How do i play the XP-50?

I just picked up the XP-50 cause how many people both praised and hated its godly performance… and so far, its been a pain in the ass to use. Yeah its climbrate and airspawn is nice and you can easily rack up altitude and energy… but i have found it pretty hard to use it effectively as it compresses a lot at 550+ km/h and slight turns can cause a blackout, though thats just bad crew skills.

Anyways, i have heard basic things with it like boom and zoom, conserve ammo, good energy retention, whatever, but am wondering how to use it more effectively.

When I picked it up I hated it at first. It was so bad, now I can use it and all I can really say is pick off lone wolfs.

With the XP-50, some DOs and DON’Ts

DOs:

  • always have energy advantage, come from above!
    (exception: some heavies with painful dorsal armament like the Pe-8 or the BV whale, attack their soft belly by coming from below)
  • Boom and Zoom, but mind your compression, use more shallow angles than you might be used to, and be prepared to cut throttle!
  • use your fantastic climb speed to energy trap other fighters
  • you are faster and have a better climb rate than most planes. Some you cannot outclimb, but outrun, some you cannot outrun but outclimb. Know what to do in defense should you have baddies incoming!
  • Mind your ammo, once the cannon rounds are used up, you are on 2x 50 cals, which is about the armament of a BR 2.0 fighter, so you are pretty much useless. RTB and rearm while you still can!
  • each tiny damage cripples your style! RTB while you still can!
  • be the hero of the team in the late game when the final enemy is searched and found in near earth orbit, you can get there!

DONTs:

  • dont get into an extended vertical dive, you will compress irrecoverably and splat.
  • don’t fight when outnumbered
  • don’t turnfight extendedly anything smaller than a bomber. You can be outturned by a P-47 or a B7A2!
  • don’t groundpound without need, what a waste of your climb rate!

Just as starters!
Also: wings rip at 745 kph, combat flaps rip at 465 kph

– E.

2 Likes

Exactely what Lady_Eyaski said