World of Tanks crew perks: how the finished crew system works

All numbers on this page come from Wargaming's own crew guide and the Update 1.24.1, 1.26 and 2.2 announcements, and every value is for a perk trained to 100%. Wargaming calls the 2.2 perks final, but says some values may still be fine tuned. For the rest of the game start at the World of Tanks hub.

How the crew rework got here

If you read about "Crew 2.0" with skill trees and crew levels: that was a Sandbox test, and the live game never got it in that form. What happened instead was a series of smaller steps that kept the familiar five roles.

• Update 1.18.1 (2022). Sixth Sense stopped being a perk and became a feature of every Commander.
• Update 1.22.1 (October 2023). A rebuilt crew interface.
• Update 1.24.1 (April 2024). All crews set to 100%. The old "major qualification level" became crew efficiency, and a new perk efficiency value took over the retraining penalty.
• Update 1.26 (September 2024). The big perk rework: six perks maximum, bonus perks for extra roles, shared perk effectiveness, new perks and Post-Progression.
• Update 2.2 (March 2026). Ten new perks, two per role, plus perk resets for credits and Crew Books for Premium vehicle crews. Wargaming calls this the last step of the rework, and nothing in the crew system has changed in 2.3, 2.4 or 2.4.1.

How perks work now

Every crew member has a major qualification: Commander, Gunner, Driver, Loader or Radio Operator. Each one starts at 100% crew efficiency and can train up to six perks from its role. Each role offers eight individual perks and three group perks, so you are always choosing, never collecting everything.

• Doubling cost. Each new perk needs twice the Crew XP of the one before. Perk four and five take a long time on a researchable tank.
• Zero perks. Some special crew members arrive with a perk already fully trained. A zero perk costs no XP and does not raise the price of the next perk, but it still counts toward the six.
• Group perks. Brothers in Arms, Concealment and Repairs use the average training level of the whole crew. One tanker with Brothers in Arms does almost nothing; all five with it give the full bonus.
• Shared perks. When two crew members share a role, such as two Loaders, they share perk effectiveness. Both must train the same perk to reach 100%.
• Bonus perks. A crew member who covers a second role (a Commander who is also the Radio Operator, for example) trains up to three perks of that second role alongside the main ones, at half speed and for no extra XP.
• Post-Progression. A tanker with six fully trained perks keeps earning. Half of their Crew XP fills a pool that pays a Universal Guide every 100,000 XP.

The perk list, including the 2.2 additions

This is the full list in the game today. Perks marked (2.2) arrived in March 2026. The rest came with the 1.26 system; Wargaming says only Reliable Placement was changed in 2.2.

What the ten new perks do

• Hold the Line: crew efficiency plus 5% while the enemy has at least three more vehicles alive than your team. Stay Sharp: plus 5% for 15 s after a First Aid Kit, and the kit can be used with nobody injured.
• Point Blank: maximum potential penetration plus 5% against targets under 50 m. Lone Wolf: dispersion minus 5% and aiming speed plus 5% while no ally is within 300 m.
• Field Support: suspension repair 15% faster within 50 m of an ally. Bulletproof: crew efficiency plus 5% once you have blocked more damage than your starting hit points.
• The Second Chance: next reload 2.5% faster after a shot that did no damage. Mag Mastery: magazine reload minus 2.5%, a loader perk made for autoloaders.
• Battle Tempered: each stun reduces the stun effect by 7.5%, up to 30%. Threat Search: view range plus 2% for 5 s after the Sixth Sense alert.

Reliable Placement got the one buff: it now absorbs 15% of HE damage and cuts the chance of engine fire and suspension damage by 15% each. That made it a real option for heavies that eat HE from big guns.

Sixth Sense and Brothers in Arms

Sixth Sense is not in any perk list because you do not need to train it. Since Update 1.18.1 every Commander has it as a built in feature: the lamp lights up when your vehicle is spotted. Old advice to "train Sixth Sense first" is outdated, so do not look for it in the Barracks. Two perks now build on it: Signal Interception on the Radio Operator cuts the time before the alert by 0.75 s, and Threat Search adds a short view range boost after it fires.

Brothers in Arms is a group perk. Fully trained on every crew member it adds 5% crew efficiency to the whole crew, which raises reload, aiming, view range and driving at the same time. It only gives its full value when the last crew member finishes it, so train it on everyone in the same perk slot. Many event and Battle Pass crew members come with Brothers in Arms as a zero perk: the Dune chapter's Paul Atreides and Stilgar, the Onslaught annual reward crew and the Ashbringer crew all do. A full crew of those skips the slowest part of the grind.

What to train first, by class

These are our picks for the first perks, built from the official perk values above. They are a starting point: your own vehicle may need something else, and the vehicle comparison screen added in 2.2 shows what each perk changes before you spend XP.

Two perks we would rarely take early: Controlled Impact (ramming) and Perfect Charge (shell velocity) are niche. Mentor adds 20% Crew XP for the whole crew and lets the Commander cover knocked out crew at 65%, which makes it a good first Commander perk on a crew you plan to grind for a long time. For which tanks each class should play, see tank classes explained; for where to take a finished crew, the best tier X tanks.

Retraining, resets and moving crews

A crew of the same nation can drive any vehicle of that nation at 100% crew efficiency, but its perks stay switched off until you retrain it for that vehicle. You have three options:

Perk efficiency climbs back with Crew XP: 1% per 1,000 Crew XP, so a 40% penalty takes 40,000 Crew XP to clear. Moving a crew into a Premium vehicle of the same type, or from a standard vehicle into a Premium one, needs no retraining at all, which is why a Premium tank is the classic crew trainer. Since 2.2 you can also read Crew Books on a crew sitting in a Premium vehicle.

Perk resets. The first reset of every crew member is free. After that: Rapid Courses (free, lose 20% of perk XP), Regimental School (20,000 credits, lose 10%), Tank Academy (100,000 credits since 2.2, lose nothing) or a Retraining Order (lose nothing). Wargaming runs discounts on retraining and resets around events such as D-Day, so wait for one if you are planning a big rebuild.

Training faster: books, reserves and Free XP

1. Save books for full crews. Booklets, Guides and Manuals give the XP to every crew member, so a five or six person crew gets the most out of them. The vehicle needs a complete crew.
2. Use Personal Training Manuals on the odd one out. A tanker who joined late, or a special crew member with a zero perk, catches up in one go.
3. Turn on Accelerated Crew Training on elite vehicles. All Combat XP then goes to the least trained crew member.
4. Stack crew XP sources. Premium Account, Premium vehicles, Crew XP Personal Reserves and the WoT Plus Intensive Crew Regimen all add up.
5. Use the Mentoring License with care. It moves all XP from one tanker of the same nation to another, and the mentor is dismissed.
6. Clean the Barracks. Since 2.2 a button dismisses every crew member who has not finished a first perk. It cannot be undone, so check before you click.

Crew Expansion: New Perks and Improvements (official World of Tanks channel)

New to the game? The beginner guide explains why you should keep a crew when you move up a line, and our equipment guide covers the gear that pairs with these perks.

FAQ