✈️The A6M5 Ko and A6M2 (USA) Temporarily Return for the A6M’s First Flight!

On April 1st 1939, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero made its first flight. This plane became the most widely produced Japanese aircraft during World War II. At the beginning of the war, its incredible maneuverability was unrivaled, and coupled with its powerful armament, ensured Japan achieved many aerial victories.

🏪The A6M5 Ko and A6M2 (USA) are temporarily available for Golden Eagles!

These two fighters are available for 3,850 and 1,300 Golden Eagles respectively.

When: From March 31st (12:00 GMT) until April 4th (12:00 GMT).
Where: USA / Japan > Aviation > Premium vehicles.

▪️The A6M2 (rank III, USA) was produced since 1940. In June 1942, one of these aircraft crash landed in Alaska, allowing the USAF to capture and inspect it. This highly maneuverable fighter is armed with two 20 mm Type 99 Model 1 cannons with 120 rounds in total and two 7.7 mm machine guns.

▪️The A6M5 Ko (rank IV, Japan) was a modified variant of the aircraft carried out in late 1942. It received two 20 mm Type 99 Model 2 cannons with 250 rounds in total. The speed and climb rate were also improved and a 250 kg bomb was added.

🆕Infantry and Expanded Tech Trees in War Thunder!

Introducing a revolutionary update! The long awaited and highly requested addition of infantry to the battlefields of War Thunder is finally here!

We’re always striving to push the boundaries of our game — an online military combat simulator that brings to life legendary weaponry from various eras. That’s why War Thunder is about to grow not only in depth with the introduction of armored vehicles and aircraft from World War I, but also in scale, with infantry now joining the fight!

❓What does this mean?

Very soon, a large-scale closed beta test of infantry will begin. We’ll share more details about the tech trees, weaponry, gear, and gameplay features in future devblogs. But in THE NEXT 24 HOURS, you'll have your first chance to take part in test battles featuring infantry during a special event dedicated to World War I.

It’s time to see war from a completely new perspective. You’re already familiar with the devastating power of machines — on land, in the sky, and at sea. But everything is about to change when infantry, the true decisive force of the battlefield, finally enters the fray.

Get ready for all new battles like you’ve never seen before, and stay tuned for updates.

Forward, soldiers!

‼️Planned Technical Works on 01.04.2025

Hey everyone, on April 1st from 08:00 GMT, the War Thunder game servers may be unavailable due to the release of the minor update!

Thank you for your understanding.

🛠Update 2.45.1.22

Aircraft
▪️F-117 — a task to acquire an additional camouflage has been changed. Now to obtain the camouflage, a player needs to destroy any ground vehicles (both AI controlled and players) instead of destroying players’ vehicles. The number of vehicles to destroy and the game mode multipliers have not been changed.
▪️Tiger HAD, Tiger HAP — a bug that caused the landing gear to be shifted has been fixed.

Ground Vehicles
▪️T-10A — an ability for an additional respawn in the Ground Simulator Battles, which was present by mistake, has been removed.
▪️AMC.34 YR, H.35 and FCM.36 have been grouped together.

Naval Vessels
▪️The damage to a naval vessel caused by an explosion in the ammunition storage rooms has been adjusted. Explosion power now depends on the amount of ammunition in the storage — the more explosives there are, the more powerful the explosion will be. Damage from their detonation is now considerably larger and has a greater radius of effect, in which it damages modules. We’d like to note that different vessels are built differently and while on some the ammo storage is separated from each other by thick armor, others can lack such armor or not have such thick armor, which can cause the explosions effect to drastically differ from one vessel to another.
▪️The propagation dynamics of fire on main caliber turrets via ammo elevators towards the ammunition storage rooms have been adjusted. On larger ships with inhabited ammo elevators the fire can spread through them upwards (towards the main caliber guns) and downwards (towards ammunition storage). Fire in the elevator can start from its destruction as well as from the damage received by the elevator (for example, an explosion of a shell inside it). Moreover, fire in the turret can spread down, to the elevators and if a player doesn’t react in time to extinguish it, the fire can spread through the elevators to the ammunition storage rooms. If that happens, there is little time to react — an explosion can happen at any moment while the fire affects the ammunition.

