Tips and tricks to ease the SL grind via wagers.

#WTGuide1
In this guide I will be focusing on what vehicles you can use in certain lineups that will help you complete a wager with relative ease.
I will mainly discuss about lower BR vehicles and lineups that are effective as to help newer players gain SL more quickly and because lower BR vehicles typically have less repair cost so they won't consume much in your quest to gain SL.

Introduction

Hello War Thunder starters, enjoyers, sufferers and the likes. It was in 2017-2018 that I first picked up this game because a friend has recommended it to me. Hastily pulled by said friend, I launched the game for the first time and proceed into a match. I started out playing as the US for some time (because it was the first nation that I saw and I didn't know any better), climbed up to rank III for both Tanks and Aircrafts but for some reasons I can't recall now, I switched to the USSR, climbed up to rank II for Tanks and Aircrafts and then I took a year-long break. Later in late 2019 I started picking up War Thunder again and continued to main USSR up to now. At the time of writing I have racked up approximately 4.5 thousand hours into this Suffer simulator. Throughout my playthrough I have not really encountered any SL problems, because Gaijin tends to donate 1M to me periodically(Idk why). But I am aware that is a significant problems for many of you folks out there (I am also starting to see the problem there as my wallet is dwindling slowly due to skill issues).

So today I make this guide as an attempt to help the people out there in desperate need of quick and relatively easy SL by way of teaching y'all the ways of the Wagers. (And also maybe win the Guidemaking contest ehe)

In this guide I want to deliver to you:

• What wagers are, how they work and how to... exploit them.

• The lineups and general strategies to finish a wager easily.

(I am a pretty biased person, I prefer low tier gaming than high tier suffering so I have a lot more experience in how to thrive in the low BR matches, especially with the help of wagers to gain SL quickly. Despite that I have tried to be as objective as I can be, with the help of my friends making this guide.)

Wagers, what are they ?

Wagers are in-game items that you receive in boxes after you finished a game or part of the daily login prize (The big green chest with the gold ring, one guaranteed each week). You can get up to 5 wagers or just boosters, no wagers at all (that is a real shame if that ever happens to you).
They are essentially additional special missions that you fulfill in random battles to get a reward (very lucrative rewards, mind you). Wagers are divided into stages, typically 10, each stage lasts for a match. Completing each stage brings the player closer to getting a more valuable reward. A victory point in a wager is given for a battle in which the player has fulfilled the necessary conditions for its completion. Otherwise the player will receive one defeat. The "bet" is considered complete if the player has received the maximum number of defeats or victories.

How do wagers work ?

To do a wager first you need to activate the wager and set a "bet", the higher the "bet", the higher the reward you will receive should you finish the wager.

All SL wager requires that you have at least one rank III vehicle in your lineup.

This means you only need one Tank OR Aircraft that is rank III and the rest can be whatever you want to bring. You can bring one tank or plane at rank III but not use it in battle and the wager will still counts.
Or you could make a full loadout with vehicles of rank III or above.

5 / 10 Kill Wager

In my biased opinion, the kill wagers are the best kind of wager because your success with this wager will be determined by your skill alone, no longer relying on teammates, no longer burdened with capture point keeping.... Now you can focus on eliminating fellow gamers instead of the objective because your objective now is to go berserk and destroy every enemy tank in the vicinity.... or just 10(Arcade)/5(Realistic) of them for 10 rounds. The amount of lives(fails) you get is as much as amount of stages, which is honestly a lot.

For me I think these tanks work best for that task

• Russia: T-34 1940: Its gun has just enough penetration to deal with most tanks in the BR but once you penetrated the shell's huge filler will do the 1-shotting action for you. Thanks to the christie suspension design, the tank can traverse any kind of terrain with great speed. One downside to the T-34 is, like most tanks in this BR, you should stop before you fire to ensure accuracy. Remember to bring the Zis-43 or the Pe-3Bis

• US: Sherman M4A1: Its gun has good penetration compared to its counterparts, the filler is enough to 1-shot most things reliably but most importantly you will get the shot off first with the Shermans thanks to the gyroscopic vertical stabilizer. It's mobility is subpar compared to T-34s but overall they get you where you need to be. Its armor is lacking, due to the fact that it has weakspots all over, even when viewed in the front. Remember to bring the F4U-1D

• Germany: Panzer IVs: They have the best gun in this BR bracket, virtually anything can be penned using their gun from the front. The filler, though little, is enough to 1-shot reliably. The mobility of Panzer IVs are less than desirable and can feel sluggish at times, though. Its armor is also very weak, can even be penned in most places by Russian 45mm, US 37mm or British 40mm. Remember to bring the Wirbelwind or the Hs 129

• Italy: Sherman M4A4: For the M4A4, it is the same as the M4A1 but good armor. The M4A4 is already a rank III, you don't have to bring anything else.

