War Thunder Economy Guide: Making Silver Lions and Golden Eagles Last

War Thunder runs on two currencies, and both feel tight once you start pushing past rank IV. Silver Lions, or SL, pay for repairs, ammo, and every new tank or plane you pull off the tech tree. Golden Eagles, or GE, are the real-money currency, and they buy the stuff that makes the grind move faster.

A lot of players burn through both and end up broke, staring at a vehicle they can't afford to fix. The good news is the economy has some predictable levers. Once you see how repair costs scale, what a premium account actually does, and which vehicles print lions, you can keep your balance healthy without dropping much real cash. What follows breaks down the pieces that move the needle the most.

Repair Costs and How to Minimize Losses

How the repair bill actually works

After every battle you pay to fix whatever got shot up, plus the ammo you fired and any crew you lost. The money comes straight out of your SL. What catches people out is that the bill scales hard with battle rating and rank. A rank III medium tank might cost a few hundred to a couple thousand lions to patch up. Top-tier jets and modern main battle tanks can run into five figures on a rough match.

Gaijin rebalanced this a while back. They cut repair costs by roughly 15 to 40 percent on a big chunk of ground vehicles in ranks V through VII, across all game modes. So it's gentler than it used to be. High battle rating is still where the heavy bills live, and that's worth knowing before you rush up the tree.

Turn off auto-repair when you're broke

One of the oldest tricks in the game. Auto-repair is on by default, and it'll quietly drain your balance fixing vehicles you're not even driving that day. If you're short on lions, flip it off in your settings. Your tanks and planes just sit broken in the hangar until you pick them.

Then you can run a lineup of vehicles you can actually afford while the pricey ones wait their turn. It's a short-term patch, not a permanent lifestyle, but it stops the bleeding fast when you're broke.

Spread your grind across nations

Repair costs are billed per vehicle, per battle. If you only ever run one nation and one lineup, every expensive death hits the same wallet. Playing a second or third nation spreads the load. When one tech tree's top tank is eating your lions, swap to a lower-rank lineup somewhere else and farm there for a bit.

Plenty of regulars keep a "fun" low-rank lineup around for exactly this reason. It rebuilds the SL balance after a rough session, and low-rank matches are usually cheaper to lose.

Match your lineup to your wallet

The single biggest repair-cost mistake is dragging a half-built high-rank lineup into battle. If you die in your one good top-tier tank and the rest of your crew slots are empty or weak, you've paid full repair for a single life and maybe one kill.

Fill out a lineup with five solid vehicles at a similar battle rating instead. Even a bad match still earns something that way. More spawns mean more kills, more capture points, more activity time, and more lions to cover the bill. A deep lineup is the cheapest insurance in the game.

Dodge the ammo trap

Some shells cost real lions every time you pull the trigger. Big HE rounds, certain anti-tank guided missiles, and top-tier fin shells run expensive. If you load up on pricey ammo you don't need and fire it at everything that moves, you're paying for kills you could've gotten cheaper.

For a lot of guns, the baseline shell does most of the work just fine. Save the spendy stuff for the shots that genuinely need it. Watching your ammo rack adds up over a long session.

A rank III match where you score a couple kills and a capture usually pays out a healthy chunk of lions. The same performance at top tier, with one early death and no backup, can leave you barely breaking even. The math is simple: more spawns and fewer wasted deaths keep your balance climbing.

Premium Account and Premium Vehicle Value Breakdown

What a premium account actually gives you

A premium account is the single biggest boost to your income, and the numbers come straight from Gaijin's own wiki. You get +100 percent Research Points across every mode. For Silver Lions, you get +50 percent on your active actions like kills, captures, and assists in random battles, +100 percent on the reward for battle time, and +50 percent in other modes.

Those bonuses stack on top of everything else you earn. There's also a safety net tucked in: if your repair, ammo, and crew replenishment costs would push your balance negative after a battle, premium covers the shortfall so you never actually drop below zero. That alone saves a ton of pain at high battle rating.

The perks that quietly matter

Premium also unlocks four decal slots, lets you ban one map per game mode, hides your nickname during battles, and changes how camo unlock conditions work. The map ban is the sleeper pick here. Being able to nuke your least favorite map from the rotation means fewer tilted losses, which means fewer wasted repair bills from matches you were never going to win.

What it costs, and when to buy

A premium account runs on real money or GE, and it goes on sale. The community consensus is loud on this one: wait. Gaijin drops it roughly half price during the big seasonal sales, which brings a year of premium time down to around $40 USD instead of the usual asking price. Buying at full price is mostly for folks with more money than patience. If you're going to commit, grab it on sale.

Premium vehicles and the doubled multiplier

A premium vehicle isn't some pay-to-win stat stick. The thing that makes it valuable is its reward multiplier, which is roughly doubled compared to a regular vehicle at the same battle rating. So it earns about twice the SL and twice the RP per match. That multiplier is the engine of your economy.

