How grindy is this game? [New player]

[Talaskur]

Hello everyone,

I'm considering playing War Thunder, but I was wondering how grindy it is. Can I play premium tanks only and unlock other stuff? I have very limited playtime, so I wonder how long it will take me to unlock top-tier MBTs.

Thanks in advance.

[Vexithan]

i dont really use premiums and i can unlock things well
(dont know about others) but over all unlocking things is related to your skill and how many kills you get which means more points. Also it took me around 800 hours to reach my first modern tank the leopard 1

[Arkthos]

Don't even think to play without premium time and premium vehicles.

[Akagi]

How grindy it is? It's an absolute crap show of a grind fest, being the main part of monetisation in the game.

You can buy a premium tank and use that to grind the respective nation's tank tree and helicopter tree but you can still prepare yourself to spend at least 200 hours even with rank 6 premium tank + premium time to reach something like a Leo 2A6 or T-80BVM

Now, next update the grind's supposed to be reduced by a good chunk thanks to Gaijin (mainly after being somewhat forced to buy the playerbase) foldering some vehicles, allowing you to skip some vehicles you would need to research at the current status.

But hey, we are talking about Gaijin, you'll never know when they gonna backstab us

[Talaskur]

Thanks for the answers, really appreciate it.

I thought as much and wasn't even considering playing without premium, given my limited time to play games. and having a feeling it would be similar to WoT, i.e., very tough without premium.

It's good to know that I can buy premium tank and unlock the nation's tank tree, this will help me avoid vehicles that I definitely do not want to play.

[ArtemisHunt]

You want top tier it's a long grind unless you credit card it. If you tech tree research, get premium time and find a buddy who is half-decent at the game. The bonus RP from best squad might not seem like much but over hundreds and thousands of games it adds up. If you follow the most efficient route it won't be too bad but if you spade everything you're in for a grind

[Cabal]

Originally posted by Akagi:

How grindy it is? It's an absolute crap show of a grind fest, being the main part of monetisation in the game.

You can buy a premium tank and use that to grind the respective nation's tank tree and helicopter tree but you can still prepare yourself to spend at least 200 hours even with rank 6 premium tank + premium time to reach something like a Leo 2A6 or T-80BVM

Now, next update the grind's supposed to be reduced by a good chunk thanks to Gaijin (mainly after being somewhat forced to buy the playerbase) foldering some vehicles, allowing you to skip some vehicles you would need to research at the current status.

But hey, we are talking about Gaijin, you'll never know when they gonna backstab us

A few points:

1. You shouldn't be playing games "to grind" or get ASAP to top-tier. That's a childish-mindset for younger gen-gamers who apply terms like "tank, shield, meta, grind" for everything. Games, where you can reach the "endgame" in a week, are not worth anyones time. Chances are high that most dudes will dump such game.

Escape from Tarkov is another of such longterm games. Casuals are amongst the ones complaining about slow progress the most.

2. The 1st rank tanks made the most fun even if I dislike this era. (My fav is the Cold War era).

3. WT is a game of small milestones. Example: your first xx or xxx mm cannon, first HEAT FS ammo, NVG, first smoke tool... your first primitive radar/missile etc.

4. Every tank is more or less different, making you "use" the maps differently as well.

5. Gajin is about to apply several updates to balance stuff out but that doesn't matter bc people keep and will keep playing War Thunder like they did for years.

6. You will suffer with U.S. tanks across many BR's, choose UdSSR or Germany. ;)

7. If you don't find this appealing: Go DCS, Falcon BMS, Steel Armor Blaze of War or Gunner HEAT PC.

8. If you buy a premium top-tier tank, you loose a lot of money while skipping a lot of time. But you will only have one top-tier tank and you will be up against dudes with many hundreds of hours of experience; making your life miserable. You will get all the heat of the era, like air threats with guided missiles etc.
Skipping eras will overwhelm you.

[Akagi]

Originally posted by Cabal:

1. You shouldn't be playing games "to grind" or get ASAP to top-tier. That's a childish-mindset for younger gen-gamers who apply terms like "tank, shield, meta, grind" for everything. Games, where you can reach the "endgame" in a week, are not worth anyones time. Chances are high that most dudes will dump such game.

As much as I understand that, there is one huge issue; Gaijin, for at least the last 3 years, has been almost entirely marketed as a modern vehicle game. So I can understand people wanting to play a (non squadron) Leopard, download the game and realise they need to get from interwar all the way to modern vehicles and then play 1000 hours to get near that

[SadlyItsDaniel]

Wanted a T-72 in the middle of 2022
The grind halted me and i no longer could pursue to get a T-72 after the winter of 2022
In 2023 i quit WT with a T55-A because i couldnt take it anymore thanks to all the mechanics in this game from CAS to the bad maps to wallet warriors and

I dont want to research the same tank for weeks with minor changes again and then pay for an even bigger price than before, i dont want to get revenge bombed again, i dont want to die to a bush again.

I seriously love War Thunder and its tanks but the kind of things a person has to face in this game just made me quit even though i didnt want to

[xCrossFaith]

They actively reached a point where they managed to get the whole community together to review bomb the game everywhere due to how bad they wanted to make the grind... and they prefered to reach that point before improving the game, which the playerbase has been voicing the same concerns for years

That's how bad the grind is :D

[LennyTheGoat]

i have been playing since 2014 and paid not a single dime on any prem and i finally got an apache this year and jet for the first time but to be fair for some years i was very on and off rather grinding the hell out of it so unless u give gaijan money.... u know.

[Levia]

It honestly also depends on what kind of vehicle you want to play.


Want to play modern vehicles? Yeah, it can get pretty painful.

Want to play WW2/a bit into cold war vehicles? I think it's fine then, especially if you got friends to play it with.

[Big Boss]

Originally posted by xCrossFaith:

They actively reached a point where they managed to get the whole community together to review bomb the game everywhere due to how bad they wanted to make the grind... and they prefered to reach that point before improving the game, which the playerbase has been voicing the same concerns for years

That's how bad the grind is :D

we need to review bomb again

[Cha Cha Real Rough]

It is easily the most grindy game ive ever played

[Mizzar]

Originally posted by Talaskur:

Hello everyone,

I'm considering playing War Thunder, but I was wondering how grindy it is. Can I play premium tanks only and unlock other stuff? I have very limited playtime, so I wonder how long it will take me to unlock top-tier MBTs.

Thanks in advance.

very grindy P2W game, u will need 200hours to unlock ONE VEHICLE at top tier, and then you proceed to anothers 200hours for the next vehicle

[Mizzar]

Originally posted by xCrossFaith:

They actively reached a point where they managed to get the whole community together to review bomb the game everywhere due to how bad they wanted to make the grind... and they prefered to reach that point before improving the game, which the playerbase has been voicing the same concerns for years

That's how bad the grind is :D

and yet they didnt improved that much