War Thunder New FRB Player’s Tips

War Thunder New FRB Player’s Tips by P1_D4rk_FalcoN

Many things have been said, many questions, many worries about the future of our beloved FRB mode. Many are wondering what could bring more players to our community.

On our level, I don’t think we can decide what this mode will become, it is the way it is and we have to live with it. But what we can do is to teach and guide new players who wish to begin FRB battles. It is one way to keep newcomers and have the FRB community grow.

After reading and thinking about what has been said these days, I came to the conclusion there are several reasons why FRB mode isn’t popular : lack of icons, difficulty to spot targets and track them, controls (joystick or not). This is what makes people lose patience after a few games and do not come back.

The purpose of this post is to make new players realise that there’s really no exceptionnal requirement to play FRB, that it’s all a matter of a good set up and some getting used to, that everything becomes easy with practice. AND TO KEEP YOU AMONG US!

Before getting too technical, you will have to forget everything learned so far in AB or HB modes, no matter how good you were there. What will matter here is your capacity to analyse and to adapt to a situation; humility will be your best friend. The lack of icons is a considerable gameplay change. Think like a predator : be invisible, spot your target, track it, wait for the best moment to deliver your attack , and most of all survive to enjoy the end of the mission!

Children don’t stand and walk on their first try. They fall, rise, fall again, and after many attempts, one day they are able to coordinate and walk. FRB is a similar story, you will launch a first battle, take off, go to the combat zone and die without having seen it coming. This is normal, and I can assure you it happened to everyone. But like a child learning to walk, don’t let it go, rise and try again.

Before you go, there are a few things to prepare, like setting your joystick or mousejoy to your liking, or know how to look around your plane. Those are your weapons.

Joystick : it’s not plug-and-play, you have to tune it to optimize both accuracy and handling. You will find here http://forum.warthun…re-your-config/ preset configs you may use and only adjust nonlinearity to suit you. I often read that joysticks are badly optimized and unplayable. WRONG, all is needed is to take some time in test flight to set up your device correctly. Don’t hesitate to ask is somebody has the same joystick as you to get a proper set up, it would be a pleasure to share.

Mousejoy as well must be tuned to get flexibility and accuracy. Here is a video to help you set your mousejoy. I won’t develop here since I’m no expert, and will let people who know better give you a hand

Once you are done with controls, you have to choose how you will look around and track your foes. There again, several options.
The best is to own a TrackIR device (about 150€), then a trackclip pro (~40€) usable with a webcam (20€) combined with Freetrack or FacetrackNoIR. If you can use your two hands you’ll find here http://www.free-track.net/english/ a way to build your own trackclip pro. Another option is facetrackNoIR with Faceapi which only requires a webcam (20€).
You may also use your mouse to look around, or the hatswitch after setting it properly.
These are different methods, all valid and used by most players. Once again, don’t hesitate to ask for help, there will always be somebody to give you a hand!

As you must know there is no icon in FRB, there are some Post-FX tweaks which can help you see dots better. Tweaks are here http://forum.warthun…ved-visibility/

Now that your hardware has been dealt with, I suggest you have a few custom battles to get used to your aircraft’s behaviour and limits. Land, take-off, do some sharp maneuvres untill stalling, practice spin recovery, for you will need all that in the heat of the battle.

Now you have done a few custom battles and are getting better. Your lousy aim is normal, it comes with practice! After a while, deflection shooting becomes instinctive.

AT LAST, YOU ARE READY TO GO FOR IT. The begining is difficult, just be patient and keep going. It takes 60 to 100 hours of FRB experience to easilly spot, follow and aim at a target. The tough part is to do your homework and accept the fact you will be regularly one-shot by a merciless opponent.

BE HUMBLE, no matter if you’re level 20, start with a low tier, not a jet! The most experienced FRB players play high level, with technics that won’t leave you a chance. I suggest you stick to lvl 5-6 to begin with.

You’ve chosen your aircraft, launched a battle and are on the runway ready to take off. Now take a few secondsto look at your map, locate your position, and where your ground forces and the ennemy base are.

