World of Tanks Power Leveling Guide

World of Tanks Power Leveling Guide by WildBill813

I got into a discussion the other day with someone on WoT about whether your could power level in WoT. This person (who is not in my clan and name I didn’t bother to remember) insisted that it is not possible. When I asserted that it is, his response is that I “obviously” didn’t know what Power Leveling was.

According to various sources on the internet, Power Leveling (PL) “can take many forms depending on the game being played, the method of leveling, and the sources of XP.”[1] Wikipedia defines it as “the process of sustained, fast leveling”.[3] WoWWiki defines power leveling as “the process of leveling as rapidly as possible with the least amount of play time.”[2] While all three definitions can be applied the WoT, I think the last definition captures the essence of power leveling regardless of the game being played. As someone who has played various MMORPGs for several years now, I can confirm that I have power leveled many characters in all of them. And World of Tanks is no different. Well…. mostly!

What makes WoT unique is that you don’t have a character or toon that you need to get from level 1 to level 85 (as in another popular MMO). But what you do have are the tech trees. As we all know, you start off with 3 tanks, each a tier 1 on three different tech trees. Our mission is to play these tanks, rack up enough XP to research modules to improve the tanks, and eventually research the next higher tier tank in the tree. Our goal is to reach the top-tier tank in one or more of the branches of a tech tree. Here is where the definition of power leveling can be plugged into the construct of the tech tree in WoT.

Along each branch of the tech tree, each tank has various modules that can be researched. Some of these are required to research the next tank in the tree, but not all of them. To quickly move up the tree, you would research only the modules required and then research the next tank. Once you have the credits to purchase the next tank, you do the same thing with it. By skipping the unnecessary modules, your leveling fits the definition of “leveling as rapidly as possible with the least ammount of play time”.

But, can it be done faster? The short answer is yes. With some caveats. Using the above method and the Russian T-50 as an example, only the XP you earn in the T-50 and the “Free Experience” that you get to spend anywhere you like can be applied to research the T-50M tracks and then the T-50-2 tank. That’s just one module between the T-50 and the T-50-2. The tracks cost 1,100xp and the T-50-2 is another 54,700. so you’ll have to grind out 55,810xp on the T-50 before you can research the coveted T-50-2! If you’re average XP on the T-50 is 300xp per battle, you’ll have to fight 183 battles to get your T-50-2! And you’ll be skipping several mods that would make the T-50 a much better tank and more fun to play including engine upgrades, a better radio, and additional choices in guns. But, if you research all of the upgrades, they’ll cost you an additional 14,840(27%) XP that you’ll have to grind! (Not to mention the credit cost of those additional modules!)

So, the question is, can you power level past the stock T-50 to the T-52 faster? Yes! But… it’ll cost you. It’ll cost you gold, which is real money. (If you purchase $50 worth, you get 240gold per dollar.) So where do we spend this money?

First, and this is a must, upgrade your account to a premium account. Premium accounts cost 2,500g per month. You can get it for anywhere from 1 day to one year, but let’s just go with one month for the sake of simplicity. That one month of premium costs $10.41. But in return you earn 50% more credits and more importantly, 50% more XP! This means that you’ll have to fight only two-thirds of the battles! So just by upgrading to premium, you won’t have to fight 183 battles, but only 122, saving you 61 battles! But can it be done faster still? Yes!

Next, and this is a big one, buy a Lowe! I know, it now costs 12,500g (about $52), but they earn massive amounts of XP and even more massive amounts of credits! (While your’re spending your hard-earned cash, get a KV-5 and a Type-59 while you’re at it. They cost 7,500g or about $30 each but like the Lowe, earn tons of XP and credits!) So now you’ve got an elite, premium tank in your garage. So what that it earns well over 500xp per battle? Well, first of all, an additional 5% of that XP is earned as Free Experience and may be spent where ever you like. Additionally, if you leave the “Accelerate crew training” box un-checked, the tank earns XP. What’s important about that XP, is that since it’s on an elite tank, it can be converted to Free XP for the low, low cost of 25xp per gold.

“So what?”, you say. “I still have to grind one tank or another, and now I’m spending gold($) to convert XP from one tanke to another?” True. But, here’s where we get into the strategy of the “Daily Double”. Remember, each day. the first win earns you double XP. So, on your lowly T-50, the first win might earn you 900xp. (300xp, plus the 150xp premuim bonus, doubled.) Also, your Lowe, which earns me an average over 600xp per battle, can earn you 1200xp! (My record XP earned in a single battle was 1,977xp on my Lowe in a Daily Double for a total of 3,954xp!) So now, in just two victories and not counting any XP earned in defeats, you’ve earned a total of 2,100xp. Since about 1,200xp is on the Lowe, the cost to convert it to Free XP is 48g, or about 20cents. Now here’s where things get interesting!

On an average day, I earn over 10,000xp that can be converted to Free XP. Yup, you read that right. Over 10 THOUSAND Free XP. What’s my secret? A garage full of elite tanks! How many? Nine. Nine elite tanks, and two are premium, my Lowe, and my Type-59. The rest are mid-tier tanks(tiers 4 to 6). I try to get at least one victory for a Daily Double in each of my elite tanks and the tank I’m grinding through each day. I’m currently working on getting my Tier-9 (top-tier) Russian T-54 medium tank. The XP cost is 167,025 and the credit cost is almost 3 million. I purchased my T-44 exactly two weeks ago. There were a couple of days where I didn’t play and therefore earned no XP, but when I do play, my daily average is still over 10grand per day. How close am I to getting my T-54? I only need 8,192xp so I’ll have it in less than a day of play. And I have more than enough credits to purchase it as soon as it’s researched!

Now, this doesn’t come cheap. Converting the XP from my elite tanks is going to cost me over $20, compared to grinding my T-54 out without a premium account or converting XP, it’s worth it. Again, I earn an average of 10k convertible XP each day. That costs me about $1.72 per day or a whopping $51.49 each month in addition to the $10.41 for the Premium Account. So, the cost of Power Leveling at my level is over $60 per month. But here’s my reason behind it. Once I have a top-tier tank in each class that I’m satisfied with, I can contribute to the Clan in any way necessary. If I need to bring a tier-10 heavy, I’ll have one. A tier-9 medium or TD? I’ll have them too. A tier-8 SPG? Yup. Additionally, when I get to that point, I can either play entirely for free, without a premium account, or dedicate gold to the infamous “Gold Rounds”. (Gold rounds for the T-30 are 12g each, so for $50, I can get a thousand APCR rounds that penetrate 240-400 and do 563-938 damage.)

In summary, I think I’ve proven that Power Leveling in WoT is indeed possible although costly. You don’t have to do it the same way I do, but if you want that top-tier tank sooner rather than later, I hope I’ve given you some ideas. Just remember, it’s gonna cost you real money now, but it’ll get a whole lot cheaper later! And you’ll have a garage full of top-tier, tanks to play with. Maybe even a couple of premium ones too!