Each crew member fills one of five named roles within the vehicle. Each role performs a specific job. These five roles are referred to in-game as the "Major Qualification" of the crew member, and include: Commander, Gunner, Driver, Radio Operator, or Loader. The Major Qualifications are also referred to as an indicator of crew member health, graphically in the battle interface display by the following icons.

Proficiency

For each crew member, the combined total of his experience, Training Level in his Major Qualification, and the levels of each and every Skill or Perk he has acquired, all combine to constitute his overall "Proficiency".

The degree of Proficiency of each individual crew member is important because the factors contributing to it are all used in the game mechanics calculations. A crew member's Proficiency directly affects and improves the properties of certain modules installed on his vehicle, the respective handling and performance characteristics of those modules, and the vehicle's overall performance in battle. The Proficiency of the crew members also impacts the speed at which damaged modules are repaired and whether fires are extinguished before its too late. Proficiency also affects the effectiveness of camouflage hiding the vehicle from its enemies.

   Commander

The Commander's principal job is to spot enemy vehicles. The Commander's degree of Proficiency directly affects his View Range. The more Proficient the Commander the greater the distance at which an enemy can be Spotted.

   Gunner

The Gunner's principal job is to aim and fire the vehicle's main gun. The Gunner's degree of Proficiency directly affects the Aiming Speed at which the sights lock on to a target, the Accuracy of each shot, and the Turret Traverse (rotation) speed. The more Proficient the Gunner, the better the shots he will make.

   Driver

The Driver's principal job is to drive and maneuver the vehicle. The Gunner's degree of Proficiency directly affects the Movement and Manueverability of the vehicle, including its acceleration, top speed, terrain resistance, and hull traverse speed. The more Proficient the Driver, the better the vehicle will maneuver.

   Radio Operator

The Radio Operator's principal job is communicating with allies. The Radio Operator's degree of Proficiency directly affects the Radio or Signal Range of the vehicle. The vehicle can communicate with any allied vehicle whose Signal Range overlaps with its own. Any vehicles (friend or foe) which are spotted by any allied vehicle within Signal Range will also be communicated to and display on the player's mini-map. This provides battlefield situational awareness which can be a decisive tactical advantage. The more Proficient the Radio Operator, the greater the distance that the vehicle can communicate with allies and thereby spot enemy tanks.

   Loader

The Loader's principal job is loading the next round into the main gun. Each Loader's Proficiency directly affects how fast the next shell is loaded, and the more Proficient the Loader(s) the faster the gun reloads. The more Proficient the Loader, the faster the time to reload the gun.

Multiple Major Qualifications

Some vehicles, particularly large caliber SPGs and TDs, may require a crew of 6 members and include a second Loader. The M2_Medium_Tank requires a crew of 6, two of whom are Radio Operators.

Other vehicles may require a crew complement of only 2, 3, or 4 crew members, less than the five Major Qualifications. Small light tanks with a crew of only 2 usually include a Commander and a Driver. In such cases the game mechanics calculations require a crew member to perform additional roles. For example, in an MS-1, the Commander also fills the secondary roles of Gunner, Radio Operator, and Loader, while the Driver only drives.

Skills and Perks are additional proficiencies that a crew member can learn beyond those proficiencies in his Major Qualification. Skills and Perks only become available for selection after a crew member's Training Level reaches 100% in his Major Qualification. At such time a small plus icon will appear beneath the crewman's name when his vehicle is selected in the Garage to indicate that he is now ready to start training of a new Skill or Perk. Click on the icon to see which Skills and Perks are available. Consider the pros and cons of the available choices and select one. Tables describing in detail each available Skill and Perk are set out below.

After selecting a Skill or a Perk, a new icon representing the selected Skill or Perk will replace the plus icon, and the percentage of training towards its completion will appear next to it. A crew member can only be trained in one Skill or Perk at a time. After the first Skill or Perk reaches 100%, the icon will reappear and a second Skill or Perk can be selected in the same manner. However, the amount of experience required to train an additional Skill or Perk doubles each time one is selected, making the acquisition of every available Skill and Perk an unrealistic goal for each crew member. Skills and Perks are very similar but have one very important difference:

• Skills immediately become partially effective and contribute to additional proficiency in proportion to their respective percentage level. A Skill trained to 45% will impart 45% of its effectiveness to its crew member in battle mechanics calculations.

