Commanders!
Welcome to the seventh part of our Guide series.
Today, we’re going to discuss the ways you can improve your vehicle’s performance.
The first and the most important way of upgrading your tanks is its core progression.
Each progression vehicle has a number of modules that can be first unlocked for Experience
or Reputation and then purchased for Credits.
These include upgraded engines, improved ammunition, improved armor sets and other parts of your
tank.
The exact values for each module as well as how much better they are compared to the old
ones can be seen when you move your mouse over each respective upgrade.
Once enough of these modules are unlocked, the option to unlock a vehicle one Tier higher
becomes available.
This vehicle too has to be unlocked and purchased.
Typically, these modules represent straight up performance upgrades.
However, there are some cases where things aren’t that simple.
Some vehicles, most notably the French Leclerc, have several alternative modules occupying
the same slot.
While all three can be unlocked and purchased, only one of these alternative modules can
be installed at any given time, presenting you with the need to carefully choose your
configuration depending on your playstyle.
Another set of special upgrades is listed under the “Other” category in the bottom
part of each vehicle’s upgrade screen.
These upgrades typically don’t provide any power boosts and are instead intended as additional
rewards for the players who play this particular vehicle a lot.
They typically include boosts to Reputation, player titles, avatars and also the Battle
Hardened status.
This status, available for Gold, increases, amongst other things, the Credit and Experience
income of that particular vehicle.
Purchasing it is worth considering for the vehicles that you really enjoy playing.
The final type of upgrades is marked by a yellow arrow symbol.
These are the “additional progression” upgrades, also often called “overprogression”
by players.
Instead of Experience, unlocking these upgrades usually requires completing some objective,
for example obtaining a medal while playing a specific vehicle.
These upgrades are not part of core progression and are, like the previously mentioned “Other”
category upgrades, intended for players who prefer to play that specific vehicle.
The difference is, these modules do increase the vehicle’s performance, sometimes even
changing its playstyle completely.
Premium vehicles in Armored Warfare typically come with all their upgrades unlocked, or,
in other words, without the possibility to upgrade their performance this way.
There is one exception though.
Some Premium vehicles do have additional progression modules that are often tied to various missions
in the game.
But even without additional progression, the performance of all vehicles in the game can
be unlocked by two additional means, which are retrofits and consumables.
Retrofits are purchasable upgrades that allow you to further customize your vehicle by upgrading
the parameters it relies on the most.
Each vehicle is fitted with three Retrofit Slots with the fourth one being available
to Tier 9 and Tier 10 vehicles.
Retrofit slots are universal and each can be fitted with a retrofit from one of the
following categories: Firepower, Armor, Mobility and Technology.
Retrofits are purchased in the Retrofit menu for each individual vehicle separately and
are bound to it, which means it’s not possible to unequip a retrofit and use it on another
vehicle.
Installing each Retrofit costs Credits, although they need not be re-purchased if you decide
to switch to a different one.
The older one will stay available to that particular vehicle.
Retrofits come in two quality levels with the first one being typically available right
off the bat while the second one needs to be unlocked, typically via standard progression
on specific vehicles.
Move your mouse over each locked retrofit to find out what needs to be done to unlock
it.
Finally, there are the Consumables.
Like Retrofits, the Consumables are vehicle upgrades available to each vehicle separately.
The biggest difference is that they are available for one battle only, after which they need
to be replenished.
Their most basic form is replenished for free while the more powerful variants cost Credits.
There are several types of consumables.
Med kits focus on healing your crew in battle, repair kits focus on repairing your components
in battle, fire extinguishers, as their name suggests, extinguish fire, energy drink boosts
your crew’s performance, synthetic oil boosts your mobility and rebuild kits allow you to
replenish your hitpoints in PvE.
If you want to have an extra edge in battle, don’t be shy and make good use of them.
That’s it for progression, commanders.
In the next part of the series, we’ll discuss commanders.
But until then: See you on the battlefield!