If you’ve jumped into any Vanguard lobbies while getting on with your regular Warzone session, you’ll have without a doubt seen players make a mad dash for the fighter planes dotted around the map.

It was a big thing when Warzone Pacific first released, then it all died down a bit as people got over the initial hype. Now, we’re seeing people rush back into these planes for an entirely different reason. They’re busted.

So, to help make sure you know what you’re doing once you inevitably find yourself behind the controls of these deadly aerial, we’ve written up this guide taking your through where to find these fighter planes, the basics of flying them, and how to use them in solo and squad playlists.

This part is simple. At the start of a game of Vanguard Warzone on Caldera, take a look at the map and look out for small fighter plane symbols spread across the map. These indicate the location of a fighter plane, which you can then dive towards if you want to start flying around early.

If you’re still unsure of where to look, fighter planes will spawn in their en masse at the Airfield at the beginning of the game. This makes the location a great place to jump towards immediately, but bear in mind that you’ll likely be fighting over these vehicles with other players with their heads in the clouds.

For alternative plane locations, you can find one plane on the main road south of Arsenal, a few more in the North-East corner of the map on Runway, and one located to the east of Mines on a small airstrip up the mountain.

Once you first get into a plane, you’ll probably notice you’re not quite able to do barrel roles and high-intensity dives and dodges. That’s because you’re currently in a simplified flight mode - intended to teach you the ropes.

In this mode, get used to flying around way above the treeline, and making a mental note of any enemy pings you see as you do. The planes in Warzone Pacific act as mini-UAVs, which is one of the reasons they are so powerful.

Once you’ve found someone caught out in the open, fly out away from them and turn around, so that you’ve aimed your plane in their direction with a decent distance between yourself and your target (and the ground of course).

In this position, you should have plenty of room to lay into your target with the powerful machine guns strapped to the front of the fighter planes.

These deal frankly ridiculous damage, and are the second major reason why planes are so good right now. With a large run up, and a clear shot on someone outside, you should be able to get a kill with relative ease.

This is the basic gameplan with fighter planes in the basic flight mode.

Now, if you’ve gotten comfortable with not slamming into the earth, you can turn on the advanced flight mode. This grants greater mobility, the ability to soar directly up into the highest reaches of the map, roll around to your heart's content, but of course this makes it far easier to crash.

With this enabled, you can further enhance the strafing runs the fighter planes are capable of. A popular strategy skilled pilots are making use of is the vertical dive. They locate enemies on the ground, flying directly skyward, spin around, and start shooting at them from directly above.

This makes it far easier to hit shots on target and stops bullets from being blocked by the geography (save for buildings if they managed to make it inside in time).

The difficulty comes from pulling up in time, which is a tad harder to judge using this strategy. For a visual guide on how this works, hugely popular Warzone content creator TimTheTatman released a wonderful video spectating one such pilot doing exactly this.

In solos, you’re free to wander the map at your leisure, picking up kills here and there as you go. It’s quite relaxing really, high above the stress and breakneck fights between MP40s, STGs, and akimbo shotguns.

The only thing worth keeping in mind is whether or not you grab some plates and weapons before you jump into a plane.

You will eventually have to leave the plane, whether because you’ve been shot down by a pesky anti-air gun, made it into the final zone where there isn’t enough room to fly, or nosedived your ride into the mountain.

As such, it’s possible you’re caught out undergeared when this happens. To help work around this, try not jumping into a plane at the start of the game. Airfield has tents filled with great loot, and less popular spawn points often grant you some time to venture out and grab some gear before you head back and take off.

In squad playlists, your best bet is to stay around your squad on the ground, acting as an almost permanent UAV as long as you’ve not been taken out.

It’s important to do this because your friends will essentially be one gun short in quickfire fights, so you’ll not be helping anyone if you’re circling Sub Pen on your own.

By calling out enemy positions, taking strafing runs at enemy squads, and overall being a nuisance you can create incredibly frustrating situations for any enemy players you run into.

You also don’t have to worry too much about grabbing guns before you find a plane, as your team can cover you at a later time when you’ve gone for a loadout, or are vulnerable scavenging buildings.

That wraps up our guide on how to fly fighter planes in Warzone Pacific! For more Warzone content, check out our coverage in the wake of the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard, including Xbox’s desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation, and the potential death of yearly call of duty releases.

Connor is a Video Game Reporter with roots in multiplayer titles across a wide variety of genres. Connor can be found scrounging Reddit and Discord for the interesting stories, or diving deep into the latest fighting game.

You give us money, we give you an ad-free reading experience, merch discounts, a newsletter every month, and elite status amongst your friends.

Please enable JavaScript to see comments.

Call of Duty: Warzone Season 4 - How to enter the secret Wine Bottle room

If you've been curious about what the bottles are for, here's your answer!

Call of Duty: Warzone season 4 - How to summon the Graveyard zombie

Some nice loot is up for grabs for those willing to creep around around graveyards.

Call of Duty: Warzone Season 4 - How to dig up buried treasure and find shovels

Arrrgh, we're digging for pirate gold!

Call of Duty: Warzone Season 4 - How to open a mercenary vault and find golden keycards

Here's how you can find and open Mercenary vaults on Caldera in Warzone Pacific season 4

Sonic Adventure is still the gold standard for 3D Sonic games

While not without flaws, the blue hedgehog’s proper 3D debut has yet to be bested over the past two decades

Dead by Daylight Codes: Free Bloodpoints and Charms (July 2022)

Are the PS Plus July Essential games any good?

Are Crash Bandicoot 4, Man of Medan, and Arcadegeddon worth downloading? We've rated them all, for your pleasure.

Bee Swarm Simulator codes: Honey, Buffs and Boosts (July 2022)

Enhance your Swarm with these codes

They're far more stylish than your average video game website tat.

Copyright © 2022 Gamer Network Limited, a ReedPop company.

All rights reserved. No part of this site or its content may be reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder.