Schießwesen
Everything the client resolves between pulling the trigger and damage landing: which shell you loaded, how its angle against the plate is judged, and how much of the gun's listed penetration actually shows up. For what the stats on this site mean, see the Statistik-Referenz.
Armor PiercingAP
5° normalization · Ricochet at ≥ 70° · Pen falls off with range · Overmatch rules apply
The workhorse kinetic round. A solid shot that relies on velocity: it normalizes a full 5° into sloped plates, obeys both caliber overmatch rules, and gradually loses penetration over distance as the shell slows down. Balanced speed, balanced pen — the baseline every other type is measured against.
Armor Piercing Composite RigidAPCR
2° normalization · Ricochet at ≥ 70° · Fastest in flight · Steeper pen falloff
A lightweight sub-caliber dart, usually the fastest shell in the game — great for hitting moving targets. The trade-off: only 2° of normalization, so well-angled armor punishes APCR harder than AP, and its penetration typically drops off more steeply with range.
High-Explosive Anti-TankHEAT
0° normalization · Ricochet only at ≥ 85° · No pen loss with range · Stopped by spaced armor & tracks
A shaped charge, not a kinetic slug. Penetration never degrades with distance and it almost never ricochets — but it gets zero normalization, is spent instantly if it does bounce, and detonates on the first thing it touches, so spaced armor, tracks, and wheels eat it before it reaches the hull.
High ExplosiveHE
Never ricochets · No pen loss with range · Splash on non-penetration · Module & crew damage
Detonates on whatever it touches — HE never ricochets and its (low) penetration never falls off. Full damage on a penetrating hit; otherwise reduced splash damage through the armor, making it the tool for resetting caps, finishing low-health targets, and slapping thinly-armored hulls.
| Shell | Normalization | Ricochet at | Kinetic |
|---|---|---|---|
| AP | 5° | ≥ 70° | yes |
| APCR | 2° | ≥ 70° | yes |
| HEAT | 0° | ≥ 85° | no |
| HE | 0° | never | no |
Normalization
effective angle = impact angle − norm (AP 5° · APCR 2° · HEAT/HE 0°)
On impact the shell turns a few degrees toward the plate's perpendicular before the effective-armor math runs, shaving that much off the impact angle. AP normalizes 5°, APCR only 2°, HEAT and HE not at all — one reason sloped armor punishes APCR harder than standard AP.
AP turns 5° toward the plate's perpendicular before the armor math runs (APCR 2°, HEAT/HE 0°).
Ricochet
AP/APCR bounce ≥ 70° · HEAT ≥ 85° · HE never
Strike a plate at or beyond the threshold angle and the shell glances off no matter how much penetration it has. Ricocheted AP and APCR rounds continue on a deflected path with 25% less penetration and can still strike another plate; a ricocheted HEAT shell is spent.
At or past the threshold angle the shell glances off regardless of penetration; AP/APCR continue with 25% less pen and can hit another plate.
3-caliber overmatch
caliber ≥ 3 × nominal armor → ricochet impossible
When an AP or APCR shell's caliber is at least three times the plate's nominal thickness, the ricochet check is skipped entirely and the shell punches through near-regardless of angle. This is why large-caliber guns slice through thin roofs and hull floors that would otherwise auto-bounce.
When caliber is at least 3× the plate's nominal thickness, the ricochet check is skipped — the shell punches through near-regardless of angle.
Effective armor & the 2-caliber boost
LOS = nominal ÷ cos(angle) · caliber > 2 × armor → norm × 1.4 × caliber ÷ (2 × armor)
Sloping armor multiplies the metal a shell must cross: the game measures thickness along the shell's line of sight. Kinetic rounds much wider than the plate normalize harder — past twice the nominal thickness, base normalization is multiplied by 1.4 × caliber ÷ (2 × armor), so big guns flatten out sharp angles on thin plates well before full overmatch kicks in.
Effective thickness = nominal ÷ cos(impact angle) — a 50 mm plate at 60° presents 100 mm along the shell's path, before normalization.
Penetration roll
actual pen = listed pen × 0.75–1.25 (uniform)
Every shot rolls its penetration uniformly within ±25% of the gun's listed value — a 200 mm gun really pens 150–250 mm. Damage rolls the same ±25% independently. Against effective armor inside that window, penetration becomes a probability; the armor inspector's Live mode on every tank page shows the exact chance per plate.
Listed penetration is measured at 100 m; kinetic shells fall off toward their 500 m value and stay flat beyond. Chemical shells never degrade.
Penetration falloff
listed pen @ 100 m → “pen at 500 m” (AP/APCR) · HEAT/HE constant
Kinetic shells slow down in flight and lose penetration with range: the listed value is measured at 100 m and falls off toward the 500 m figure shown on our tank pages, staying flat beyond that. HEAT and HE are chemical charges that don't rely on velocity, so their penetration never degrades with distance.
Tief gezogene Kanonen
voller Schaden ≤ 50 m → nimmt mit der Entfernung ab · bis zu 2.000 m/s
The Polish Tier VIII–X tank destroyers carry deep-rifled guns firing star tray shells at extreme velocity — 1,700 m/s standard and 2,000 m/s special rounds at the top tiers, the fastest in the game. The trade-off inverts the usual falloff rule: instead of losing penetration, these shells lose damage with distance, dealing their full listed damage only within 50 m — rewarding aggressive close-range brawling over sniping.