Hero image: War Thunder. Image: Gaijin Entertainment
Your loadout will decide your Battle Rating. Gaijin says the first aircraft and helicopters get the new system in the next major update.
War Thunder is splitting some aircraft into more than one Battle Rating. Gaijin calls it custom Battle Ratings, and it explained the mechanic in a Steam post at 12:51am AEDT on Friday 30 October, by our conversion.
Here is how it works. Researching certain modifications unlocks extra Battle Rating options for the same vehicle. You choose the configuration in your hangar before the match. Researching a weapon does not force your BR up. Leave the weapon off and you stay at the lower rating.
Premium vehicles come with every modification unlocked on purchase. That means you can try each configuration straight away.
Gaijin gave two examples. The first is a hypothetical. Suppose the German Tiger UHT helicopter sits at 11.0 in base configuration, and researching the PARS 3 LR missiles unlocks the option to play at 12.7. At 11.0 you lose the fire-and-forget missiles but keep air-to-ground guided missiles with semi-automatic or laser guidance.
The premium MiG-21 Bison sits at 12.3 without active radar-homing missiles. It keeps its helmet-mounted display and laser-guided bombs. Equip the RVV-AE missiles and it becomes a 13.3 fighter that can engage beyond visual range.
Gaijin warns that those numbers “are provided as initial examples and may change during the development process.” Treat them as illustrations, not final ratings.
The first aircraft and helicopters with custom Battle Ratings arrive in “the very next major update.” Only select aircraft get it at first, and the full list will be in that update’s changelog. Gaijin gave no date. It says it is considering ground vehicles later, for instance certain top-tier tanks, but aircraft come first.
If you play now, a round of Battle Rating corrections is already live. The 30 October server update fixes ratings that did not match the final table of planned BR changes:
The F-16A MLU (China) drops from 14.0 to 13.7 in Air Simulator Battles. The Hawk T Mk 1A and Hawk T Mk 1A (FRP) drop from 7.7 to 7.3 in all Air Battles modes. The N1K2-J, N1K2-Ja, Spitfire F Mk XVIIIe and Yak-3U drop from 6.7 to 6.3 in Ground Realistic Battles. Separately, the F-102A, all variants, can no longer use AIM-26B and FFAR at the same time.
War Thunder was 12th on Steam’s most-played chart in the early hours of Sunday. It is free to play on Steam. For more on the week’s other changes, read our pieces on the DIRCM overhaul and the nuclear escalation test.
Source: Gaijin Entertainment – Custom Battle Rating for Aircraft (Steam), Gaijin Entertainment – Server Update 30.10.2026 (Steam)