[Glossary](/glossary.md)/[Gunnery](/glossary/category/gunnery.md)

# Alpha damage

The damage a single penetrating shell deals, before the plus or minus 25 percent the game rolls on every shot.

Also known as alpha, damage per shot.

Alpha is the headline number on a gun. A quoted 390 means the [shell](/glossary/shell.md) averages 390 damage on a penetrating hit, with each individual shot rolled anywhere between 293 and 488.

High alpha is worth more than the average suggests, because damage arrives in one piece. A single 750 shot forces an opponent to retreat and repair where three 250 shots give them time to answer between each one, and it is the entire argument for slow, heavy-hitting guns.

It only describes a full [penetration](/glossary/penetration.md). A hit that fails to penetrate deals nothing, and a [high explosive](/glossary/high-explosive.md) shell that does not penetrate deals a reduced [splash](/glossary/splash.md) amount instead.

## Related terms

[Damage per minuteDamage per minute: how much a gun deals over a sustained exchange, alpha multiplied by how often it can fire.](/glossary/dpm.md)[PenetrationHow 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.](/glossary/penetration.md)[ShellOne round of ammunition, carrying its own damage, penetration, velocity and behaviour against armor.](/glossary/shell.md)[High explosiveA shell that explodes on contact, dealing reduced damage through armor it cannot penetrate and splashing everything nearby.](/glossary/high-explosive.md)

[Every World of Tanks term](/glossary.md)

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