Infantry Cbt 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.

  • Note where it first appears, so you can go back if you need to.
  • Treat wiki trivia sections as trivia rather than mechanics.
  • Region and platform change more than people expect, so confirm both.

War Thunder models more of the vehicle than it tells you about, and the grind punishes guessing. Early impressions of it are usually wrong in the same specific way. It shows up in more places than its introduction suggests, once you know to look.

Common misunderstandings

The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. The name is descriptive if you already know what it does, and opaque if you do not. Knowing this does not make you better at War Thunder, but it does make the rest of it legible. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first.

The game introduces it quickly and assumes you picked it up, which is where the confusion starts. The wiki entry is thorough and buries the actually useful part six paragraphs down. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about.

Where you encounter it

It is the kind of thing veterans forget they ever had to learn. Community shorthand around it has drifted far enough from the original meaning to cause arguments. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you.

  • Ask what it is for before asking how to get it.
  • Expect its role to have shifted at least once across updates.
  • Prefer the in-game option over an external tool when both exist.
  • Read the in-game description once, then ignore it.

Whether it is worth going out of your way for

Its role has changed across updates, so older discussion describes something slightly different. If you only remember one thing about it, remember where it appears. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. It appears in supplementary material in more detail than it does in the game itself.

It is more consequential in the late game than the early one, which is why first impressions mislead. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. The in-game description is technically accurate and practically useless.

What it is

It became noticeably more relevant after a change the patch notes barely mentioned. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. It rewards understanding rather than grinding, which is unusual for War Thunder.

Whether it is worth going out of your way for depends entirely on how you are playing. War Thunder is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. Its practical value is narrow and real, rather than broad and theoretical.

What it is often confused with

There is a persistent myth attached to it that has never been true in any version. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. Two similarly named things exist, and mixing them up explains a lot of contradictory advice.

Where people go wrong

  • Skipping the prerequisite because it looked optional in someone else's summary.
  • Assuming a guide from an older season still describes the current version.
  • Downloading a helper tool for something the game already does in its own menu.

War Thunder FAQ

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.

Has it changed recently?

Its role has shifted across updates more than once. Anything you read without a version attached may describe an older form of it.

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 important?

More than its screen time implies, less than the discussion around it implies. Somewhere in the middle.

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