Reference
A glossary of World of Warships terms
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The game and its players use a vocabulary that nobody explains to you. These are the terms you will meet in the first week, in alphabetical order, with plain definitions.
- Angling
- Turning your bow or stern toward the enemy so that incoming armour-piercing shells strike your plating obliquely and ricochet instead of penetrating.
- AP — armour piercing
- Shell type that penetrates armour and detonates inside the hull. Devastating against a ship showing its side; useless against a well-angled one.
- Bloom
- Player term for the temporary increase in your detectability after firing your main guns. Lasts roughly twenty seconds and applies even inside smoke.
- Citadel
- The armoured box protecting a ship’s engines, boilers and magazines. An armour-piercing shell that detonates inside it does enormous damage.
- Concealment
- A ship’s detectability range in kilometres, shown in the port. The distance at which enemy ships can see you. Lower is better.
- Consumable
- An activated ability on a cooldown, such as Damage Control Party, Repair Party, Smoke Generator or Surveillance Radar. Which ones a ship carries is fixed by its design.
- Container
- A reward crate. Some are earned by playing. Others are sold for money, and where they are sold the contents are randomised and not guaranteed.
- Credits
- The ordinary in-game currency. Earned in every battle, spent on buying researched ships and on repairs, ammunition and consumables.
- Detonation
- A rare outcome in which a magazine hit destroys a ship outright regardless of remaining health. It can be prevented with a signal flag.
- Division
- A small pre-made group — up to three players — that enters battle on the same team.
- Doubloons
- The premium currency, bought with real money. Spent on premium account time, ships, cosmetics and experience conversion.
- Free experience
- A pooled form of experience usable on any ship line. A small share is earned in every battle, and more can be converted from ship experience using doubloons.
- HE — high explosive
- Shell type that bursts on the surface. Lower direct damage than armour piercing, but it starts fires and damages modules, and it works against armour too thick to penetrate.
- Island
- Terrain. The cheapest armour in the game: it blocks both line of sight and shells, and using it well is the core positional skill.
- Matchmaking
- The system that assembles the two teams. It usually places you against ships up to one tier above your own.
- Overmatch
- The rule that a sufficiently large shell penetrates thin armour regardless of the angle it strikes at. The widely used community rule of thumb is calibre divided by 14.3.
- Premium account
- A time-limited subscription that increases the credits and experience earned per battle. It changes how fast you progress, not how your ship fights.
- Premium ship
- A ship bought with money or in-game resources rather than researched. Comes fully upgraded and earns more credits.
- Radar — Surveillance Radar
- A consumable that reveals every enemy ship within a set radius for a set duration, regardless of smoke or terrain.
- Smoke
- A cloud laid by the Smoke Generator consumable that blocks line of sight. It does not stop shells already in the air, and it does not hide you from radar.
- Supership
- A ship class above tier X, marked with a star, unlocked from a tier X ship rather than bought outright.
- Tier
- A ship’s level, from I to X, plus superships above tier X. Determines matchmaking, running costs and the mechanics available to you.
- Torpedo
- An underwater weapon with a long reload, a limited range and a travel time measured in tens of seconds. Aimed where the target will be, not where it is.
The main guide explains how these pieces fit together, and the beginner’s guide turns them into a plan.
See the terms in action
Most of this vocabulary makes sense after about five battles.
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