit happens thanks for this fantsic video to help push me back into improveing my game play and not just going full salt mode

The most fun I've had recently was just squadding up with a buddy with a top tier and going into top tier with a KV-2 and just one tapping most tanks, made quite a haul of SL's too.

One of the most important things you can do to succeed is to just prepare. This includes using the test drives to not only test your vehicle's capabilities, but also to look at your ammo. If you hold "O" in a match, you can look at a live x-ray of your vehicle, and I do this in test drives to look at which ammo racks are filled. If you adjust the ammo in the pre-test drive settings screen, it'll carry over when you start a match. Generally speaking, you want your lowest and/or most rearward racks filled first, and as a rule of thumb you won't need more than 20 rounds, unless you have a fast reload. You'd be surprised at the amount of people I see running around with and dying from full ammo racks. Another way to prepare is just to look at keybindings. Spend some time scrolling through and adjusting controls, and don't be afraid to 'stack' keybinds. I, for example, have both 'active scouting' and 'fire secondary cannon' bound to my middle mouse button, because there are almost no tanks that have two cannons _and_ the ability to scout. A third way to prepare is to *use lineups*. This advice is geared more towards middle tiers, but for your first spawn take something light and cheap, and pay attention. If you're seeing lots of missiles, subcaliber/chemical rounds, or bombs and such flying around, just don't take out heavy tanks (unless you're confident in your abilities), because you won't have a good time in them. Lineups also increase your chances of winning, since you'll have more vehicles available on the ground.

Thanks for the tips. I used to get so upset if I did not play well and got taken out right away. I used to look at players Stats and that would upset me. Now I play just for fun it doesn't matter how many kills I get or how quickly I may die. I watch the kill cam and think that was a great shot that person did and learn from it. Stay calm and relaxed you will always get killed in the game. I think more youtubers should show themselves getting taken out so people know it is not easy game.

This was actually helpful, particularly the last advice. I've had like 3-4 days in a row where I just suuuuck. Bottom 3 on my team every game, just absolutely demolished without accomplishing naything. Then I had days where I just magically do pretty decent. Not the best by any means, but still in the upper third of players on my team. And I don't think I did much differently besides being in a better mood and maybe having a bit more luck.

For players who want to get a little bit better at Air RB, I have a few things that might be helpful. I have about 1100 hours in the game, and most of that is in air battles. These are the most important things that I've learned: The number one thing is to know you plane's strengths and weaknesses. Does it turn well? Does it gain a lot of speed in a dive? Does it climb fast? Does it have firepower to spare? Does the engine keep putting out enough power even at high altitudes? These things are so important to know because you always want to fight using your strengths, while not letting your enemy exploit your weaknesses. The second thing is to be patient. I know it's hard, and that's the reason Air RB isn't for everyone, but patience will always be one of your best friends. It's tempting to go guns blazing at the first plane you see in a head on, but it won't do you any good. Get up to an altitude that you like working with, and choose a target from there. Third, don't get tunnel vision. It might seem like the right thing to stay on the tail of an enemy who you've heavily damaged, and finish the kill, but you need to stay aware of your surroundings. While you got low and slow chasing that Tempest, an La-5 got on your tail, and now you've been shot down, without getting your kill. Don't use up all your speed and altitude on a single target; let him go, climb back up, and select a new target. Fourth, and possibly one of the most important points: Do NOT buy a 10.0 premium because you just want to play jets. Top tier is a whole different animal than low and mid tier, and requires learning fundamentals from several BRs worth of jets. Find a plane you like, learn its qualities, learn its playstyle, and then master it. If you want some suggestions, I recommend the P-51C-10 and the J2M2. The fifth pointer is one of the hardest ones, and took me months upon months to really understand: War Thunder is a game, so have fun. It might be depressing when you got slapped by a BF-109 who had a crazy altitude advantage on you, or a Spitfire or Zero who out-turned you in an instant. You'll get torn apart by Mustangs and Thunderbolts and everything in between. You might have your kills stolen by greedy teammates, or face enemies who sit around their airfield, waiting for the tickets to run out. Keep your head, and move on. Air RB is hard, but with some practice, it becomes a blast.

"you are clearing the area for your teammates - so they can take the cap safely" - as good as that sounds, most of the time my team just sits somewhere near the spawn, camping or otherwise not being useful to their fullest extent.

'I won't show when volumetric screws me' Yeah and me over here dying because volumetric DIDN'T screw the guy firing at me.

"Don't play when you're frustrated" well when else am I supposed to play

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="109">1:49</a> Spook: "people just hold w to the nearest capture point" Console players: "the what?"

I love how genuine this videos was.

Spookston: CCs dont show theyr bad games Dollar plays making a compilation of 30 deaths in 30 games: i have no idea what are you talking about

I listened to the part about good positioning and planning your route, and I got a 13 kill game directly after that with only 1 death.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="196">3:16</a> adding to this (ive actually never seen someone do or talk about this I'm just minmaxing my odds as much as i can) for example at low tier where people don't have enough pen with aphe and similar (for example shooting a kv1) some ppl go for the apcr (or any "needle" proyectile, even heatfs in some cases), so taking this into account you can chose what side is best for you to peek, you hold a left or right corner depending on what side of the tank you wanna expose, so in case you get penned, you know they wont one shot your entire crew, mostly peeking the "solo" (mostly loader) side so you can shoot even if they pen you first, also works for tanks that have a cupola as weak point (panthers are a good example of this)

My best advice to anyone is always keep shooting and moving. If you camp in a spot too long, the enemy will flank and kill you or a respawning player can come back to the same spot and extract revenge. I've had a few "Leonidas games" (aka Thermopylae battles) where staying in one spot and taking on all enemies works out well, and there is nothing wrong with having a favorite spot on a given map, but the most successful players shoot and move, shoot and move.

The last one was the best, thank u! (played 6 matches air RB and got 1 kill)