Locations
▪️Karelia — errors that caused visual artifacts to appear on the landscape have been fixed. Low-quality trees around the ground battle zone have been removed.
▪️Advance to the Rhine — the orientation of the distant helicopter spawn for the northern team has been adjusted. It is now facing the ground battle zone.
▪️Carpathians — areas that allowed climbing onto the cliffs in square G5 have been blocked.

Other
▪️Client stability has been improved.

➡️LEARN MORE

🔥War Thunder: The Great War!

“The situation is getting worse by the day. In the morning we were under heavy bombardment, and in the evening we got bitten by large rats in the trenches. We were ordered to go over top into no man’s land, where many of my friends were gunned down. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I have heard we lost 50 men in a mere few minutes. We are sacrificing so many for just a few feet of land, if that. The war has been raging for 4 years now, and today I saw the latest armored behemoth modifications roll forward and planes fly over and thought to myself: surely the end is in sight — I feel I am close to coming home to you now.” – letter from an Unknown Soldier, KIA, 1918.

👋Welcome to The Great War in War Thunder!

When: From April 1st until April 7th (11:00 GMT), play in “The Great War” mode and complete stages to get and keep First World War vehicles!

The year is 1918. The war between the Entente and Central Powers is raging on in its final year. Soldiers fight on, tanks have made their debut on the battlefield, and planes dogfight in the sky. You have been enlisted to fight for your country. Gear up, new conscript!

This event takes you back to the brutal battlefields of the Western Front in Flanders during the First World War. Command the first tanks to have ever gone into combat and dogfight in the skies with aircraft, or immerse yourself by piloting a Zeppelin airship, capable of bombing enemy targets. An event like this wouldn’t be complete without AI infantry, who roam around the trenches and in no man’s land at the front line.

🎁Rewards
The Triple Entente and German Empire have six stages each. One stage per side can be completed each day. To get all of the vehicles, complete 5 stages for each side!

Each stage for each side will be unlocked for 5,000 mission points and will bring a new reward.

Stages change once a day at 11:00 GMT: April 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th.

While the fighters are not obtainable in this event, in the future you’ll be able to try them in our VR game, Aces of Thunder!

In addition to the rewards below, you can play at least one battle with an activity of 70% or higher to get the “The Great War” loading screen!

🇬🇧🇫🇷🇷🇺Triple Entente

Obtainable vehicles:

▪️Mark V — an Event Vehicle Medium tank for Great Britain at Rank I
▪️St-Chamond — an Event Vehicle Medium tank for France at Rank I
▪️Garford — an Event Vehicle Light tank for the USSR at Rank I
▪️H.P.12 — an Event Vehicle Bomber for Great Britain at Rank I

🇩🇪German Empire

Obtainable vehicles:

▪️A7V — an Event Vehicle Medium tank for Germany at Rank I
▪️Beutepanzer Mk IV — an Event Vehicle Medium tank for Germany at Rank I
▪️Garford-Beute — an Event Vehicle Light Tank for Germany at Rank I


🔹You can track the progress of the task by clicking on your nickname and selecting the menu Achievements → “The Great War”.
🔹Each stage can be purchased for 599 Golden Eagles and unlocks the corresponding reward.
🔹Please note: After finishing a stage, you need to collect the reward manually. To do this, click on your nickname, Achievements → “The Great War” and click the “Get Reward” button.
🔹You cannot receive the same vehicle twice.
🔹Vehicles are immediately activated onto your account.

➡️LEARN MORE

🐯Unique pack - "Rawring '20s"!

Jazz rhythms, the strict geometry of Art Deco, the dawn of Hollywood — the 1920s stormed into history with a whirlwind of freedom, progress, and decadence.

The brightest representative of this period was Tigor "The Great Catsby" – a famous dreamer and adventurer, whose unique qualities allowed him to reach high ranks and become an iconic figure of that time.

Immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the "Roaring Twenties" with this unique pack that combines the grace, monumentality, and dynamism of this era.

🛍 War Thunder - The Rawring '20s Pack

The Kit Includes:
🔹Unique title: "Hear me RAWR!"
🔹Unique decal: "Rawring '20s"
🔹Premium account for 30 days
🔹5000 Golden Eagles

❗️This pack will be available for purchase from April 1st to April 7th 11:00 GMT!!!

P.S. Champagne and a tuxedo are not included in the pack.

🚤Take On Legendary Ships in the Battle of Jutland!

The Battle of Jutland, fought between the British Royal Navy and Imperial German Navy in 1916, is considered the largest naval battle of World War I. Today we’re inviting you to take part in this epic battle in War Thunder!

A large-scale battle awaits you in Realistic and Arcade Modes. Endless expanses of water, no aircraft — just fiery salvos, the roar of explosions, salty cold water and the commander’s orders that break their vocal cords! Will you pick the High Seas Fleet of the German Empire or the Grand Fleet of Britain’s Royal Navy? Choose your side and lead your ships into the Skagerrak Strait. May the best opposition win!

🏪When: From April 1st until April 7th (11:00 GMT), take part in the Battle of Jutland to get yourself a decal!

To participate in the event, you need to select the German or British fleet. In battle, you’ll be able to use the permitted ships in your crew slots. If you don’t have any of the ships from the list in your crew slots, you can still participate in the event and borrow pre-installed ships in battle (marked with an asterisk (*) in the list). Pre-installed ships have torpedoes, armor-piercing shells, pumps, repair and fire extinguishing, the crew is half-upgraded and the Expert qualification is on.

Each player has three respawns available, with each ship having its own cost in spawn points. At the start of the battle, each player has 100 Spawn Points (SP) available.

🇬🇧Royal Navy
▪️HMS Invincible* — 0
▪️HMS Colossus* — 0
▪️HMS Queen Mary — 100
▪️HMS Orion — 100
▪️HMS Marlborough — 250
▪️HMS Iron Duke — 250
▪️HMS Barham — 350

🇩🇪High Seas Fleet
▪️SMS Von der Tann* — 0
▪️SMS Westfalen* — 0
▪️SMS Nassau — 0
▪️SMS Helgoland — 50
▪️SMS Ostfriesland — 50
▪️SMS Derfflinger — 100
▪️SMS Kaiser — 100

Choose which ship to use depending on your playstyle and preferences. This will be a true test of your teamwork skills and strategic thinking on the open waters!

⭐️Get the “The Glorious Memory: Battle of Jutland” decal!

Earn 20,000 mission points in Arcade or Realistic Naval Battles or the Battle of Jutland event while using any ships from the list above to receive the “The Glorious Memory: Battle of Jutland” decal!

You can access the event through Events and Tournaments -> Battle of Jutland.

🖌Meet the new War Thunder x Italeri scale models!

Italeri is a company that specializes in producing amazingly detailed scale models of military vehicles: from fighters and helicopters to tanks and ships. We’ve already partnered with Italeri in the past and are thrilled to do so again — it’s time to introduce the new lineup of War Thunder scale models!

🛍The F-16C Fighting Falcon (1:48 scale), the Tornado GR.1/IDS (1:48), the Leopard 2A4 (1:35), and the M1A1 Abrams (1:35) all come with amazing decal sheets and in-game bonuses! Check them out:

🔹M1A1 Abrams - WAR THUNDER
🔹Leopard 2A4 - WAR THUNDER
🔹F-16C Fighting Falcon - WAR THUNDER
🔹Tornado GR.1/IDS Gulf War - WAR THUNDER

❗️Note that Italeri only delivers across the EU, the UK, and Switzerland.

Keep an eye out for our Social Media accounts, as from April 3rd until April 10th we’ll be having a giveaway of 8 co-branded model packs! Be sure to follow us on X, Facebook, and Instagram to participate!

❗️Note: We cannot ship to winners from the following countries: India, Pakistan, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, and Belarus.

✈️Golovachev’s Yak-9M is Temporarily Available for Golden Eagles!

