Elefant

Elefant is a tier 8 German tank destroyer. It features a great gun with high DPM and accuracy, along with decent mobility and speed. Armour is decent but not impressive, but the tank has good HP.

Armour

(The Elefant in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

Drag slider right -> to view 225mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 265mm APCR

When flat and facing head-on:
Flat upper plate 238mm
Angled mid plate 262mm
Hull shoulders 200-205mm
Lower plate 135-140mm

Superstructure cheeks 212mm
Cupola 100-105mm

When using gun depression:

Drag slider right -> to view 225mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 265mm APCR

When using -7 gun depression:
Flat upper plate 245mm
Angled mid plate 280mm
Hull shoulders 210mm

Superstructure cheeks 225mm
Cupola 100-105mm

When using -7 gun depression and angling 15 degrees:
Flat upper plate 255-265mm
Angled mid plate 295-300mm
Closest hull shoulder 155mm

Superstructure cheeks 230-240mm
Cupola 100-105mm

Side armour:
Elefant has 80mm of armour behind the tracks, and 130mm above the tracks. The upper side armour can be over-angled and bounce shells easily, but the track area will still be penetrable.

Armour vs tier 7 tanks:
Against tier 7 enemies the Elefant has very strong armour. The superstructure cheeks and hull shoulders aren’t a weakpoint against standard ammo, and the upper and mid plates are essentially impenetrable.

The lower plate is weak to standard ammo, and some tanks can penetrate the hull shoulders or superstructure with premium ammo (if you aren’t angling).

Armour vs tier 8 tanks:
Against tier 8 enemies, there are more weakpoints. The lower plate and hull shoulders are weak to all enemies.

The superstructure cheeks will be penetrable to enemies with around 215mm penetration when not angled, so most HT and some MT can penetrate with standard ammo.

The mid and upper plates are still strong, and enemies will need premium ammo to penetrate.

Armour vs tier 9 tanks:
Against tier 9 enemies, the tank is fully penetrable.

Most tier 9 MT and HT have around 240mm of standard penetration or more, so most tanks you face can easily penetrate the superstructure or even the upper plate.

Only the lowest penetration tanks (such as T-54, WZ-120, T92E1) will struggle to penetrate the superstructure with standard ammo.

Gun

The Elefant mounts a 105mm gun

-Alpha damage is 350 on AP, 260 on APCR, and 420 on HE
-It has a 6.1s reload, giving it 3416 DPM
-Penetration on AP is 248mm, premium APCR is 283mm, and HE is 60mm.
–Estimated aim time is 4.2/3.9s
–Base aim time is 2.5s, but it can get down to 2.04s.
-Dispersion is 0.308/0.277
–Gun handling is 0.18/0.17/0.08, or 0.15/0.14/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -7 degrees.
-Gun arc +15/-15 degrees left/right.

Overall this is a great gun, its penetration is high, had great DPM with a very quick reload, great gun handling, dispersion, and gun flexibility. The only real lacking feature is its aim time, which is quite poor for the lower-end 350 alpha that the Elefant has.

Mobility

-Top speed is 35km/h forwards, and -14km/h in reverse.
-Traverse speed is 40.1 deg/s on hard terrain, and 29.4 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 14.5 hp/t, it has a good 842 horsepower engine for its 58 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 14.5 hp/t on hard terrain, and 10.7 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 1/1.36/2.1

The overall mobility of Elefant is good, it has decent top speeds, but also has good acceleration to reach them. The hull traverse speed is also good on hard terrain, fairly decent on medium terrain.

The poor terrain resistances mean that the tank loses a lot of mobility when going off road, making it noticeably slower to accelerate and turn when its not on hard terrain.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The Elefant has no special provisions or consumables.

Gun Rammer:
The Elefant is all about the high DPM gun, don’t use calibrated shells as it wastes this aspect of the tank. Elefant has perfectly sufficient penetration for tier 8.

Use gun rammer to utilize the extremely high DPM and quick reload that the Elefant has. Gun rammer would lower the reload time 6.6s down to 6.1s, and increase the DPM from 3177 to 3416.

Enhanced Armour:
Elefant is a somewhat armoured tank, and it does utilize it in gameplay. Enhanced armour is more beneficial than improved assembly, since even if you bounce a single shot of damage, its worth more than the HP that improved assembly gives. The Elefant also doesn’t lack HP at all, with high base HP of 1400.

Enhanced armour improves:
-Flat upper plate from 238mm to 248mm.
-Angled mid plate from 262mm up to 272mm.
-Hull shoulders from 200mm up to 210mm.
-Superstructure cheeks from 212mm up to 221mm.