From now on, your survival depends on the actions you take. After taking off, zoom towards the red base. You may see several black spots rising in various directions. Now you can chose your strategy. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR 6 EVERY 5 SECONDS, bad surprises happen really fast. Don’t go stupidly in the middle of the map to get the few AI moving at 500m, it’s the best way to be B&Z. Take out humans first, only then you can quietly farm the AI.

Since you’re not used yet to spot ennemy planes, I suggest you keep close to your friendly forces. AAA will cross-fire on hostile planes, giving you the position of a possible prey. If you see nothing, climb. If you do nothing, climb. Altitude is your best and only friend.

Be careful though, not everything will always go right. There will be an old wolf taking his time to attack you when you’re on your own. When you’re engaged, don’t stress, for your opponent is precisely waiting for your mistake. Ask for help to give your position to the team, and give your altitude to shorten the time needed for your teammates to catch on you. Analyze your strength and his weakness. Will I escape by turning, diving, running level? In most cases, except when you really have superior energy, do not climb. 80% of the time, climbing is dying, because your opponent will have a nice aim on your plane. Always think about showing the smaller target to ennemy fire. Ideally, fly with a wingman*; one thinks twice before attacking a formation. If you don’t have a wingman, try to stick to an ally.

This is only the begining of your FRB experience, the path will be long before you feel easy. One key : DON’T GIVE UP, DON’T GIVE UP, DON’T GIVE UP and your efforts will pay off. I know no one who, after having tried and kept going despite the difficulty, went back to another game mode. FRB will bring you all sorts of emotions, and a max of adrenaline!

All this comes from my modest FRB experience (500h+), I hope other experienced FRB players will join and add their own advice to new FRB players.

* you can use at any time our official War Thunder Teamspeak to find players to play with :

TS3 ip : 5.199.133.37:9696 Password : Spitfire

More Tips by MrDauerfeuer

1. Know what certain planes can and cannot do. What I do if i get shot down thinking “how the f*** did he do that???” is following: I get into that plane and fly around. Checking what can be done. How will it roll at certain speeds, how does it accelerate out of different speeds, whats the stall speed and much more. You will Soon™ find that outturning somebody is not the only way to prevail.

2. If you find a plane that you feel comfortable with, stick with it. THIS IS YOUR PLANE. You will learn to love its strengths and work around its weaknesses. Fly other planes only to spy on their advantages and disadvantages. Finding the right plane for your preferred way of air combat is not easy but you will find one. Some planes are not used often because they seem “underpowered” – don´t let others opinions drag you down. If you like it – fly it! Show them that this plane can pack a punch!

3. Learn to fly without looking. Flying straight or even ACMs when looking back is not as easy as it may seem just reading it. This will take practice and you will need this in combat.

4. Even though many would probably disagree, I think running for cover is a good thing. Example:

– I was sneaking up on a spit last night and even though I hit him big time from 100m with cannons he somehow survived
– I was in my BF 109 and had just a slight energy advantage
– I figured, what the hell… I´ll just go for a high yoyo and follow his gun defense… He must be hurt
– He wasn´t though and now I was about to get stuck with the same energy in a turn fight against a spit (not a good idea)
– The odds now turned in his favor and i scissored my way above my teams airfield
– With the aaa shooting him up he made a mistake
– He fell for a trap that I set up
– I make him follow me with a lead turn
– I made my gun defense (roll 180 degrees into a flat scissor against his turn)
– As I come around I shot him on his wing as he overshoots and he went down
– Even though the aaa didn´t shoot him down, it sure shook him up good and made him loose awareness of the trap I set up

This wasn’t my finest hour but in the end I prevailed against 3 enemies left. I use everything I have available. I do know that in movies and books, pilots are made to be these fearless heroes that will just go into any fight even against the odds. In reality I believe most pilots were actually very precise, calm and calculating killers. They used any tricks available to them because – well most just wanted to survive. So I say running home is a valid tactic and you will Soon™ see that aaa can save your a** (especially the airfields aaa – that thing will tear any plane apart it hits).

5. Don´t get frustrated. Angry – YES! That we all get that but if you feel frustrated, ask for help. Most people here will help you gladly and even give you some tips after you’ve been shot down.

I hope many more people come to enjoy air combat in FRB as it is a truly great experience.

edit: Found the replay and uploaded the video showing the situation described! Jump to 2:00 minutes if you just want to see the defensive flat scissor move! Hope this helps