• Perks do not become effective at all until they reach 100% trained level, at which time they "switch on" at 100% effectiveness. A Perk that has not yet reached a level of 100% and become active is displayed as a shaded icon.

Icon	Skill Name	Role	Description
	Repair	All	This skill improves the crew member's ability to repair a module that has been knocked out, with a higher training level resulting in faster repairs. The skill bonus starts to take effect as soon as a module is damaged. Repair skills are essential for vehicles where returning to operational condition as quickly as possible is paramount, such as fast tanks which rely on their speed or heavy tanks, which take a long time to repair. The effective training level is averaged across the entire crew. The skill is cumulative with a Toolbox.
	Firefighting	All	This skill improves the crew member's ability to put out a fire, should a vehicle ever be unlucky enough to be in such a situation. A higher training level results in shorter times to extinguish a fire and thus prevent it from spreading to other modules. It is noteworthy however that the amount of damage done by each tick of fire is also lowered with higher training level. This skill does not affect the chances of a vehicle catching on fire in the first place. The skill bonus takes effect as soon as the vehicle catches fire. Firefighting skills are more useful for large vehicles that can stand to take some damage before being utterly destroyed, but using Manual Fire Extinguishers or Automatic Fire Extinguishers consumables is generally more effective. The effective training level is averaged across the entire crew.
	Camouflage	All	This skill improves the crew member's ability to hide the vehicle from enemies. A higher training level lowers the chances that the vehicle will be spotted by the enemy, requiring enemies to be closer in order to detect your vehicle. The Camouflage skill is always active and the overall effect depends on the tank's inherent camouflage rating. This skill is particularly useful for Tank Destroyers, lower tier SPGs, and scouts. The effective training level is averaged across the entire crew.
	Mentor	Commander	For every 1% of this skill, all crew members except the Commander himself receive 0.1% additional experience at the end of every battle (Up to 10%). If the Commander's training level increases during the battle, the crew will benefit from the increase. Useful on any tank you plan to keep indefinitely.
	Recon	Commander	Provides a small bonus of 0.02% per training level (up to 2%) to your vehicle's View Range statistic. The bonus increases to 0.2% per training level (up to 20%) with a damaged observation device to help counteract the damage penalty. The in-game description's reference to "maximum" view range is incorrect. The skill is cumulative with the Situational Awareness skill, Coated Optics, and/or Binocular Telescope.
	Jack of All Trades	Commander	Enables the Commander to fill in for knocked-out crew members. Only roles are substituted. The replacement effect starts at the skill's current training level x 0.5% (Up to 50%) for the first knocked out crew member (same as a new recruit, but better than 0%) which then gets divided evenly between each additional crew member (25% each for two, 12.5% for four, etc.). Primarily helpful on tanks that can take a beating, such as heavy tanks and well armored tank destroyers.
	Armorer	Gunner	This skill reduces the accuracy penalty from a damaged gun by 0.2% per training level (up to 20%). If two Gunners have this skill, only the higher rating is effective. The skill is cumulative with a Vertical Stabilizer.
	Snap Shot	Gunner	Reduces the accuracy penalty applied during turret rotation by 0.075% per training level (up to 7.5%). If two Gunners have this skill, only the higher rating is effective. Typically not as valuable on vehicles without turrets, but it does apply to lateral gun movement on turret-less vehicles too. The skill is cumulative with a Vertical Stabilizer. Primarily helpful on fast tanks that like to circle or flank, but also useful for peek-a-boo shooting. Also helpful on artillery with large gun arcs, as dispersion will be reduced (excluding chassis rotation), but not as effective.
	Clutch Braking	Driver	Increases vehicle rotation speed by 0.05% per training level (up to 5%). The skill is cumulative with Additional Grousers, a Removed Speed Governor, and any speed boosting consumables (fuels). Primarily helpful with fast tanks that don't already turn plenty fast (i.e. Pz.Kpfw. II Luchs, T-50). Also useful on heavy tanks that turn really slow, such as the Soviet KV line. Very useful for non-turreted Vehicles like most Tank Destroyers and Artillery
	Smooth Ride	Driver	Reduces the accuracy penalty applied to a moving vehicle by 0.04% per training level (up to 4%). To be more precise, the game applies one accuracy penalty to forward and backward movement, and a separate penalty for vehicle rotation. This skill affects the former, but not the latter. The skill is cumulative with a Vertical Stabilizer. This skill does nothing for vehicles rotating in place.
	Off-Road Driving	Driver	Reduces the maneuverability and acceleration penalties due to terrain resistance by 0.1% per training level (up to 10%) on soft terrain and 0.025% per training level (up to 2.5%) on average terrain. Applies pretty much everywhere other than on roads, cobblestone, and asphalt. The skill is cumulative with Additional Grousers. Primarily helpful on fast tanks that rely on speed, but it can also be a good choice on some slow tanks to help compensate.
	Controlled Impact	Driver	Decreases ramming damage to your vehicle and increases ramming damage to an enemy vehicle by 0.15% per training level (up to 15%) if your vehicle is in motion. There is no effect on collisions with allied vehicles. Contrary to the official game description this skill is not effective when both vehicles are in motion, it is effective only when vehicle with this skill is in motion and the other is stationary. Primarily helpful with heavy and medium tanks with high frontal armor, with the exception of the slowest heavy tanks.
	Signal Boosting	Radio Operator	This skill extends the Signal Range of your vehicle's radio by 0.2% per training level (up to 20%). If two Radio Operators have the skill, only the higher rating is effective. Primarily helpful for SPGs and scouts.
	Situational Awareness	Radio Operator	This skill extends your vehicle's View Range statistic by 0.03% per training level (up to 3%). If two Radio Operators have the skill, only the higher rating is effective. The skill is cumulative with the Recon skill. This skill has a higher bonus to View Range than Recon under normal circumstances, but does nothing to counteract the penalty from a damaged observation device.
	Relaying	Radio Operator	This skill extends the Signal Range of allied communications within your vehicle's radio coverage by 0.1% per training level (up to 10%). It does not affect your own Signal Range. If two Radio Operators have the skill, only the higher rating is effective.

