World of Tanks All Tanks: The Short Version

There is a short answer to what All Tanks is, and a longer one about why it matters — both are here.

Picking the wrong line in World of Tanks costs weeks, so the research order matters more than any single tank. It became noticeably more relevant after a change the patch notes barely mentioned. It is more consequential in the late game than the early one, which is why first impressions mislead.

How it connects to the rest of World of Tanks

If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. Early impressions of it are usually wrong in the same specific way. Community shorthand around it has drifted far enough from the original meaning to cause arguments. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over.

Two similarly named things exist, and mixing them up explains a lot of contradictory advice. It appears in supplementary material in more detail than it does in the game itself. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why.

Common misunderstandings

Whether it is worth going out of your way for depends entirely on how you are playing. It is the kind of thing veterans forget they ever had to learn. World of Tanks is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look.

• Ask what it is for before asking how to get it.
• Do not build a plan around it before you have seen it work.
• Keep a save or backup from before you start — it costs nothing and occasionally saves an evening.
• Expect its role to have shifted at least once across updates.

How it has changed over time

Its practical value is narrow and real, rather than broad and theoretical. There is a persistent myth attached to it that has never been true in any version. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. The in-game description is technically accurate and practically useless.

It rewards understanding rather than grinding, which is unusual for World of Tanks. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. The name is descriptive if you already know what it does, and opaque if you do not.

What it changes in practice

If you only remember one thing about it, remember where it appears. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. Most guides mention it in passing and none of them stop to define it.

The wiki entry is thorough and buries the actually useful part six paragraphs down. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. Its role has changed across updates, so older discussion describes something slightly different.

What it is often confused with

It shows up in more places than its introduction suggests, once you know to look. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. Knowing this does not make you better at World of Tanks, but it does make the rest of it legible.

Where people go wrong

• Rushing the last step, which is usually the one with the actual requirement in it.
• Ignoring the platform-specific note and then wondering why the steps do not line up.
• Changing five things at once and then not knowing which one helped.
• Copying a setup wholesale from a streamer without understanding what each part does.

World of Tanks FAQ

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

Where can I read more?

The official material covers it in more depth than the game does, and considerably more reliably than aggregated fan pages.

Is it important?

More than its screen time implies, less than the discussion around it implies. Somewhere in the middle.

Do I need any mods or third-party tools for this?

No. Everything described here works with the base game on any supported platform.

Anything that shifts with the next World of Tanks update will show up as a changed number, not a changed approach.