Among the most common online games with a microtransaction system that allows players to buy various upgrades and other game content for real money, the most popular, without a doubt, is World of Tanks from the Belarusian company Wargaming.net. The Slavic brothers have done the truly impossible, coming close to almost 60 million player registrations and ensuring such a large daily online presence that even the leading flagships of the MMORPG genre are gritting their teeth with envy.
But what can the average player expect from the game? Is it possible to survive and enjoy the game without investing a single ruble into it? Yes and no, I’ll say right away.
In general, in order to play WoT normally, you don’t need money. Gold purchased for real money is used to accelerate the upgrade of crew and equipment; on camouflages and beautiful badges on tanks; for the purchase of game currency and other things that are not very important for the gameplay, which can be fully compensated by gaming skill and... a lot of time spent.
Having upgraded any of the nations to level 7-8, the player is faced with a problem when he stops earning virtual money and cannot even maintain the tanks he has already purchased. To do this, he either has to show outstanding results in every battle, or keep a large fleet of more profitable, but weaker and more boring equipment. And you can, again, buy additional slots for symbolic, but still real money. And the amount of experience required for further advancement to high-level vehicles is so large that it can take several months to collect experience for any level 10 tank if you do not play regularly.
In such a situation, a World of Tanks premium account comes to the rescue, increasing earnings of experience and money brought by the player by 50%. Its cost for a year is about 3,000 rubles and, if desired, the player can also buy a premium tank at a discount on promotion days, the cost of the most expensive of which does not exceed 1,500 rubles. Tanks purchased for gold have a minimum maintenance cost and increased earnings, and if they are also used in conjunction with a premium account, then you can completely forget about the lack of money in the game and hours-long and tedious trips for the sake of game currency.
Injecting money into the game does not provide any advantage over other players. If previously a lot of heated debate was caused by the so-called “golden” shells with better characteristics and efficiency, now their purchase is available to anyone for the usual game currency - silver, albeit at high prices. But these shells can help those who know the game mechanics well and can use them correctly, while for the rest, even if they invest many, many thousands of rubles in the game, money will not help them take first places in the rating and final standings of the battle.
Everyone decides for himself, but even the maximum (but reasonable) money that can be spent on the game is not worth even one third of all the time that will have to be wasted aimlessly for the sake of virtual money. You have to pay for pleasure, and the opportunity to try out as many new tanks in the game as quickly as possible is a pleasure that is not hampered by long and boring upgrades of the same vehicles. And even more so, you shouldn’t fall for offers to get gold for free, because 99.9% of the time this is a trick of scammers eager to hack your account.
You can, in principle, not invest a single ruble in the game, spending hours every day on leveling up, but maybe it would be easier to earn the required amount for a premium account, saving a few hours of time?
Experienced tankers know that in-game gold allows you to get a large number of advantages in absolutely any game. First of all, gold makes it possible to feel all the comfort of military confrontation and significantly speed up the renewal of equipment and crew. However, you should know where you can save money and where it is better to shell out a tidy sum. If you are not against donation, but the opportunities are not so great, then this article will be very useful for you.
Not having a prem is a waste of time
Of course, the World of Tanks developers thought through everything thoroughly, especially the game’s economy. To have a better and more effective time in the world of tanks, the player will have to fork out for a premium account, which allows him to quickly earn experience in enemy confrontations, upgrade his tanks, and also increase the number of credits.
You can give up a lot in the game, for example, purchasing premium tanks, slots, and so on. However, you should not deprive yourself of the chance to fully improve your transport, use the best equipment and premium shells.
From all of the above, we can conclude that a premium account helps the player, so saving on this is simply stupid.
Premium tanks at a low cost
Many tankers know that unless they buy a premium Tier VIII tank, they will have to suffer from a terrible lack of credits. Of course, you can save money even on simple tanks. However, there is not enough silver to purchase equipment with constant use of equipment. In order not to worry about whether there will be excellent bending, you will have to improve the equipment, which often costs even more than on transport.
