War Thunder as a military vehicle simulator can be very immersive, or just another arcade game, depending on what you make it. Customizing your own vehicles to your own liking plays a big part in every player’s experience with the game.
Vehicle customization in War Thunder mainly consists of usage of decals, camouflages, decorations. This article aims to explains the use of each of these.
Decals
Decals are images that can be applied to any unlocked vehicles. They can be rotated 360° (Alt + Mouse Wheel on PC), scaled within a limit (Shift + Mouse Wheel on PC), and mirrored on the left or right, top or bottom side of the vehicle.
Decals are generally categorized by country or event, though there are general symbols. Most can be unlocked by just playing the game; unlocking vehicles in tech trees, knocking out player enemies or AI targets in battles, participating in events, and so on.
Each tech-tree nation has their own set of Digits-decals, in both red and white colors. These are always available to every unlocked vehicle and nation, but only as the selected nation's variants.
Only two decals can be placed on a vehicle at a time, with each being able to have a mirrored image as well. With a Premium Account active, this amount is increased from two to four decals per vehicle. Also, if the vehicle is a Premium vehicle, and has Mark of Distinction unlocked, the four decal slots are available, regardless of the player's Premium Account status.
Camouflages
Most vehicles in War Thunder have unlockable camouflages. For ground vehicles and vessels, they are often patterns based on seasons or environment (e.g. “Hinterhalt-Tarnüng”, or a naval deforming pattern). Aircraft can also have historical camouflages of certain squadrons, for example, or just designated tactical patterns, such as a winter or torpedo-bomber camouflage.
Camouflages are unlocked the same way as decals, that is playing the game or purchasing them, but they can only be applied to the vehicle used to unlock them.
For Ground Vehicles, each camouflage can be rotated along the vertical axis, as well as scaled larger or smaller. The camouflage's condition can also be modified with a Premium Account. This means, basically, how worn and used, or pristine, the camouflage looks. These all are adjusted using a slider.
When you enter a battle, by default, the game chooses a fitting camouflage to use in the current match for your vehicle. This is indicated with the '(Auto)' text next to the camouflage's name. You can still choose another unlocked camouflage to use, though. You can toggle this automatic selection off for each camouflage in the vehicle's customization menu.
User skins
There is an article on WT Wiki explaining the use of user-made skins more in depth.
Some vehicles have user-made skins specially curated by a team , to be available at Gaijin Marketplace. These skins are either historical, semihistorical or fictional. If bought from the marketplace or acquired from it’s respective trophy, you can use the skin in battles for everyone to see, same as in-game camouflages.
If another player has their settings turned so that they cannot view certain authenticities of camouflage in battles, they might not see the respective type of skin you are wearing. Also, if you have that setting turned on, you won’t see enemy or friendly camouflages of that type.
– This can be set in Settings --> Main parameters --> Customization of vehicles --> "Show content in the battle". There's different options for arcade, realistic and simulator battles.
These user-made skins are made by the community. All of these skins, and more, are available to view at WT Live, where you can browse them or download and use for yourself. Though, if you download them there, only you can see them in-game; you are only modifying your client-side game files.
Decorations
Ground Vehicles and Vessels can be customized using decorations. These are rotatable, but not scalable, 3D objects. Some of them can be unlocked by playing and progressing (mainly some army helmets), but most are unlocked by buying with Golden Eagles, found in Trophies, or bought from the Gaijin Market.
Ground vehicles and vessels have different decorations available to them, with notably fewer options available for vessels. Also, all decorations for the Bluewater Fleet don't fit on Coastal Fleet ships, and vice versa.
An infamous type of decoration for ground vehicles is "camouflage", often providing more of a tactical advantage in battle than aesthetic value. These decorations have a few variants, but are mostly bushes, leaves and other foliage. They cost 500 Golden Eagles a piece, though in the past one had 6 of the same type available for one purchase.
Generally, all types of cosmetics for vehicles can be either earned through completing the requirements, or by spending Golden Eagles. Usually decals and camouflages cost 200GE, while decorations will set you back 500GE.
As mentioned previously, many cosmetics are also available on the Gaijin Market, or Trophies, which can be opened with keys bought from the Market.
Once in a while, during major holidays and national celebration days, War Thunder will have a certain decal or decoration available to unlock. More often than not, it has to do with playing three battles with at least one Rank III vehicle, against other players, all while having at least 70% activity in each battle.
War Thunder hosts tournaments on Twitch.tv, namely on the WarThunder_eSports -channel. These come often with drops, where you can get your hands on Boosters, Premium Account time as well as cosmetics.