This month’s Pages of History features ace pilot Pavel Golovachev. Having become famous for his aerial ramming over East Prussia, Golovachev left his trusty La-7 in a museum and in the last months of the war switched to a brand-new Yak-9M. He flew it in the skies over Berlin and shot down two Fw 190s in late April 1945.

🏪Golovachev’s Yak-9M is temporarily available for Golden Eagles!

In honor of Golovachev, the premium Yak-9M is available for 1,780 Golden Eagles.

When: From April 4th (11:00 GMT) until April 7th (11:00 GMT).
Where: USSR > Aviation > Premium vehicles.

About this aircraft
▪️Golovachev’s Yak-9M (rank III) has a more robust wing structure, allowing it to perform better in dives. This aircraft is armed with a 20 mm ShVAK cannon and a 12.7 mm UBS machine gun.

⭐️Monthly Decals for April!

Hey everyone, we’re glad to be back with another set of historical decals! We hope you collected everything you were interested in during March, and that the selection for April is similarly appealing. This month, we have quite a varied selection of emblem types — if you’d like to submit an emblem for consideration for future monthly events, make a post on the forum and we’ll take a look!

🏪The following decals will be available from April 7th (11:00 GMT) until May 7th (11:00 GMT).
All tasks can be completed using vehicles that are rank III or higher.

All of the emblems will come with a detailed description. This will generally consist of the history of the marking, its design, which vehicles used it, and where it was often placed on vehicles historically if applicable (some emblems are taken from badges, which weren’t always applied). This way you can more easily recreate the original positioning if you’d like.

We hope you like the selection this month! Thank you for all of your feedback and suggestions, and we’ll see you next month for more!

🏒Puck! Puck!

In honor of Alexander Ovechkin’s historic achievement of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL goal scoring record, we’re launching a special event for all hockey fans!

Get unique decals, the “Callsign “Hockey Player”” profile icon and celebrate this incredible moment with us!

Until April 11th (07:00 GMT), look out for the “The Great Eight” tab in your achievements, where you’ll find rewards and tasks:
▪️Play 8 battles while using USSR or USA vehicles that are rank II or higher to receive the “Hockey puck” decal.
▪️Win 8 battles while using USSR or USA vehicles that are rank II or higher to receive the “Callsign “Hockey Player”” player icon.
▪️Activate the “OVI” code on the activation page here to receive the “Hockey stamp” decal the next time you log into the game until April 11th (07:00 GMT).

🏪The achievement for obtaining the “Callsign "Hockey Player” profile icon will be available for completion on consoles from April 9th (13:00 GMT) until April 14th (13:00 GMT).

Don’t miss your chance to become part of hockey history in War Thunder. Let’s celebrate this sporting triumph together!

🇵🇭Moments of Valor: Philippines

April 9th is traditionally observed in the Philippines as a national memorial day known as Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor). This day commemorates the fall of the Bataan Peninsula to Japanese forces in 1942. For nearly four months, the defenders of the peninsula held off enemy attacks despite being starved, short of ammunition and low on manpower. For Filipinos, their feat is a shining symbol of valor and selflessness.

In honor of this day, we’ve prepared a special video from the Moments of Valor series, as well as an exclusive bundle with premium vehicles and unique camouflages created by the War Thunder Live community.

This bundle is available at a 50% discount in the Gaijin.net store until April 16th (6:00 GMT).

Vehicle owners can purchase camouflages separately for Golden Eagles.

During the same time period, the F-86F-35 Sabre Skyblazers and Stuart VI (5th CAD) are available to purchase for Golden Eagles on all platforms.

🛍Moments of Valor: Philippines Bundle -50%

The Bundle Includes:
🔹Sabre Skyblazers Pack + Philippine Air Force Sabre “468” camouflage by RenaiCirculation
🔹F-5C Pack + Philippine Air Force Blue Diamonds Aerobatic Team camouflage by Wilk28
🔹Stuart VI (5th CAD) Pack + No.108, Armed Forces of the Philippines camouflage by Filipino_Komrad
🔹Unique decal: “Philippine Eagle”
🔹Unique title: “Protector of the People”

Additionally, all three packs are available separately with a 30% discount from April 9th until 16th (6:00 GMT) in the Gaijin.net store.
You can also get the decal and title if you already have all the vehicles in the pack and play 3 battles with each of them from April 9th to 16th (6:00 GMT).

