War Thunder has spawned enough surrounding work that the ordering question comes up constantly.
Short answer
The short version: it is canon where the developers say it is, and enjoyable regardless.
- Buy from the publisher's own store where one exists.
- Look for an official assets page before downloading anything.
- Give a method one honest attempt before deciding it does not work.
War Thunder models more of the vehicle than it tells you about, and the grind punishes guessing. Licensed soundtracks are the most likely part to be missing from a re-release. Official art books contain material that never appears in the game itself.
What exists officially
It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. Release order and chronological order are different, and both have their advocates. Fan work is frequently better than official work and is not the same thing. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of.
Adaptations take liberties, and the interesting ones take them deliberately. Canon status is decided by the developers rather than by the adaptation's writers. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on.
Whether it is worth your time
Assets circulated online are often ripped rather than released, which affects what you can legally do with them. Everything below is framed around the current state of War Thunder rather than a launch-week impression. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why.
- Check whether something is official before treating it as canon.
- Expect licensed music to be missing from re-releases.
- Expect one number in every guide to be out of date; the method is what matters.
- Credit fan artists if you reuse their work.
- Play first if you mind spoilers — adaptations rarely respect them.
Where it fits with the game
Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it.
The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. War Thunder is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep.
What is fan-made
Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over.
Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration.
Where to find it legitimately
There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see.
Where people go wrong
- Assuming a guide from an older season still describes the current version.
- Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.
- Changing five things at once and then not knowing which one helped.
War Thunder FAQ
Is it any good?
The reception is mixed and depends heavily on what you wanted from it. The section above sets that expectation honestly.
Is it canon?
Where the developers have said so, yes. Adaptations produced under licence are frequently their own continuity.
Do I need it to understand the game?
No. It adds background rather than filling gaps the game leaves open.
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.