Icon	Perk Name	Role	Description
	Brothers in Arms	All	This perk increases the training level of each crew member's Role/Major Qualification by 5%. It also improves the Repair, Firefighting, and Camouflage skills by 5%. As of 8.2 it also improves commander's Mentor skill. It does not affect other role-specific skills, nor any perks (in-game description is incorrect). There is no benefit whatsoever unless all of the crew have this trained to 100%. The perk stays in effect if a crew member is knocked out during battle. The perk is cumulative with Improved Ventilation and skill boosting consumables.
	Sixth Sense	Commander	Allows the Commander to know if the vehicle has been detected by the enemy. Three seconds after being detected by the enemy, an indicator appears on your UI. The indicator turns off after a few seconds whether you are still detected or not. There is no indicator to show whether or not you have become hidden again. Primarily helpful for TDs, SPGs, and passive scouts. Many players have mentioned they'd prefer the indicator to remain on for as long as the enemy detects you, but that is not how it currently works.
	Eagle Eye	Commander	This perk enables the Commander to identify the critical damage of targeted vehicles after a delay of 4 seconds. Indicators for each damaged module will then appear below the targeted vehicle. It will only work for enemies spotted by your crew, not for enemy contacts relayed by your team. Primarily helpful for snipers and in some cases for flankers.
	Deadeye	Gunner	This perk increases the chance to critically damage enemy vehicle modules and crew with AP, APCR, or HEAT shells by 3%. It does not work with HE shells. If combined with the Eagle Eye perk, you'll be able to get an idea of how well this perk is working.
	Designated Target	Gunner	This perk makes targeted enemy vehicles within 10 degrees of your reticle remain visible for two more seconds than they normally would be. Your crew will only make use of this perk while in arcade view or sniper view. Your crew will not make use of it while in strategic view (SPG only). However, any vehicle will benefit from a team mate's use of this perk, including SPGs using strategic view. If two Gunners have the perk, the effect is not cumulative. Primarily helpful for snipers and in some cases for scouts.
	Preventative Maintenance	Driver	This perk reduces the chance of engine fire by preventing gas or oil leakage in the engine compartment by 25%. The perk is cumulative with the reduced chance of fire from Automatic Fire Extinguishers.
	Call for Vengeance	Radio Operator	This perk allows a Radio Operator who survived the destruction of his vehicle to report enemy positions for an additional two seconds. If two Radio Operators have the perk, the effect is not cumulative. Primarily helpful for scouts.
	Safe Stowage	Loader	The Loader stacks the shells in such a way that they do not come into contact with each other. The result is simulated as an increase in ammo rack durability of 12.5%. If two Loaders have the perk, the effect is not cumulative. The perk is cumulative with the increased ammo rack durability that comes with using a "Wet" Ammo Rack.
	Adrenaline Rush	Loader	This perk shortens reload time by 9.1% if the vehicle has less than 10% of its hit points left. If two Loaders have the perk, the effect is not cumulative. The perk is cumulative with the increased loading speed from using a Gun Rammer.
	Intuition	Loader	This perk creates a 17% chance that the shell type will switch instantly when changing shell types, regardless of whether the gun was loaded and ready to fire or in the middle of the loading process. At least from v0.7.5, the effect is cumulative, so two Loaders with this perk will create a 34% chance. After the perk takes effect, the gun must be completely reloaded before it can take effect again. Primarily helpful on tanks where you change shell types a lot.

