Learning how to bomb in War Thunder is crucial, as any battle, whether on the ground, up in the air, or out on the open seas needs a key component – bombs.
Source of which are bombers, and there are lots of them in War Thunder to learn to fly and ultimately destroy your enemies from above. If you are a fan of flying, there is a chance you will fall in love with the amount of damage you can deal with bombers. In this guide we’ll run you through exactly how to do so.
How to Bomb in War Thunder
First, we’ll walk through the basics to bombing in War Thunder, explaining the fundamentals of Arcade Battles and then address the differences and tips for Simulator Battles lower in a separate section.
Types of Bombers and Bombs
To learn how to bomb, firstly, you’ll need a bomber. Any kind will work, so don’t bother about the specifics just yet. If you don’t own the bomber, it’s best for you to try and use it in the test flight before ordering. Some bombers, for example, do not have a bomb view camera.
Once you have a bomber load it up with bombs. Bombs are loaded in your Secondary Weapon slot. There will be multiple available for you to choose from. Know that bombs as small as 250 lb can take out almost any ground target. It all comes down to the radius of damage and your accuracy. Also, if you know you will fight tanks heavier than usual, you might as well load some heavier bombs.
Bombing Indicator
Every aircraft loaded with bombs will have a bomb indicator aimed at the ground. The indicator disappears when bombs are being loaded or if you just took off. Treat this indicator like a crosshair for bombs.
The center is where the bomb will land. But its inner lines also can become wider indicating an accuracy offset. Accuracy is mainly affected by your plane’s movement and taken damage. To keep the crosshair tight, keep your plane as straight as possible and avoid any kind of maneuvers when doing a bombing run. If you played FPS shooters like Valorant or CS:GO, it’s the same as when you are standing still for the most accuracy.
Once you are right above the target, the indicator will turn red. However, you do not need to wait for a perfect moment as the radius of the explosion can be big enough to take the target out.
Flying and Bombing
Now it’s time for the target practice. Load up to the Arcade Battles or a Test Flight and let’s start learning bombs. Choose your target. A moving target is much harder to hit because you need to bomb in advance and if it is a player, it is also unpredictable. On the other hand, static targets, like AI tanks and AA cannons are very easy to blow up.
When bombing you can take one of the two approaches – dive bombing or high-altitude bombing. Dive bombing means you gradually lower your altitude when coming close to the target giving you more accuracy since you see the target up close. On the other hand, high-altitude bombing is flying up in the sky and dropping bombs without any altitude change.
Dive-bombing is more accurate but is also riskier as you open yourself to more enemies than you would higher up in the sky. The approach is completely up to you but for beginners, we’d recommend dive-bombing to get the feel of the process and make your first bombing kills.
How to Bomb in War Thunder Simulator Battles
Bombing in Simulator Battles is much more difficult mainly because of the limited HUD. There are no indicators, no third-person view, pure realism in a way we like it. However, bombing in Simulator Battles is still quite possible even though it will be less accurate for the already mentioned reasons.
In Simulator Battles, it is time to make use of the Bombview camera. This camera can be activated by pressing “F7” (default PC keybind). Refer to the center crosshair as a spot where the bomb will land. Account for the target’s movement speed (if any) and bomb it.
There is some math that can be done to make your bombing more accurate but it will still lack accuracy because of doing everything on the fly. Once you get a hang of bombing on your favorite bomber you can start creating indicators for yourself for more accurate bombing.
