Ask about Q5 in War Thunder and you get five confident answers, three of which describe an older version.

Short answer

It is worth understanding once properly, because a lot of other things in War Thunder refer back to it.

  • Ask what it is for before asking how to get it.
  • Note where it first appears, so you can go back if you need to.
  • Write down what you changed, so you can undo exactly one thing if it goes sideways.

War Thunder models more of the vehicle than it tells you about, and the grind punishes guessing. The wiki entry is thorough and buries the actually useful part six paragraphs down. It rewards understanding rather than grinding, which is unusual for War Thunder.

Whether it is worth going out of your way for

The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. The in-game description is technically accurate and practically useless. Knowing this does not make you better at War Thunder, but it does make the rest of it legible. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over.

It became noticeably more relevant after a change the patch notes barely mentioned. Whether it is worth going out of your way for depends entirely on how you are playing. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

Where you encounter it

The name is descriptive if you already know what it does, and opaque if you do not. It is more consequential in the late game than the early one, which is why first impressions mislead. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of.

  • Expect its role to have shifted at least once across updates.
  • Do not confuse it with the similarly named thing — that mix-up drives most bad advice.
  • Keep a save or backup from before you start — it costs nothing and occasionally saves an evening.
  • Treat wiki trivia sections as trivia rather than mechanics.

What it is often confused with

It shows up in more places than its introduction suggests, once you know to look. It is the kind of thing veterans forget they ever had to learn. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. Its practical value is narrow and real, rather than broad and theoretical.

Most guides mention it in passing and none of them stop to define it. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. If you only remember one thing about it, remember where it appears.

How it has changed over time

Two similarly named things exist, and mixing them up explains a lot of contradictory advice. Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. Its role has changed across updates, so older discussion describes something slightly different.

There is a persistent myth attached to it that has never been true in any version. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. It appears in supplementary material in more detail than it does in the game itself.

Why people keep asking about it

The game introduces it quickly and assumes you picked it up, which is where the confusion starts. War Thunder is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. Community shorthand around it has drifted far enough from the original meaning to cause arguments.

Where people go wrong

  • Trusting a video thumbnail that promises a result the video never actually shows.
  • Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.
  • Ignoring the platform-specific note and then wondering why the steps do not line up.

War Thunder FAQ

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 this still accurate after the latest War Thunder update?

The method is; individual numbers may not be. If a value on your screen differs, trust the screen and keep the sequence.

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.

Work through it in the order above and q5 stops being a question you have to look up again.