Another advantage of purchasing a premium Tier VIII tank is the fact that you won't need to use a premium just to stay on top on a low-tier vehicle. Because, even if you are at a disadvantage on Tier IX - X tanks, you can use a premium tank at any time and earn the required amount of silver without any problems. Premium will still allow you to get a lot more credits and experience, as a result of which the player will be able to try new tanks and improve the capabilities of the crew.
If you don’t have enough money for a premium tank, you can also play on cheap vehicles of levels 7, 6 and 5.
Remember that additional equipment for vehicles can be quickly purchased only if you have at least one high-level premium tank.
Upgrading the crew may take a while...
In order to improve the crew to 100%, the player will need to earn about 100 thousand experience on the tank. Even if you score 500 points in one confrontation, you will have to play for a very long time - about 200 battles. However, for vehicles up to level 4 this is not at all scary.
By the way, to improve the first skill you need to collect 200 thousand experience, for the second it’s already 400, and then even more. In this regard, World of Tanks needs special attention.
Low-level equipment with a premium account will go away at a rapid pace. If you are a beginner, but a trained crew is not worth putting on such tanks, especially if gold is used for this. It is recommended to upgrade the crew for tanks starting from the fifth level.
Don't forget about discounts
It turns out that there is a way to save a little when purchasing extras. equipment and equipment. Periodically, the game runs promotions that offer discounts of almost half the price. Of course, such generosity appears rarely, but it is better not to miss such an opportunity. Discounts are also possible for crew training and retraining, document editing, purchasing slots, and so on.
It’s better to postpone loans until better times and wait for discounts that can even buy a premium tank. Although the discounts are very small. But for tanks up to level 6 the price can be reduced by half.
It is better to achieve bending rather than pumping
It’s quite possible to get fun from the game without investing. But the method, as they say, is radical.
Many gamers open new tanks just to get high-level vehicles. Afterwards, the no longer needed tank is put up for sale, and the tanker begins to improve the stock vehicle. In this case, it’s worth thinking carefully about what is more important for you: getting new tanks or going all out.
Using low-level equipment, you can turn into the king of randomness, bending inexperienced ones who are trying to update stock ones and sell top-end tanks. At the same time, 60% of victories on level 1-4 vehicles are quite realistic.
Also, don't sell a tank you love until it gets boring. And even after that, don’t drain it. It will be cheaper to purchase free slots at discounts than to subsequently buy back equipment and retrain the team.
Buying experience will help save time
If you have the opportunity to use the donation to the maximum and want to level up to level 10, but at the same time lose as little as possible, then it is recommended to accumulate experience and silver, and then transfer it to free for gold.
If you play World of Tanks for fun and don't want to waste time, use the tanks you like the most. And it is on them that you collect experience, which can later be converted into free experience for gold, as a result of which you can open the necessary equipment with top-end equipment.
Buying in-game gold in World of Tanks provides many advantages, both obvious and not so obvious. Moreover, first of all, gold allows you to increase the comfort of the game and significantly speed up the upgrade of tanks and crews.
So what is it advisable to spend money honestly earned or honestly saved on school lunches, and what can you refuse? Let's look at a situation where a player is not against donation as such, but his capabilities in this regard are limited. After all, not everyone is ready to pay $100 a month for a game.
Playing without premium is a waste of time
The game's economy is structured in such a way that to play World of Tanks comfortably, you will need a premium account. It not only increases the amount of experience earned in battles by one and a half times, allowing you to upgrade tanks 50% faster, but also radically increases the credits earned in battles.
In World of Tanks you can deny yourself many things, for example, buying premium tanks, hangar slots, and so on. But denying yourself the pleasure of upgrading your tanks faster and actively using equipment and premium shells in battles is stupid, to say the least.
Total: a premium account significantly increases the speed of pumping tanks and earning credits. Playing without a premium account is a waste of time. If it's worth anything to you.
Inexpensive premium tanks
No matter how cruel it may sound, in World of Tanks you either buy yourself a premium Tier VIII tank, or eke out a miserable existence in conditions of a severe shortage of credits. No, you can save up to buy new tanks using regular Tier V-VII vehicles. But there will not be enough silver to purchase Equipment and play with active use of Equipment. In order to bend well, you will often have to spend more on Equipment than on the tank itself!
