This comes up often enough in World of Tanks that it deserves a straight answer rather than a thread to scroll through.

Short answer

The direct answer is above the fold; the reasoning underneath is there for when the direct answer does not fit your situation.

  • Revisit after a major patch if the behaviour changes.
  • Check which version any conflicting advice was written for.
  • Expect one number in every guide to be out of date; the method is what matters.

Picking the wrong line in World of Tanks costs weeks, so the research order matters more than any single tank. The mechanic behind it is simpler than the discussion around it suggests. It is worth separating what the game does from what players have concluded it does.

Why it works this way

Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows. Edge cases are genuinely rare, which is why the simple answer is usually the correct one. The accepted community answer is broadly right and wrong in a specific way that matters here. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts.

Most of the disagreement online comes from people describing different versions of World of Tanks. Nothing here depends on a setting you are unlikely to have. Everything below is framed around the current state of World of Tanks rather than a launch-week impression.

The practical answer

Testing this yourself takes a few minutes and settles it definitively. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. World of Tanks is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look.

  • Try the straightforward approach before the elaborate one.
  • Note the exception cases — they are specific rather than vague.
  • Check the version you are actually running before assuming anything is broken.
  • Do not build a routine around an edge case.
  • Test it yourself where testing is cheap.

Worth knowing alongside this

The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep.

Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different.

When the usual advice fails

Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it.

The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first.

What to do instead

If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds.

Where people go wrong

  • Copying a setup wholesale from a streamer without understanding what each part does.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.
  • Changing five things at once and then not knowing which one helped.

World of Tanks FAQ

Does this change between platforms?

The behaviour does not. Where menu paths or prompts differ, that is noted above.

How long does this take?

Minutes if it goes cleanly, an evening if you hit the edge case in the caveats list. Neither is unusual.

Does this work the same on console and PC?

The logic is identical. Menu paths and button prompts differ, and any real difference is flagged above.

What is the short answer?

It is the paragraph near the top. Everything after it exists for the cases where that paragraph does not quite fit.

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