The game presents this as a menu of choices and quietly makes some of them far better than others.

Short answer

Do the cheap unlocks first: they compound, and the expensive ones do not get cheaper by waiting.

  • Check what each unlock gates before spending on it.
  • Note whether respec exists before committing.
  • Read the whole sequence once before doing the first step.

War Thunder models more of the vehicle than it tells you about, and the grind punishes guessing. Unlock costs rise faster than income does, so early efficiency compounds for a long time. Skipping the tutorial content usually costs more later than the hours it saves now.

How long it realistically takes

Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. Time estimates online are written by people playing far more than you probably are. Respec and reset options exist in some of these games and not others, and that changes how careful to be. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts.

The mid-section is where progression slows sharply, and knowing that in advance helps. A line finished is worth more than three lines half-done, in every game that works this way. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different.

Where people stall

The game rarely tells you that a prerequisite exists until you are standing in front of it. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds.

  • Expect the middle to be the slow part.
  • Do the repeatable early content while it is still efficient.
  • Write down what you changed, so you can undo exactly one thing if it goes sideways.
  • Finish one line before opening another.

What is safe to skip

The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional.

Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows. Everything below is framed around the current state of War Thunder rather than a launch-week impression. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first.

The order that works

The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see.

Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on.

What to unlock first

What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. War Thunder is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look.

Where people go wrong

  • Copying a setup wholesale from a streamer without understanding what each part does.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.
  • Ignoring the platform-specific note and then wondering why the steps do not line up.

War Thunder FAQ

How long does it take?

Longer than the guides say, because guides are written by people playing far more hours than most.

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.

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.

Can I change my mind later?

Sometimes, at a cost. Whether a reset exists is the first thing to check before committing.

Come back to the caveats list if it does not work first time — the answer is almost always in there.