Battle Rating Calculation

Battle Rating

Battle Rating (BR) is used to balance out planes based on how well they fight, or how dangerous they are. Some planes have different Battle Ratings in realistic battles than they do in arcade battles.

Matchmaking

War Thunder takes into account your planes' Battle Rating (BR) when deciding battles.

In realistic battles, you have only one plane and it's BR is used to match you with approximately equal enemies. Usually you should not be put up against planes that are more than 1BR higher or lower than you.

In arcade mode it's a bit more complex. Matchmaking works by using the BR of your top 3 planes in the line-up (preset) you are using, to calculate a value. The game allows this value to have a +/- 1 Battle Rating difference between players. This is so planes which are statistically too different cannot be together, as some planes are in the same rank but have better armament, and hence a higher BR. According to this value, you should not be allowed to play in the same battle against players with their top three planes ranked either 2 rank levels higher OR 2 rank levels lower than your rank. So for example jets fighting early war fighters should not occur. The formula is given below.

Having said that, there are times when the matchmaker cannot find enough players within those limits in the time allowed. Maybe there are not enough players of that ranking logged in, say. It then widens the range of who is allowed in, and occasionally there are quite widely varying strengths of planes in one battle.

How Battle Rating is calculated (This is for arcade mode only)

To figure out your line-up's battle rating, you just have to do some math.
You take the top three BR (Battle Rating) planes from your line-up. Then plug them into this formula:${\definecolor{nero}{RGB}{33,33,33}\definecolor{lightgray}{RGB}{213,212,212}\pagecolor{nero}\color{lightgray} BR = {2 A + B + C \over 4}}$ where you plug the top BR plane as A and the second as B and so on.

For example, if your top three planes have battle ratings of 3.3, 3.0, and 2.7, we would plug and get this ${\definecolor{nero}{RGB}{33,33,33}\definecolor{lightgray}{RGB}{213,212,212}\pagecolor{nero}\color{lightgray} BR = {2 \times 3.3 + 3.0 + 2.7 \over 4} = 3.075}$ (which the game would round down to 3.0).

Now you may be thinking "Can't a high level player just use reserves and a jet and murder me?" No, because of what's called the 0.6 battle rating restriction:
If your top plane is 0.6 BR (or more) higher than your 2nd and/or 3rd highest planes, their ratings won't even be considered. For them, the matchmaker will just use your highest plane's BR minus 0.6 in the formula. Say for example we have a 3.7, 2.7, and a 1.7 as your top three planes. The math will be ${\definecolor{nero}{RGB}{33,33,33}\definecolor{lightgray}{RGB}{213,212,212}\pagecolor{nero}\color{lightgray} BR = {2 \times 3.7 + (3.7-0.6) + (3.7-0.6) \over 4} = 3.4}$ (which the game would round down 3.3).

As you can see, all but your highest BR plane in your preset won't stand a chance against the planes at that level. But some pilots unknowingly fall into this trap.
Also if, after a number of battles, you don't do very well, the game will remove 0.7 BR for a few matches until you get back to normal. However your normal BR will never go up if you do well.
A simplified version of the formula which is easier for mental calculations is ${\definecolor{nero}{RGB}{33,33,33}\definecolor{lightgray}{RGB}{213,212,212}\pagecolor{nero}\color{lightgray} BR = {A \over 2} + {B \over 4} + {C \over 4}}$ or where your top plane is 0.6 higher than your second highest plane: ${\definecolor{nero}{RGB}{33,33,33}\definecolor{lightgray}{RGB}{213,212,212}\pagecolor{nero}\color{lightgray} BR = A - 0.3}$

Pros and Cons

Pros

• You always have a look into what you can face in a battle (but with a few potential surprises!).
• It's easy to figure out
• Higher levelled planes are rare to fight against
• Helps you when you're having a bad run of games.

Cons

• Bad for some nations because of BR jumps
• Not informed until in game
• Can take longer to use some planes because of BR
• Badly balanced matches still exist because Matchmaker can get desperate to place players
• Players in improperly-rated planes can have an unfair advantage/disadvantage.

Tips

• Pay attention to your line-up (preset) because you could be accidentally placing yourself in higher ranked matches.
• Spread out to other branches to fill in your BR holes because having one 3.7 and the rest lower than 2.0 isn't a good idea.(You will be placed in a 3.3 game.)
• Don't research planes with huge BR jumps first, such as the first two German Focke Wulfs. One has a BR of 3.3 and the other 5.3.
• Good pilots knows their limits. Pick what BR you're comfortable with and slowly increase it as needed. Or else the better pilots will prey on your weaker planes.