Crew skills

Crew Skills are the added attributes to your crew performance and effectiveness, being for the pilots, gunners of single (and multi) crew aircraft, and airfield/hangar mechanics.

Crew Skills

Crew skills are War Thunder's way of simulating the experience and skill gained by air and ground crews through combat missions, allowing them to perform/endure tasks more efficiently and effectively as they increase them over time, such as how quickly aircraft are repaired by ground crew, how fast can the tank's loader fit shells into the gun breech, how accurate bombers' gunners' fire is or the amount of g-force that can be sustained before a pilot begins blacking out.

The number of points accrued for flight crew experience depends on the research points obtained in a battle. In Realistic and Simulator battles you will receive approximately 1% of the research points earned for the aircraft the crew is flying in; in Arcade battles you gain 3%, but the experience is spread among multiple crews. So the average speed of leveling in all three modes is approximately equal. There is another way to develop the crew - buying experience points for Golden Eagles in the "Accelerated Training" menu.

Qualification Levels

Players can level up their crews' skills through two ways - spending crew points and investing in crew qualification through Silver Lions.

Unlike skills, qualification levels (beyond "Current skill training" - the training achieved by spending crew points) are acquired only for a named aircraft or tank. Qualification is an exceptional skill of the crew in controlling this particular vehicle. To learn it, a certain crew level needs to be achieved. Crew level is a total of all skills learned by the crew.

Spending crew points, in aircraft crews, accounts for 50% of the attainable skill levels. There are three levels of qualification altogether before one can reach the "Top" level, which are "Current skill training", "Expert" and "Ace".

In the case of ground crews, "Current skill level" accounts for 40% of the required qualification to reach the maximum skill level, the "Top" level. The remaining 60% are delegated another three qualification levels - "Expert", "Ace" and "Leadership".

The first level of qualification, "Expert", increases Keen Vision, Awareness, Precision and Fire Accuracy of gunners, Repair and Reload Speed skills by 30; the second level, "Ace" increases these skills by another 20 points. Expert level is available starting at level

In order to use these skills at their maximum level, a pilot needs to research them up to level 5 and obtain two qualifications. For instance, a pilot who levelled the "Keen Vision" skill up to 5 will detect targets approximately 6 km away; after getting the “Expert” qualification he will then see enemy targets at 7.2 km; finally, reaching “Ace” grade qualification will increase this detection distance to the maximum of 8 km.

Ground vehicle crew skills

Driver

• Keen Vision - determines at what distance the player can see an enemy ground vehicle that's under cover. The game server only sends information of a vehicle that's concealed to the client when the player is at a minimal distance from the enemy. This distance is around 500-700m with crew that's not leveled up and up to three times as much with the crew fully leveled up.
• Tank Driving - affects the rate at which the driver switches gears and applies the brake, thus improving the acceleration and responsiveness when turning.
• Vitality - reduces the likelihood of receiving a mortal wound.
• Field repair - Increases the basic rate at which damaged parts are repaired (by up to 50%).
• Agility - determines the speed with which a crew member can replace another fallen one. The average value of agility in the crew is what counts - spending all of the points on one disposable crew member won't benefit the player any more than distributing the points would.

Tank Commander

• Keen Vision - determines at what distance the player can see an enemy ground vehicle that's under cover. The game server only sends information of a vehicle that's concealed to the client when the player is at a minimal distance from the enemy. This distance is around 500-700m with crew that's not leveled up and up to three times as much with the crew fully leveled up.
• Leadership - Improves all crew members skills by up to 10%
• Vitality - reduces the likelihood of receiving a mortal wound.
• Field repair - Increases the basic rate at which damaged parts are repaired (by up to 50%).
• Agility - determines the speed with which a crew member can replace another fallen one. The average value of agility in the crew is what counts - spending all of the points on one disposable crew member won't benefit the player any more than distributing the points would.

Loader

• Keen Vision - determines at what distance the player can see an enemy ground vehicle that's under cover. The game server only sends information of a vehicle that's concealed to the client when the player is at a minimal distance from the enemy. This distance is around 500-700m with crew that's not leveled up and up to three times as much with the crew fully leveled up.
• Weapon Reloading - Decrease the time required for loading the weapon by up to 23%.
• Vitality - reduces the likelihood of receiving a mortal wound.
• Field repair - Increases the basic rate at which damaged parts are repaired (by up to 50%).
• Agility - determines the speed with which a crew member can replace another fallen one. The average value of agility in the crew is what counts - spending all of the points on one disposable crew member won't benefit the player any more than distributing the points would.

Gunner

• Keen Vision - determines at what distance the player can see an enemy ground vehicle that's under cover. The game server only sends information of a vehicle that's concealed to the client when the player is at a minimal distance from the enemy. This distance is around 500-700m with crew that's not leveled up and up to three times as much with the crew fully leveled up.
• Targeting - influences the speed and precision of the gun's traverse and elevation. An experienced gunner aims horizontally and vertically at the same time. An inexperienced gunner does this one at a time. An experienced gunner can also improve turret traverse speed.
• Rangefinding - affects how precise the gunner's estimate of distance is upon using clicking the key assigned to "Rangefinder"
• Vitality - reduces the likelihood of receiving a mortal wound.
• Field repair - Increases the basic rate at which damaged parts are repaired (by up to 50%).
• Agility - determines the speed with which a crew member can replace another fallen one. The average value of agility in the crew is what counts - spending all of the points on one disposable crew member won't benefit the player any more than distributing the points would.

