The World of Tanks glossary
What every number on a tank means, how spotting and armor actually work, what the ratings measure, and the words the game never explains.
A
How quickly a vehicle reaches speed from a standstill, which matters far more in practice than its top speed.
A gun's dispersion at 100 metres, in metres: the radius of the circle a fully aimed shot can land in, where lower is better.
Driving fast through or past enemy positions to reveal them, accepting exposure in exchange for information.
The fifteen against fifteen Tier X Stronghold format, where clans attack each other's bases in scheduled events for a larger share of resource.
The time the aiming circle takes to shrink by 60 percent of its width, not the time to become fully aimed.
The circle drawn around the crosshair showing where the next shell can land.
The damage a single penetrating shell deals, before the plus or minus 25 percent the game rolls on every shot.
The module holding a vehicle's shells, which slows reloading when damaged and destroys the vehicle outright when it detonates.
Turning a vehicle so incoming shells meet its plates at an angle, multiplying effective armor without changing a single stat.
A lighter, faster shell with higher penetration than AP, less normalization and a steeper penetration loss over distance.
The nominal thickness of a plate in millimetres, before any angle is taken into account.
The standard solid shell: reliable damage, moderate penetration, five degrees of normalization and a ricochet beyond 70 degrees.
The indirect fire class, firing high explosive from an overhead view at targets it cannot see directly.
One team attacks a single base, the other defends it, on a shorter clock.
Damage an ally dealt to a target the player spotted or tracked, credited to the player who made the shot possible.
The lock that keeps the gun pointed at a target's centre of mass while both vehicles move.
A magazine gun that must empty its clip before reloading it, all at once.
A magazine gun that refills one shell at a time, so it can fire a single shot and keep loading in the background.
The battle-weighted average of the tiers a player has played, used to put their raw averages in context.
B
Sitting in the enemy base circle to accumulate capture points, where taking damage resets your own contribution.
A season-long track of rewards unlocked by earning points on a chosen set of vehicles.
The tier bracket a battle is fought at, which is what decides who a vehicle meets rather than its own tier alone.
The number of battles on an account or a vehicle, and the sample size every other statistic has to be read against.
Firing at a position where an enemy is believed to be, without it being spotted.
The widening of the aiming circle caused by moving, traversing or firing, and the reason a gun's paper accuracy is rarely what a player experiences.
Fragments collected from battles that reduce the experience needed to research a specific vehicle, or any vehicle of a nation.
A currency earned from competitive play and high placements, spent on improved equipment, directives and reward vehicles.
A timed multiplier on credits, experience or crew training, activated by a player or by a clan for everyone online.
An automated or absent player, and the accusation thrown at anyone who plays like one.
Being two tiers below the top of the battle, which is where seven of every fifteen vehicles start.
Stronger versions of standard equipment, earned with bonds or from events rather than bought with credits.
A perk that raises every crew member's effectiveness, but only while the entire crew has it trained.
Foliage that adds concealment while a vehicle stays behind it, and that turns transparent for a moment when the vehicle fires from close range.
C
The diameter of a gun's shell in millimetres, which sets what armor it can overmatch as well as roughly how hard it hits.
A vehicle's concealment value, which shortens the distance at which it can be spotted.
The equipment that raises concealment once the vehicle has stood still for three seconds.
Holding a safe position far from the fighting, which is sound play for some vehicles and a way to lose slowly for most.
Winning a battle that the team was losing, through one player's damage and decisions.
A persistent group of players with a tag shown next to their name, which is the unit every organised mode is played as.
The campaign layer where clans fight for territory on a global map, with landing tournaments, province income and reward vehicles at the end of a season.
Damage dealt plus assistance credited, the figure Marks of Excellence are measured on.
A single-use item carried into battle: repair kits, first aid kits, fire extinguishers and the food that boosts the whole crew.
How much of a server's playerbase a stats site actually tracks, and how fresh those accounts are.
The main currency, earned every battle and spent on vehicles, modules, ammunition, repairs and equipment.
An item that grants a lump of crew experience, the fastest way to bring a crew up to its next skill.
The job a crew member holds, each one governing a different set of the vehicle's numbers.
An ability trained past 100 percent proficiency, which either improves gradually as it is learned or activates all at once when complete.
A crew member's proficiency in their main role, as a percentage, which scales every stat that role governs.
