Ask about E100 in World of Tanks and you get five confident answers, three of which describe an older version.

Short answer

It matters more than its screen time suggests, which is why it keeps coming up.

  • Ask what it is for before asking how to get it.
  • It rewards attention rather than preparation.
  • Stop and reassess after two failed attempts rather than repeating the third.

Picking the wrong line in World of Tanks costs weeks, so the research order matters more than any single tank. There is a persistent myth attached to it that has never been true in any version. Early impressions of it are usually wrong in the same specific way.

What it changes in practice

The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. Whether it is worth going out of your way for depends entirely on how you are playing. It became noticeably more relevant after a change the patch notes barely mentioned. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over.

The game introduces it quickly and assumes you picked it up, which is where the confusion starts. If you only remember one thing about it, remember where it appears. Everything below is framed around the current state of World of Tanks rather than a launch-week impression.

What it is often confused with

It appears in supplementary material in more detail than it does in the game itself. It rewards understanding rather than grinding, which is unusual for World of Tanks. Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds.

  • Expect its role to have shifted at least once across updates.
  • Treat wiki trivia sections as trivia rather than mechanics.
  • Give a method one honest attempt before deciding it does not work.
  • Do not confuse it with the similarly named thing — that mix-up drives most bad advice.
  • Read the in-game description once, then ignore it.
  • Read the whole sequence once before doing the first step.

Whether it is worth going out of your way for

It shows up in more places than its introduction suggests, once you know to look. Two similarly named things exist, and mixing them up explains a lot of contradictory advice. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. Knowing this does not make you better at World of Tanks, but it does make the rest of it legible.

Its practical value is narrow and real, rather than broad and theoretical. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. It is the kind of thing veterans forget they ever had to learn.

How it has changed over time

Community shorthand around it has drifted far enough from the original meaning to cause arguments. 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.

The wiki entry is thorough and buries the actually useful part six paragraphs down. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. The in-game description is technically accurate and practically useless.

What to do once you have it

Most guides mention it in passing and none of them stop to define it. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. It is more consequential in the late game than the early one, which is why first impressions mislead.

Where people go wrong

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

World of Tanks FAQ

Is this still accurate after the latest World of Tanks update?

The method is; individual numbers may not be. If a value on your screen differs, trust the screen and keep the sequence.

Can I miss it?

Where it is missable, that is noted above. Most players meet it without going looking for it.

Why do people disagree about it?

Usually because they are describing different versions, and occasionally because a similarly named thing exists alongside it.

Is it important?

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

Bookmark it if you like, but honestly, once you have done it once you will not need to come back.