High explosiveHE

A shell that explodes on contact, dealing reduced damage through armor it cannot penetrate and splashing everything nearby.

Also known as HE, he shell, he spam.

HE is the shell that always does something. If it penetrates, it deals full damage. If it does not, it still applies a reduced amount based on its blast, cut down by the armor thickness in the way, and it damages modules and crew through plating it could never defeat.

That makes it the answer to unarmored targets, to resetting a base capture, and to finishing a target with a few hit points left behind cover. Large-caliber low-velocity guns firing it are what players call derp guns.

Artillery fires a version of it exclusively, which is why an artillery hit hurts even when it lands beside a vehicle rather than on it.

Related terms

SplashThe blast area of a high explosive shell, which damages everything within it whether or not the shell penetrated.ArtilleryThe indirect fire class, firing high explosive from an overhead view at targets it cannot see directly.HESHA high explosive variant with much higher nominal penetration, which behaves like HE when it fails to penetrate.Module damageThe separate damage value a shell applies to modules and crew members, which is what decides whether a hit tracks, breaks or wounds.CaliberThe diameter of a gun's shell in millimetres, which sets what armor it can overmatch as well as roughly how hard it hits.

Every World of Tanks term