Radio Operator Gunner

• Keen Vision - determines at what distance the player can see an enemy ground vehicle that's under cover. The game server only sends information of a vehicle that's concealed to the client when the player is at a minimal distance from the enemy. This distance is around 500-700m with crew that's not leveled up and up to three times as much with the crew fully leveled up.
• Artillery strike calling time - decreases the time between calling the strike and the shells being fired (from a base level of 13 seconds to a minimum of 10 seconds).
• Artillery targeting accuracy - increases the targeting accuracy of artillery by reducing the shells' scattering (from a base level of 57 m to a minimum of 45 m
• Radio Communication - increases the range at which the enemy players detected by the allied team are displayed (through red arrows pointing downward), by up to 100%.
• Vitality - reduces the likelihood of receiving a mortal wound.
• Field repair - Increases the basic rate at which damaged parts are repaired (by up to 50%).
• Agility - determines the speed with which a crew member can replace another fallen one. The average value of agility in the crew is what counts - spending all of the points on one disposable crew member won't benefit the player any more than distributing the points would.

Demonstrating the way the "reloading" skill affects the selected crew - with skill level 0

Demonstrating the way the "reloading" skill affects the selected crew - with upgraded skill

Aircraft crew skills

Pilot

• Keen Vision - Enhances the detection range when spotting enemies, i.e. the maximum distance at which the target indicator may appear. This ranges between 4km (untrained) to 8km (maxed). Detection is only made within a cone in the direction of view of the player. Maximum detection distance is also dependent on the size of the target, lighting conditions and other factors.

• Awareness - Enhances the detection range of enemy targets between 150m(untrained) to 300m(maxed). Detection is carried out in all directions around the aircraft, regardless of the direction that the player is observing.

• G-Tolerance - Influences the tolerance of the pilot to acceleration in maneuvers (g-forces), increasing the critical amount of "G's" that the pilot can sustain without the player's vision field being darkened/reddened and the player losing control of the plane after a certain period of time, representing the pilot's loss of consciousness (also known as G-LOC).

• Stamina - influences the time period during which the pilot still has control over the aircraft when the maximum G is exceeded. Also affects how quick he can regain consciousness. In addition, it has an effect on the accuracy of mouse aiming mode.

• Vitality - Reduces the likelihood of the pilot receiving a mortal wound. For the novice pilot the second .303 bullet hit or comparable shrapnel impact is usually fatal; while a pilot with their Vitality maxed out can, with a measure of luck, survive one hit from a .50 (12.7mm) M2 Browning machine gun.

Gunners

• Number of Experienced Gunners - All skills with gunners are reduced proportionally to the difference between the amount of gunners on the selected aircraft and the number of experienced gunners in the crew. For example, an He.111H-6 bomber has 5 gunners positions. If there is a crew of only two experienced gunners all their skills will be reduced by 60%, with four - 20%, with all five positions filled, their skills will be fully effective.

• Fire Accuracy - This skill only applies when the gunner is controlled by AI. Increases the traverse speed of a turret, increases the maximum burst length by up to 3 times, increases the distance at which gunners can start firing at a target by up to 275% (55% in RB/SB), increases the distance at which the targets direction can be anticipated, increases the chance of simultaneous fire and “leading” the target, removes miscalculation in “leading” the target (decreased by 7 times for RB / SB when researched completely) .

• Fire Precision - This skill only applies when the gunner is controlled by AI. Reduces scatter of the gun by 2.5 times (2 times in RB/SB), increases the burst length by up to a third when fully researched, increases the distance that gunners open fire in arcade battles by a marginal amount (up to 8%), increases the chance of simultaneous fire and “leading” the target just like fire accuracy.

• G-Tolerance - Works in the same way as the pilot skill. Results in gunners maintaining their accuracy and precision when g-forces are acting on them .

• Stamina - Works in the same way as the pilot skill.

• Vitality - Works in the same way as the pilot skill.

Ground Services

• Repair Speed -Reduces repair time both at the airfield in the game and in the hangar by up to 3 times when fully researched. For example, the base repair time of the Bf 109 F-4/trop in AB is 7 hours 50 minutes, while with repair speed it is reduced to 2 hours 36 minutes.

• Repair Rank - Determines the maximum aircraft Rank to which the repair skill is applied. Has a total of five stages according to the number of vehicle ranks in the game. For instance, the Bf 109 F-4/trop requires repair rank 3. If the repair rank is lower, the repair time will remain at 7 hours 50 minutes no matter how high the repair speed skill is.

• Reload Speed - Reduces the rearming time in the air three times for cannons & machine guns, two times for bombs, rockets and torpedoes and four times for turrets. Fully leveling La-5FN crew’s reloading skill will cause the rearmament time of cannons to go down from 40 seconds to 13.3; bombs will be reloaded in 20 seconds instead of 40.

• Weapon Maintenance - Reduces the chance of weapons jamming due to overheating by up to 3 times, reduces the angular velocity of bombs, rockets and torpedoes by up to 3 times, thereby significantly improving their accuracy.