Meet Major Update “Seek & Destroy”! - News - War Thunder (2024)

Welcome to Seek & Destroy!

War Thunder’s second major update of 2024 is here! With the release of this update, you’ll be able to enjoy several implemented Roadmap features including the ability to drag n’ drop vehicles from the research tree, separate flares & chaff, new crew models, and much more. We’ve also introduced brand-new FOX-3 missiles for each nation, plus the F-15C, F-15J(M), Baz Meshupar, F-4F KWS LV, J-11A and Su-27SM that can carry this new type of missile. Numerous BeNeLux aircraft join France as a new line; two stand-out aircraft include the domestic Dutch Fokker G.IA and F-16AM with MAWs! For ground fans, we’ve introduced the XM800T that will speed around the battlefield, the Desert Warrior and VEXTRA 105 for Britain and France to support lineups, plus many more. The Strela-2M capable Bernau has joined Germany’s Coastal fleet tree, and the Mysterious Valley and Bering Sea are two new locations set for Air and Naval battles.

There’s many fixes, new vehicles and other features — take a look at what we’ve included in this major update.

Ground Vehicles: Lighter Vehicles for Several Nations!

Seek & Destroy brings several lighter vehicles for several nations. Some of which include the XM800T, Desert Warrior, ZSL92, VEXTRA 105, premium CV9035DK and Namer 30 for the USA, Great Britain, France, Sweden and Israel respectively. These will help play a crucial role in supporting lineups at their ranks. Italy also gets the Hungarian Leopard 2A7HU and USSR the premium T-80U-E1, plus a premium Canadian Leopard 2A4M CAN for Germany, featuring a unique camo netting for suitable environments!

USA

• XM800T

Great Britain

• Desert Warrior

China

• ZSL92

Israel

• Namer 30

Italy

• Leopard 2A7V HU

France

• Vextra 105

Sweden

• U-SH 204 GK
• CV9035DK (Premium)

Aircraft: FOX-3 missiles and New Top Tier Jets!

The star of the show for aircraft are the FOX-3 (ARH) missiles. We’ve added the French MICA, Chinese PL-12, American AIM-120, Russian R-77, Japanese AAM-4, Israeli Derby and South African R-Darter to existing aircraft for each nation at once. Plus, brand-new top dogs, the SU-27SM for the USSR, F-4F KWS LV for Germany and F-15C MSIP II for the USA that all have ARH missiles. The first Brazilian vehicle in the game, the AMX A-1A, joins Italy as a premium aircraft, Great Britain gets the distinctive Sea Harrier FA 2, and France gets an entire new line full of Dutch and Belgian aircraft, which features the domestic Fokker G.1A. Check them all out below!

USA

• F-15C MSIP II
• AV-8B Plus

Germany

• F-4F KWS LV

Great Britain

• Tornado F.3 Late
• Sea Harrier FA 2
• MiG-21 Bison (Pack)

USSR

• Su-27SM
• Yak-3, Yak-3P — aircraft model has been updated

Japan

• F-15J(M)

China

• J-11A
• F-47N-25-RE (Premium)

Italy

• AMX A-1A (Pack)

Sweden

• JAS39C

Israel

• Baz Meshupar
• Kfir C.7 — co*ckpit model has been updated.

• Gladiator Mk.I
• Fokker G.IA
• Firefly F.Mk.IV

• Spitfire FR Mk.XIVe
• Meteor F Mk.8
• Hunter F.6

• Mirage 5BA
• F-104G
• F-16A

• F-16AM
• Yak-3 — aircraft model has been updated.

Helicopters: Remade co*ckpits From the Ground Up!

Several co*ckpits for helicopters were severely lacking in detail, so in Seek & Destroy we’ve remade some of them that span across 7 nations! Take a look at the UH-1B’s new co*ckpit in these before and after screenshots. The full list of new co*ckpits is below.

USA

• UH-1B — detailed co*ckpit has been added.
• UH-1C — detailed co*ckpit has been added.
• UH-1C XM-30 — detailed co*ckpit has been added.
• AH-1W — detailed co*ckpit has been added.
• AH-1Z — detailed co*ckpit has been added.

USSR

• Mi-4AV — detailed co*ckpit has been added.
• Mi-28N — detailed co*ckpit has been added.

Italy

• A-129 International (p) — detailed co*ckpit has been added.
• A129CBT — detailed co*ckpit has been added.
• AH-129D — detailed co*ckpit has been added.
• AB 205 A-1 — detailed co*ckpit has been added.

Germany

• UH-1D — detailed co*ckpit has been added

Japan

• UH-1B — detailed co*ckpit has been added.

China

• AH-1W — detailed co*ckpit has been added.

Sweden

• HKP3C — detailed co*ckpit has been added.

