A quick and comprehensive guide to top tier air RB

This guide is aimed toward people who are new to top tier air RB or to those who need a bit of a refresher.
I have over 4.5k hours in this game most of this time spent playing air RB i do not have experience with AB or SB since i do not like those gamemodes and if you were looking for a guide to those gamemodes then i'm sorry, you'll have to look elsewhere

this guide is also competing in the #WTguide2 competition so if you find it helpful make sure to like it or give an award if you feel like i deserve one

oh and feel free to give me feedback and maybe even a few other topics i could cover, im only human so there is no way i could think of everything and make everything perfect

Introduction

Welcome to my guide for jet air RB!

weather you're here simply because you've bought a shiny new premium or if you grinded your way to top tier, i'm sure there will be something here to help you with your journey, and to veteran players who need a refresher, you're also welcome to look at my guide

Section one, The basics, taking off and making sure you stay in the air (BR 7.0/7.7)

So, you've reached the jet age and you're finding it hard to get kills and grind effectively?
I'll try to explain the basics to you to the best of my abilities, (don't worry ill try to keep it brief.)

But first, some caveats
All your experiences up to this point have probably taught you that having an altitude advantage is what matters most, this still applies to early jets somewhat, early jets are quite underpowered even compared to the late war/post war props you'll see at BR 5.7/6.7 and especially compared to the more modern jets.

The basics
as you take off you'll notice that you don't exactly have enough speed/energy to fly straight
early jets are very bad at accelerating so be carefull on take-off and don't pull your flaps up too early and pull your gears in as soon as you're 50 meters (about 164 feet) off the ground you can tell if you have enough energy by looking in the virtual cockpit (can be accessed by pressing F4)


Here you see the virtual cockpit screen, each stripe you see represents a 5° angle of elevation as you can see the flightpath indicator (as ill be calling it for the purposes of this guide) it goes about 5° below where my nose is pointed
make sure to keep it above 0° on takeoff (represented by the 2 parallel lines in the middle of the virtual cockpit) once you reach about 300 kph (186 mph) retract your flaps and nose up to compensate for the loss of lift and slowly lower your nose back down as you gain more and more speed.


Here you can see the flight path indicator very close to where my nose is pointed as i've gained more speed and pulled my flaps up.

From here you can begin with gaining altitude and speed with a technique called "zoom climbing"
the essence of this tactic is to gain speed, use it to climb higher, level out, gain more speed and eventually reach the desired altitude where you'll be free to use your energy advantage against players who have decided to fly low, now you might be asking yourself "what is energy?"

Section two, Energy fighting (BR 7.0/10.0)

Energy refers to the speed and altitude you have compared to others, ill make a small list to distinguish between high and low energy states

High vs low energy state (and yes the art is a bit awful because i'm not much of an artist)


here you can see a plane at high altitude (A) and one at low altitude (B), lets say they're about 2.5 km's (8202 feet) apart
plane B would need to fly very fast to be able to get a shot on plane A and plane A can counter this by simply climbing higher and making plane B bleed the speed that they currently have and convert that into altitude, in turn making them slower and an easier target


after the plane B begins to stall out plane A can now begin to engage the enemy while they're a sitting duck


Energy is the lifeblood of battles at the tiers that do not have access to advanced missiles

Getting chased? no problem.


if you are being chased by an aircraft that is faster or has a higher energy state than you, you'll be able to use this speed to your advantage, making enemies who are hot on your 6 overshoot is the best way to avoid dying while being chased, if your aircraft has an airbrake use it to slow down and make sure to do a few small maneuvers to avoid getting shot at, if you do not have an airbrake, simply decrease your throttle and deploy flaps but be sure not to rip them off accidentally



once your enemy has overshot, you can take advantage and try to get a couple of shots off, but your window of opportunity will be small due to the difference in energy



if you are unable to kill the enemy while in this state i highly recommend getting your energy back as soon as possible to make sure the enemy doesn't just turn around and kill you, and if you are the one that has chased, but missed your shots because you overshot your target, simply fly a bit further away and turn around and go in for another dive as seen here



all of this applies up to BR 10.0 and from 10.3 onward your planes have so much thrust that energy fighting never really happens since it's missile galore and slowing down is basically asking to be missiled to death.

