The useful question about market is income per hour, and almost nobody states it.

Short answer

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

  • Ignore anything that requires an external site or seller.
  • Group up where the multiplier is meaningful.
  • Expect one number in every guide to be out of date; the method is what matters.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. Group multipliers change the ranking of methods completely, which is why lists disagree. The cap on a given activity matters more than its headline number.

What it earns per hour

A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. 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 short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why.

Idle income sounds appealing and is almost always the worst rate available. A method that was patched still shows up in search results for years afterwards. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts.

Methods that were nerfed

Payout figures quoted without a time attached are marketing rather than information. 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.

  • Check the patch date on any figures you are comparing.
  • Calculate per hour, including setup and travel.
  • Keep a save or backup from before you start — it costs nothing and occasionally saves an evening.
  • Finish the setup before starting the loop.

Setup cost and payback time

The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. Everything below is framed around the current state of War Thunder rather than a launch-week impression. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different.

Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see.

Solo versus group

Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of.

The loop worth repeating

War Thunder is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. 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 people go wrong

  • Skipping the prerequisite because it looked optional in someone else's summary.
  • 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.
  • Downloading a helper tool for something the game already does in its own menu.

War Thunder FAQ

Do I need other players?

For some activities the multiplier is large enough to matter. For the rest, solo is fine and less coordination.

Was this method nerfed?

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

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.

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.