Run a premium tank or plane with a premium account active, and the two bonuses stack. Toss an SL booster on top of that, and a single good match can pay out hundreds of thousands of lions. The premium vehicle is the workhorse; the account is the multiplier on top.

The value math, plain

A premium account is the better deal per dollar if you play a wide spread of vehicles, because the +50 percent SL and +100 percent RP apply to everything you drive. A premium vehicle is the better call if you mostly want to grind one nation or one battle rating bracket, since that single tank or plane carries your whole income.

The sweet spot for a lot of players is one or two premium vehicles in the nations they play most, plus a premium account when it goes on sale. Buying every premium vehicle in the store is how you go broke in real life to avoid going broke in the game.

If you only have the budget for one purchase, grab a premium vehicle in the nation you already play. The doubled multiplier pays for itself over a few weeks of farming, and you keep the vehicle forever.

Best Vehicles for Efficient Silver Lion Farming

What makes a vehicle a good lion farmer

The best SL earners share a few traits. They have a high inherent reward multiplier, they sit at a forgiving battle rating where you can consistently rack up kills, and they fit a playstyle that generates lots of activity. Premium vehicles win here because of that doubled multiplier, but a few tech-tree tanks and planes punch above their weight too.

The other piece is lineup depth. A single great vehicle sitting in a lineup of garbage means one life and done. Stack your crew slots with good options at the same battle rating and the earnings multiply.

Top premium tanks for lions

The community keeps circling back to a handful of names. The Somua SM, a French premium, gets mentioned constantly as one of the best single-vehicle lion earners in the game. On the US side, the T29 and T30 heavy tanks paired with the M46 Patton and the Super Hellcat form a lineup that people describe as printing lions. The T29 and T30 are tough, hit hard, and survive long enough to farm. The Super Hellcat is quick and flanks, which means plenty of kills and activity.

Top premium planes for lions

For air farming, the A2D-1 Skyshark gets called out as a top earner. At higher tiers, the F-4S Phantom II is a favorite premium jet for SL, since it hauls a strong loadout of missiles, bombs, and napalm, with solid radar. For British players, the Avenger Mk II and Hellcat Mk II are solid premium options that earn well in their bracket.

The lineup trick is where the money lives

Don't run one premium vehicle by itself. Build a lineup around it. If you farm with the T29 at a given battle rating, fill the rest of your crew slots with other strong tanks at that same rating, plus a premium plane or two. Every extra spawn is another shot at kills and activity.

A full lineup where four or five vehicles are all pulling weight earns way more in one match than a single premium tank ever could on its own. The premium vehicle seeds the lineup, but the depth is what cashes in.

Free-to-play farming, no wallet needed

If you're not spending money, you can still farm. Run your highest battle rating tech-tree vehicle, the one you've fully researched and crewed, and lean into its reward multiplier. Pick a bracket where you consistently do well rather than chasing top tier. The warbond shop and Battle Pass also hand out free premium vehicles every season, which gives even pure free-to-play players access to that doubled multiplier over time.

Stack the income layers

Lion farming gets a little silly when you stack the layers. Run a premium vehicle with a premium account, pop an SL booster from the warbond shop, and grind a wager like Thunderer at the same time. The booster multiplies your SL, the account adds its percentage on top, and the wager pays out a lump sum when you finish its stages. Players who stack all three can pull millions of lions in a focused session.

If you're picking one vehicle to start your farm, the Somua SM or a US heavy tank lineup at a battle rating you're comfortable in is about as reliable as it gets.

Spending Golden Eagles Wisely on Crew Slots and Vehicles

The crew slot priority

Golden Eagles are scarce if you're not buying them, so spend them where they compound. The community consensus, echoed over and over for years, is crew slots first. More crew slots means more vehicles in a lineup, which means more spawns, kills, and activity per match. That directly feeds your SL and RP income for as long as you play the game. It's the one purchase that keeps paying you back forever.

How crew slot pricing actually works

This trips up a lot of new players, so it's worth getting straight. Your first two crew slots per nation are free. Slots three, four, and five cost Silver Lions, not GE. Slots six and up are where Golden Eagles kick in. You can't get past five slots without spending GE, which is why those early slots matter so much.

| Crew Slot | Cost | Currency | |-----------|------|----------| | 1st | Free | - | | 2nd | Free | - | | 3rd | 5,000 | Silver Lions | | 4th | 10,000 | Silver Lions | | 5th | 50,000 | Silver Lions | | 6th | 200 | Golden Eagles | | 7th | 500 | Golden Eagles | | 8th | 1,000 | Golden Eagles | | 9th+ | Higher | Golden Eagles |

So fill out to five slots in every nation you play using SL right away. That's cheap and gives you a proper lineup for free. Then think hard about whether the sixth slot is worth 200 GE to you. Usually it is, eventually, but it's not urgent day one.