Naval Vehicles: Strela-2M capable Bernau!

Germany has received the unique Bernau, featuring a Strela-2M missile system for use against aircraft! Great Britain gets HMS Queen Mary, while Japan gets the IJN Haguro, France the rank I premium Tornade to help kick-start your Bluewater research, as well as the Guichen. Additionally, France gets the premium VLT-2 as a pack, making it the first Coastal fleet boat for them. Italy now has the Alano for their Coastal fleet too. Check them all out!

Locations & Missions: New Maps for Air and Naval!

Meet Mysterious Valley for air battles, set in the mountainous parts of Southeast Asia. This new location features deep gorges, a hydroelectric power station, a dam and a spaceport complex! For naval battles, we’ve added Bering Sea with inspiration from Alaska. This new location features a beautiful picturesque area with several volcanoes slap bang in the middle.

We’ve also tweaked a large number of missions and updated several locations. The full list of each individual change is in the major changelog.

Additions from the 2024 Roadmap!

We’ve been working on the 2024 Roadmap and have included many features in Seek & Destroy.

Separate Flares and Chaff!

First up is the possibility to use Flares and Chaff separately! You can now choose the amount of flares and chaff you want before spawning with an aircraft.

Additional modules for ground vehicles!

An important one here are additional modules for ground vehicles, which aims to reduce penetrating shells causing no internal damage. Extra modules include more electronic equipment, physical autoloaders, more aiming drives, power systems and FCS.

Healing wounded crew members!

Crew members will now automatically heal to a degree that doesn’t induce debuffs after a certain amount of time passes after being hurt. There’s a healing icon next to the crew in the damage panel, and a crew member being healed will change color.

Updated crew models by era!

For German and Soviet crews of open-top vehicles, we’ve added new uniforms for them so that they fit better to their respective eras. Some US and Soviet pilots have also be updated. Check them out!

Visual weapon selector for aircraft!

In battle, you can now see the weapons that your aircraft has and simply click to select them. By default, you can press SHIFT + A or ALT + mouse click on the new in-game icon to open the selector. Click on any weapon you’d like, and it’ll be selected and ready to use! This feature is available for aircraft that have the ability to create secondary weapon custom loadouts. Please, note that on the release of the “Seek & Destroy” major update this feature will only be available on PC, on consoles it will be enabled soon after the release of the major update.

New Mechanics & Features: General QoL Improvements!

We’ve taken the time and done a bunch of quality of life improvements to ensure the game is better place in general. Here’s a quick run down of some of the main ones:

General improvements

• There’s now an option to have smaller team sizes in Air Realistic Battles. You can turn this on by going to Game Mode Select and ticking the battle with smaller teams. This gives a chance of getting a battle with a max team size of 12 instead of 16.
• We’ve toned down sky glare when looking at the sun at sunset and dawn so that it doesn’t feel as blinding as it was before.
• Some ships in naval battles have a large amount of different weapon types, and pressing individual buttons to select them could be tedious. We’ve added a simple CTRL + E default bind to cycle through weapons with ease. Console players can access this through the circle menu and customize this keybind.
• The maximum Battle Rating of several top-tier aircraft has been increased to 13.0, a new high. Check out the list of aircraft with this increase in the major changelog.
• Sounds have been improved too. Several new voice lines including a new Lithuanian voice over have been added. Air-to-air missiles now have a shockwave sound when passing by your aircraft, and the sounds of aircraft guns have been improved.
• Wheels on ground vehicles are now physical and will fall off a vehicle when shot at.

Interface improvements

• Too many vehicles and research trees looking overwhelming? You’re now able to collapse each individual research rank. Good for hiding ranks in a tree that you’ve already completely spaded for example.
• Crewslots in the hangar and in battle have been given a redesign, with the aim to improve ease of use and accessibility. When hovered over, they now have a slight faded line, and the switch crew button has been moved to the center of a crewslot. There’s also two section blocks on a crew; information for a mission above, and information about the crew below. In the hangar, the crew section allows you to quickly access the crew training area for a specific vehicle, and the mission section displays the number of backups for a vehicle. In battle, the SP cost of a vehicle and the number of backups are clearly shown above the vehicle.
• You’re now able to drag and drop your vehicle into a remove box area above your lineup to remove it from your preset. This works the same as sending a vehicle on holiday, however it is far faster to do!
• You can now rearrange your crewslots in the hangar to any order that you’d like.

There’s plenty more to look through!

Major updates are not just about the new vehicles and features, the smaller things also count. We’ve fixed a heap of bugs, introduced new bombs and rockets for several aircraft, new external fuel tanks and customizable loadouts for some more aircraft, several flight models have been updated, and much more.

Be sure to check out the full list of changes in the provided changelog.

Download the update and join the battle!

FULL LIST OF CHANGES