Body Pillows is one of those parts of War Thunder that the game introduces once and never revisits.

Short answer

Short version — it is exactly what it looks like, and the confusion comes from a similarly named thing nearby.

  • Expect its role to have shifted at least once across updates.
  • Check which version of War Thunder any discussion of it is describing.
  • Expect one number in every guide to be out of date; the method is what matters.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. It shows up in more places than its introduction suggests, once you know to look. It rewards understanding rather than grinding, which is unusual for War Thunder.

Whether it is worth going out of your way for

It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. Most guides mention it in passing and none of them stop to define it. The wiki entry is thorough and buries the actually useful part six paragraphs down. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over.

It became noticeably more relevant after a change the patch notes barely mentioned. Two similarly named things exist, and mixing them up explains a lot of contradictory advice. War Thunder is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look.

Where you encounter it

Its practical value is narrow and real, rather than broad and theoretical. There is a persistent myth attached to it that has never been true in any version. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration.

  • Treat wiki trivia sections as trivia rather than mechanics.
  • Ask what it is for before asking how to get it.
  • If a menu path does not exist for you, your build is older or newer than the one described.
  • Do not confuse it with the similarly named thing — that mix-up drives most bad advice.
  • Ignore the myth attached to it; it has never held up.

How it connects to the rest of War Thunder

The in-game description is technically accurate and practically useless. The name is descriptive if you already know what it does, and opaque if you do not. 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 you only remember one thing about it, remember where it appears.

It is the kind of thing veterans forget they ever had to learn. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. The game introduces it quickly and assumes you picked it up, which is where the confusion starts.

Why people keep asking about it

Community shorthand around it has drifted far enough from the original meaning to cause arguments. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. Knowing this does not make you better at War Thunder, but it does make the rest of it legible.

Early impressions of it are usually wrong in the same specific way. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. Whether it is worth going out of your way for depends entirely on how you are playing.

How it has changed over time

It appears in supplementary material in more detail than it does in the game itself. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. Its role has changed across updates, so older discussion describes something slightly different.

Where people go wrong

  • Assuming a guide from an older season still describes the current version.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.
  • Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.

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.

Why do people disagree about it?

Usually because they are describing different versions, and occasionally because a similarly named thing exists alongside it.

Do I need any mods or third-party tools for this?

No. Everything described here works with the base game on any supported platform.

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.