Another advantage of buying a premium Tier VIII tank is that you no longer need to buy Premium just to stay ahead of non-high-tier vehicles. After all, even if you go into the red on some Tier IX-X monster, you can always switch to a premium tank and quickly farm the required amount of silver. However, with Premium you will still farm significantly more credits, plus you will be able to earn 50% more experience and upgrade your crews faster and unlock new tanks.
If you don’t have enough money for a premium Tier VIII tank, you can try to get by with “cheap” Tier VII, VI or even V tanks. Of course, farming will no longer be a cake, but it’s better than nothing. After a good battle, the Tier VIII Soviet premium tank IS-6, after a fairly average battle, may well bring out 50 thousand clean. The Tier V Lendlease premium Churchill tank exports approximately half as much. Well, premium tanks of tiers VI-VII will fall somewhere in the middle.
I repeat that in terms of choosing a tank, everything depends on your hands. If your hands are geared towards, say, the German premium Tier VI Dicker Max tank, it is quite possible to take out thousands of 35 net in a successful battle and have about 60% victories. Well, if they are not sharpened, take out 20 thousand, have a 40% victory rate and don’t give a damn.
Premium tanks and issues of choosing a suitable farming combine are covered in more detail in a separate article?
Total: in order to quickly buy additional equipment for your tank and regularly use premium shells and equipment, you will need one premium tank of the maximum level VIII to farm credits.
Save on upgrading crews
I started playing World of Tanks twice. At the beginning of 2011, I was spying on the American cluster without investing a penny into the game. And he quit playing after 566 battles, with a 49% win rate. About a year later I returned to WOT on Russian servers as a megadonate, and after 566 battles I still had the same 49%. Playing with a premium account with 100% crews on tanks stuffed with Equipment and Consumables.
Of course, playing the second time was much more fun and comfortable, and leveling up went at an absolutely frantic pace. However, you can’t argue with statistics; the percentage of victories turned out to be exactly the same.
Now some numbers: to upgrade your crew from 50% to 100%, you will need to gain a little less than 100 thousand experience on the tank. Even if you score 500 points per battle, you will need to play 200 battles on the tank (this number can be slightly reduced by “knocking down stars”). However, it will take quite a long time to gnaw on a cactus, but for tanks up to level IV inclusive, this is not so bad.
By the way, to level up the first Skill or Skill (read) you will need to gain more than 200 thousand experience, for the second - more than 400, and so on. In this regard, the game simply requires incredible nerdiness!
Overall: low-level vehicles with a premium account are completed very quickly, and if you have just started the game, there is no point in putting a trained crew on them. Especially for gold. Train crews for tanks from level 5 and above.
Buy premium products and services at discounts
And yet, there is a way to save on the purchase of additional equipment and equipment, as well as premium goods and services! World of Tanks periodically holds promotions during which players are given discounts of up to 50%. Such joys do not happen often, but you definitely need to be prepared for them. Separately, there are discounts for training and retraining of the crew, for resetting perks, for changing documents (yes, some players use this!) and for purchasing slots in the hangar.
The most seasoned guys can put aside loans for the purchase of a new tank, and calmly wait for discounts, preparing gold for training or retraining of the crew, as well as for the purchase of additional slots in the hangar. Personally, I used to buy dozens of slots at discounts.
You can even buy premium tanks at discounts! True, discounts on premium tanks of the highest Tier VIII, although occasionally there are, are completely microscopic. But premium tanks up to and including Tier VI are often sold at half price. I don’t see much point in buying most of them, but if you want to have unique equipment in your hangar, it makes sense to wait for discounts. However, like other discounts on premium goods and services, they do not happen often and not always for what you want at the moment.
Overall: it makes sense to buy low-level premium tanks, additional equipment and consumables at discounts. There are also periodic promotions for training, crew retraining, and perk resets. It’s a pity that promotions for the purchase of a premium account are criminally rare.
Play for the sake of bending, not for the sake of pumping
In fact, the problem of getting fun from the game with almost zero investment is easily solved. However, the proposed method is quite radical.