Damage to a module or a crew member, which degrades what a vehicle can do without necessarily costing it hit points.
Two positions covering the same ground from different angles, so a vehicle angled against one is flat to the other.
The raised commander's hatch on top of a turret, often the only part of a hull down vehicle that can be hit.
D
The rotating set of small objectives that reset each day, paying experience multipliers and credits.
Potential damage that hit the player's armor and failed to penetrate, the ledger entry for playing a heavily armored vehicle well.
Damage per game: the average damage dealt per battle, the most quoted measure of personal output and the one most sensitive to which vehicles are played.
Damage per minute: how much a gun deals over a sustained exchange, alpha multiplied by how often it can fire.
Damage dealt divided by damage received, a measure of how efficiently a player trades their hit points.
The item that removes a piece of equipment from a vehicle without paying the gold fee.
A large-caliber, low-velocity gun firing high explosive, which deals damage to almost anything without needing to penetrate.
A consumable that boosts a piece of equipment or a crew skill for one battle.
The size of the aiming circle at any moment, which grows with movement and shrinks as the gun settles.
A gun system with two barrels that can fire one shell at a time or both together in a salvo.
E
The thickness a shell actually has to defeat once the angle of the plate is accounted for, which is what penetration is compared against.
The speed a vehicle can actually hold on a given ground type, rather than the cap printed on its specification sheet.
How fast a vehicle actually turns on a given ground type, once engine power, weight and terrain resistance are accounted for.
The first widely used community rating, built from account averages and long since replaced by WN7 and WN8.
The state of a vehicle whose modules and successors are all researched, which unlocks crew training and experience conversion.
A single neutral base in the middle of the map, which either team can capture.
A fire started by a hit on the engine or fuel tanks, which drains hit points and damages modules until it is put out.
The engine's output in horsepower, which only means something next to the weight it has to move.
Permanent upgrades fitted into a vehicle's three slots, each improving one area of its performance.
The per-vehicle server averages a rating measures a player against: what a typical player produces in that exact tank.
The currency earned per battle from damage, spotting, kills, capture and defence, spent on research and crew training.
F
Accumulating damage from a safe position, which raises personal statistics without necessarily helping the team win.
Per-vehicle upgrades unlocked after a vehicle is elite, trading one stat against another in a series of choices.
Attacking a position from its side or rear, where armor is thin and guns are pointed elsewhere.
Several players shooting the same target at once, which removes it from the battle before it can trade back.
Experience that can be spent on any vehicle or module, accumulated as a small share of everything earned and convertible from elite vehicles with gold.
A thirty against thirty Tier VIII mode on a nine square kilometre map, with respawns, capture zones and a rank earned per battle.
G
The screen the game returns to between battles, holding every vehicle an account owns.
The purchased currency, spent on premium time, premium vehicles, converting experience and retraining crews.
A thirty against thirty Tier X format on oversized maps, mixed into the random queue rather than run as its own mode.
The horizontal span a gun can cover without turning the hull, on vehicles that have no rotating turret.
How far below horizontal a gun can point, which decides whether a vehicle can shoot over a crest without exposing its hull.
How far above horizontal a gun can point, which matters for shooting uphill and at vehicles on higher ground.
The combination of accuracy, aim time and dispersion penalties that decides whether a gun hits what it is pointed at.
The equipment that shortens reload time, and the first thing fitted on almost any vehicle with a conventional gun.
H
A shaped-charge shell with high penetration that ignores distance entirely, but is defeated by tracks, screens and any spaced armor it detonates on.
The armored class: slow, tough and built to hold ground by absorbing shells other vehicles could not survive.
A high explosive variant with much higher nominal penetration, which behaves like HE when it fails to penetrate.
A shell that explodes on contact, dealing reduced damage through armor it cannot penetrate and splashing everything nearby.
A vehicle's health pool, which cannot be restored in battle and is therefore a resource to be spent rather than a buffer to be refilled.
The share of shells fired that hit a target, distinct from a gun's accuracy value.
Sitting behind a rise so only the turret is exposed, using gun depression to shoot over it while the hull stays protected.
How fast a vehicle turns on the spot, in degrees per second, which decides whether it can keep its front toward a faster opponent.
