War Thunder’s Sky Odyssey Update Adds New Vehicles and Makes 3 Modes Permanent

The major update also adds Darwin Hill, revises missile behavior, improves bomber damage models, and raises the preset limit to 25.

0 21 10 minutes read

Several War Thunder fighter aircraft fly in formation over a mountainous landscape

War Thunder’s Sky Odyssey major update brings a wide group of new vehicles, a new Ground Battles map, permanent access to 3 previously event-based modes, and a long list of combat and interface changes. Gaijin Entertainment detailed the additions in its official Steam announcement. Gaijin scheduled the rollout to begin with a possible access interruption from 08:00 GMT on September 16, during the planned maintenance window.

The update’s biggest additions stretch across land, air, and naval battles. Players can field new Greek vehicles in Israel’s tree, the Indian Arjun Mk 1 in Great Britain’s tree, and the Indonesian Harimau in Japan’s tree. The update also adds the American M7, the Germany and France-bound EMBT, and a large selection of new aircraft, helicopters, and ships.

Sky Odyssey also gives older systems a closer look. Bomber damage models have been reworked, several air-to-air missiles have received flight model and autopilot changes, and the hangar preset system now supports up to 25 presets from the start.

Sky Odyssey expands the ground vehicle roster

The USA receives the M7, a small medium tank built around Sherman-level firepower with Stuart-style armor and mobility. Israel’s additions include the Greek Leopard 2HEL, Osa-AKM, and Tor-M1. The Arjun Mk 1 joins Britain with a rifled 120 mm cannon, decent protection, and strong mobility, while Japan receives Indonesia’s Harimau light tank with a 105 mm gun.

War Thunder tank firing in a rainy combat environment

Germany and France both receive the EMBT, which combines a Leclerc turret with a Leopard chassis. Its turret neck is a weak point, giving opponents a clear target when the vehicle exposes itself.

The remaining ground additions include Object 416, the T-44, IS-2M, and M53/59 for the USSR, as well as China’s FK-2000 and PLZ45, Italy’s PzH 2000, and France’s premium ARL-44 Bayard. The new Greek ground lineup for Israel builds on the earlier Greek aircraft and tanks added to Israel’s tree.

Greek aircraft and modern fighters fill the skies

Israel receives a dedicated Greek aircraft line that runs from the SB2C-5 and F-84G-16-RE through the F-102A, F-86E(M), A-7 variants, Mirage F1CG, F-4E AUP Phantom II, Mirage 2000-5EG, and Rafale EG. The update also adds the F-102A to the USA, while the USSR receives the MiG-35 and China receives the J-16.

Other aircraft additions include the American F-14D, the British Hawk T.1A, Australia’s CA-27 Mk.32, Indonesia’s B-26B, Malaysia’s CA-27 Mk.32 and A-4PTM, Japan’s Ki-93-I Ko, France’s SE.203 Aquilon 203, Sweden’s J35J, and several aircraft for other national trees.

The Ki-93-I Ko carries a 57 mm cannon with high-explosive and armor-piercing ammunition. Great Britain’s Hawk T.1A variants bring 30 mm cannons and bomb options, while the new Greek Rafale EG reaches Rank IX in Israel’s aviation tree.

Fighter aircraft flying above clouds with missiles in War Thunder

Helicopter additions include Germany’s H145M and Great Britain’s AW159 HMA.2. The AW159 carries Martlet missiles and Spike anti-tank guided missiles, while the H145M brings Spike ER missiles. China’s Z-9W and Z-9WA also receive new detailed cockpits.

Missile behavior is another major part of the aviation changes. The AIM-7 family and several active radar-homing missile groups, including AIM-120, R-77, PL-12, AAM-4, and MICA-EM, received revisions to flight models, autopilot settings, drag, thrust, and low-speed maneuvering.

Darwin Hill joins Ground Battles

Darwin Hill, based on the Falkland Islands, is now available in Ground Battles. The location features open grassland, small houses, an airfield, and defensive positions that give vehicles places to break up long sightlines.

