Hi there! I am new to War Thunder and also suck at it. Any tips on grinding? By the way, I mainly use Swedish and American air and German ground and don’t really do navy, I have a 2.7 BR for USA Air Arcade, 1.7 for Swedish Air Arcade, and 2.0 for German Ground Arcade. Thanks.
There’s a few things.
First, I would not recommend starting with Sweden. It’s a fantastic tree, but not a beginner-friendly one. Start with the USA, USSR, or China. China is actually my number 1 recommendation because it gives you the experience of American and Soviet vehicles in 1 tree.
Second thing, focus on building lineups. Do not try to grind down 1 line in search of 1 vehicle. Instead, grind down all lines roughly evenly and try to build lineups at specific BRs. My general advice for a good lineup is 3 planes and 2 tanks. You also want the lineup to be versatile, if possible. If you have the option to, put different types of vehicles in those lineups to serve different purposes. An example of this would be my French 3.7 lineup which is the ARL-44 (ACL-1), M4A4, LVT-4/40, F6F-5, and F-6C-10-NA. The ARL-44 (ACL-1) is a medium tank-esque heavy tank that can eat shots, the M4A4 is a super versatile medium tank, the LVT-4/40 is a light tank with okay mobility and super fast firing gun that, critically, works really well in uptiers, the F-6C-10-NA is a dedicated fighter with a super good tracer belt, and the F6F-5 act’s as the fighter and bomber with good air-to-air armament and good turning, but also 3 1000 lb bombs. I know that the LVT-4/40 and F-6C-10-NA are both Battle Pass vehicles, but this gives an idea of versaility in lineups. While this is a general good rule to follow, you don’t have to be strict about it either. Most of my lineups end up being 2 relatively similar medium tanks that play roughly the same, a light tank, tank destroyer or SPAA, and 2 planes. For example, my Chinese 5.7 lineup is the T-34-85 (S-53), T-34-85 Gai, M64 (you can use the M18 in place of this), P-51K, and Tu-2S-44. I have 2 T-34-85s in it that play roughly the same, but it’s still a great lineup.
The third thing to know is spading vehicles. Spading a vehicle is getting all of the modifications on it. It’s a really good idea for a lot of reasons. First, you get more experience in vehicles and thus get better at the game. Second of all, vehicles have modification ranks. Every time you research a modification rank, you get bonus research points (RP) toward whatever vehicle you are researching. I find it best to spade entire lineups before moving on to the next thing.
As for top tier premiums, hold off on them. They can be great vehicles and many are worth the money if you are already at that tier, but the issue is that they too need lineups. For example, if you’re looking at the USSR, don’t pick up the T-72AV (TURMS-T) until you have at least 1 of the tech tree T-72Bs and the Strela-10M2 because by that point, you’ll have experience in that tier enough to know how to play those vehicles and you will have a lineup around the T-72AV (TURMS-T) that will make it work.
I hope this helped! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
For grinding in Warthunder, the three most important things are (in any order):
Survival
Survival
Survival