The following camouflages created by War Thunder Live players have been permanently added to the game for Golden Eagles:

▪️Sabre Skyblazers (USA, Rank V) + Philippine Air Force Sabre “468” camouflage by RenaiCirculation
▪️F-5C (USA, Rank VII) + Philippine Air Force Blue Diamonds Aerobatic Team camouflage by Wilk28
▪️M113A1 (TOW) (Italy, Rank VI) + Philippine Civic Action Group camouflage by Filipino_Komrad
▪️M41A1 (USA, Rank IV) + 10th Battalion Combat Team, Armed Forces of the Philippines camouflage by Filipino_Komrad
▪️Scimitar (UK, Rank V) + “Scorpion” camouflage by Badass_Jellykin
▪️Sherman I Composito (Rank 3, Italy) + “Always Ready” camouflage by TonyTheJackal
▪️Stuart VI (5th CAD) (USA, Rank II) + No.108, Armed Forces of the Philippines camouflage by Filipino_Komrad

➡️Camouflages

🛠It’s fixed! №103

Today, we’ve rounded up and will be going over some of the bug fixes and improvements that we’ve made to the game today and over the past few weeks. If you’d like to catch up on every fixed bug, then be sure to check out the changelog section on our website.

✅Non-Exploding Ammo Fixes

You know how in action movies, cars usually blow up for any reason after a collision, even when there is nothing that could cause them to explode? Tanks definitely have ammunition that can explode, however due to a bug the ammunition, that wasn’t protected or inert, in some vehicles sometimes failed to explode or ignite when it was completely destroyed.

Ammunition not exploding once it was completely destroyed has been fixed for the following vehicles: T20, M4A4 (SA50), P.7.T (AA), Lorraine 37L, Flakpanzer 38, Flakpanzer I, Kugelblitz, Wirbelwind, Zerstorer 45, Panzerjager I, Sd.Kfz.140/1, Pz.II F, Sd.Kfz.221 (s.Pz.B.41), Pvkv III, Pvlvv fm/42, AEC AA, M2A2, GAZ-MM (72-K), T-60, ZiS-12 (94-KM) and any variant of the M51.

✅Camouflage Fixes

Recently, a bug was discovered in the game that affected camouflages, in particular Market and custom ones. This bug caused camouflages to look excessively battle-scarred despite the settings and in some cases they were displayed completely incorrectly. This bug has now been fixed, so you can enjoy the beauty of your camouflages again!

✅Ray Tracing and Graphical Adjustments

Ray Tracing was added to War Thunder quite recently, and we continue to work to ensure that this technology is implemented as fully and correctly as possible. In particular, we’ve fixed all inaccuracies and roughness associated with it. For example, players using Ray Tracing would notice yellow highlights on the walls of buildings, and bright pink flashes on glass when they fired, as if they were shooting some kind of laser instead of regular ammo. We’ve fixed these issues now, as well as another one not related to Ray Tracing, where objects could sometimes flicker just after they were destroyed.

✅Radar Fixes

Several radar-related issues have also been fixed and tweaks have been made in recent weeks. For example, the maximum radial speeds of targets have been increased for search and track modes of aircraft pulse-Doppler radars, allowing for the detection and acquisition of, for example, missiles flying towards the radar carrier. It’s useful to know where exactly the threat is coming from!

Here are some other radar bug fixes: Firstly, a bug where it was impossible to move the radar scanning area horizontally or vertically in the track-while-scan mode. Secondly, a number of bugs with the radar getting stuck in memory tracking modes after dropping the target track. Thirdly, the Kopyo-25 radar on the Su-39 no longer locks onto “empty space” when trying to lock on ground targets. And lastly, there was a lack of indication of the player’s own ARH air-to-air missiles on the radar indicator for all AN/APG-65Q radar carriers.