Same energy state?
in some cases you will eventually face someone on equal footing with you in these cases it really just depends on who knows the limits of their aircraft better than the other but this can be avoided all together with one simple trick, head-ons.


In-case you both miss in a head-on you can always just fly away from each-other and leave each-other be or your enemy could turn around to try and reengage you, never do this you will only lose energy and it will leave you open for another one of his teammates to swoop in on you and pick you off, so if your enemy decides to turn around after a head-on just ignore them and go after another target

Section three, Missile combat (BR 10.3/12.0)

The meta at top tier war thunder is undeniably missile combat which contrary to popular belief actually requires you to have a brain to use them effectively
Here you will see what the missile reticle looks like


Missile thunder.
There are 3 kinds of missiles in the game IR, S.A.R.H, A.R.H

IR (rear aspect) : Infrared missile, these only these work from the rear, for example AIM-9/D/G/J/P, R-60, Matra Magic 1
(refer to "Most effective" and "Somewhat effective" sections on how to use these missiles)

IR (all aspect) can be locked on from any angle with varied effectiveness, examples of which are, R-60M, AIM-9L, Matra Magic 2 and also the R-23/24/27T, here below you will see the best ways to use these missiles

(Most effective) : rear aspect, missiles such as the AIM-9L and Magic 2 are almost impossible to flare from the rear, (varies depending on flare caliber)
best fired from 1.5-2 km's (4900-6500 feet) best used against players who are too busy trying to kill your teammates


(Somewhat effective) : side aspect, will kill if your target is too busy shooting at other players but
won't be as effective if they're aware of your presence
best fired from about 2.5 to 3 km's (8200-9800 feet) why so far? you might ask, well since some of the missiles on this list pull 18-20 G's and not 30 G or even 35 G they will have to take some time to travel and pull toward your enemy to make sure you actually catch them


(Least effective) : front aspect, since you're literally facing your enemy head-on there is very little chance that they won't notice you and can easily counter your missile by flaring and not even having to move out of the way
best fired from about 1 to 1.5 km's (3200-4900 feet) to make sure your enemy doesn't have enough time to react and flare the missile.


S.A.R.H : Semi Active Radar Homing missile, uses radar waves to lock onto a target and guides itself toward the target it requires a continuous lock and it can be broken by notching or flying low to the ground, examples of such missiles are the AIM-7C/D/E/E-2/F/M AIM-9C R-23/24/27R.
The best way to use this missile is in head-ons or in B.V.R (beyond visual range) engagements.
With missiles that track off the rail it is recomended to fire them at between 7-3km's (23000-9800 feet) in head-ons.
If you're using missiles that DO NOT track off the rail then fire them off at around 8-5 km's (26200-16400 feet)
in BVR engagements it's recomended to fire at about 10-8 km's (32800-25200 feet)
and if you're using SARH's that have a long burn time than you can get away with about 12-16 km's (39400-52500 feet) if your target doesn't notch ofcourse.

when you're going to fire your SARH missile depending on how strong your radar is and how well you're locking the target you'll see a second circle around your locking circle as shown below

(weak)

(strong)



A.R.H : Active Radar Homing missile, the only missile in the game that falls under this category is the AIM-54A phoenix found on the F-14 this missile can continue flying toward the target even when the radar lock from the F-14 is broken due to the onboard radar inside of the missile itself, best used in volley's of 2 against 1 aircraft favorably shot a few seconds apart from each-other so it's harder to avoid/dodge the 2nd one if the 1st misses. (the missile only tracks the targets on it's own if it's fired or you've maintained a radar lock to about 16 km's (52500 feet))

Side note, Missiles are more effective at higher altitudes since the air is thinner and thus there is less drag to slow your missiles down, and their range becomes much, much greater, but be careful with trying to kill players who are high up since you climbing straight up in an attempt to lock them could result in you getting picked off by the enemy team.

Section four, Flares and Chaff (all planes with flares/chaff)

As seen above missiles can be pretty devastating so here is how to properly dodge/avoid them

Flaring
At top tier most aircraft above BR 10.0 have access to flares so ill do my best to explain how it works and the various types of flares you have access to.

Flares are pretty simple, they're a very bright burning magnesium or other hot burning metal this burning is very bright especially on the IR spectrum which is why it attracts heat-seeking missiles,
in-game flares keep you from dying to missiles so you in turn can kill others with missiles.