This roughly 10mm improvement is most noticeable against tier 7 premium ammo, and tier 8 MT and HT with around 215mm AP penetration or less.

vs 215mm AP
Drag slider right -> to view Improved Assembly
Drag slider <- left to view Enhanced Armour

Vertical Stabilizer:
Use vertical stabilizer, as the Elefant often plays a more active supporting role, where its constantly moving. Refined gun isn’t as helpful since the accuracy of the tank is already good, and the Elefant is not a sniper.

Vertical stabilizer helps the gun to retain more accuracy when the tank moves, which is especially helpful since the Elefant lacks a turret and is always turning the hull to aim its gun on enemies. Vertical stabilizer helps to balance out the lacklustre base aim time that the tank has.

Gameplay advice

Elefant is a frontline/2nd line support tank destroyer. It has enough armour and HP to trade damage, but also has very high DPM which works best when the enemy has no chance to run away from you. The good mobility allows you to relocate fairly easily if needed.

General gameplay:
The Elefant is a heavy support tank. Take it to the HT side of the map, and use 2nd line positions. You can push to the frontline once there’s enough info about where the enemy team is (don’t push up too far and spot for yourself, especially with enemy tier 8-9 heavies, since you should try to conserve your HP).

Try to trade with DPM, the majority of tanks that you face will have a slower reload and/or lower alpha damage than you. If an enemy sits in front of you for 6.1s, they take 700 damage.

Always be angling the tank, since its armour is weakest when flat. If facing enemies with low penetration then you don’t have to angle, since that would just make the hull shoulders weaker.

Sniping:
The Elefant is best as a support tank, since it has good HP, high DPM, and decent armour. Its camo rating isn’t great, and its lower alpha makes it less practical for sniping then other tanks.

Playing it as a sniper generally won’t be as rewarding as playing a support role, since its lower-end alpha makes it harder to rack up damage at long range, since enemies can so easily hide behind cover.

Stay to hard terrain:
Since the Elefant has quite a large difference in terrain resistances, it loses quite a lot of mobility by going off-road. To keep the best mobility (and quickest traverse), try to stay on hard terrain, which are paved areas, roads, paths, etc.

Since the Elefant has weakpoints on so many areas, its vey beneficial for it to have faster traverse, which lets it turn the hull quickly so its harder for enemies to aim for those weakpoints.

Use DPM:
Utilize the strength of the Elefant, which is its DPM. very few tanks (even tier 9 tanks) have better DPM than the Elefant. Use this to out-trade enemies in damage, since very few tanks can rival how fast the Elefant reloads/ trades damage.

Against enemies with a faster reload than you (such as tier 7 LT/MT, or tier 8 MT/HT with 90mm guns), trade with alpha damage. Since these enemies reload faster than you, they can actually shoot you twice before you reload. Trading with alpha damage ensures that you don’t let these enemies put in multiple shots, which lets you win the trade with higher alpha damage.

Against enemies with slower reloads, try to utilize your fast reload and put in 2-3 shots for every time the enemy shoots. With 350 alpha, you can easily out-trade enemies with slower reloads. In 6.1s you can deal 700 damage, in 12.2s, you can deal 1050, and so on.

Avoid using APCR unless completely necessary:
The Elefant has the same APCR damage as the Jagdtiger 8,8 cm, which is 260 damage.

This is very low premium alpha for a 350 alpha damage gun, so it severely damages your DPM when you have to use APCR shells. (350 damage on standard ammo should be doing 300 on premium, but Elefant only does 260.)

Angling around corners:
Notice the different angles that the Elefant is at in these images. All are against 215mm AP penetration.

-The first image on the left is essentially a “normal” sidescrape. It helps to increase the superstructure angle and make the lower plate harder to hit, but exposes the hull shoulder.

-The the 2nd image shows the tank barely angling. One hull shoulder is hidden, but the other is exposed, and the superstructure is barely angled.

-The 3rd image shows the Elefant angled around a corner but over-exposed. The furthest hull shoulder is very strong, the superstructure is angled, but the closest hull shoulder, cupola, and lower plate are all exposed.

-The last image on the right shows both hull shoulders removed as weakpoints, a hidden cupola, and an angled superstructure, but the lower plate is fully exposed.

Always angle and wiggle:
Since its essentially impossible to hide all frontal weakpoints of the Elefant, always angle and wiggle. Doing this means the tank is constantly moving, causing the armour angles and thicknesses to change.

It also causes the hull shoulders to change between being strong/weak constantly, and makes the superstructure an unreliable penetration to around 220-230mm penetration.

You can never hide all weakpoints in this tank, angling is very effective due to how its armour is laid out.

Note in the above image how you can over-angle. The lower side armour will be penetrable, but the upper side armour (which is 130mm base thickness) is still very strong. This is shown against 215mm AP.

