Every earner in War Thunder trades setup time against payout, and the good ones are honest about both.

Short answer

Front-load the investment if you plan to keep playing; skip it entirely if you do not.

  • Group up where the multiplier is meaningful.
  • Check the patch date on any figures you are comparing.
  • Check the version you are actually running before assuming anything is broken.

War Thunder models more of the vehicle than it tells you about, and the grind punishes guessing. Idle income sounds appealing and is almost always the worst rate available. The cap on a given activity matters more than its headline number.

What it earns per hour

Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. Group multipliers change the ranking of methods completely, which is why lists disagree. A method that was patched still shows up in search results for years afterwards. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time.

Event weeks distort every comparison, and normal weeks are what you should plan around. Setup cost only matters relative to how long you intend to keep playing. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice.

Solo versus group

Payout figures quoted without a time attached are marketing rather than information. Everything below is framed around the current state of War Thunder rather than a launch-week impression. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration.

  • Calculate per hour, including setup and travel.
  • Do the daily and weekly resets first — they are the best rate available.
  • Expect one number in every guide to be out of date; the method is what matters.
  • Finish the setup before starting the loop.
  • Ignore anything that requires an external site or seller.

The loop worth repeating

Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why.

Methods that were nerfed

Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds.

A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about.

Setup cost and payback time

What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. War Thunder is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look.

Where people go wrong

  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.
  • Copying a setup wholesale from a streamer without understanding what each part does.
  • Assuming a guide from an older season still describes the current version.

War Thunder FAQ

Was this method nerfed?

Several popular ones were. Check the date on whatever you are reading before committing an evening to it.

Is the investment worth it?

If you will play more than a few dozen hours, comfortably. If not, skip it and do the free activities.

Is this still accurate after the latest War Thunder update?

The method is; individual numbers may not be. If a value on your screen differs, trust the screen and keep the sequence.

Does this work the same on console and PC?

The logic is identical. Menu paths and button prompts differ, and any real difference is flagged above.

Anything that shifts with the next War Thunder update will show up as a changed number, not a changed approach.