War Thunder Tech Tree Guide: Fastest Way to Unlock Top Tier

War Thunder's tech tree is a long climb. Getting from your first reserve tank or biplane to a top-tier jet or main battle tank can take months, and the people who reach the top first aren't always the better pilots or drivers. They just know how the research system pays out. The grind runs on a currency called Research Points, or RP, and the gap between a smart grind and a sloppy one is measured in weeks.

Every choice nudges your speed: which line you commit to, which vehicle you sit in, which mods you buy first, and whether you bother with a talisman or a premium account. Below you'll find how RP and modifications work, how to pick a line and stick with it, how to stack your bonuses, how to train your crews, and the common blunders that drain your Silver Lions for no good reason.

How Research Points and Modifications Work

RP is the blue currency you spend to unlock new vehicles and vehicle modifications, the modules that upgrade a vehicle with things like better shells, faster reload, or improved engines. You earn it battle by battle. How much you get depends on your game mode, how well you performed, how long you stayed active in the match, and whether your team won or lost.

Here's the part most new players miss. Every battle, your RP gets split. A chunk goes toward researching the next vehicle in your tree, and a separate chunk goes toward the modifications on the vehicle you just drove or flew. Both come from the same base pool of points you earned that match, so a single good round feeds both goals at once.

The skill bonus rewards aggression

Kills and damage matter way more than you'd guess. The game hands out a big Skill Bonus on top of your base RP when you rack up enough kills or damage in one match. The numbers scale with mode:

• Air Arcade: 3 to 5 kills gives +15%, 6 to 9 gives +40%, 10 or more gives +100%
• Air Realistic: 2 kills gives +35%, 3 kills gives +75%, 4 or more gives +100%
• Ground Arcade and Realistic: 3 to 5 kills gives +15%, 6 to 8 gives +50%, 9 or more gives +100%
• Naval: about 6,500 to 9,999 damage gives +20%, 10,000 to 14,999 gives +45%, 15,000 or more gives +100%

A single hot streak can double your RP for that match. That's why getting stuck in and trading shots pays more than playing safe and hiding in a corner.

Activity time is a hidden multiplier

The longer you stay active and useful in one vehicle, the more RP you bank from it. Sitting in a single tank or plane for the whole match and contributing beats spawning five times, dying instantly, and leaving. Survival is a grind stat, plain and simple. A player who lives eight minutes and lands hits almost always out-earns a player who dies in ninety seconds twice.

Tier bonuses add up

Modifications are grouped into tiers. When you finish every mod in a tier, the game awards a bonus equal to 20% of that tier's total RP cost, dumped straight into your vehicle research. Say a tier has four mods at 1,500 RP each, that's 6,000 RP total, and clearing the tier banks a free 1,200 RP toward your next vehicle. That bonus isn't touched by rank penalties or any other multipliers, so it's a flat, guaranteed payout. Finishing tiers is quietly one of the best ways to push a vehicle along.

Which mods to grab first

For tanks, the old priority order still mostly holds. Grab Parts and Fire Prevention Equipment (FPE) early so you can repair a broken track or put out an engine fire, then chase the mobility mods like suspension and engine filters, then the better ammunition, then utility mods like smoke, artillery, and rangefinder. Gaijin did make some stock repair and fire-fighting tools available by default in a recent economy update, which takes a little pressure off, but the upgrade path still favors mobility and firepower early. A stock tank that can't turn or fire its best shell will get you killed fast, and an early death wrecks your RP while it burns your Silver Lions at the same time.

For planes, prioritize the flight performance mods, engine, radiator, new wings, before the weapon mods. A plane that turns and climbs better stays alive longer, and a plane that stays alive longer earns more.

Picking a Priority Vehicle Line to Grind

The single biggest speed-up in War Thunder is focus. Pick one vehicle line, drive straight up it, and ignore the urge to branch into three trees at once. The research system actively rewards staying on one path and punishes hopping around, so a committed grinder beats a dabbler almost every time.

Follow the arrow

The game draws arrows between vehicles that are direct predecessors of each other. If you're sitting in a vehicle that points directly to the one you're researching, you get a fat bonus: 130% extra RP in Arcade and 110% in Realistic or Simulator. That bonus is big enough to override rank penalties entirely, even when the two vehicles sit more than a rank apart. In plain terms, the vehicle you played to unlock the next one is almost always the best vehicle to keep playing.

The rank penalty trap

This is where people bleed RP without realizing it. If the vehicle you're playing is several ranks below the one you're researching, the game slaps a research penalty on you. A one-rank gap is mostly fine, no penalty going up and a small 10% ding going down. But two ranks apart costs you 60% of your RP when a low-rank vehicle feeds a high-rank research target. Three ranks apart, you lose 70%. By four ranks you're losing 80%.

So a Rank II tank trying to research a Rank V tank is throwing away most of its effort every match. The fix is simple: keep your grinder within a rank or two of whatever you're trying to unlock, and lean on the direct predecessor whenever you can.

