Research, Store & Depot

Research

M5 Stuart with Elite status, note how all the modules are unlocked.

Research in World of Tanks is vital to unlock new modules for your current tanks and unlock more advanced tanks. All research is done in the tech tree for each nation. You can access the tech trees in the navbar on the top of the garage.

In order to unlock a module or a new tank, experience is needed. To enter the research menu just click the Tech Tree navbutton on the top navbar in the garage and then simply select the nation and then the tank you wish to conduct research into. Another faster way to do so is to simply click the "Research" button on the top left corner of the garage UI, this will take you to the research windows of the tank that you have currently selected. That experience can only be earned in battles, experience earned in a tank can be used to unlock modules in that same tank, once that tank attains elite status (all modules and tanks unlocked) that experience can be converted into free experience and spent in any tank. The game will always spend tank-bound XP first before spending free XP, therefore if you are trying to unlock a module that costs 10500 experience total and you have 10000 tank-bound XP and 10000 free XP the game will use 10000 tank bound XP and 500 free XP to unlock it. If you are trying to conserve your free xp you will need to be careful to make sure that you do have enough tank-bound XP before researching a new module. Free XP can also be earned by simply playing, you get 5% of all the experience you earn credited to you as free XP automatically.

In order to unlock a module all the modules preceding it in the tech tree must be unlocked as well, for example on the picture to the right the Tier 4 turret "M7" can only be unlocked if the tier 3 gun "37mm Gun M-6" was unlocked before, and that same "M7" turret is itself a pre-requirement to unlock the M7 Medium tank. Note that even tho this tank is elite the elite status is not needed to unlock the next tank, only the tree pre-requirements need to be met, this means that the M7 Medium tank could have been unlocked even if the "VVSS T36E8" suspension the "Continental R-975-C1" engine and the "SCR 506" radio had been skipped. However some of the modules unlocked in previous tanks will sometimes be usable in the next tier tank, thus making for a easier start on the new tank and also having the best possible equipment in a tank will make it easier to earn Xp with that tank, perhaps shortening the time needed to gather all the experience needed for the next tank (generally the XP requirements to unlock a new tank are far greater than the ones needed to unlock new modules), its a matter of personal preference.

Store

The Store is where you will be buying most of your modules, tanks, and checking how much they cost.

Shopping in the store is very simple and intuitive, just use the menu to the left and set the parameters so that you can easily check the costs (and perhaps buy) the modules/tanks that you need. Another very simple and effective way to use the store is to do it via the User interface in the garage. By clicking the "Buy a Tank" button on the bottom of the garage a player will automatically be taken to the store page to purchase tanks, then the player simply needs to select which tanks he wishes to purchase (perhaps that neat new tank that the player just unlocked) and that's all.

In order to purchase new modules there is also a simpler way to do so, in the case when the player wants to simply purchase a new module (perhaps once again a recently unlocked one) all the player needs to do is click the appropriate module box on the bottom of the UI (radio for radios, engine for engines, etc...) and select the new module, after a confirmation box the module will be automatically equipped and the tank stats will update to reflect the change. This menu can also be easily used to do a quick comparison between modules, check which ones still require research, check module prices and switch between already purchased modules.

Depot

The Depot is pretty much like the store, except it works the other way around, you can easily navigate using the same type of menu the store has but this time only modules that you have will display. You cannot sell modules that are currently equipped in a tank, you can however sell a tank, in which case the modules in it will be unmounted and you will have to access the module sell menu in order to sell those too.

Please note that when selling a tank any crew inside the tank will be gone forever, if you do not wish to lose your crew remove them before selling more on how to do this will be explained later in the tutorial. Any item sold in the depot will be sold for 50% of its original price. It is possible to sell a module of a tank that you are currently using, that module simply cannot be being used.

Equipment, ammo and consumables can also be sold for 50% of their buy price, for the ones purchased with gold the sale price will be half of what the converted gold to credits price would be (1g = 400 credits).

World of Tanks Tutorial & Guides