War Thunder’s Nuclear Escalation Returns With Two Battle Eras
The event runs from July 22 at 13:00 GMT through July 28 at 13:00 GMT, with four Battle Rating brackets and reworked air defenses.
War Thunder’s Nuclear Escalation event is live again, bringing two aircraft eras, new air-defense behavior, revised rewards, and changes to naval combat. The event began on July 22 at 13:00 GMT and will run through July 28 at 13:00 GMT, according to the official Steam announcement.
Nuclear Escalation puts players in front-line aircraft carrying nuclear bombs while they attack enemy depots, convoys, airfields, artillery, missile systems, air defenses, and naval forces. Battles also use unlimited respawns, turning each match into a long-running fight for control of the air and the wider battlefield.
The latest run adds two mission variants at the same time. Early-era battles cover Battle Ratings 10.3–12.0 and 11.7–12.7, while late-era battles cover 13.0–14.0 and 13.7–14.7. The newer nuclear-capable aircraft added to Ground Battles can also appear in late-era matches.
Gaijin Entertainment has also changed how surface-to-air missile systems behave. Short-range systems now activate their search radars before firing, convoy SAMs must slow down before launching, and several missile types receive lower priority from SAM AI. Ground-vehicle destruction now has a larger effect on team scoring, while its Silver Lion rewards have doubled.
The full official notes are below.
Patch Notes for War Thunder’s Nuclear Escalation
This event version updates aircraft matchmaking, missile and radar behavior, team scoring, rewards, and ship-based air defenses. The changes affect both the way players approach SAM sites and the value of attacking ground and naval targets.
Two “Eras”
This time, two mission variants will be available simultaneously in the event, each corresponding to its own aircraft era. Aircraft with a Battle Rating of 10.3–12.0 and 11.7–12.7 fight in early-era battles, while those with a Battle Rating of 13.0–14.0 and 13.7–14.7 fight in late-era battles.
The new nuke carriers, which were recently added to the Ground Battles, are also available in the late-era Escalation battles.
As for the nation lineup, as one of our balancing decisions we’ve kept only two: USSR vs. everyone, and USSR + China vs. everyone.
Air Defense Changes
Changes have also come to this mode’s key force, anti-aircraft systems. Originally, to achieve acceptable server performance during battles on a huge map with hundreds of active units, we had to completely disable search radars on short-range SAM systems. However, this was frustrating and didn’t give players the information they needed to make decisions in advance, even after search radars were set to activate on missile launch.
Now, following a series of additional optimizations, here’s what’s been implemented: short-range SAM systems will activate their radar once a player gets within a distance roughly 1.5 times the system’s missile launch range. This should give players enough time to make decisions and strike the SAM sites with anti-radiation missiles before the system opens fire.
We’ve also fixed another important issue: SAMs in convoys no longer fire while moving at full speed. Instead, as intended, they slow down to launch and guide missiles onto their target, making them easier to fight.
That said, SAMs haven’t become passive bystanders. Primarily to address the Kh-31, we’ve added new anti-radiation missile (ARM) countermeasure logic: if a SAM system detects an incoming munition fired at it from a sufficiently long distance, it can temporarily shut down its radar. When the radar comes back on, the missile will likely miss, since it will have already accumulated significant guidance error. As a result, both teams are now forced to launch ARMs from a closer range to their targets.
Additionally, we fixed a bug where small munitions like the GBU-39 and GBU-53 were being ignored by the HQ-11 and SPYDER. These weapons now also have a new mechanic: small (GBU-39, GBU-53, SPICE 250, 9M127 Vikhr, Brimstone) and stealth (AGM-154 JSOW) munitions now receive lower priority from SAM AI, as a temporary “pseudo-RCS” mechanic. Note that this is a temporary measure, a full implementation of radar cross-section mechanics is planned for later this year.
Long-range air defense systems no longer fire on low-flying targets beyond 20 kilometers, and assign lower priority to targets that are moving away from them, allowing them to better defend against genuinely important threats.
A small change has also been made to SAM markers: the detection range at which a SAM can be spotted now increases while it’s firing. Additionally, markers now persist for 10 seconds after you or an ally stop detecting the target.
Overall, SAM systems should become more balanced overall, the ones that were too strong will be weaker, and the underperforming ones should now do their job better. We hope you enjoy the changes!
Battle Balance and Rewards
We’ve adjusted (mostly significantly increased) the ticket cost of destroyed vehicles for team scoring, and increased both the total ticket pool and the number of tickets required to trigger the next escalation stages. This should make the impact of destroying enemy ground vehicles more noticeable.
We’ve also rebalanced Silver Lion rewards for destroying enemy vehicles. Rewards for destroying aircraft have been reduced by 8%, while rewards for destroying ground vehicles have doubled, meaning that rewards overall have increased. Please note the mode is still under active development and the in-battle balance keeps evolving, so these values may not be final.
Naval Combat
Both the fleet’s SAM AI and armament, as well as the munitions used against them, have been reworked as well.
We’ve fine-tuned the targeting logic for ship-based air defenses and adjusted their engagement ranges, and fixed a bug that caused low-flying targets (anti-ship missiles in particular) to not be engaged by AI ships at all. Ships have also received new SM-2MR (RIM-66C) surface-to-air missiles. All of this has improved the effectiveness of their air defenses, which were previously inadequate.
An important change has been made to all weapons capable of striking ships too, anti-ship missiles, guided glide bombs, and guided bombs alike. Their seeker heads can now select crew compartments as targets, meaning hits will on average land on more critical parts of the ship. This will be especially noticeable when attacking aircraft carriers.
More details are available in the full changelog.
War Thunder players can try the new Nuclear Escalation run through July 28 at 13:00 GMT. Tell us what you think in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, and Instagram.
War Thunder
Developed by Gaijin Entertainment
War Thunder is the most comprehensive free-to-play, cross-platform, MMO military game dedicated to aviation, armored vehicles, and naval craft, from the early 20th century to the most advanced modern combat units. Join now and take part in major battles on land, in the air, and at sea.
- Genre: Shooter, Simulator, Tactical
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Mac, Xbox One
- Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative, Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
- Release: 2013-01-28
- Publisher: Gaijin Entertainment
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Age Rating:
PEGI 12 / USK 12 / CERO B / ACB PG / GRAC 12+ / ESRB T
- IGDB Rating: 74.2/100
