Today, we’re ready to introduce to you the long-awaited Research Bonuses for New Nations. In this article, we’ll be explaining how it works in full and we’ll also be having testing for this new feature, the dates and times can be seen below.

How this feature works

Each nation and each vehicle tree per nation (Army, Helicopters, Aviation, Bluewater fleet, and Coastal fleet) will each have research bonuses for 3 battles if you have a “top” vehicle researched and purchased in a tree.

In each tree there are vehicles that are considered “top”. Once you’ve researched and purchased these vehicles, you’ll receive research bonuses for other nations that you don’t have any “top” vehicles for yet. The size of the research bonus depends on the rank of the vehicle being researched and will apply to the first 3 battles each day.

What counts as a “Top” vehicle?

Above, we’ve mentioned “top” vehicles. But what counts as a “top” vehicle?

A “top” vehicle is:

1. A vehicle that is in the research tree. The following do not count: premium and squadron vehicles, a locked vehicle (such as an event vehicle), store pack vehicles, and hidden or vehicles on the Market.
2. A vehicle that is last in its line in the research tree. If the last in the line is in a group, then the first vehicle in the group is considered the “top” one.
3. A vehicle where the maximum Battle Rating of the vehicle among all modes is no more than 2 steps lower than the maximum Battle Rating of the vehicle in this research tree (in the tree type in a nation).
4. A vehicle that is located at the maximum rank in the research tree.

You can easily identify the top vehicle by looking in the tree — it’s connected by an arrow to the new Research Bonus Block at the bottom. If the arrow from the “top” vehicle to the new Research Bonus Block in a research tree is not red, this indicates that research bonuses have been unlocked for a particular nation’s tree.

Example of this feature in use

For example, if you have the M1A2 SEP V2 researched and purchased in the USA Army tree, which is the final vehicle at rank VIII in this tree: you now have access to research bonuses for any nation that you don’t yet have a “top” vehicle unlocked for in their respective Army tree. This now means you can research, let’s say, the Strv 81 that’s at rank V in the Swedish Army tree with a 50% research bonus (this number is for rank V Army) to the base research gained for 3 battles per day. You can also research any other Army tree that you don’t have “top” vehicle researched and unlocked yet for any nation for 3 battles as well.

Since you have the M1A2 SEP V2 which is considered a “top” vehicle, you’ll not get any research bonuses towards the USA’s Army tree, even if you’re still researching a vehicle in this tree. This is because this new feature is catered towards research bonuses for other nations where you may not have any or many vehicles unlocked.

Adding to the above, let’s also say that you have a “top” aircraft in Great Britain researched and purchased, for example the Sea Harrier FA 2. You now have research bonuses for any nation’s Aviation tree where you don’t yet have a “top” aircraft researched and purchased.

Checking which nations you currently have bonuses for

To see which nations you have research bonuses for, hover over this new block section in each of the Army, Aviation, Helicopters, Bluewater / Coastal fleet trees. In the below example, this account has research bonuses for the Army trees in Germany, Japan, China, Italy, France, Sweden and Israel. On this account, 2 battles have already been played for Germany, which is why there’s 1 left. For the other nations, there’s still 3 battles that can be played with research bonuses.

On this same account, for the Aviation portion, this account has 3 research bonus battles for the USA, Germany, USSR, Japan, China, Italy, France, Sweden, and Israel.

A daily bonus research icon is also shown on each nation and can be hovered over to see which vehicles are receiving bonus research.

The numbers

Bonus Research Points are catered towards the mid to higher ranks, where the amount of research points required to unlock a vehicle is higher. This means that ranks I, II and III will not have any research bonuses. These are the following bonus numbers:

This information can be seen by hovering over the new research icon on a vehicle that you’re researching. This icon will only appear on a vehicle that you’re currently researching in a tree that is receiving research bonuses.

Once you’ve played the 3 research bonus battles for a nation and vehicle type tree, the reset happens at 00:00 GMT everyday (the time shown in-game is specific based on your local time).

The bonus amount is calculated on the base Research Points gained in a battle, the same as how Skill Bonuses work.

For Enduring Confrontation (EC), every 30 minutes spent in one battle will count as an additional battle, similarly to how Boosters work. However, unlike Boosters, the length of the battle only determines how many bonus battles you spend in it. It doesn’t affect the bonus size, as it is always calculated as a percentage of the whole base RP. So, for example for a 3-hour long EC session your reward would be increased for the same percentage as a usual battle, even though you have spent your bonus battles before the end of EC session.

How to see your bonuses after a battle

Research Bonuses work in any random battles game mode, and will be applied if a vehicle of this kind was used in it. For example, the bonus for aircraft will also be added to the base reward acquired with aircraft in Ground and Naval Battles, not just in Air Battles.

If you played a battle and received 0 mission points and 0 base RP with a respective vehicle, for example a helicopter in Ground Realistic Battles where the battle ended and you had no time to do anything, you will not receive any research bonus to helicopters. The research bonus battle for helicopters is also not spent, so you’ll not waste 1 of the 3 research bonus battles for helicopters in a nation.

So, you’ve played a battle and got research bonuses for a nation you haven’t researched much of yet. Nice! The bonus you receive is shown in the My results screen under “New nation research bonus” as well as in the Battles section in the messages area.

Get testing!

As mentioned above, you can log into the game now and try out everything that we’ve explained above. Give it a go!