Delaying Selection of a Skill or Perk

If you do not chose a Skill or a Perk immediately after it becomes available, that crew member will nevertheless continue to gather experience and will apply stored experience to the proper Skill once a Skill is chosen. This is beneficial when purchasing a new tank with 100% crew, but not knowing what Skills or Perks would benefit it. You can play some battles with that crew before selecting their Skills or Perks. It can also be useful during retraining.

If a crew member's Training Level percentage for his role drops due to retraining, all new experience earned will be applied to restoring the Training Level in his Major Qualification until it reaches 100% again. However, any acquired Skills or Perks will not drop and will remain in effect.

Effect of Secondary Roles on a Skill or Perk

Some vehicles require crew members to assume secondary roles in addition to that of their Major Qualification. In a vehicle requiring a crew of only two, a Commander and a Driver, the Commander also fills the secondary roles of Gunner, Radio Operator, and Loader. In such case, any Skills and Perks that would otherwise be available only to the Gunner, Radio Operator, or Loader are available to the Commander. If the Commander is moved to another vehicle where he no longer fills a secondary role then any Skill or Perk he had specifically for the secondary role becomes inactive.

For example, the Leichttraktor has a crew of three and the Commander assumes the secondary roles and acts also as the vehicle's Radio Operator and Gunner. You have trained him with a Skill available only to a Radio Operator and a Perk available only to a Gunner. If you then move that Commander to the Pz.Kpfw. II which has a crew of three, your Commander loses the role of Radio Operator and the Skill associated with it. However, he retains his Perk as Gunner because he has that secondary role in the new vehicle.

The Radio Operator Skill is not lost, merely inactive when the Commander is placed in a vehicle with another member of the Crew in the role of Radio Operator. If the Commander is later moved back to the Leichttraktor, the Skill will be restored at its previous level.

Dropping Skills and Perks

You can reset all of a crewman's learned skills and perks. This allows you to change your crew member's skills or perks without having to start all over with a new recruit. There are three options available:

• If done for free, it results in the loss of 20% of the crewman's total skill/perk experience points.
• If done for credits, it results in the loss of 10% of the crewman's total skill/perk experience points.
• For 200 Gold, it results in no loss of experience.

Since the first two options are based on total skill/perk experience points, the more skills/perks a crewman has, the more expensive (in terms of experience points) they become.

However, these options only reduce a crewman's skill/perk experience points, and don't take his role experience points into consideration. For example, if you have a crewman who just reached 100% in his role, and you choose a skill (which has 0% training level), and then immediately decide to change it, then choosing the free option won't actually cost you any experience.

Since each additional percentage point requires more experience than the one before, you can't simply take 10/20% off of the displayed training level percentage. Instead you have to determine the crewman's skill/perk experience points (calculated from the chart below), and take 10/20% off of that. Then you can use the number of skill/perk experience points remaining to determine what the skill/perk's training level will be after the reduction.

