The game presents this as a menu of choices and quietly makes some of them far better than others.

Short answer

Follow the route below in order — each step unlocks something the next one assumes you have.

  • Expect the middle to be the slow part.
  • Ignore the fastest route if it skips the thing that teaches you the game.
  • Expect one number in every guide to be out of date; the method is what matters.

War Thunder models more of the vehicle than it tells you about, and the grind punishes guessing. A line finished is worth more than three lines half-done, in every game that works this way. Skipping the tutorial content usually costs more later than the hours it saves now.

How long it realistically takes

It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. Time estimates online are written by people playing far more than you probably are. The mid-section is where progression slows sharply, and knowing that in advance helps. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time.

The game rarely tells you that a prerequisite exists until you are standing in front of it. Respec and reset options exist in some of these games and not others, and that changes how careful to be. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over.

Where people stall

Unlock costs rise faster than income does, so early efficiency compounds for a long time. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why.

  • Finish one line before opening another.
  • Do the repeatable early content while it is still efficient.
  • Stop and reassess after two failed attempts rather than repeating the third.
  • Note whether respec exists before committing.
  • Check what each unlock gates before spending on it.

What to unlock first

If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. 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. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing.

Everything below is framed around the current state of War Thunder rather than a launch-week impression. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration.

The order that works

Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. War Thunder is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see.

Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first.

What is safe to skip

The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep.

Where people go wrong

  • Changing five things at once and then not knowing which one helped.
  • Ignoring the platform-specific note and then wondering why the steps do not line up.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.
  • Assuming a guide from an older season still describes the current version.

War Thunder FAQ

How long does this take?

Minutes if it goes cleanly, an evening if you hit the edge case in the caveats list. Neither is unusual.

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

Why do other guides describe this differently?

Most were written for an earlier version and never revisited. Compare the steps against what your build actually shows.

What should I go for first?

The line described above. It unlocks the widest set of options and stays useful after you move on.

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