Chaffing
Chaff only works against older radar models and will deflect radar waves way better than your aircraft thus attracting the radar lock and keeping you alive, BUT chaff isn't very effective against more modern radar and this leads into another form of avoiding radar locks,

Notching
Notching works by physically moving your aircraft in a 90° angle left or right from the enemy who is currently locking onto you.

Going cold
Going cold means turning off your engine completely which causes IR missiles to lose your signature and makes it easier to dodge them, THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT THEY WILL NOT TRACK YOU, all aspect IR missiles can still keep a lock onto you even if your engine is off and rear aspect missiles can still hit you if your engine is still cooling down, so instead of just going straight after you turn the engine off, do a small roll and pitch and turn your engine on as soon as the missile flies past you.

Flare type : Standard
Depending on how many flare pods you have on your aircraft a single pop of this flare load-out will shoot out 1/2 flares.

Chaff type : chaff only
As you can read above, it only works well against older radar and taking this is pretty much useless since you lose the ability to flare missiles that can kill you if you don't have flares equipped.

Flare type : flares reinforced
This load-out will fire off 2 flares in every flare pod that you have on your aircraft so 2/4 per pop.

Flare and chaff type : mixed
This load-out will allow you to use both flares and chaff and will shoot out 1 flare and 1 chaff for every pop.

Flare and chaff type : flare priority
This load-out will allow you to fire off 2 flares and 1 chaff in a single pop.

The proper way to flare a missile
If the enemy is behind you and you're on afterburner, cut throttle, pop a flare and turn away slightly before reengaging afterburner

OH ♥♥♥♥, MISSILE

OH ♥♥♥♥, BETTER TURN OFF AFTERBURNER

OK, time to pop flares

Damn, that was close

Time to run away

Congratulations, you now know how to flare with style and hopefully survive long enough to get a few more kills.

If you find yourself in front of a missile happy player just keep flaring without turning your afterburner back on, and refer to "the energy fighting" section on how to make these types of players overshoot.

Section five, R.W.R (BR 9.0/12.0)

R.W.R or Radar Warning Receiver is used to detect enemy radar scans that are coming in your general direction and pin-pointing where the source of these radar waves is coming from.

In-game RWR is represented by a small circle on the left of the screen (mine is white since that's my UI color but it's green by default)


When there is any sign of radar activity the RWR will automatically turn on as seen above but when it's off it shows up next to your top right "soliton radar looking thingTM".

If you have been scanned on enemy radar your RWR will display this as a small radio wave symbol in the out-most circle as seen here, this is commonly referred to as "pinging/getting pinged" because of the pinging sound that plays.

When you are being locked on by enemy radar your RWR will start making alot of noise to warn you about the lock and perhaps a SARH missile heading your way, luckily you can easily see the direction from which you are being locked via a white stripe as seen below.

Pretty simple right? next up will be the basics of radar, why only the basics? because it's very complicated and i'm pretty sure that i am not the right person to explain the full features of radar but i will point you to a handy video that goes in depth on the topic of radar.
(the next section is currently in progress, so stay tuned)

Section six, radar basics.

Since radar is complex and i really can't explain how it works in full detail, i'll keep it brief, and i'll link an excellent video on youtube covering this topic in further detail that is updated everytime a new addition/fix is made to radar, that being said... lets begin

Making sure you hit the enemy, and not a friendly
In the late stages of a match when the furball has ended and everyone who survived has scattered, it's hard to find people and making sure you're chasing an enemy instead of friendly AI or friendlies outside the range of the spotting system is going to save you alot of time.
In the red circle you will the see icon that represents an enemy on radar.
Here highlighted in green you will see what a friendly looks like on radar, and yes it's the same across all radar in the game (this example uses the F-16's AN/APG-66).

Early radar systems
Early radar does not feature a pulse doppler mode which means that it cannot scan objects (aircraft in this case) while looking at the ground because the radar receives bounce-back from the terrain instead of the aircraft, so this radar is only usefull against high flying aircraft, this radar is also weak to chaff but can resist notching for some reason.

Newer radar systems
Newer radar systems feature a pulse doppler mode or PD for short this mode allows you to lock targets while looking at the ground, but it has it's own weaknesses it's prone to getting notched, but it's virtually immune to chaff and if a target is flying lower to the ground than you are at a shorter distance any missiles you fire at such a target will get confused and miss it's mark.