Many players buy new tanks just to unlock a higher level tank. After which the “unnecessary” tank is immediately sold, and the player begins to upgrade the dull stock tank again. Use your head and think about why you even play World of Tanks? To endlessly open new tanks, or to brutally bend?
This whole topic with pumping up tanks is very demotivating, because you have to play on stock tanks, accumulate experience for a long time to open new modules and accumulate experience to move to the next level. It seems that this is it, happiness. You have in your hands a top tank that, in theory, can bend. Well, if you want to play with a good crew right away, retraining them will take a lot of silver or gold. So is it worth rushing to open new tanks and sell old ones?
By playing on low-level vehicles, you can become a real king of randomness, bending with impunity the “hurry-ups” who are trying to quickly pump up stock tanks and drain top-end tanks. At the same time, it is quite possible to have 60% victories on tanks of levels 1-4!
Gradually buy low-level tanks of all nations, take untrained crews on them or train them for silver, and test. Surely you will like some tanks more than others. Surely on some tanks you will have a higher percentage of victories than on others. If you like the tank, train the crew, install additional equipment and go run random! The costs of implementing this method of play are minimal.
I'll give you one more free piece of advice: never sell a tank you like until you're completely tired of it. And even after that, don’t sell it right away. It is much cheaper to buy free slots for tanks at discounts than to later buy back sold equipment and retrain crews for it.
Total: the old top tank bends more than the new stock one. If you like the old tank, this is a great reason to leave it in the hangar.
Save time by buying experience with money
Towards the end, let's talk about very busy but wealthy guys. Let’s say you donate and want to level up to level X at any cost. Of course, you can bend over and farm perfectly on a Tier VIII premium tank, but it’s all a little different. So how can you level up to level X quickly and with minimal financial losses? After all, as you know, for wealthy guys, time = money.
It is most profitable to accumulate experience and silver on a Premium tank, and then transfer it to a free one for gold. So, to open IS-4 you will need to accumulate about 700 thousand experience. To convert experience into free experience you will have to pay $112. Is this a lot or a little?
First, let's calculate the gold saved on upgrading crews. Training crews from KV-1 to ST-1 costs 5,400 gold (just over $20). Not much.
Now is the time. Targeted leveling, provided that you earn 500 units of experience per battle, and the average battle time is 5 minutes, will take almost 120 hours of pure time. Playing for 3 hours a day without holidays and weekends, you will accumulate experience in 40 days, pumping stock tanks to the top for a long time.
Bottom line: if you come to the game to have fun and your time is valuable to you, ride those tanks that you really enjoy playing. And accumulate experience on them. Convert the experience accumulated on tanks into free experience for gold and immediately open the tanks that interest you in the top configuration.
Total: how to save on donation in World of Tanks?
Let's summarize. Regardless of whether you want it or not, to seriously level up you will need a high level premium tank to farm credits. There is absolutely no need to buy premium tanks that cost $50; Tier VIII tanks that cost $30 farm just as well. As a last resort, you can purchase a premium tank of a lower level, but it will no longer be a cake.
In principle, it is quite possible to save money on upgrading your crew, especially when playing on low-level tanks. At high levels it is better not to do this. It is much more profitable to wait for discounts on crew training and pay a little. In addition, it is profitable to wait for discounts on the purchase of slots in the hangar, reset of perks, and even on the purchase of premium equipment! Leave the honor of purchasing all of the above at full price to the most impatient!
Don’t rush to sell top equipment to buy stock tanks of the next level. Play to bend, not to endlessly swing and donate. Thanks to the battle balancer, you can bend on almost any tank!
Do you want to buy an IS-4 or Maus right away without a long upgrade? Nothing is impossible! Gain experience on a regular or premium tank and transfer it to a free one for gold. So, by riding your favorite top tanks and farming credits on premium ones, you can buy an IS-4 for $112, saving time on boring upgrades.
I have already written an article about donation in World of Tanks, in which I examined in detail the situation with donation in the game. But in my previous article, although I described all the delights of donation, I did not give practically any recommendations on ways to reduce the volume of donation to a reasonable minimum. Which is what I intend to correct in this article!
