5 Little-Known Tips for World of Tanks

Five things you might not know about World of Tanks that will improve your game!

There are a few ways new players can improve at World of Tanks, such as learning how to play Light tanks better, but today we’re going to focus on five of the little-known tips for World of Tanks. These tips might only be little, but will otherwise help you improve your World of Tanks experience.

Look Without Moving Your Gun

Being able to look around your tank without moving your gun helps keep the reticule tight and focused.
Being able to look around your tank without moving your gun helps keep the reticule tight and focused.

How many times have you found yourself in this situation: you’ve got your reticule aimed at an enemy behind a rock who you know is going to try and peak-a-boom your face, but you also know they’ve got a teammate nearby, so you want to watch your back. You don’t want to move your turret, as you’ll lose your target, but you want to make sure you’re not being crept up on.

Well, good news! There’s a way you can move your camera to look at your surroundings without having to move your turret, thus destroying your aim time. Simply hold right-click when aiming to keep your gun locked in one spot(—so long as you’re holding right-click, it won’t move, and you’ll be able to spin your camera all around your tank. Use this handy little trick to avoid refocusing your gun when searching for other enemies.

Tell Your Team When Your Ammo is Ready

By pressing F8 when reloading you can inform your teammates when it will be finished. This is extremely handy for Tank Destroyers or SPGs with long reload times.
By pressing F8 when reloading you can inform your teammates when it will be finished. This is extremely handy for Tank Destroyers or SPGs with long reload times.

Your teammates are relying on you to take the shot and help them damage enemies. You can’t do that while reloading, and they don’t know how long that’s going to take. However, there’s a quick and easy way to let them know! Simply hit F8 while reloading to inform your teammates how many seconds you have left until you can fire again. This way, your allies will be able to take into account your own damage output, and be able to rely on your support.

This can be especially handy if your wolfpack is planning on sending out a decoy to draw the fire of a tank. There’s no sense sending out a patsy when no one else has their munitions ready! So keep this handy World of Tanks tip in mind next time you’re reloading.

Highlighting the Map

Highlighting the map using Crtl + Left Click is a great way to draw attention to certain spots.
Highlighting the map using Ctrl + left-click is a great way to draw attention to certain spots.

Informing your teammates of where you want to go or where you think their attention should be directed is important. Typing can take a long time, and reading the coordinates can be difficult at a glance, so it’s a good thing there’s a way you can highlight a location on the map!

Hold Ctrl, move your mouse, and click on the appropriate square on the map to ping it for the rest of your team. Just don’t start needlessly spamming it, or you’ll find yourself with some uncooperative teammates and potentially even a few reports.

Enemy Health Bars

Seeing how much health an enemy has left is useful when planning an engagement.
Seeing how much health an enemy has left is useful when planning an engagement.

Ever wish you could easily see how much health an enemy has left? Well, lucky for you there is such a setting in the menu! Simply open up the main menu, select settings, and click the marker tab to find a few options you can switch on.

In the marker tab, you’ll be able to turn on more information for you to see at-a-glance such as the enemy health bar, tier level, tank type, tank icon, and more! This information is often hidden behind a press of the alt key, but in the thick of battle, the fewer keys you have to press the better.

Turn on any information you find important, but one that’s often useful is the enemy health bar. This health bar gives you the best indication of how much damage you dealt and how much health the enemy has left.

For new players starting out, it’s also useful to switch on the vehicle model as this will help you with memorizing the hundreds of different tanks in the game. Soon enough, you’ll find yourself remembering a tank by its name and the weak points to aim at to deal more damage.

Look at the Terrain

It might seem obvious to some, but to others the idea of looking at the terrain for ridges to hide behind isn't immediately obvious.
It might seem obvious to some, but to others, the idea of looking at the terrain for ridges to hide behind isn't immediately obvious.

One of the simplest tips available, but one that isn’t often thought of, is to simply look at the terrain. The ground in World of Tanks isn’t flat, in fact, it’s anything but. The ground is broken into hills and valleys, dips and rises, all of which will be your friend if you learn to use them to your advantage.

Most open areas in a map aren’t completely flat (though some are) and can actually be used as causeways to get to another location quickly. If you do need to pass through these open areas, look for the ridges that will give you added protection from enemy fire. There’s a lot more detail in the maps than what there appears to be. Take the time learning the terrains to help improve your skills.

While these tips aren’t groundbreaking, they are ones that can easily go unsaid. Sometimes the most obvious aspects of the game are the ones people can miss. By applying these above tips, even some of the time, you will find that improvements will follow, which is extremely important if you are looking to improve your WN8. Let us know in the comments other little-known tips for World of Tanks!

Sam Chandler is the Australian piece of the AllGamers puzzle. Out of all his gaming-related passions, collecting N64 games, speedrunning, and Souls games rank among the most important. You can reach Sam through Twitter, @SamuelChandler, or through his email, sam.chandler@allgamers.com, at any time of the day or night on either side of the globe.

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