Premium account time

If you don't already have a premium account running, buying time with GE is a fine use, since it boosts every vehicle you own. The catch is the same as with real money: it's better value on sale. Burning full-price GE on premium time is the lazy option when a seasonal discount is usually just weeks away.

Buying premium vehicles directly with GE

You can buy premium vehicles straight from the store with GE. It's convenient, and it's usually the worst value of your options. Vehicles are cheaper with real money or GJN coins during sales, and you can often snag them for free from events or the warbond shop. Save direct GE vehicle purchases for a specific ride you really want that isn't available any other way.

The coupon trick: free GE through the marketplace

Here's the move experienced players lean on. War Thunder runs events that hand out tradeable vehicle coupons. You can sell those coupons on the Gaijin Marketplace for GJN coins, which work like real-money-equivalent currency in the store. Players use that stash to buy GE, which they then spend on crew slots.

The short version: grind event vehicles you don't actually want, sell the coupons, and turn that grinding into the GE you'd otherwise pay real money for. It converts a little time into free crew slots. It takes patience, but it's the closest thing to a free lunch in the economy.

What not to spend GE on

Skip converting free RP into researchable RP unless you're sitting on a mountain of GE with a very specific goal in mind. Skip buying Silver Lions directly with GE except in a genuine pinch. Both are poor value next to just farming with a premium vehicle.

Accelerated crew training, which buys crew XP with GE, is fine late in the game when you're maxing out a crew. Early on, though, your SL is better spent on crew skills than your GE is on crew XP.

If you follow the priority, crew slots are your first GE purchase, a premium vehicle in your main nation is your second, and almost everything else can wait until a sale.

Daily Tasks and Battle Pass Rewards Worth Prioritizing

Daily tasks: free progress every day

Every day the game hands you tasks that reward Battle Pass points and other small bonuses. They're usually simple: get a number of kills in a certain vehicle class, win some matches, play specific nations. Knocking them out takes a few battles and feeds your Battle Pass progress for the season.

Skipping them is leaving free progress on the table. They refresh daily, so they're one of the most reliable income sources in the game for the time you put in.

How the Battle Pass works

The Battle Pass runs in seasons of about 90 days, with up to 150 levels to climb. You earn points from daily logins, daily tasks, and special challenges, then spend those points to push up the track. The main rewards wrap up around level 75, and beyond that you're grinding toward bonus items.

The pass has a free track everyone gets and a premium track that costs around 2,000 GE to unlock. The premium track is where the better vehicles and the bigger reward chunks live. You can also buy extra levels directly, but that runs roughly 75 to 250 GE per level and is rarely worth it next to just playing the game.

The free premium vehicle

Every season, the Battle Pass and its attached Warbond Shop give you a shot at free premium vehicles, even on the free track if you grind far enough. The community math: daily logins plus the daily easy tasks alone get you a few hundred points, which lands you close to the free premium vehicle threshold without much extra effort.

For a regular player, finishing the pass and grabbing that free vehicle is one of the best returns on time in the whole game. You get the doubled multiplier of a premium vehicle without spending a single Eagle.

The Warbond Shop

Warbonds are a separate currency you earn through the Battle Pass, spent in the Warbond Shop. The shop rotates its stock each season and stocks premium vehicles (people regularly see rides like the XP-50 cycle through), SL boosters, and other goodies.

One detail that really matters: your warbond balance carries over between seasons, but the shop's level resets, so you can't stockpile progress toward a specific shop tier forever. Grab the 20 percent and 30 percent SL boosters when you see them. Those stack with premium and with wagers during big farming sessions.

Wagers and boosters

Wagers like Thunderer pay out a lump sum of SL when you complete a series of stages, usually by performing well across several matches. They're high effort but high reward. The play is to activate a wager, pop an SL booster from the Warbond Shop, run your best premium lineup, and let the income stack on itself.

Boosters are the easier version. They multiply your SL for a set number of matches or a time window. Save them for when you've actually got a real session ahead of you, not a single quick match where most of the booster duration goes to waste.

What to prioritize

If you're playing regularly, the order is pretty clear. Do your daily tasks. Climb the Battle Pass to at least the level 75 rewards. Grab the free premium vehicle. Bank warbonds toward the shop's premium vehicle or its boosters. Buy the premium Battle Pass track with 2,000 GE only if you know you'll play enough to reach the good rewards, since it only unlocks what you actually grind to.

The single best habit in the whole economy is just logging in and doing your daily tasks. A season's worth of free points and a free premium vehicle is worth more than most anything you could buy with GE, and it costs nothing but showing up.