Argonaut

Page last updated 4th of October, 2024.

Argonaut is a tier 9 Hybrid nation tank destroyer. It features good mobility, a good gun with 430 alpha and 3.5k DPM, great gun handling, but mediocre aim time/dispersion. Its armour is decent but still fairly weak.

Armour

(The Argonaut in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 240mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 290mm HEAT

When flat and facing head-on:
Lower part of upper plate 140-240mm
Upper part of upper plate 250-370mm (auto-ricochet)
Lower plate 100-130mm

Gun shield 65-90mm

Side armour:
Argonaut’s side armour is 62mm above the tracks, and 58mm behind the tracks.

This is decent side armour, but not enough to bounce. Its resistant to most HE rounds, but higher penetration HE (such as with 75mm+) or HESH shells can still penetrate the hull sides.

Armour vs tier tier 8:
Against tier 8 tanks, the Argonaut has upper plate armour. The gun shield and lower plate are weak, but generally HE resistant.

The lower areas of the upper plate will be penetrable to most tanks in tier 8, but the upper areas will be impenetrable, even to premium HEAT ammo.

Armour vs tier tier 9-10:
Against tier 9-10 tanks the performance is similar, with the gun shield, lower plate, and lower part of the upper plate being penetrable to standard ammo.

The upper areas of the upper plate are still largely impenetrable, even to HEAT ammo, however tanks which have HEAT and use calibrated shells will generally see a fully penetrable upper plate.

Gun

The Argonaut mounts a 120mm gun.

-Alpha damage is 430 on AP, 370 on HEAT, and 510 on HE
-It has an 7.4s reload, giving it 3488 DPM.
-Penetration on AP is 256mm, HEAT is 370mm, and HE is 72mm.
–Estimated aim time is 3.3/3.5s
–Base aim time is 2.31s, but it can get down to 1.78s.
-Dispersion is 0.335/0.285
–Gun handling is 0.12/0.12/0.12, or 0.1/0.1/0.1 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -6 degrees.
-Gun arc left/right is +13/-13 degrees each way.

Overall this is a good gun. It has great DPM with good alpha damage and a fast reload. Its standard penetration is low for a TD (but for tier 9 overall its still average), and HEAT penetration is amazing, among the highest penetration in the whole game. Gun handling is amazing, some of the best for any TD, though its aim time and dispersion are definitely below average. HE penetration is very good, but damage is quite low, only doing 80 more than AP. Gun depression is poor, and mounted high up, and mounted on the tank’s rear, making it actually quite awkward to use.

What makes this gun good is just the combination of the 430 alpha, with the fast 7.4s reload. This makes it so proficient at dealing damage. While its not nearly as high as some of the tier 9 TDs, its still undeniable a nice combination to have, along with it the high premium penetration and relatively good gun arc.

Mobility

-Top speed is 42km/h forwards, and -11km/h in reverse.
-Traverse speed is 49.3 deg/s on hard terrain, and 37.9 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 17.9 hp/t, it has a stong 1173 horsepower engine for its 66 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 17.9hp/t on hard terrain, and 13.8 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 1/1.3/1.5

Overall this is good mobility. The tank accelerates and turns very quickly on hard terrain. On medium terrain it has good acceleration and traverse, but it is noticeably less than hard terrain mobility. The tank can easily reach 42km/h on both terrain types. Reverse speed of -11km is very slow and awkward to use.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The Argonaut has no special consumables or provisions.

Gun Rammer:
As the Argonaut has amazing penetration, there is no need for calibrated shells, in fact its a bad equipment choice. If you use calibrated shells, you lower DPM for higher penetration, and this is just a bad choice. As a sniping TD, a lot of the time you need a faster reload for when there are just many targets to shoot/farm. The only thing that can make you reload faster is gun rammer. If you can’t penetrate an enemy, you have premium ammo, the 2nd highest penetration in all of tier 9, you won’t struggle to penetrate anything.

Gun rammer would lower the reload time from 7.8s down to 7.4s, and increase DPM from 3313 to 3488.

Camuflage Net:
As the Argonaut is a tank destroyer, it has low view range by default (a standard TD trait), and generally doesn’t need to spot enemies for itself. Even if it does, using improved optics doesn’t do enough to improve the view range of the tank for it to be useful.

Using camo net is better, as the Argonaut is a TD, and it really benefits from having a higher camo rating. Using camo net (with level 7 crew skill) would increase your camo rating from 45/35/10 to 65/45/15 %, when stationary, moving, and shooting.

Improved Assembly:
Due to having weak armour overall, a 65mm gun shield with an upper plate that doesn’t rely on thickness, rather relies on angling, enhanced armour isn’t beneficial to the Argonaut.

Its better to use improved assembly to increase the HP, from 1650 base up t 1716.

Refined Gun:
As this is a sniping tank destroyer that can take both the support and sniping role, use refined gun. Also as this tank has some of the best on-movement-dispersion of any TD in the game, vertical stabilizer just isn’t needed.

Refined gun makes your gun accurate in all situations. Yes you’ll aim in slower when you do play actively, but this will also need to snipe in some battles, and when sniping, vertical stabilizer gives no improvement to the gun.