For example, if you have a crewman with a 50% training level in his first skill/perk, and drop his skill/perk with the free option (a 20% reduction), you don't take 20% off of 50%. If you did, you'd get 40%, which would be wrong. You actually get 45%. It takes 19,097 experience points to reach a 50% training level. Reduce that by 20% and you have 15,227 experience points remaining. 15,227 experience points are enough for a 45% training level. Likewise a crewman with 100% in his first skill/perk and 80% training level in his second skill/perk (which comes to 374,765 experience points) will end up at 100% and 67% with the 298,662 experience points remaining, not 100% and 44%.

Given the high cost (in experience, credits, or gold) it's clearly in your best interest to choose skills and perks carefully in the first place.

If retraining a crew member from another vehicle resulted in his training level dropping below 100% for his role, then subsequently resetting his Skills and Perks will automatically assign all free experience to the role's training level until it reaches 100% again. Any experience left over can then be reassigned to Skills or Perks of your choice.

Each crew member has a base training level for their role and skills (as shown in your garage), and certain modifiers that raise or lower this training level, resulting in the effective training level which is used to calculate your vehicle's performance.

Bonuses

The following modifiers increase the base training level of your crew members. They are cumulative.

• Commander Bonus: The tank's Commander provides 10% of his own training level as a bonus to the primary and non-role specific skills of each crew member under his command, but not to himself. So, for example, if all your crew members are at 75% base training level, the Commander will add 7.5 to each of them, resulting in an effective training level of 82.5%.
• Equipment Bonus: The Improved Ventilation equipment permanently increases the effective training level of each crew member's primary and non-role specific skills by 5.
• Consumable Bonus: The premium consumables Chocolate, Coca-Cola Box, Extra Combat Rations, Improved Combat Rations, and Hot Coffee increase each crew member's primary and non-role specific skills by 10 for a single battle.

Penalties

If a crew member is not competent to operate the tank he is placed in, or if a crew member gets injured during battle, then there is a penalty to the base training level of his primary and non-role specific skills. Penalties are always applied before Bonuses.

Lack of Competence

A crew member is always trained for a specific vehicle. Should a crewman operate a vehicle that he is not trained for, he may receive a penalty to his training level. This is indicated by the training level being colored red in the garage screen. A penalty received for the following situations:

• If a crew member is in a vehicle of the same class, and the vehicle is a premium vehicle, there is no penalty.
• If a crew member is in a vehicle of the same class, and the vehicle is not a premium vehicle, he will take a 25% penalty to his current training level. So, for example, 80% base training level will be reduced to 60%, or 100% base training level will be reduced to 75%.
• If a crew member is in a vehicle of a different class, and the vehicle is a premium vehicle, he will also take a 25% penalty to his current training level.
• If a crew member is in a vehicle of a different class, and the vehicle is not a premium vehicle, he will take a 50% penalty to his current training level. So, for example, an 80% crew will be reduced to 40% base training level, while a 100% crew will reduced to 50% base training level.

Experience gain for each crew member is also reduced under these conditions.

Crew Knockout

During the course of battle, a crew member can be knocked out/killed, affecting the vehicle's performance accordingly.

Commander knockout removes the bonus given to all crew members and reduces view range.

Driver knockout reduces the top speed, traverse speed, and acceleration of the vehicle.

Loader knockout decreases reloading speed. If a shell was being loaded at the moment of the Loader's death, the process might start over.

Gunner knockout reduces aiming speed and increases dispersion. Turret traverse speed will also decrease. If the gun was in the process of zeroing in on target at the moment of the Gunner's death, the process might start over.

Radio Operator knockout reduces radio range.

Should a crew member have multiple roles, then all the roles associated with the crewman take a penalty. For example, if a crew member was responsible for loading and firing the gun, then both the Gunner and Loader injury would take effect.

Crew members who are knocked out will perform at 0% base training level for the purpose of finding the average calculations, but bonuses still apply. Having multiple members perform the same job is beneficial, because if one is knocked out during the course of battle, the effective training level will not drop to 0%.

The Small First Aid Kit and Large First Aid Kit consumables will allow knocked out crew members to return to battle without any penalties to their performance or experience gain.

Effective Training Level

The training level can be found by hovering the cursor over a crew member in the garage, but note that the display is rounded to the nearest whole number. Also, the consumable bonus is not included because it is only applied once battle starts and the consumable is consumed.

The effective training level of your crew's skills is not displayed, only the base training level is shown for those. You need to calculate the effective level.

