War Thunder News

Rankings Challenge is a regular competition in which everyone is welcome to participate, whether solo or with friends on an equal footing, using pre-set vehicles. Victories in these battles will raise your rating (you can read here about how ratings are calculated), and the higher your rating, the better the prizes you’ll receive!



During the season of Rankings Challenge the players will be able to participate in several events, divided by type: for example, “Aircraft 1v1”, “Ground vehicles 2v2” or “Mixed 5v5”. During the season there might be numerous competitions of one type: for example, once a week the new “Ground vehicles 2v2” events will be available. Thus the players will be earning the rating both for each competition individually, as well as for the leaderboard of each competition type. Therefore, the prizes will be awarded for both the entire season and separate competitions.

In Rankings Challenge, each participant will receive a preset collection of upgraded vehicles and an experienced crew that will allow the players to prove who’s stronger on an equal footing. Parity will also be enforced by the same limit of battles per day for each player, a realistic battle mode with markers, and small difference margin of battle rating of your competitors that you’ll be able to meet in the battles.

Rankings Challenge will be open three times a day so that the players from different time zones will be able to pick a comfortable time. Before the matches which results will be entered into the leaderboards, the players will be able to participate in practice battles. They are completely identical to the competitive matches and will allow the players to test out the vehicles before important battles. The timetables for practice and rating matches will be available at the webpage of each competition.



A single competition will usually take place over 2 or 3 days. However, each following day of the competition the players may be offered vehicles of a different country, and each following week, the vehicles’ rank may be changed.

To view the rating battle cards, click the corresponding button in the main menu, then pick any competition available at the moment or press “Participate” to sign up for future matches.

[h2]Testing the Rankings Challenge [/h2]

From September 6th till September 10th join the testing of the Rankings Challenge. In this test mode four competitions will be available — two for each competition type: “Aircraft 1v1” and “Ground vehicles 2v2”. Squads can participate in the 2v2 battles, with the squad’s rating being determined by the highest rating of two players.

The number of matches that will take place simultaneously will be limited. As such, in case of a large number of participants, waiting in queues may occur.

[h3]Wings of Prey 1 (Rank II)[/h3]
From September 6th until September 8th.

Day 1: Bf 109F-1 (Germany)
Day 2: Yak-1B (USSR)

[h3]Wings of Prey 2 (Rank IV)[/h3]
From September 8th until September 10th.

Day 1: Spitfire F Mk.XIVe (Britain)
Day 2: P-51D-30 (USA)

[h3]Shoulder to Shoulder 1 (Rank IV)[/h3]
From September 6th until September 8th.

Day 1: Char 25t (France)
Day 2: T-44 (USSR)

[h3]Shoulder to Shoulder 2 (Rank VI)[/h3]
From September 8th until September 10th.

Day 1: XM-803 (USA)
Day 2: Type 74 (E) (Japan)

Aircraft battles will take place on the “Gladiators” mission which many virtual pilots should be familiar with, and will consist of several rounds. Ground vehicles will compete on the following missions: [Conquest 4] Advance to the Rhine, [Conquest 2] Sinai or [Conquest 1] Normandy with 3 respawns per player.

[h2]Rewards[/h2]

Sport camouflages, vehicles with unique camouflages, player icons, decals, and titles — all of these awards will be available in the future seasons of Rankings Challenge. For our test run we’ve prepared trophies and a title!

• For 10 victories in each competition the players will receive a special trophy containing one of the following items:
  
  • RP booster for 50% for 5 battles.
    
  • SL booster for 50% for 5 battles.
    
  • Wager set.
    
  • Orders set.
    
• Players who place 1 through 100 in the leaderboards of “Wings of Prey (test season)” will receive the “Gladiators” decal, while players who place 1 through 1000 will receive the “Rankings Challenge Tester” title.
  
• Players who place 1 through 100 in the leaderboards of “Shoulder to Shoulder (test season)” will receive the “Steel Legion” decal, while players who place 1 through 1000 will receive the “Rankings Challenge Tester” title.
  

[h2]Further plans[/h2]

We plan to regularly hold new seasons of Rankings Challenge with a duration of a month or more for all types of vehicles and all nations in War Thunder. Apart from the listed formats in the future there may be “Special”, like races or free deathmatch modes.

Some competitions of the Rankings Challenge may become qualifications for larger competitions based on the existing tournament service. Such competitions will likely be held mid-seasons with streams and activities for the viewers.

Participants of the competitions, please leave your feedback in the special topic on the forum!

The ‘Drone Age’ update will bring new models of crew members in late 20th century Japanese and Swedish vehicles!

New tanker models in ‘modern’ ground vehicles from Sweden and Japan will be added to the game in the upcoming War Thunder major update - the Drone Age!

Your scenery screenshots were amazing! The sunsets, the green vegetation, the clouds. All great! Nice work everyone! The three most popular and three selected by us will get 300 GE. See the winners down below!