The Steel Hunter performance rating used on unicum.gg, built from average experience per battle and win rate, discounted for small samples.
I
K
L
Most of a team driving to the same flank at once, leaving the rest of the map undefended.
The scouting class: fast, small and heavily concealed, built to see the enemy rather than to fight them.
The strip of hull armor below the upper glacis, usually the flattest and thinnest part of a vehicle's front.
M
A set of shells a gun can fire in quick succession before a long reload, the mechanism behind autoloaders and autoreloaders.
The one, two or three marks painted on a vehicle's barrel, awarded for sustaining combined damage in the top 65, 85 or 95 percent of everyone playing that vehicle on the server.
A badge awarded for a single battle whose base experience beats a set share of everyone playing that vehicle, from third class up to Ace Tanker.
The system that builds the two teams of a random battle, balancing them by battle tier, vehicle class and platoons rather than by player skill.
The distance beyond which a shell simply disappears, 720 metres for most guns and further for artillery.
The flexible class: enough speed to take position, enough gun to trade, enough armor to survive a mistake.
The overhead map in the corner of the screen, which shows spotted enemies, last known positions and where the team actually is.
One of a vehicle's five researchable components: suspension, engine, turret, gun and radio.
The separate damage value a shell applies to modules and crew members, which is what decides whether a hit tracks, breaks or wounds.
N
O
A recurring event that discounts one tech tree line and pays bonuses for researching it.
A seasonal seven against seven Tier X mode with role-based abilities and a rank ladder that resets each season.
The two view-range equipments: coated optics work always, binoculars give more but only after three seconds standing still.
The rule that a shell with a caliber at least three times a plate's thickness cannot ricochet off it, no matter the angle.
P
Spotting from a stationary concealed position, using view range and camouflage rather than speed.
Rolling out of cover to fire a single aimed shot and reversing straight back before the opponent's reload finishes.
How much armor a shell can defeat, in millimetres, rolled plus or minus 25 percent on every shot and compared against the effective thickness it hits.
The share of players a result beats, which turns a raw number into a position in the population.
Long campaigns of specific in-battle objectives whose completion awards reward vehicles, crews and equipment.
Wargaming's own rating, shown in the game client and on the portal, which grows with the number of battles played as well as with performance.
Two or three players queuing together and placed on the same team, coordinating by voice rather than by map ping.
Engine horsepower divided by the vehicle's weight in tonnes, the single best predictor of acceleration.
A narrower battle-tier spread on some vehicles, so they never meet opponents two tiers above them.
A paid subscription that multiplies the credits and experience earned in every battle.
The higher-penetration round available on nearly every gun, bought with credits and named after the days when it cost gold.
A vehicle bought rather than researched, which earns extra credits and trains any crew of its nation without penalty.
The rule that any vehicle within 50 metres is spotted regardless of concealment, as long as line of sight exists.
A player in the public queue, used to distinguish random battles from organised clan play.
R
How far a vehicle can pass what it sees to its team, which is what makes a spot useful to anyone else.
Deliberately colliding with another vehicle, where damage scales with mass and closing speed and both sides take some.
The main queue: fifteen against fifteen, teams assembled by the matchmaker, on a rotating pool of maps.
A seasonal Tier X competitive mode where players earn and lose chevrons based on their position in their team at the end of a battle.
How many shells a gun can fire in a minute, the reciprocal of its reload time.
The nine-step colour scale the community reads ratings through, running from black at the bottom to dark purple at the top.
A rating computed over a recent window of battles only, so it reflects how a player performs now rather than over their whole history.
The boundary of the map behind each team's spawn, and by extension the habit of playing pressed against it.
The time between one shot and the next being ready, or for a magazine gun the time to refill the whole magazine.
The 564 metre radius inside which a spotted vehicle is actually drawn on your screen.
Spending a vehicle's experience to unlock its modules and the vehicles that follow it in the tree.
Moving a crew to a different vehicle, at a cost in training percentage unless gold is paid.
How fast a vehicle can back up, which decides whether it can retreat into cover after firing.
A vehicle that cannot be bought, given out for personal missions, campaigns, Clan Wars or bonds.
A shell deflecting off a plate without any penetration check, which happens beyond 70 degrees for most shells and 85 for HEAT.
The crest of a hill, which conceals everything behind it and can be fought over only by vehicles with the depression to shoot across it.
