It’s no secret that War Thunder is arguably the biggest military MMO in the world right now, and it’s not hard to see why. The free-to-play war simulator is any military hardware enthusiast’s dream, with hundreds of realistic tanks, planes, helicopters, naval vessels, and more for you to play with in intense PvP and PvE game modes.
There are over 2,000 highly detailed vehicles for you to deploy on over 100 maps, representing some of the most iconic historical battle theatres. With so many strategic options at your disposal, the game offers almost endless replayability, and the constant updates from developer Gaijin Entertainment offer plenty of reasons to keep returning to the battlefield.
In order to achieve the best results in the many battles you will encounter, you’ll need to make sure you know every move your vehicle can make at any given moment. In order to do this effectively and efficiently, you’ll not only need to be intimately familiar with your war machine, but you’ll also need to know how to activate its capabilities in a pinch. The key lies in key bindings.
Why are key bindings so important?
Whether you’re driving a Cobra King heavy tank, piloting a Spitfire fighter plane, or captaining a Jaguar torpedo boat, you’ll need to know every tool that your chosen war machine has to offer. With so many different options available, it pays to add shortcuts to your loadout that will help you instantly achieve the results you want in the heat of battle. The last thing you want to be doing is fumbling with your gaming keyboard while you’re staring down the barrel of an anti-aircraft cannon.
There are several presets already available in-game, but it’s best to implement your own custom setup that suits your individual playstyle to achieve the optimum layout.
The first golden rule of key binding is to map keys that you’ll need to press quickly as close to your keyboard hand as possible. Keys that you press during downtime, such as replenishing a crewmember (non-life-or-death scenarios) can be placed further away, but vital survival actions like popping smoke grenades, deploying flaps, and activating fire prevention equipment should all be as close to your dominant hand as possible.
Aircraft control
Due to the sheer volume of vehicular options available in War Thunder, it’s virtually impossible to give a universal key binding layout that will work for all vehicles. We can, however, offer a universally accepted key binding layout for the most popular vehicle type – aircraft.
The recommended key binds for aircraft are as follows:
W – forward/pitch down
S – back/pitch up
A – left/roll left
D – right/roll right
Q – strafe left/yaw left
E – strafe right/yaw right
Shift – accelerate/increase throttle
CTRL – Decelerate/decrease throttle
Right CTRL + E – toggle engine start/stop
Right CTRL + F – toggle prop feathering
F – toggle flaps (LShift + F for definitive flaps down)
G – gear
B – airbrake/drag chute
Once you’ve mapped these navigation controls, you can then either map guns to the remaining keys or mouse buttons.
A view to a kill
As important as survival mechanics are, the view from which you observe the battlefield needs just as much thought. Some purists will opt to stay in the cockpit at all times, but more strategic thinkers may want to observe different viewpoints in different scenarios, and knowing how to switch between these views on the fly is the key to staying at the top of the food chain.
We recommend binding the view keys to the number keys at the top of the keyboard. For aircraft this would be as follows:
1 – virtual instructor
2 – cockpit mode
3 – third-person view
4 – gunner view
5 – bombardier view
These keys are close to the WASD navigation keys and therefore will allow you to switch views in an instant. Spacebar is best implemented to zoom, while LeftAlt can be employed to automatically follow an enemy.
Communication is key
When fighting alongside friends or online allies, having your comms instantly accessible is key to ensuring your team runs smoothly. If you have a mouse with additional buttons, it’s a good idea to map your microphone comms (push-to-talk) to one of these buttons for instant access. There are also a number of pings that you can implement that are invaluable, especially when playing with strangers.
Our recommendations for radio messages are to use T for team messages, and Y for squad messages. This way you can double-tap T to announce to your team that you are attacking a target, and hit YT to announce it to your squad. Hit TY to request your team attack a target, and double tap Y to request your squad to attack a target.
If you’ve yet to go full throttle in War Thunder, you can download and play for free now by heading over to WarThunder.com.