Red Desert also receives terrain changes that reduce high-ground views across the map and offer more concealment around spawn points. Afghanistan and the Falkland Islands receive visual upgrades, while several other locations gain fixes for unintended positions, terrain problems, and airfield defenses.

3 event modes become permanent options

Nuclear Escalation, Naval Enduring Confrontation, and Bullet Hell move into the optional submode panel beneath the To Battle button. Players no longer need to find them through the Events & Tournaments area, and each mode is now available as a permanent choice.

Nuclear Escalation requires an aircraft with a Battle Rating of at least 8.7. Bullet Hell requires at least 2 aircraft with a Battle Rating of 8.3. Both modes use standard matchmaking with a 1.0 Battle Rating range.

The same menu also handles options such as smaller Air Battles teams and night Ground Battles. Hovering over presets now shows their vehicles, and the preset interface has moved into a dropdown menu with horizontal scrolling.

Bomber damage models receive a broad overhaul

Sky Odyssey updates bomber survivability by changing damage accumulation, hit zones, wing spars, tail assemblies, fuselages, and engines. Piston aircraft now use separate configurations for inline and radial engines, with additional tuning for aircraft using between 2 and 6 engines. Jet bombers receive their own damage calculations.

The update also adds detailed damage models to aircraft including the F-104, H-34, Wessex Mk.5, F-84, F-101C, Z-9, Sea Venom FAW 20, Venom FB.4, Mirage 2000, Mirage 4000, Arado 234, B-26, F-106A, F-86, and F-111.

War Thunder Sky Odyssey Patch Notes

The update also changes vehicle rewards, interface behavior, matchmaking, weapon handling, and several vehicle-specific systems. The most player-facing adjustments are reproduced below in the order presented in the official changelog.

New locations and missions

Darwin Hill — a new location for Ground Battles has been added.

Location and mission updates

Pyrenees — a bug that caused a viaduct to float has been fixed.
Second Battle of El Alamein — paths to unintended positions in grid squares A2 and C3 have been blocked.
Attica — the unintended position in grid square C3 has been blocked.
Gold Quarry — unintended positions at the edges of the map have been blocked. A bug that caused the gates of some hangars to not fall after driving through them, instead just disappear after some time has been fixed.
Air defense emplacements have been added to airfields.
Red Desert — terrain elevations have been adjusted, and rock geometry modified in the affected areas. High-ground positions offering line-of-sight across the entire map have been minimized, and terrain height at player spawn points has been lowered to conceal vehicles during the initial stages after spawning.
Afghanistan — the map has been visually overhauled; terrain now has more detail, and textures have been improved.
Falkland Islands — the map has been visually overhauled; terrain now has more detail, also as a result of the new height map from the ground version of the location, textures have been improved.
White Rock Fortress — a bug that lead to bushes floating in mid-air in certain areas of the fortress have been fixed.
Frozen Pass — an unfair position in grid square B4 has been blocked.
Tunisia — an unfair position on the rocks near the river has been blocked.
Abandoned Town — the appearance of the railway has been improved.
Finland — the landscape to the East of the spawn zones for both teams has been adjusted, and more driveable space has been added to create more suitable positions for multi-vehicle SAM vehicles.
Ash River — the positions of some spawn points have been adjusted to avoid situations where a player could have spawned on the hill side and would not be able to quickly drive off it.
The ability to select a specific aircraft carrier, either catapult or trampoline one, has been added to all Air Realistic Battles missions.

