So, you want a join a War Thunder squadron? This quick guide will explain everything you need to know about squadrons in order to get started.

Squadrons are groups of players united under one tag that displays next to their name. Squadrons are great because they are a way for communities to come together in-game and play together in custom game modes like Squadron Battles or World War Mode. They build communities both in and outside of the game and through them you can even earn custom vehicles!

Creating a Squadron in War Thunder

There are two ways to create a squadron. For 1,000,000 SL you can create a training squadron with limited features and a lower member limit, or for 2,500 GE you can create a regular squadron with full features and a 128 member limit.

When creating a squadron, you get to choose your custom name, in-game tag and the character borders that surround it (=SQUADRON=), region, squadron description and an announcement that will display on the list of squadrons.

Rank Structure of a Squadron

A squadron's rank structure is very straightforward and allows ranked members of your squadron to perform actions around the squadron based on their rank.

war thunder squadron ranks and permissions

Squadron Statistics

Within the squadron, you'll be able to see some general statistics which will help you understand how the squadron is going such as; squadron activity, points

You'll also be able to see the total number of air & ground vehicles destroyed, deaths and time spent in-game - these metrics will be displayed on the war thunder squadron leaderboard from the past 2 weeks of statistics.

image: statistics shown in the squadron overview.

On the squadron information page, navigate towards the bottom and look for 'Activity', when you click this a window will appear with the statistics for the last period, so you can better understand how your contributions and the squadron's activity affect your Activity Reward.

image: squadron activity in the last period.

War Thunder Sqaudron Vehicles

When joining any squadron you have the ability to research squadron vehicles that are only available to squadron members and can also be researched at the same time as other vehicles. Think of them as premium vehicles for the squadron but you would only obtain them through actively playing the game whilst in a squadron.

image: war thunder vehicles you can research by being in a squadron.

Most commonly asked squadron vehicle questions

How long are squadron research points calculated?

Points are calculated every 3 days.

How are the squadron research points calculated?

For every 200 RP won in-game the player will earn one activity point, the activity of each individual player is then totalled to get the squadron activity. The value is capped at 360 points during the 3 days period for each player.

What's the maximum amount of activity points I can gain?

The activity points are capped at 360 points every three days.

How long does it take to unlock a squadron vehicle?

This answer will depend upon the number of members within your squadron and how active each member is.

Formula for war thunder squadron activity points

If you've always wondered how quick can you research a squadron vehicle in war thunder then this may hold the answers for you, provided by 'Alien109' in the war thunder forums which will provide you with the specific formula to calculate the average squadron activity points you can gain.

If your War Thunder Squadron has 128 members.

128 members x 360 activity points = 46,080 points (however this is capped at 20,000).

Meaning that the overall squadron activity will not exceed 43% (20000/46080) (when squadron has 128 members)

How to receive the maximum reward?

Each squadron player will need to get their personal activity equal or greater than the squadron activity.

Let's say you have 43% or more activity within the squadron, you'll receive 20,000 points for the vehicle research (in a 128 members squadron with 43% activity).

If another member of the squadron has 20% activity (which is 72 points of the max 360), they will receive 9216 points and here's how;

20000 * (72/360)/(20000/46080) = 9216 points

=max reward * player activity % / squadron acitivty %

Now let's say the 128 members squadron only reached 30% activity (30% of 46,080 = 13,824) of the overall activity, each player with 30% or more activity will receive the maximum possible reward but it will also be lower than in the previous case of 43% activity.

So if a member has 30% or more activity, they will receive 13,824 points for their vehicle (in a 128 members squadron) they get 100% of the max squadron reward.

If another member has 20% activity (which is 72 points of the max 360), they will receive 66% of the max squadron reward (=20%/30%)

13824 * (72/360)/(13824/46080) = 9216 points

=max reward * player activity % / squadron acitivty %

This is the same amount however, the equation changes when activity is less than the first example, looking at 2 terms of the division which are equal, so they actually cancel each other out.

Points to take away from this calculation

  • A squadron with few active players will NOT reward those active with a lot of points.
  • Members of the squadron that have lower activity than the squadron activity will always get the same reward (128 per personal activity point).
  • If you're not so active, so long as the squadron has a higher activity % than you, it's fine to join.
  • If you're a really active player (90/100%) you should be with a squadron with 43% activity to get the maximum points.
  • If you're a squadron owner you should look to remove members with low activity if majority of members are active.
  • If only a handful of members are inactive, you can get more than 43% activity to help meet the 20,000 points for the overall squadron.

The most efficient way to research squadron vehicles

  • Join a full squadron, or one with ideally 100+ active members.
  • Ensure the overall squadron activity researches 43%
  • Get 157 activity points to cover your own reward, no need for more.

If your War Thunder Squadron has 100 members.

Max reward = 100 * 360 = 36000 but capped at 20000

So max squadron activity would be 20000/360000 = 55 %

To get a max reward, of 20,000 points, you will need to be more active than situated in a 128 member squadron. Your personal activity should be around 200/360 at least (55%).