The randomness built into damage, penetration and shell placement, and the standard explanation for any shot that went wrong.
S
An experienced player farming low tiers, where the opposition is mostly people still learning the game.
A second crosshair showing where the server thinks the gun is pointing, which is what the shot is actually resolved against.
The credits deducted after a battle for repairing damage taken and replacing ammunition and consumables spent.
A block of battles played in one sitting, reconstructed by a tracker from the difference between two snapshots of an account.
One round of ammunition, carrying its own damage, penetration, velocity and behaviour against armor.
How fast a shell travels, in metres per second, which decides how far ahead of a moving target you have to aim.
Hiding the front behind a corner and presenting the side at a sharp angle, so shells bounce off armor they would otherwise penetrate.
The commander perk that lights a bulb a few seconds after the vehicle has been spotted, the single most valuable ability in the game.
The short Stronghold battle format, fought seven against seven or ten against ten at Tier VI, VIII or X for industrial resource.
The zoomed view down the gun sight, as opposed to the third-person arcade view the game starts in.
A thin plate mounted away from the hull, which strips explosive and shaped-charge shells before they reach the real armor.
The equipment that reduces high explosive damage, stun duration, crew injuries and ramming damage.
The blast area of a high explosive shell, which damages everything within it whether or not the shell penetrated.
Making an enemy vehicle visible to your whole team, which is what turns a position into a target.
The default objective: each team has its own base, and wins by capturing the other's or destroying every enemy vehicle.
A battle royale mode fought in special upgradable vehicles on a shrinking map, where placement matters as much as damage.
A vehicle in its starting configuration, before any module has been researched, which is usually much weaker than its final form.
A clan's own base, built from buildings that produce industrial resource and unlock reserves, and the battles fought to supply it.
The temporary debuff an artillery hit leaves behind, degrading reload, aim time, traverse and view range for several seconds.
The share of battles a player finished alive, which reads as caution or as staying useful, depending on the rest of the account.
T
The ambush class: high penetration and damage from a fixed or limited arc, usually with strong concealment and thin sides.
Damage dealt to an ally, which is reflected back onto the shooter and escalates to a blocked account if it keeps happening.
A nation's chart of researchable vehicles, where each one unlocks the vehicles above it.
How much each ground type slows a vehicle down, quoted for hard, medium and soft terrain, where lower is better.
Playing a vehicle deliberately to reach the third Mark of Excellence, which requires sustaining top-five-percent combined damage on it.
A vehicle's rank from I to X, which sets its power level, its battle tier spread and everything about its economy.
A player whose rating sits in the red band, at the bottom of the colour scale.
The highest speed a vehicle is allowed to reach, which it only attains with enough engine power and forgiving ground.
Being among the three highest-tier vehicles in the battle, where your armor holds and your gun works on everything.
Organised bracket play between teams, run by Wargaming or by the community, outside the normal queues.
The visible trail a shell leaves in flight, which gives away the position of whoever fired it.
The running gear, which immobilises the vehicle when broken and absorbs shells like spaced armor when intact.
Accepting a hit in order to land one, which is favourable or not depending on alpha, reload and remaining hit points.
A private battle a player creates and invites others into, used for practice, testing and clan drills.
The equipment that adds engine power and top speed, the standard fix for a vehicle that arrives late.
The rotating housing for the gun, whose armor and traverse speed decide how a vehicle fights from cover.
How fast the turret rotates, in degrees per second, independent of the ground the vehicle is standing on.
U
V
W
A part of a vehicle noticeably thinner than the armor around it, where a gun that cannot defeat the front can still get through.
The vehicle's mass in tonnes, which sets its power-to-weight ratio and decides who wins a collision.
A light vehicle on wheels rather than tracks, with a high-speed mode, a different damage model and no tracks to break.
Rocking the hull back and forth while under fire so incoming shots meet a constantly changing angle rather than the same weak spot.
The share of battles a player has won, the one statistic that measures outcomes rather than personal output.
The 2012 predecessor to WN8, computed from account averages and the player's average tier instead of per-vehicle expected values.
A community performance rating that scores a player against the damage, kills, spotting and base defence expected of the vehicles they actually play, with a win rate term on top.
A modern per-vehicle rating that counts assistance damage alongside damage dealt and drops the win rate term entirely.