Essentially play the Elefant with or behind your allied heavy tanks. Let them take some hits when needed, but also push up and use your armour and HP to trade the extremely high DPM that the Elefant has. Trey to stay on hard terrain to keep the best mobility, always be angling the tank, and aim shots well since the aim time isn’t great.

Tank gameplay:

Overall

Armour – 6.5/10
Gun – 9/10
Mobility – 5.5/10
Speed – 5/10

Elefant is overall a good tank.

Armour is decent. The upper and mid plates are very strong, the casemate/superstructure is decently strong, and the hull shoulders/lower plate are weak. Side armour is good, HE protection is perfect, HESH protection is decent.
Gun has great DPM, reload time, gun handling, and accuracy. Penetration is good, and alpha damage is fairly decent. Gun depression is a decent -7 degrees.
Mobility is average, with a fairly strong engine, with very good traverse and acceleration on hard terrain. Medium terrain resistance is fairly poor, and the tank has still good acceleration and but loses roughly 10 deg/s traverse on medium terrain. Reverse speed is average at -14km/h. Gun arc angles are very good, -15/+15 degrees.
Speed is average for this tank type, with 35km/h.

Is it worth getting?

The Elefant is worth getting. Its a good combination of armour, mobility, and extremely high DPM, which no other tier 8 tank destroyer really offers.

Compared to the Jagdtiger 8,8, the Elefant is much more mobile, and has far better standard penetration and gun flexibility, however Elefant has worse armour. Elefant is not necessarily better than the Jagdtiger 8,8 but its also not worse.
(Also note, since the Elefant much better standard penetration, and both these tanks have very bad APCR damage, Elefant technically saves itself more DPM in some situations by not needing APCR)

Compared to the Ferdinand, the Elefant has much higher DPM, is more mobile, has more troll (but less reliable) armour, and a different type of gun. While Elefant has a much more consistent gun and mobility profile, it has a few extra weakpoints and strong points (hence it being more troll but less reliable).

The Elefant is worth 8,000 gold. Its a good tank which can perform well, but isn’t anything too strong or OP.

Most recently sold for:

New release event – March 2024

Camo cost:

“Enduring” camo: Available in crates at 2%.

Rear of the camo.

Historical info:

Elefant is an upgraded version of the Ferdinand.

Creation of the Ferdinand:
Ferdinand started as a solution to use the roughly 100 Porsche Tiger hulls, after the Henschel design of the Tiger I hull was chosen for army production.

The Porsche Tiger hull was modified to have the engine mounted closer to the front so that a fighting compartment could be installed in the rear of the tank, mounting an 8,8cm Pak 43 L/71. Ferdinand gained 100mm of frontal armour compared to the Porsche Tiger and Tiger I, which both had 100mm frontal armour, increasing the Ferdinand’s hull front to 200mm thick, one of the thickest armoured hulls in all of WW2.

Creation of the Elefant:
Ferdinand saw its first combat in the Battle of Kursk, where multiple issues with the tank came to light.

Other than the well-known mechanical issues of the Porsche Tiger such as its engine or tracks, or the tank’s own immense weight, the Ferdinand suffered from an ability to defend itself against infantry.
-The Ferdinand had no hull mounted nor coaxial machine gun.
-The Ferdinand lacked vision, as it was a fully enclosed fighting compartment with very limited vision blocks and vision range.

After the Battle of Kursk, Ferdinands were upgraded to fix these issues. A hull-mounted MG-34 machine gun was added for the assistant driver position, and a cupola for better vision was added for the commander. Zimmerit anti-magnetic mine paste was also added, and engine grates were improved for shrapnel protection.

3 months after the first Ferdinand upgrades were completed, German Army High Command ordered the name change from Ferdinand to Elefant.

Ferdinand/Elefant was the first ever true “Jagdpanzer”, a fully enclosed and armoured vehicle for the sole purpose of destroying enemy tanks, hence its multiple drawbacks in its earliest versions.

Despite its drawbacks, Ferdinand was the most successful tank destroyer of WW2 in terms of its kill ratio, being roughly 10 enemy tanks destroyed per 1 Ferdinand/Elefant lost.

Ferdinand/Elefant was essentially replaced by the later Jagdpanther, which was just a better and more practical “Jagdpanzer” design, though Elefants did continue fighting till the end of WW2.

Inaccuracies:
The Elefant in game has multiple inaccuracies:

-Armour on the hull front is 35mm too thick, 50mm too thick on the upper hull sides, and 50mm too thick on the hull shoulders.
-Weight is too light, being only roughly 7 tons lighter than the real version.
-The 10,5cm gun is fake, the Ferdinand/Elefant only mounted the 8,8cm Pak 43 L/71.
-Engine is 128 horsepower too strong, not even accounting for the additional 17% horsepower gained from equipment & provisions.
-Elefant’s top speed is 5km/h too high, though the Ferdinand has an accurate speed.

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