Ground vehicle changes

An issue where a fire in the internal fuel tanks may have not resulted in the destruction of the vehicle has been fixed.
A bug that sometimes occurred when the shell hit the junction of two parallel armor parts and caused the shell to get back to the original trajectory and ignore the second armor part after has been fixed.
A bug with the vehicle physics calculation that caused vehicles to bounce too much upwards when colliding with steep surfaces has been fixed.
T-90M (Arena-M) — an additional ERA package has been added.
Heavy Tank No.6 (Japan) — an anti-air machine gun has been added.
Magach 7C, Gal Batash — the thickness of the composite side skirts has been increased from 40 mm to 90 mm.
Churchill VII, Churchill Crocodile — maximum gun depression angle has been increased from -12° to -12.5°.
Churchill Crocodile — tank mass has been increased from 45.2 to 47 tons.
CT-CV 105HP, Boxer MGS — reload time has been increased from 5 to 7.5 seconds.
Leclerc (all variants), MSC, Type 10 (all variants), TKX (all variants), Type 90 (all variants) — the time of the first-stage ammo replenishment has been reduced from 30 to 13 seconds.
Al-Khalid I, MBT2000, ZTZ99 (all variants), ZTZ96 (all variants), VT4 (all variants), WZ1001(E)LCT, Oplot-T, Object 292, T-64 (all variants), T-72 (all variants), T-80 (all variants), T-90 (all variants) — the time before the first-stage ammo starts replenishing has been reduced from 8 to 4 seconds.

Aircraft and missile changes

MiG-29SMT (9-19), MiG-29KR (9-41R), Su-30SM, Su-30SM2, Su-34 — the Kh-35U anti-ship missile has been added.
Su-30SM, Su-30SM2, Su-34 — Kh-58UShK anti-radiation missile has been added.
Rafale C F3, Rafale M F3-R — the Exocet AM39 Block 2 anti-ship missile has been added along with the corresponding modification.
F/A-18E, F/A-18F (UK) — the AGM-88G AARGM-ER anti-radiation missile has been added.
F-2A, F-2A ADTW — the ASM-3 anti-ship missile has been added.
F-16C Barak II — the number of AGM-88C missiles carried has been increased to four.
AIM-7C, AIM-7D, AIM-7E, AIM-7E-2, AIM-7F, AIM-7M, Skyflash, Skyflash SuperTEMP, Aspide-1A, PL-11 AAMs — missile Flight Models and autopilot settings have been updated. Trim angle of attack, air resistance and engine thrust have been adjusted.
Skyflash SuperTEMP — the guidance time has been increased from 50 s to 60 s.
AIM-120A, AIM-120B, AIM-120C-5, AIM-120D AAMs — missile Flight Model has been updated. Masses, air resistance and engine thrust values have been corrected.
AIM-120A, AIM-120B AAMs — explosive mass has been decreased from 7.67 kg to 6.67 kg.
AIM-120C (all variants), AIM-120D AAMs — explosive mass has been decreased from 8.62 kg to 7.17 kg.
AIM-120 (all variants), R-77, R-77-1, PL-12, PL-12A, AAM-4, MICA-EM — trim angles of attack have been significantly increased, available overload at low Mach numbers has been increased. The autopilot parameters have been adjusted and the frontal drag has been corrected.
R-77, RVV-AE AAMs — missile mass has been decreased from 177 kg to 175 kg.
MICA-EM AAM — the motor type has been changed from two stage to single stage motor, the parameters of the rocket motor have been adjusted. The maximum launch range has been increased from 50 km to 80 km.

Updated bomber damage model

A-29
Ar-2
B-17 (all variants)
B-29A-BN
B-10B
B-18A
B-24D-25-CO
B-25 (all variants)
B-26B
B-34
Be-6 (all variants)
Beaufort Mk.VIII
Blenheim Mk.IV
B.R.20 (all variants)
BV 138 C-1
BV 238
Do 17 (all variants)
Do 217 (all variants)
Yer-2 (all variants)
Fw 200 C-1
G4M1
G5N1
G8N1
H6K4
H8K (all variants)
Halifax B Mk IIIa
He 111 (all variants)
He 177 (all variants)
He 115 C-1
Hampden (all variants)
Hudson Mk V
IL-4
Ju 188 A-2
Ju 288 C
Ju 88 (all variants)
Ki-49 (all variants)
Ki-21 (all variants)
Ki-48-II Otsu
Ki-67 (all variants)
Ki-109
Lancaster (all variants)
Lincoln B Mk II
Martin 139WC
M.B.162
Me 264
P1Y1 mod. 11
P.108 (all variants)
PB4Y-2 (all variants)
PBJ-1 (all variants)
PBM-1 Mariner
PBM-5A Mariner
PBY-5 Catalina (all variants)
Pe-2 (all variants)
Pe-8
Potez 633
PV-2D
Su-8
Tu-2 (all variants)
Tu-4
Wellington (all variants)
B-52H
B-66B
Canberra (all variants)
IL-28 (all variants)
Tu-95M