Advertising a squadron, where?

Opening a squadron is easy, obtaining members is the next challenge, so let's talk about advertising your squadron to find new members, where can you do it to find the members that will actually stick around?

I've been helping to advertise/recruit for my squadron for over 7 years and have always found the best place to start is the war thunder squadron forums, which will allow you to create a topic and give some information about your squadron.

in-game recruitment chat

There's also another category under squadrons called 'looking for a squadron' whereas players look to find actively recruiting squadrons, replying to these topics will certainly help you gain some more members.

You can also recruit whenever you're in the game via the chat feature. Click on Chats -> Create Chat and on that window, you can select 'Squadron Recruitment' from the category dropdown.

Pro Tip: Write your recruitment ad within discord or a word application and copy & paste it into the box, this way you can keep a copy and also style it by adding spaces, links, bold etc

in-game recruitment chat war thunder

Discords and other places

There are a lot of war thunder discords that allow squadrons to advertise within channels of those servers, we have a list of war thunder discords that you can check out for yourself.

Alternatively, if you Partner with EWT we can provide you with an account to post a recruitment ad on our website which gets submitted to a channel directly in our community discord, it all helps with extra exposure and plus you get a cool page to display your squadron.

Squadron Battles (SQB) Explained

Squadron battles are formed of 8 members per side (A Platoon) which will take part in realistic battles against other squadrons, they compete in a tournament for silver lions and golden eagles, all of those squadrons that get into the top 20 will receive rewards.

For each battle won the winning squadron will get a maximum of 32 points and -1 for each loss, these then contribute towards a worldwide ranking (squadron rating).

Squadrons who get within the Top 100 squadrons on the leaderboard will also obtain squadron borders that sit around your squadron tag i.e. NAT0 tag will display as =NAT0= -NAT0- [NAT0] or any other tags obtained.

The squadron battle schedule/times are always listed on the war thunder forums found here. (make sure to go to the last page)

We'll create another article soon explaining more detail into squadron battles, the Meta vehicles and tactics often used on some maps.

Final thoughts on Squadrons in War Thunder

Being a part of a war thunder squadron brings a whole new level to the game, with some amazing squadrons out there which are happy to help newer players grind vehicles, tasks or just to have a laugh and win matches.. there's no reason to why you shouldn't join one. It's the only way you can really experience some great gameplay with other members who have passion for the game just as much as you do.

For those of you looking to command your own squadron for anything more than 'fun' with a few mates, It will be a new experience for you to keep everything together.. even when things start to pick up and you have members online going to SQBs, there's always a chance one or two hiccups could cost you your members. You are put up against challenges every day from recruitment, member management and SQBs which are a repeat headache for many squadron commanders.

I hope this article on war thunder squadrons has helped you out, if there's anything you'd like covered please drop a comment below.

Everything War Thunder
Published September 9, 2021

12 comments on “War Thunder Squadrons Explained”

  1. Okay, so. I have a small squadron and no one can find it, also, I can’t chat with anyone outside of the in-game chat. I play between my PC and Xbox (kb/m). The profile’s originally from my Xbox. I try to chat outside of the in-game and it says ‘feature not available’.

    What’s up with that? Anyone able to help me out on this?

    1. Hi NanoSoaringDash, if your account was originally on Xbox and you've switched to PC, you will need to transfer your account to a PC account by following this https://support.gaijin.net/hc/en-us/articles/4424321999377-Transfer-Xbox-account-to-PC. Doing this will allow you to use your PC account, on the PC with all of the available features.

      At the moment no squadron can communicate in-game until Gaijin add the chat back, so your best bet to advertise is to utilise their Forums, Live section and/or join our partnership and advertise the squadron via our website. I hope this helps!

  2. I created a squadron just for myself and received no research points despite hitting max activity. Do they have some sort of protection that makes solo squads ineffective? I didn't see any sort of warnings about this and feel cheated.

    1. Hi thanks for your comment, so I had done some research into your question about solo squadrons and if research points are effective with one person in a squadron. You're completely right.. there's no guidance or any topics whereas other people have raised this concern.. for this reason I'm going to reach out to WT for you and clear this up once and for all.

      I know the activity points as stated in this article are worked out across multiple members, every 3 days.. but it doesn't stipulate if there's a minimum member requirement.

  3. So i have a squadron, we are trying to play with 5 to 6 people but i cannot find squadron battles mode when they are in, what am i doing wrong?

    1. For squadron battles you should have at least 8 queued people to play that game mode. When you do you can then invite members into a squad, in the same area there's an option to change the squad type to allow more players. Once everyone is ready then change Game Mode and enter a squadron realistic battle.

      1. Hi! By efficiently, do you mean my 6 friends can join me and we can start a battle with the 7 of us? We don’t have a team of 8 sadly. Thanks in advance!

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