Premium vehicles bend the rules

Premium vehicles, the ones bought with Golden Eagles or from the store, skip the rank penalty for vehicles ranked below them, and their reward multipliers are doubled compared to regular tech-tree vehicles for both RP and Silver Lions. They also ship with a built-in talisman-style RP bonus. A good premium sitting a rank or two below your target is about the fastest legal grind in the game, which is why veteran players tell newcomers to pick one solid premium and ride it. Just make sure you enjoy flying or driving it, because you'll be seeing a lot of it.

Minimum path versus the whole tree

You don't have to research every vehicle in a line. Most trees let you skip sideways branches if you only care about one end-game vehicle, and following the direct-predecessor arrows along the main column is the shortest route up. The catch is that some premium and event vehicles require you to own specific tech-tree vehicles first, and skipping leaves you with a thinner lineup. For pure speed, though, pick the shortest arrow-path to your target and stay on it.

For air trees specifically, plenty of grinders swear by bombers for steady, low-stress RP. Base bombing racks up points and activity time even if dogfighting isn't your thing. Others prefer a strong fighter that can pile up kills for the skill bonus. Either works as long as you commit to one.

The top-vehicle bonus (once you arrive)

There's one more lever that kicks in late. Once you've researched and bought a qualifying top vehicle in a branch, that vehicle starts handing a bonus to everything else you research in the same branch, for that nation and even others, capped at around five battles per nation per branch per day and resetting at midnight GMT. You won't have this early, but it's worth knowing the climb gets a little faster once your first top-tier vehicle is in the garage.

Using Talismans and Boosters to Speed Progress

Once the basics are dialed in, bonuses are where you multiply your gains. The three main levers are talismans, premium account, and boosters, and they all stack on top of each other.

Where talismans belong

A talisman is a permanent upgrade you can buy for a specific tech-tree vehicle, and it gives a flat 100% bonus to all RP you earn while using that vehicle. It does nothing for Silver Lions. The trick is to put it on a vehicle you already enjoy and plan to keep playing, not a clunker you'll drop in a week. Since talismans only affect RP, they pair best with a vehicle sitting right at the rank you're grinding, ideally a direct predecessor of your target so you also collect that 130% or 110% arrow bonus. Slap a talisman on your favorite mid-tier grinder and it does double duty as a research engine.

One quick warning: premium vehicles already ship with a talisman-style RP bonus built in, so buying a talisman for a premium is wasted Golden Eagles.

Premium account math

A premium account adds a 100% bonus to all your RP earnings and at least a 50% bonus to your Silver Lions, on every vehicle, every match, for as long as it's active. That's a flat doubling of RP across your whole lineup. If you're grinding hard, a premium account tends to give more total progress than a single talisman, because it applies to everything you drive instead of one vehicle. The catch is that it runs on a clock, so it rewards steady, focused play sessions rather than a lazy half-hour here and there. A month of premium used during a heavy grind beats the same month sprinkled across casual logins.

Save boosters for marathons

Boosters are temporary multipliers, those 50%, 100%, 200%, 300%, and 500% cards you sometimes pull from a battle or an event. They stack on top of premium and talismans, and they're most valuable saved up and popped during a big grinding session or an event weekend, not burned one at a time on a quiet weekday. A single 200% booster laid onto a good premium-vehicle round can bank more RP than an entire average evening of play.

Free talismans and boosters

You don't always have to open your wallet. The Warbond shop, the free tier of the battle pass, regularly offers a free talisman and SL or RP boosters as rewards, and squadron research and event tasks hand out more boosters along the way. Check the Warbond store each season before you spend Golden Eagles, because the free pickup is often sitting right there.

Crew Skill Training and Crew Points Allocation

Crews are the quiet stat behind almost every fight. A skilled crew aims faster, reloads quicker, spots enemies from further off, and survives hits that would kill a green crew. They're also one of the slower things to build, so it pays to spend your crew points with a plan instead of sprinkling them everywhere.

How crews level

Crews earn their own XP, separate from RP, based on the RP you bank while using them. The rate depends on mode: about 3 crew XP per 100 RP in Arcade, spread across your available crews, and roughly 1 crew XP per 100 RP in Realistic or Simulator. You can also buy crew XP directly with Golden Eagles through Accelerated Training if you're impatient. Tank crews max out around level 150, air crews around 75, and naval crews around 100.

Qualifications

Every vehicle crew has qualification tiers: Basic, Expert, and Ace. Expert qualification adds about a 30% boost to several core skills and costs Silver Lions. Ace adds another chunk on top, up to roughly a 50% total boost, and costs Golden Eagles. Qualifications are tied to one specific vehicle, so they're worth buying for a vehicle you plan to grind hard, and easy to skip for something you're just passing through on the way up.