• Maximum effective training level for your Commander is 120% (100% base training level + 5% Brothers in Arms skill + 5% Improved Ventilation equipment + 10% premium consumable bonus).
• Maximum effective training level for every other crew member is 132% (120% as above plus 10% Commander bonus).
• For tanks that do not have Improved Ventilation Equipment available to them, the maximum training level is 115% for the Commander and 126.5% for his crew.

If several crew members are assigned to the same role, the average of their training level is used to determine your crew's performance in that role. This average is the effective training level. For example, for the two Loaders on an SU-14, if one performs at 50%, and the other at 100%, their average training level of 75% is the effective training level that the SU-14 will operate at.

Non-role-specific skills are averaged across all crew members. Crew members that do not have any training in a certain skill will add a 0% to the averaging calculations. Thus, to reach a 100% effective training level in a non-role specific skill for a tank with a crew of 4, all 4 crew members must reach 100% in that specific skill.

Role-specific skills/perks are not averaged. If multiple crewmen train in the same role-specific skill, only the highest training level will be used.

Recruiting

When recruiting a new crew, you will be faced with the option to select between three different training levels:

Tank Academy

At the cost of 200 Gold, this option trains a crew member to 100% training level in their role, and thus automatically unlock a skill.

Regimental School

At the cost of 20,000 credits, this option trains a crew member to 75% in their role.

Rapid Courses

This option is free, and trains a crew member to 50% in their role, which is the minimum that a crew member can be at.

If you want to see what a crew member looks like before you spend on training, recruit using Rapid Courses and dismiss as necessary until you get an appearance you like. Then right-click on the crewman's portrait, open his Personal File, and click on the Training tab.

When acquiring a crew member at the Barracks you will also have to specify a Nation, Vehicle Type/Class, Vehicle Model and Major Qualification (role).

Training Level

Once recruited, further advancement of the training level of your crew's capabilities depends on the experience they have gained. Experience can be gained through participation in battles. Each crew member will gain as much experience as the tank did in the battle, modified by any applicable bonuses or penalties listed below.

Experience needed for the next level can be calculated using the following formula, where
"Y" is

1 = Role (Major Qualification)

2 = First Skill/Perk

3 = Second Skill/Perk

and so on...

XP for nextSkillLevel = 2^Y × 25 × 100^{(currentSkillLevel/100)}

To increase the Role from 68% to 69%, you will need 2¹ × 25 × 100^(68/100) = 1146 XP. To go from 50% to 100% you need 95,484 XP, and from 75% to 100% it takes 72,544 XP. The first skill takes 210,064 XP from 0% to 100%. For each subsequent skill, that number is doubled. Progressions can be seen on the graphs below.

If you wish, you can download an Excel calculator to help you understand the formula, a link to which can be found in the community portal, under "WoT Community Tools".

---

• Experience Point Charts
• 

  Graph detailing experience required to increase the role and the first 3 skills or perks by 1%.

• 

  Graph detailing cumulative experience required to increase the role and the first 2 skills or perks.

Experience Bonuses and Penalties

The experience earned by the crew during a battle can be influenced by bonuses or penalties:

Bonuses

Daily Double

The first victorious battle each server day (which starts at 00:00 UTC) is awarded with twice the XP that you would otherwise gain. If a tank still has its daily double available it is indicated on the tank icon at the bottom of the garage screen by a little double red star icon in the upper left corner of the tank icon. Despite contrary statements from Overlord, it has been confirmed through testing that the crew benefits from this bonus experience.

Mentor Skill

If the Commander is trained in the Skill "Mentor", all his crew, but not himself, will receive up to 10% bonus XP.

Accelerate Crew Training

This is an option available only for Elite Tanks, i.e. fully researched or premium tanks. Selecting this option means that the tank will no longer accumulate research XP (the 5% bonus XP added to the Free Experience pool is unaffected). Instead, the crew member with the lowest total XP will receive twice the XP for the next battle that they would otherwise have received. If several crew members have equal values, the first one is chosen. The crew member who will next benefit from the bonus is indicated with the following icon left of his portrait in the garage view: .

Because the bonus only goes to a single crew member each battle, the impact to crew advancement is bigger the smaller the crew is.

