Teamkilling

Damaging or destroying a teammate is known as teamkilling (TK).

In contrast to procedures employed in World of Tanks, the offending player does not become fair game for his team. Team mates are not allowed to retaliate. If they do, the disciplinary teamkilling action will be applied to them as well. Instead, World of Warships has implemented an automated system to monitor and penalize teamkilling.

Game Guide: Battle Discipline

How to become a teamkiller

Players will receive the disciplinary teamkiller status for committing the following offenses:

• do 10,000 damage or more to Allies (1% of damage) over the last 1,000,000 damage points (each) by main battery or aerial ordnance; or
• do 40,000 damage or more to Allies (4% of damage) over the last 1,000,000 damage points by ship-launched torpedoes; or
• destroy an ally, which means the last hit to sink the ally counts, not the amount of damage done.

Exceptions

Teamkilling is disabled in Training Rooms and in Scenarios. (Players sometimes celebrate a 5-star win by shooting each other .. because they can.)

Consequences of the teamkiller status

The offending player receives a disciplinary penalty of increasing severity.

Immediate

A player that is penalized as a direct result of team damage (esp. killing a teammate) suffers effects in that battle. A penalty is assessed immediately and announced both by voice and in chat. The player may turn pink.

Any team damage thereafter is reflected back to him as a percentage. For example, if a pink player deals 10,000 damage to an Allied ship and the damage constitutes 50% of that ship's starting hit point pool, the teamkiller's ship loses 50% of his ship's starting HP.

At the same time, the teamkiller's victims receive only 10% of the actual damage that would be caused (5% for torpedoes). They still receive the full resulting fire and flooding damage, although Wargaming may reduce this in future.

Should the teamkiller continue to damage allied ships, the percentage of damage reflected back to him will increase until his ship is destroyed.

Cumulative

While damage to teammates may not be sufficient to incur a penalty during the latest battle, damage is tracked over several battles, and the cumulative effect may be enough to trigger a penalty.

Note that the following Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalties apply for other actions such as: inactivity in battle/AFK, or leaving a battle early. The penalty may be assessed for a combination of these offenses and team damage.

The color pink

The first level of penalty is that the player's nickname and ship and aircraft icons are displayed in pink on the team panel, on the main map and mini-map, and, if still pink after the battle, on the post-battle report screens, and in the Port screens. On the Details page of the post-battle report, and again in a notice in the Port screen, the number of battle for which the "pink" status will continues appears. The typical penalty is 2 battles, though it may be longer.

A "pink" penalty should be considered a warning. It has no appreciable effect on future play.

The color orange

The next level of Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty is more serious. While the player's nickname and icons are still pink in battle, it is displayed in orange in Port. Like a pink status, the penalty has a duration — usually 8 or more battles.

An orange penalty is accompanied by a limit to the battle modes that can be played. Orange players are limited to Co-op, Clan Battles, or a Training Room for the duration of the penalty.

The color gone

Repeated and egregious misconduct may result in a game ban.

Living down the shame

Each teamkilling penalty is accompanied by a duration - the number of subsequent battles that the penalized player must play without causing team damage. After these "clean" battles, the penalty is lifted.

In order to remove the shameful TK status, play the required number of battles without any team damage. If allowed (by nature of the penalty), Co-op, Random, Scenarios, Ranked, and Special Event modes count toward the total. The Training Room does not. Special rules apply for orange penalties (see below).

If within the penalty period the teamkiller commits more heinous acts, the penalty period may be extended or escalated.

Special rules for oranges

Orange players are limited to Co-op, Clan Battles, or a Training Room. Clan Battles played by an orange player are not counted toward the number of clean battles required to lift the penalty. (Training Rooms never count.)

But I didn't mean to

Intentional or not, teamkilling is still teamkilling. The most common forms of accidental damage is a) ramming, and b) errant torpedoes.

Ramming can seem unavoidable, and fortunately causes little damage to either party. But it can be enough to continue an existing penalty. And all team damage is noted for possible future penalties. In general, get out of your binoculars, check the mini-map, listen for horns, and give the big barely-maneuverable ships the right of way.

Errant torpedoes are the most dangerous both to your team and to your TK status. Be sure that there is no possibility of one of your fish hitting a teammate when you launch it. Some unscrupulous players will actually turn into a teammate's torpedoes in order to turn him pink. There's no way for the system to tell whether his actions — or yours — were intentional or not. Be advised and govern yourself accordingly.

You own your torpedoes (or shells). If they kill something, it's your fault.

Customer Service will NOT assist with Penalty Appeals on Allied damage (TeamKill).

Other violations

AFK and abandoning ship

While not properly teamkilling, violations such inactivity, and leaving early all affect your team. They are considered unsportsmanlike conduct, and are penalized automatically much as is teamkilling.

Leaving a battle early, while you're not dead yet, via the <esc> - Exit Battle mechanism is clearly intentional and will incur a penalty.

Disconnecting in the middle of a battle is usually not under the player's control, yet in general is treated as "leaving early". A game crash is treated as a disconnect. It is often possible to reconnect or restart and rejoin the battle, in which case no penalty is applied. A "flaky ISP" is no defense.

Another form of inactivity is a failure to load into battle. This can be due to several possible software glitches or a shaky internet connection. There is usually plenty of time to restart the game and enter battle to avoid a penalty.

Be aware that repeated such violations can earn orange status or worse.

Etc.

There are other forms of unsportsmanlike conduct that cannot be monitored by an automated system. Things like collusion, reporting information to the enemy, malicious synch-dropping, bullying, etc. are handled by reporting to Customer Service. A replay is usually sufficient evidence.

Notes

0.7.4 Release notes 0.7.5 clarification
Current Support article