A bunch of important fixes are implemented in the latest patch for War Thunder. Some things resolved in Update 2.17.0.54 include an issue with crew replacement in certain vehicles and a problem with binoculars in free look mode.

The general crew rule in War Thunder is that the primary gunner and driver should be alive for vehicles to be ready for combat. But it is different for vehicles with dual control and targeting systems. That is because, in this setup, more people can take on the tasks left by crew members who have died in battle. The hierarchy of crew members in this setup is as follows:

Secondary gunner, radio operator > commander > loader > primary gunner > driver.

That said, there was an issue where the rule didn’t work properly in some cases. If the commander and the loader die consecutively, for example, the radio operator would take the place of the commander instead of the loader. This is now fixed in Update 2.17.0.54.

There’s also an issue with free look mode now fixed in this patch. Basically, what happened was that the commander would be facing in the same direction as the vehicle’s gun while switching to binoculars. The fix corrects the commander, so they face the same way as the camera.

Other notable changes in this update can be found below:

The full patch notes can be found on Steam.

War Thunder Update 2.17.0.54 is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.