Refined gun gives an accuracy improvement both when the tank is sniping (not moving), and also when it is playing more actively and moving around, which makes it the better choice in this case.

Gameplay advice

Overall gameplay of the Argonaut is generally a sniping TD, though it can also play a support role at later points in the battle.

General gameplay:
Start the battle by finding a sniping position. This can be either on the MT flank or the HT flank. Its best to go with other players on your team, don’t just go to a sniping spot where there are no other players in that area.

Use bushes and hard cover to hide from enemy tanks. You have a very big profile, and not the greatest camo rating, so you need to use the terrain to remain hidden. If you are spotted, 11km reverse speed is poor, so its hard to retreat quickly, you’ll generally take a few hits.

Be wary of your gun depression, its very awkward to use since the gun is at the back of the tank, and mounted quite high up. A lot of the time when young over a ridge, or aiming at tanks down a hill, your gun depression becomes an issue.

Keep to hard terrain:
Generally what terrain you drive on with this tank won’t matter. When it does matter is if there are enemy tanks circling around you.

If there are enemy tanks circling you, you want to be on hard terrain . Of course you cant always choose the ideal place to be circled by enemy tanks, but hard terrain is the ideal. On hard terrain, you have 11 deg/s faster traverse than on medium terrain, which makes it much easier for you to turn your hull and follow the enemy.

HE use:
Note that this tank has great HE penetration, 72mm (12mm more than most 120mm guns), but its damage isn’t impressive, at 510.

This means you shouldn’t use HE against tanks that can use spall liner, unless you know they aren’t using it.

Use it against tanks with light armour, or the rears of enemy tanks. Its only an 80 damage increase, but if you can penetrate then it does still boost your damage.

Aim:
Due to having below average aim time, and slightly less accuracy than most tier 9 TDs, you have to properly aim with this tank. Though it does have amazing gun handling, you can’t just always snap shots at enemies without taking time to aim.

If you want your shot to hit, at least take a bit of time to let the gun aim in, since if you miss a shot, that worsens your DPM, its better to just take an extra second for a more accurate shot.

Playing actively:
This tank’s gameplay is sniping, especially at the beginning of the battle. You can’t play actively at the beginning, as all the enemies are on full HP, you don’t have info of where they are on the map, and if you play actively at the start, you can easily lose all your HP.

After the battle has progressed, such as if your team wins a flank and pushes through, you can push forward with your allies. At this point in the battle, many enemies would have lost a lot of HP, making your “low TD hitpoints” have a use in damage/DPM trading.

You can use the great mobility of this tank to play more like a medium tank with a big gun, since you can easily traverse and get around tanks despite not having a turret. Still try to avoid being the main target of enemy guns, since you don’t have much armour, and its more useful to your allies if your gun is in the game, since the gun is the main strength of a TD.

Overall the Argonaut is just a sniper TD that can play a bit actively later in the battle. This sort of gameplay shares some similarities with the SU-122-54 and the WT Ritter, though this tank does have a few different traits.

Tank gameplay:

(To come soon)

Overall

Armour – 5/10
Gun – 7/10
Mobility – 7/10
Speed – 5/10

Argonaut is overall a good tank.

Armour is decent. Gun shield and lower areas of the hull are weak. Upper areas are auto-bounce zones. Tank overall has decent HE protection. Hull sides weak to HESH.
Gun has good DPM, good alpha damage (430), mediocre AP penetration, amazing HEAT penetration, amazing gun handling. Accuracy & aim time are below average.
Mobility is good, with great acceleration & traverse speed on hard terrains, and good acceleration & traverse on medium terrain. Reverse speed is slow, -11km/h.
Speed is decent at 42km/h.

Is it worth getting?

The Argonaut would be worth getting if it wasn’t so expensive. This tank is fairly unique in tier 9, its like a combination of the SU-122-54 and the WT Ritter in one tank. Its got great mobility for a tank destroyer, with a good overall gun that has a nice combination of DPM, alpha, and penetration. All things considered, its armour isn’t terrible.

This tank will be one for players who like TDs that can both be a sniper, and be able to play more actively as a support vehicle; but it probably won’t be so enjoyable if you don’t enjoy TD gameplay much.

The Argonaut is worth 10,000 gold. Its a good tank with some unique traits for tier 9. The combination of a decent upper plate, great mobility, and a gun with good alpha and a relatively fast reload.

How to obtain:

This tank is available as the third reward tank in Season 5 “Legends”. It cannot be earned for free, the only way to get it is to purchase bundles to get season currency.

Camo cost:

Argonaut’s camouflage is permanent and cannot be adjusted.

Notes for stock tank:

Turret:
This is a turretless TD, so it doesn’t have any turret upgrades.

Gun:
The stock DPM, aim time, accuracy, and alpha damage are all quite bad for tier 9, and the tank really isn’t worth playing at all. Even if the stock guns were put on heavy tanks, they would still be quite mediocre. Premium penetration is still amazing, 350mm HEAT on the T1 gun.

Mobility:
Mobility of the stock engine and tracks is much worse, being more similar to a heavy tank with how the tank accelerates and turns.

Back to homepage