• France: Sherman M4A4, M4A1 and ARL-44(ACL-1): For the M4A4 and M4A1, see Italy and the US. For the ARL-44, its gun has great penetration values but that is compensated by the lack of filler in the shell, which means unless you shoot at center of mass of other tanks, the spalling created by your shell won't be enough to 1-shot your enemies. Its mobility is decent for a heavy tank. It is rather well-protected, able to shrug off even Panzer IV's guns sometimes when angled. If you only bring the M4A1, remember to bring the F6F-5.

• China: Sherman M4A4, T-34 1943. For the Sherman, see Italy. For the T-34 1943, it is the same as the T-34 1940 but the turret is different, which makes it more resistant to oncoming fire and reduces the reload time.

Best Squad Wager

The wager currently has 10 stages with a relatively low reward of 250k SL instead of the 500k SL that it used to be. It also gives you 3 lives instead of 4 in the old one but 3 lives are pretty plenty. To finish a stage of the Best Squad wager, you and your squadmate have to have the most award in the team.

As with most games and activities, this wager is best done with friends, who you have lured into this game. You can definitely succeed in this wager alone, but generally the more friends, the better, especially with a full squad, doing this wager will be trivial (Granted at least you or one of your friend is competent, good or amazing at the game and that you all stick together).

The overall strategy for this wager is to pick a BR that both you and your friends are good at, or one that you or your friends really excels in. Using aircrafts in Ground RB makes it really easy to get awards in game because a plane is almost always "close" to someone in your squad.

Wingman Wager

The Wingman wager has 10 stages with the maximum reward of 500k SL and 6 lives, that is not too many lives but also not too few. To finish a stage of the Wingman wager you have to have the most assists in your team.

Just like the Best Squad wager, your friends will be a great help to do this wager efficiently, but for different reasons. In the best squad wager the entirety of your squad are trying to destroy enemy tanks, but when doing this wager, you are trying to cripple the enemy and not outright destroy them. One way to go about this is to use British tanks, which does not have any explosive filler in their tank shells whatsoever. This makes them quite excellent for disabling enemies' barrel, tracks, engine, ect. so your teammate or squadmate can finish them off and granting you an assist.

Friends aren't compulsory in doing this wager because you don't even have to kill your target and instead simply de-track them and move on to another target.

Battle Victory Wager

The Battle Victory Wager or Win wager as some calls it, has 10 stages with the maximum reward of 250k SL along with 3 lives, a rather low amount of lives for the objective if you ask me. To finish a stage of the Battle Victory wager you "simply" has to achieve victory in a match.

The objective of winning the game is sometimes harder than one might think. To win the game you need the collective effort of most of your team. This makes the Win wager more luck-dependent rather than raw skills, as a single level 100 tryhard with all aced crew vehicles still cannot change the course of the game if all of his teammates are trash.

One effective way to do this wager is to look at your service record, which plane/tank/ship lineups that you have experience with and have a high win rate, tryhard and hope you got a good roll of teammates who are decent at the game. I would recommend you play Air Realistic Battles because for each enemy that dies, that is one less aircraft you have to worry about respawning and getting you or your team again.

Another way that will guarantee success is by using this wager while grinding Helicopter PVE since the target AIs don't actually drain your tickets that much while you make their tickets fall.

Unstoppable Wager

The Unstoppable Wager has 10 stages with the maximum reward of 500k, with 6 lives. Not too shabby, y'know, could've been worse, could've been like the victory wager. To finish a stage of the Unstoppable wager, you need to get either a Hero of the Sky or Terror of the Sky or Thunderer or Antimech or Heavy Metal Hero or Heavy Metal Fury or Tsunami or Rouge wave. Jesus Christ that is a lot of award to pick from. Basically you need to get the highest aircraft/(AI) tank/ AI ship kills in a match.

This wager used to be 2 different wagers which are the Thunderer wager

and Hero of the sky wager

Anyways, I don't quite know what Gaijin's intention is, joining 2 different wagers together like that, let me hear your thoughts! It boosts engagement :D.

Now, the easiest way to do this wager is to achieve the Thunderer award in Air Battles. By using American aircraft or lend-lease aircrafts (especially the Corsairs, Mustang, Thunderbolt, y'know, aircraft with lots of 50 cal guns and ammo) because only a few 50 cal rounds are needed for one ground AI kill, and American planes have a lot of ammo to dispense.

Wing Breaker Wager

The Wing Breaker wager has 10 stages and a maximum reward of 500k SL, you are given 3 lives. Which I think you could've guessed, is not much. To finish a stage of the Wing Breaker wager, you have to get the Wing Breaker award in a game. The Wing Breaker award states that you must have the most air kills in your team at no less than 5 kills.