Accelerate Crew Training can be toggled on and off at any time via a check box above the crew icons in the garage on the upper-left side of the garage interface, or via a check box in the upper-right corner of the vehicle's research tree menu. When a player turns Accelerate Crew Training on, a dialog box will appear to notify the player that it has now been enabled.

Penalties

Lack of Competence

A tanker crewing a vehicle that he is not trained for may earn less experience:

• In a vehicle the same class, there is no penalty if the vehicle is a premium vehicle, otherwise he earns 50% less.
• In a vehicle of a different class, he earns 50% less if the vehicle is a premium vehicle, otherwise he earns 75% less.

Crew Death

A crew member who remains injured at the end of the battle will receive 50% less experience than he would have otherwise received. Using a Small First Aid Kit or Large First Aid Kit to heal a crew member will avoid this penalty, unless they are injured again before the end of battle. Since the rate of crew injuries may not be the same across all the crew members, it is possible that one tanker will improve his skills faster than another tanker in the same crew should he be knocked out less than his colleague.

Training/Retraining

If you right click a crew member and select their Personal File, on the Training tab you have the option to improve the training level of your crew member in their role, or to retrain him for use in a different vehicle that you have already researched of the same nation. Training/retraining, as recruiting, gives you three options to choose from.

Tank Academy

At the cost of 200 Gold, this option trains or retrains a crew member to 100% training level.

Regimental School

At the cost of 20,000 credits, this option trains/retrains a crew member as follows, but never below 75% training level:

• If the crew member is retraining to a vehicle of the same class, then the final training level is 90% of the crew member's current training level.
• If the crew member is retraining to a vehicle of a different class, then the final training level is 80% of the crew member's current training level.

Rapid Courses

This option is free, and retrains a crew member as follows, but never below 50%:

• If the crew member is retraining to a vehicle of the same class, then the final training level is 80% of the crew member's current training level.
• If the crew member is retraining to a vehicle of a different class, then the final training level is 60% of the crew member's current training level.

Existing skills are unaffected by training/retraining. However, when using the Regimental School or Rapid Courses options, any experience that a crew member has accrued towards a skill, without actually having selected that skill (i.e. the is showing), will be used first when deducting the penalty. If your crew member has accrued enough unassigned skill XP, it will allow retraining without losing any percentage in his role. This can be very useful for retraining SPG crews, which are highly dependent on their role's training level but do not benefit much from additional skills.

When to Retrain

When moving on to a higher tier tank from a tank you do not intend to play again, retraining can be preferable over recruiting a fresh crew in a number of cases:

Role training Level and Regimental School

If your existing crew member has already reached more than 83% training level, retraining him to a vehicle of the same class in the Regimental School will leave him with a training level that is higher than the 75% for a crew member recruited fresh out of Regimental School, thus making it preferable to retrain him rather than recruit someone new if you were going to use that option. When retraining to a vehicle of a different class, your crew member needs to be at least at 94% training level. You should avoid retraining between classes or use gold which retrains to 100% regardless of the class.

Retention of Skills

Fresh crews, regardless of what training level they started with, will not have any skills. Since skills and perks are retained through retraining, always retrain crews that have already obtained them.

Continuation of the Crew Member's Career

A crew member's rank and the medals he earned are retained through retraining. Although neither have any affect on the crew member's performance, you may be interested to continue a crew member's career to further their rank and achievements.

Personal File

Players can look at the Personal File for each of their crew members by right clicking on the crew member's icon in either the Barracks or the Garage.

On the left side of the window is a list of the crew member's basic information, including:

• Rank
• Full Name
• Vehicle they are crewing, if any
• Major Qualification (Role)
• Training Level in their role
• Modifiers (this feature is not in game)
• Competence, i.e. the vehicle they are trained for
• Skills and Perks, either completed or in-progress.

In addition, there are buttons in the bottom-left corner to send the crew member from his vehicle to the barracks, and to dismiss the crew member from service. Dismissing a crew member from service cannot be undone.

On the right side of the menu are four tabs:

Service Record

This tab includes the number of battles fought and awards given to the crew member over the course of his career. Battle awards given to a crew member will stay with him, even if the crew member is retrained and placed in another vehicle. The tab also shows the amount of experienced needed to reach the next training level, and the amount of battles you will likely need for that based based on your average experience.