Which skills to pour points into (tanks)

For ground crews, the consensus priority looks something like this:

• Targeting makes your gunner lay the gun faster and more precisely, which means more hits, more kills, more RP. This is the one most players max first.
• Weapon Reloading cuts reload time by up to about 23%, with no effect on autoloaders. Faster reload means more shells downrange.
• Keen Vision extends how far you can spot enemies. Base detection runs around 563 m, and a maxed skill pushes it much further, especially through binoculars.
• Leadership, the commander skill, boosts every other crew skill by up to 10%. It's pricey, but it lifts the whole crew at once.
• Tank Driving sharpens gear changes, down to about 0.1 second shifts, and speeds up braking, so you're less of a sitting duck.
• Rangefinding and Field Repair: rangefinding tightens your distance read, and field repair speeds up track and part repairs by up to 50%.

A reasonable spread is to max Targeting and Reload on your main crews first, then work Keen Vision and Leadership, and fill in Driving, Rangefinding, and Field Repair as points allow. Folks argue the exact order, but almost everyone agrees Targeting and Reload come first.

Plane crews

For pilots, the priorities flip toward survival and spotting. Keen Vision extends spotting range up to about 8 km in Arcade and 5 km in Realistic, G-Tolerance and Stamina keep you from blacking out and hold your aim together, and Vitality means a stray round doesn't end you. If you fly bombers or anything with AI gunners, Fire Accuracy and Fire Precision on those gunners are huge, because they decide whether your defensive guns actually hit anything.

Don't spread crews thin

Pick a small number of crews, one per slot you actually use, and invest in those. Dumping points evenly across ten half-trained crews leaves you with ten mediocre lineups, while a few fully skilled crews will out-aim and out-reload the field. The same logic applies to Expert qualification: spend it on your main grind vehicles, not the reserves gathering dust.

Common Grinding Mistakes That Waste Silver Lions

Silver Lions, or SL, are the soft currency you need to buy researched vehicles, modifications, ammo, crew training, and repairs. Run low on SL and the whole grind stalls, no matter how much RP you've banked. These are the habits that drain your account.

Jumping ranks and eating the penalty

The same rank penalty that wrecks your RP also wrecks your Silver Lions, because you're earning less per match for the same effort and the same repair bill. Driving a Rank II vehicle to research Rank V tech is paying full match costs for a quarter of the rewards.

Spreading across too many lines

Researching three trees at once feels productive, but each vehicle you add is another research target splitting your RP, and the rank penalties bite whenever your grinder sits far from the target. One focused line researches faster than three parallel ones, every time.

High repair bills on a thin wallet

Top-tier vehicles, especially Rank VI and above, can cost well over 10,000 SL every time you die. That's fine when you're earning well, but jumping into expensive top-tier tanks or jets before your SL balance can absorb the losses is a quick way to go broke. A single bad match can wipe out an evening's earnings.

Paying for repairs you could wait out

Repairs aren't strictly instant-or-pay. When a vehicle is destroyed, you can either pay the SL repair on the spot or let it repair for free over time. If you cycle between nations and vehicles anyway, turn off auto-repair in the options and let the free timed repairs tick down on vehicles you're not using. Players who leave auto-repair on and pay every bill are quietly hemorrhaging SL. Most active players still pay, because the free route is slow, but if you rotate a big lineup, the free repairs save real money over time.

Bad modification order

Buying mods in the wrong order, or skipping straight to the fun stuff before Parts and mobility, leaves you in a stock vehicle that dies early. An early death earns less RP and less SL, and you eat the repair bill on top of it. Parts and FPE first, then the upgrades that keep you alive and contributing.

Wasting convertible RP and buying SL outright

The game offers to convert free RP, earned alongside normal play, into vehicle research for Golden Eagles, and it lets you buy Silver Lions straight up for Golden Eagles. Both are famously poor value. Convertible RP conversion in particular is one of the most expensive ways to progress in the game, and buying SL with real currency is a band-aid when your real problem is repair costs or bad spending habits. Fix the habits first.

Ignoring the economical tiers

A lot of experienced players farm their Silver Lions at Rank III, where repair costs are low, rewards are solid, and the vehicles are forgiving. Rank III is a sweet spot for keeping your balance healthy while you push RP up the tree on the side. If your wallet is hurting, drop back down a few ranks, refill, and climb again.

Over-investing in crews and slots

Buying extra crew slots, where slots three through five cost increasing amounts of SL, and Expert-qualifying every vehicle in your garage, adds up fast. It's fine to expand when you can afford it, but paying for five crew slots and Expert-ing a pile of vehicles you barely play is SL that could have gone toward your next tank or jet.

The thing to remember about money is simple: keep one strong grinder at your target rank, finish its mods in a sensible order, mind your repair costs, and let the free repairs work while you're offline. Do that and your Silver Lions will keep pace with your research, and the climb to top tier stops feeling like a treadmill.