✅Sighting Enemy Vehicles from the Cockpit

A bug was discovered on a number of Soviet aircraft (Su-25, Su-25K, Su-17M2, Su-17M4, Su-22M3, MiG-21S). When looking at a target from the cockpit through the sight glass and through the cockpit glazing, vehicles were displayed at different distances. For example, it was possible to spot an enemy somewhere off to the side, start to approach it to aim, and see nothing through the sight glass as vehicles were displayed at a much shorter distance.

This bug has now been fixed. Vehicles will display correctly at the same distances, regardless of which part of the cockpit you see them through.

That’s not all

You’ll find the full list of improvements in separate update notes. For example, vehicles no longer appear wet, spectators in Air Realistic Battles can see allies and enemies again, and bugs in the new weapon stat cards have been fixed.

➡️Update 2.45.1.35
➡️Update 2.45.1.37
➡️Update 2.45.1.40

‼️ Fair Play: April 2025

Each month we share information about accounts that have been banned for cheating or for violating the TOS. We thank you for actively reporting players who aren’t playing by the rules: it really helps us! You can use the battle replay function on our website to report players who you suspect have violated the game’s Terms of Service and the License Agreement. Instructions on how to do this can be found here.

🤕Banned accounts
Since our last fair play, we’ve banned 4,268 accounts that were found to have violated the rules. Specifically 3.2.3 of the EULA namely in the automation of gameplay (using bots) and cheat software. For complete transparency, we’re publishing the full list of these banned players. This list will be available for two weeks after the publication of this article.

499 more accounts have been banned for a week or more for intentional teamkills.

📜For complete transparency, we’re publishing the full list of these banned players. This list will be available for two weeks after the publication of this article.

⭐️Recommendations
We recommend that you set a strong password for your account and enable two-step authentication in your profile security settings. We have the following 2FA options available: email, SMS, TOTP (Gaijin Pass/Google Authenticator), and Telegram bot, which we suggest trying if SMS 2FA messages are not reaching you.

We’d also suggest that you turn on 2FA for the email that is linked to your Gaijin account for additional security, as this will protect your account from fraudsters. And remember, don’t use prohibited client modifications and never share your account information with anyone.

💡Ray Tracing Keeps Improving!

This article goes over some points from the VFX team about the improvements made to Ray Tracing technologies in the Hornet’s Sting update.

As promised at the end of last year, work on making Ray Tracing better doesn’t stop! First up, Ray Tracing is now enabled on all PCs, regardless of GPU Vendor. AMD Radeon and Intel Arc users can now enjoy all RT features. We’re still working to make RT available on Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 consoles.

By making several changes in the code, we’ve significantly improved RT performance.

▪️We have reworked the way rays go through foliage, which helps when going through a forest.
▪️We have updated the denoiser we use to process the RT results. The new version has a bigger improvement in speed, while maintaining the same quality.
▪️We have a new Shadow Quality setting. This is a big one. Low allows us to shoot half as many rays as before, while medium is contextual, but usually removes 30-50% of the rays in fully lighted or shadowed areas. This is a serious improvement, and you should be aware that even on the Low setting, the difference from the High setting is very small if you are using one of the advanced Temporal anti-aliasing methods, like TSR, DLSS, XeSS of FSR. They are for sure more demanding than less advanced methods, but surpass them in image quality in both native resolution and when doing upscaling. The Low setting is also less prone to performance drops in heavily loaded scenes.

Don’t see much of a difference? Exactly. And as said before, Low demands two times less resources than High (which was used before the update).

All of these improvements can result in an overall 20-25% reduction of the GPU cost of the RT effects.

We’ve worked on the windows of buildings with Ray Tracing enabled. At launch they were way too mirror-like, but after some love they now look much more natural and physically correct.

We’ve also identified several code paths where RT became unstable, which lead to GPU or even game crashes. These are now greatly reduced, and RT is much more stable now.

That’s it for now! We’ve got even more great improvements ahead, so stay tuned.