Your First Helicopter Lineup

The first helicopter lineup follows the same logic as any first lineup — one nation, one battle rating band, complementary roles — with two rotary-specific twists: repair bills are unforgiving, and the gap between a modified and an unmodified helicopter is enormous. Build the lineup deliberately; a bad first purchase takes a long time to dig out from under.

The selection criteria

One nation. Helicopter trees research separately per nation, as the tree structure page explains. Two half-built helicopter lines teach you neither.

One battle rating band. Check each vehicle’s BR before buying — battle rating explained covers how the band is set and uptier and downtier what happens when you meet the top of it. A lineup that spans two BR steps gets dragged into fights where half of it is helpless.

Complementary roles. Helicopters split into two jobs, and a lineup that covers both is stronger than two of either:

• Scout / light helicopter — fast, cheap, armed with cannons and rockets. Examples: the American UH-1 Huey, the French SA.342 Gazelle, the German Bo 105, the British Westland Lynx, the Italian A129 Mangusta in its light form. Its job is to spot enemies for the team and handle soft targets.
• Anti-armor / gunship helicopter — the tank-killer, carrying ATGMs and often a heavy cannon. Examples: the American AH-1 Cobra, the Soviet Mi-24 Hind (also a troop carrier), the Soviet Ka-50 Black Shark (a fast, coaxial single-seat ATGM platform that flies alone).

The standard first lineup

Slot	Role	Real example	What it contributes
Anti-armor (primary)	Tank killing with ATGMs	AH-1 Cobra or Mi-24 Hind	Your main contribution to the battle
Light / scout	Fast, cheap, cannons and rockets	UH-1 Huey or SA.342 Gazelle	Soft targets, spotting, and a low-cost second life

The light helicopter matters more than its stats suggest: it is where you learn the airspace cheaply, and its repair bill lets you fly constantly. The anti-armor helicopter is where you spend your attention. The Ka-50 is a special case — it is powerful enough to fill the anti-armor slot alone, but it has no door gunner, so it relies entirely on its own ATGMs and cannon.

Buying order

1. Buy the cheaper vehicle first — usually the light or early anti-armor helicopter (for most nations that is the scout, such as the UH-1 or Gazelle).
2. Fly it while you research the second vehicle’s key modifications.
3. Buy the second vehicle only when its essential modifications are done — an unmodified helicopter underperforms badly enough to make the purchase feel wasted.
4. Add depth (a third vehicle) only after both fly well.

The repair-cost discipline

Helicopter repair costs scale with rank and can be steep for the vehicles you most want to fly. Before buying, compare the repair cost to what you currently earn per battle; if two bad sorties erase an hour of good ones, the vehicle is ahead of your economy.

Progression pacing

Do not skip ranks to reach a vehicle you have seen in videos. A lineup that fights at one BR, fully modified, beats a lineup with one good vehicle and two placeholders — the pacing framework in helicopter BR progression covers when to move up.