Saw a discussion in the comments on an r/PCGaming post about a recent controversial War Thunder update, where some people were saying that WoT’s monetization strategies are more predatory, others saying War Thunder was worse.

A big crux of the argument being made against WoT is that some people felt it was impossible to make money in higher tiers unless you fired gold rounds, and in order to afford to regularly fire gold rounds you needed to have a premium account.

Personally, I would disagree with that assertion.

In my experience, if you use gold rounds sparingly and intelligently, I’ve found that they usually pay for themselves if you actually land your hits (at least at higher tiers, where guns have higher alpha), even on a standard account. It also helps if you only fire gold at targets that actually necessitate them, and switch to standard rounds for softer enemies or when you have easy access to weak spots.

I’ve never really put much money into WoT, and I only run Premium when I win it from challenges or events. The bulk of my time has been spent as a typical free-to-play user, and I’ve never really had any issues making money, even at Tier 10.

Which is why it’s always confused me a little when I hear people say that the game is “unplayable” unless you’re firing gold, as that hasn’t really been my experience.

Would be curious to hear other’s opinions though.