[h2]Let’s begin the 31st edition of our competition![/h2]

Create a stunning screenshot and submit it on the War Thunder Steam Community Hub with the tag #WTscreen31. You have time until 09.09.2022 to submit your screenshot.

After that date, 6 winners will be selected (3 of which will be the highest rated by the community and 3 selected by our judges), each of which receive a reward of 300GE.

[h2]Important addition: Screenshot theme - Close ups![/h2]

[h3]Terms:[/h3]

• Create a screenshot of your vehicle nearer to the camera: bringing out all of the details of the vehicle in the process!
• You must add the #WTscreen31 tag (without other text).
• Screenshots need to be compliant with the War Thunder rules.
  
• You need to be the author of the screenshot.
  
• Screenshot needs to be new. You cannot use those which have previously been published or used in other competitions.
  
• We will only accept raw screenshots from the game. You cannot use any editing software nor any other visual enhancements (like Nvidia Ansel filters).
  
• You can use filters and settings built into War Thunder.
  
• You can use the replay functionality built into War Thunder.
  
• Rewards will be delivered to the author's account within 7 working days.
  

[h2]And now, time for the winners of the competition’s 30th edition - Leonardo da Vinci![/h2]

[h3]Winners selected via community votes:[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2855227170
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2854836158
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2856899807

[h3]Winners selected by our judges:[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2856122329
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2856598642
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2855207859

Each winner will get 300GE! Congratulations and see you next week!

Legendary Sukhoi Su-25 Soviet strike jet aircraft comes to War Thunder in two versions that will be available in the upcoming Drone Age update!

[h2]Su-25, attack aircraft, USSR, rank VI.[/h2]

Features:

• Huge payload
  
• Good selections of armament
  
• Highly durable
  
• Ballistic calculator
  

In the next War Thunder update Drone Age, we are going to introduce to the game two versions of probably the best Soviet/Russian attack aircraft - the Sukhoi Su-25 (NATO reporting name “Frogfoot”), a researchable Su-25, as well as an export Su-25K variant as a rank VI premium aircraft. Both attack aircraft are excellent for destroying ground targets and can hold their own in dogfights as well.

[h3]

Fun fact: in the ex-Soviet countries the Su-25 is widely known as ‘Grach’ (Russian for “Rook”). Some believe that the nickname originated from the similarity of the aircraft nose with a beak of a bird. Another version of the origin is that the callsign of a pair of prototypes first used in Afghanistan was the “Rook”.

[/h3]





The basic weapon of the Su-25 is a 30mm GSH-2-30 rapid-fire cannon, with 250 rounds of ammunition, including armor-piercing belts. The cannon is well suited for destroying lightly armored vehicles and helicopters, and being loaded with the AP rounds, is capable of destroying main battle tanks.

The list of the suspended weapons is a real feast for all gun geeks. Su-25 organically combines a large number of guided and unguided weapons. The ballistic calculator makes it fun and easy to drop unguided weapons from low and medium heights. Incendiary bombs; HE bombs in calibers of 100, 250 and 500 kg; small rockets S-5K, S-8KO and S-13OF; large rockets of the S-24 family and the jumbo rockets S-25 in three modifications. There are also guided missiles S-25L, Kh-25, Kh-25ML and a huge Kh-29L to engage ground targets. All this variety of weapons, coupled with gun pods and R-60 and R-60M air-to-air missiles, the pilot will be able to combine on his own, or use ready setups available in the secondary armaments menu!





Since the aircraft was designed for strikes from low altitudes, the speed of the Su-25 is relatively low, just up to 1,000 km/h at the ground level, but the aircraft is well controlled at low speeds even with a significant weight of suspended weapons. The pilot is in an armored capsule made of steel and titanium armor, the front of the canopy is armored as well. The aircraft is a real die-hard, able to survive not only bursts of the .50 bullets, but in some cases direct hits of the aircraft or AA cannons.





With the release of the major update Drone Age, two versions of the attack aircraft will appear in the game: the researchable Su-25 and the export version of the Su-25K. In general, this is a reliable, lethal and pleasant to operate attack aircraft, which must be in the top-tier setup for mixed battles of every enthusiast of the USSR battle machines!

On August 10th, 1945, the day following the Nagasaki bombing, Japan accepted the Allies’ conditions for surrender. On August 15th Emperor Hirohito addressed his nation in an unprecedented broadcast, and on September 2nd an official surrender ceremony took place. This date is considered to mark the final end of World War II.

[h2]

From September 2nd (12:00 GMT) until September 5th (7:00 GMT)

[/h2]

[h3]Play 3 battles using USA vehicles (rank III or higher, with an activity of not less than 70%) to receive the “Times Square Kiss” decal.[/h3]



“Times Square Kiss” decal

Complete the task in random battles, except for Enduring Confrontation missions and [Assault] mode.

Track your progress in the hangar by clicking Nickname → Achievements → Holidays → Victory in Asia Day.

You can find the decal in the “Holidays” tab in the Customisation menu.