Achieving Wing Breaker is hard in Air Realistic Battles, since everyone only has 1 spawn and usually kills are distributed between many players, so rarely will you find yourself getting 5 air kills here in ARB. And that is why I think Arcade is the superior option when it comes to ease of completion. Granted you have to have a decent lineup of planes at your disposal or else you may get picked apart one by one or underperforming comparing to your teammates.

Mission Maker Wager

It is time for me to be biased once again. In my opinion, the Mission Maker Wager is the hardest wager there is. The Mission Maker wager has 10 stages with the maximum reward being 500k SL, accompanied by 10 lives. Although I think 10 lives aren't enough for this one. To finish a stage in this wager you must achieve the Mission Maker award.

The Mission Maker reward requires you to get the first AND last kill of the game. To me, that is extremely difficult, almost as luck-based as rolling gacha. Since you cannot really anticipate where will the first enemy appear and snatch it for yourselves. Locating the last enemy can be difficult as well, who knows how many tanks they have, who brought 5 tanks and an aircraft, who just bring his only medium tank in the lineup for a roll.

Despite that, i do have some rough ideas on how to do it, bear with me as I have not ♥♥♥♥♥♥ much, if any, experience at all on getting Mission Maker consistently. You can use a light tank with good acceleration and top speed

• One example is the German light tank Sd.kfz.234/2 "Puma" to rush to a position where you have a good sightline of where you think the enemy might be. Since it's the start of the round, there might be light tanks which the "Puma" can penetrate with its long barreled 50mm cannon.

• One other example I can give is the Italian SPG Breda 501. The high top speed allows it to reach the frontline quickly, and despite the wheeled design, they do have a fair bit of traction in sand or snow. Its 90mm 90/53 mod.41 cannon can fire a very good APCBC round, rivaling that of the 8.8cm Flak 37. These attributes alows it to snatch First Blood fairly easily.

• You can also use high tier vehicles due to their nature of being an extremely fast-paced battle setting.

And to get the final kill, you can use an aircraft, preferably a strike aircraft or dive bomber, aircrafts with high-caliber rockets and/or bombs to aid you in achieving the last elimination.

Afterthought

Yes I almost forgot to put an ending to this guide, whoopsie. Anyways I hope you learnt at least 1 new thing from my guide when it comes to SL grinding. I do plan to update this guide if Gaijin makes changes to how wagers work or the specific requirements of each wager. Here are some of my favorite ground lineups to grind out wagers:

• The US

• Germany

• Italy

• Britain

• USSR

Now, I know there are Golden Eagles wagers too but unless you've read the title or you might say "Using GE to buy SL is one way too!". That's fine but you gotta know that GE wagers are basically 5 kill wagers combined with win wagers then stretched out for 25 stages when it comes to requirements. I am far too lazy to make that now and plus I wouldn't like it as much if I did it anyways because it would just be repetition of what I've said before.

So yeah, that's it, I hope you do well in your battles and succeed in your quest to gain SL and be financially stable. Stay safe out there, g'bye.

[chlpatysirak]

What this needs is boats, I find it very manageable with wingman for example as ships are usually easy to spot and you can usually tell when they're about to die and you should switch target. (Of course when I activate the wager I keep landing ammo racks like never before)

[AlexPayne]

I see that there's no tank suggestions for Japan for Kill Wager, so here's mine :
Just take Na-To to have a rank 3 in your lineup but play mostly Chi-Ha LG and Chi-Nu, those 2 tanks can pen anything at 3.3 and oneshot almost each time. Don't hesitate to bring your Ho-Ro for back-up, you can also bring So-Ki and Ki-44 II for plane if you aren't scared of playing 3.7 instead of 3.3.

[23zq9]

my us M4A1 gets booty tickled by a stug every time I try to use a wager

[MJ711]

@4gamers1623 thx!

[Iamsupernoob]

@ヤЋФƎȠΙメ yeah, 4.3 does count as lower BR, I apologize, I should have specified that I like the *lower* lower BR more, around 3. because that is where I can exploit the rank III requirements for wagers and event grinding.

[PЋФƎȠiメ]

Iamsupernoob dude 4.3 is lower BR

[Oreo_Overlord12]

@MJ711 basically when you complete what the wager says then you go up a level and when you fail you lose a life. when you run out of lives then you recieve the ammount of SL that is at the level you are at.

[MJ711]

I still do not understand wagers...

[Iamsupernoob]

@Oka I agree the Pe-8 is a very useful tool to rack up some kills but unfortunately it is a 4.3 vehicle and I usually aim for lower BR shenanigans :)

[Morbo]

Nice tutorial, learned a thing or two despite being a WT veteran. :)
I completely agree that the Mission Maker Wager is mostly based on luck. Almost not plannable.