Then there are different radar modes,
SRC or search
Standard radar mode with a wide scope scale and can find targets outside of spotting range, on by default.

ACM or air combat maneuvering mode
Used to lock onto targets directly ahead of you, has a tiny scope scale and is best used in head-ons or if you already see the enemy and want to lock onto them quickly, can be toggled on by turning the radar off and pressing the "lock target on radar" key or you can use the context menu by pressing "Y" by default pressing 1 then 6.

TWS or track while scan
Automatically locks onto any target it finds while looking like a regular radar ping on enemy RWR instead of a lock, used mostly to fire AIM-54 Phoenix missiles without alerting the enemy, can be toggled on by pressing the change radar mode button, which can be bound in the settings or by using the context menu by pressing 1, then 5, TWS can only be used on the F-14 and the MiG-29 as of the making of this guide.

I have taught you some of the basics of radar but going into detail would mean too much typing and alot of reading so ill point you to a very handy video made by Tims Variety who also makes great reviews of aircraft and even games.

Section seven, awareness and game sense.

The most important part of any game is being aware of what is happening around you, developing game sense in war thunder will save you alot of headaches and maybe even pain.

Head on a swivel
Looking around you by using the "C" key and spotting danger is probably the most common form of game sense you need to be able to get any kills at all, looking around often can save you from a trip to the hanger so make it a priority and do it often, the one thing good players hate is an aware player so make sure to stay aware.

Maneuvers and mastering the controls
I cannot teach you how to aim or how to pull off maneuvers that can save you in a pinch, you'll have to learn those on your own through trail and error, but keep practicing and you'll eventually be able to tango with planes that are not only more maneuverable but you'll also be able to get a shot off on an overshooting enemy.

All in all, take it slow.
I know that war thunder can be infuriating sometimes, trust me, i would know but the best thing you can do when the game is making you feel down is to take a break, it's just a game after all so if you're feeling the burnout, just stop playing for a bit and come back once you've mentally rested from the game and try to learn from your mistakes.

I hope you learnt something from my guide, i had a fun time making it

don't see something you still need help with? ask me in the comments

I'll do my best to cover topics that i may have missed that are essential to top tier

[FinlandiaSoldier]

Thanks i just bought the F-4J(UK) and this is a massive help

[otufur]

very noice guide definitely will help wallet warrior and seasoned players

[otufur]

Excellent!

[otufur]

I Agree!

[Sull]

And the reason regular radar isn't affected by notching is it simply reads the bounce back of the radar waves hitting the plane in question. PD measures doppler effect which is how a waves frequency stretches or compresses depending on if the source is moving away from or towards you respectively.

Previous comment was too long.. Good guy Steam not saying anything about a character limit until you try to post..

[Sull]

Nice update :) Might be worth pointing out Tims guide is somewhat outdated, poor guy released it days prior to or if it was after the announcement of the recent radar changes that came with the 4th gen.. He's working on a new one tho from what I hear.

Radar is definitely among the more difficult things to master going up the tiers imo, both the theory surrounding it, when to use when etc and all the new keybinds required to control it. I recently(well, few weeks ago) got the F-14 and have only taken it out into 1 match due to wanting to learn radar a bit better to not completely waste my free repairs.. Excellent timing on my part tho right, get the F-14 once it gets significant competition AND they make radars more complex.. Lol

[『Haloskillplayer』]

i have finally completed the radar section and added the situational awareness section as suggested by @sull, once again thank you for your suggestion

[『Haloskillplayer』]

@Sull thank you for the feedback, i have made the changes to the energy fighting section
and ill make a whole new section dedicated to situational awareness after i finish the radar section

[Sull]

Nicely done. One small tip from me would be, in section two with the picture explanations, I think it would be easier to follow if rather than referring to them by their respective altitudes, just name them something arbitrary, A and B or something similar and mark which is which in relevant pictures.

I'd also perhaps mention situational awareness and emphasize it's importance. Of course most will bring some level of it from going through props but personally I find it so hugely more crucial in jets, particularly when you get to missile thunder but with the spotting system sometimes playing by its own rules... Simply "Head on a swivel AT ALL TIMES" more or less.

[One Skott No Kill]

relly sorry for you, i dont feel mentally also, i only have about 100 hours, but like a week ago i had 50 hours... i can still manage school atleast, for now