War Thunder has spawned enough surrounding work that the ordering question comes up constantly.

Short answer

Treat it as supplementary. Enjoyable on its own, and richer if you have played first.

  • Credit fan artists if you reuse their work.
  • Play first if you mind spoilers — adaptations rarely respect them.
  • Keep a save or backup from before you start — it costs nothing and occasionally saves an evening.

War Thunder models more of the vehicle than it tells you about, and the grind punishes guessing. Release order and chronological order are different, and both have their advocates. Canon status is decided by the developers rather than by the adaptation's writers.

Whether it is worth your time

If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. Licensed soundtracks are the most likely part to be missing from a re-release. Official art books contain material that never appears in the game itself. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep.

Adaptations take liberties, and the interesting ones take them deliberately. Assets circulated online are often ripped rather than released, which affects what you can legally do with them. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

Where it fits with the game

Fan work is frequently better than official work and is not the same thing. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts.

  • Expect licensed music to be missing from re-releases.
  • Look for an official assets page before downloading anything.
  • Expect one number in every guide to be out of date; the method is what matters.
  • Check whether something is official before treating it as canon.

What exists officially

Everything below is framed around the current state of War Thunder rather than a launch-week impression. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of.

Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional.

What is fan-made

Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration.

Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why.

Where to find it legitimately

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. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time.

Where people go wrong

  • Downloading a helper tool for something the game already does in its own menu.
  • Assuming a guide from an older season still describes the current version.
  • 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.

War Thunder FAQ

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.

Is it any good?

The reception is mixed and depends heavily on what you wanted from it. The section above sets that expectation honestly.

Where can I get it legally?

Publisher stores and licensed platforms carry all of it. Anything circulating as a free file is a rip.

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.

If you only take one thing from this: the answer near the top is the part that matters, the rest is context.