Awards and interface

The “Reward for a vehicle abandoned in combat” mechanic has been extended from aircraft to ground vehicles and ships: if a player abandons a vehicle without having taken damage, the kill is credited to the nearest player on the enemy team. The search radius is 3 km for ground vehicles and 20 km for ships. The reward amounts to 50% of the standard value and includes Silver Lions, Research Points, and mission points. This mechanic does not apply to reserve vehicles with zero repair cost.
If a ground vehicle sinks without sustaining damage, the kill is also credited to the nearest enemy player within a 3 km radius, similar to the reward for a crashed aircraft.
The choice of vehicle indicator style (WT, NATO or USSR) is now available in all game modes.
Hovering the cursor over a vehicle or base on the tactical map now shows a tooltip with the name and properties of the object.
The vehicle preset interface has been reworked: the preset list has been updated, the ability to scroll the list horizontally has been added, the separate window for editing the preset list has been replaced with a dropdown menu, and hovering over a preset shows its vehicles. The number of presets is no longer tied to unlocked vehicle ranks, the single limit is 25 presets.
A panel for selecting optional submodes has been added under the “To Battle!” button.
Information about used NVD or TVD and their generation is now shown in the tooltip for the optics modules in X-ray view of ground vehicles.
An orthogonal view has been added to the replays in the sensor view mode. It can be toggled by pressing the M key when the Sensor view is enabled.
A distance to the point of interest is now displayed near its marker.
Sight indication in the Seeker View now changes when the target gets out of the launch distance or zone.
Information about the presence of Range gate and Speed gate is now displayed in the stat cards of missiles.

Game mechanics and matchmaking

Modes that were previously only available during events have been added to the optional submode selection panel. Nuclear Escalation can be enabled as the main mode of Air Realistic Battles instead of classic battles, Naval Enduring Confrontation as the main mode of Naval Arcade and Realistic Battles instead of classic battles. Bullet Hell can be enabled as an additional mode of Air Realistic Battles.
A bug that caused locking a target on aircraft to reset the Point of Interest and turn off the laser designator has been fixed.
The aircraft weapon tracking camera has been reworked. The field of view has been widened and is now fixed to improve spatial orientation and visibility; the camera defaults to facing the target, and the distance range between the camera and the tracked munition has been increased.
Standard matchmaking mechanics with a Battle Rating range of 1.0 have been enabled for Nuclear Escalation. An aircraft with a Battle Rating of 8.7 or higher is needed to take part.
Standard matchmaking mechanics with a Battle Rating range of 1.0 have been enabled for Bullet Hell. At least 2 aircraft with a Battle Rating of 8.3 are needed to take part.

The announcement also says active Premium Accounts and the time to complete the “Mark of Distinction for Pilots 7” achievement in the Space Program event received a 12-hour extension. Which Sky Odyssey addition will have the biggest effect on your lineups, the new vehicles, the permanent modes, or the broader missile changes? Follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.

War Thunder is a free-to-play vehicular combat MMO featuring aircraft, ground vehicles, and naval craft spanning from the early 20th century to the modern era. Players progress through technology trees across multiple nations, unlocking increasingly advanced military vehicles. The game offers three realism tiers for each vehicle type: arcade, realistic, and simulator modes. Originally developed as a flight simulator under the name "World of Planes," the game expanded to include tanks in 2014 and naval forces later, becoming a combined-arms experience. A mobile version was released in 2023.

Genre Shooter, Simulator, Tactical
Platforms Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Mac, Xbox One
Perspective First person, Third person, Virtual Reality
Modes Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative, Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
Release January 28, 2013
Publisher Gaijin Entertainment
Age Rating