Every game has some kind of currency. Some keep it simple with one, and others make things interesting with more. In World of Tanks, there are four types of currency.
- Credits
- Gold
- Tank Experience (Tank XP)
- Special Experience (Special XP)
It takes a combination of these to buy and maintain your tank. When I first started playing, it was a little confusing. Looking back, I wasted a lot of these currencies. That means wasted time, and possibly real world money. I don’t want you to waste either, so here’s a breakdown of what I have learned from my mistakes.
Credits
Credits are used to buy things. You can buy tanks, consumables, temporary custom paint, modules, and premium (gold rounds) ammo. Credits are also used at the end of each match to repair damage, and refill ammo.
Credits come at the end of each match, win or lose. The better your performance, the higher the credit reward at the end. You can lose credits though. If your team loses or if you do poorly, credits will actually be deducted from your account. Generally you won’t start to have credits deducted until around tier six. Even then, your balance should still trend upward overall. You can also buy credits from the gift shop with real money, or convert gold to credits. I do not recommend converting gold to credits. It has a poor conversion rate compared to buying premium time with gold. More on that later.
Tank Experience
This is normally called Experience, but for purposes of explaining things clearly I will call it Tank XP. Tank XP is a lot like Credits. You get Tank XP at the end of every match, and more or less depending on your performance, and whether you win or lose. Tank XP is specific to each tank. You can only spend Tank XP on the tank you earned it with. Tank XP is how you level up your tank in World of Tanks. You use it to research new guns, tracks, radios, turrets, and engines. You also use it to unlock the next tier tank.
Special Experience
Just like the name implies, Special XP is special. Special XP is a universal experience that can be used on any tank. You gain special experience at the end of every match, but it is tied to your Tank XP. You are awarded 5% of whatever Tank XP you get as Special XP. So if you are awarded 100 Tank XP at the end of a battle, you will also get 5 Special XP.
Special XP is very valuable. I recommend you not use it until tier 5 at the earliest. Tiers 1 through 4 will be a breeze with few exceptions. If I could go back, I would have held onto my Special XP to skip past tanks I didn’t like playing. You can also use Special XP to finish researching a tank that is on sale. The more you can save, the better. Tiers 7 and up require some serious XP.
Gold
Gold is the harder to get currency, but more valuable than credits. For example, premium rounds may cost 4000 Credits, or just 7 Gold. Some things can only be bought with Gold, like premium time. Gold is used for permanent tank designs, purchasing premium tanks, premium account time, consumables, modules, credits, and converting leftover Tank XP to Special XP. Gold is the universal currency of World of Tanks.
There are three ways to get Gold. The easiest is to buy it with real money. You can buy as little as $4.99 worth, or as much as $99.99 worth. The more you buy, the cheaper it is. Occasionally the gift shop will sell odd amounts of Gold at a discount. Another way to get Gold is from Clan Wars. If your Clan controls territory, your Clan gets Gold every hour. The Clan can then do whatever it wants with the Gold, including passing it out to members. The final way to get gold is through Wargaming.net events. There are events going on all the time. One example is the Caption Contest where you submit a caption for the screenshot provided. Another example tis battling one of the Wargaming.net employees in a tank company, which nets you Gold win or lose. Wargaming.net is really good about giving out gold. Moreso than any other game I’ve played.
Again, do not use Gold to buy Credits unless you are desperate. You are better off buying a day or three of premium status. I’ve made over a million credits in one day with premium status. You’re going to need about 2500 Gold to convert, as opposed to 250 for one day of premium. Not to mention the bonus XP (Tank and Special) you will be getting from premium.
Currency Caveats
There are ideal ways to spend your currency. I plan to provide some insight into that in the future. I have made several mistakes, converting Gold being the biggest. That’s why I have emphasized it twice here.
If you have any questions, please leave them below. Comments, corrections, and critiques are also welcome. As long as they are constructive. Kay? Cool.
Does this make me alliterate?