Training

See also: Retraining

This tab is where players can raise their crew member's competence or retrain them so that the crew member can operate a different vehicle.

Skills

See also: Skills and Perks

This tab is where players can view all the skills and perks that are currently available for the crew member to learn. When a crewman is ready to start his training on a skill/perk, a button will appear which will allow the player to commence the crew member's training.

Personal Data

Players can change the name and avatar of their crew member, where they can select from a list of pre-defined names, and a selection of face icons. Changing a crew member's personal details costs 50 Gold.

Moving Crew Members

Barracks

Here is where players can find all their crew members, whether they are in a tank or in the barracks itself. Players start with sixteen bunks in their barracks, and can increase the number of bunks by 16 for 300 Gold by scrolling down and selecting the Enlarge Barracks button. Only crew members who are not in a tank use a bunk in the barracks. Those who are in tanks are listed in the Barracks window, but they don't take up a bunk. By using the toggles and drop-down menu on the left side, a player can sort his crew members by their nationality, vehicle training, major qualification (role), and location (whether assigned to a tank or not). Crewmen that are not currently in a tank can be dismissed from service to free up a bunk in the barracks. Dismissing a crew member is permanent, meaning the crewman is lost forever with any awards and skills he may have acquired.

Garage

In the Garage, players will see icons on the left side that represent the crewmen who are operating the currently active vehicle, with the rank, last name, skills and their levels. Hovering over a crew member will provide additional information, revealing the crew member's full name, skills, bonuses, and vehicle training. Players can left-click on a crew member to bring up a small pop-up menu, which will allow players to view the selected crew member's personal file, recruit a crew member who can fill the selected slot, select a crew member from the barracks who is capable of filling that slot, or send the selected crew member to the barracks. If there is no crew member in a crew slot, then clicking on the crew slot will bring up the crew recruitment menu, with the proper fields filled in for that vehicle.

As your crew increases in training level, they will be awarded with higher ranks, with every 50% in a role, skill, or perk awarding a new rank. If, when retraining, a crew member loses some competence, he will not be demoted in rank. There are separate ranks for each nation. A crewman's rank also depends on his role. Loaders and Radio Operators start at the lowest rank and may only advance to the third-highest rank. Drivers and Gunners start out one rank higher and may advance to the second-highest rank. Commanders start out two ranks higher and may advance to the highest rank.

USA

Private First Class

Corporal

Sergeant

Staff Sergeant

Technical Sergeant

Master Sergeant

First Sergeant

Second Lieutenant

First Lieutenant

Captain

Major

UK

Lance Corporal

Corporal

Sergeant

Staff Sergeant

Warrant Officer Class 3

Warrant Officer Class 2

Warrant Officer Class 1

Second Lieutenant

First Lieutenant

Captain

Major

Germany

Panzeroberschütze

Gefreiter

Unteroffizier

Unterfeldwebel

Feldwebel

Oberfeldwebel

Stabsfeldwebel

Leutnant

Oberleutnant

Hauptmann

Major

France

Cuirassier

Brigadier

Brigadier-chef

Maréchal des logis

Maréchal des logis-chef

Adjudant

Adjudant-chef

Sous-lieutenant

Lieutenant

Capitaine

Chef d'escadrons

USSR

Ryadovoy (Рядовой)

Efreitor (Ефрейтор)

Mladshiy Serzhant (Младший Cержа́нт)

Serzhant (Cержа́нт)

Starshiy Serzhant (Старший Cержа́нт)

Starshina (Cтаршина́)

Mladshiy Leytenant (Младший Лейтенант)

Leytenant (Лейтенант)

Starshiy Leytenant (Старший Лейтенант)

Capitan (Капитан)

Mayor (Майор)

China

Private (列兵 Lièbīng)

Private First Class (上等兵 Shàngděngbīng)

Corporal (下士 Xiàshì)

Sergeant (中士 Zhōngshì)

Sergeant First Class (四级军士长 Sìjí jūnshìzhǎng)

Warrant Officer (准尉 Zhǔnwèi)

Second Lieutenant (少尉 Shàowèi)

First Lieutenant (中尉 Zhōngwèi)

Captain (上尉 Shàngwèi)

Senior Captain (大尉 Dàwèi)

Major (少校 Shàoxiào)