IS-7 – GuidesBlitz

IS-7 is one of the top tier USSR heavy tanks. It features great all-round armour which can bounce on nearly any area, mobility and speed are both good, though the gun lacks accuracy and has poor aim time.

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Armour

(The IS-7 in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

Drag slider right -> to view 252mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 330mm HEAT

Armour on flat ground when not angled:
Upper plate 350-385mm (weakest point 340mm)
Middle bar 330mm
Lower plate 245-250mm
Turret 300-600mm+

Notes about armour:
-The tank shown is using enhanced armour, which makes most of its frontal armour about 10mm stronger in effective thickness (compared to the numbers shown). The benefits of enhanced armour are explained below.

-The turret front is penetrable only in very close ranges using premium ammo. Its weakpoints are very small, hence why its only practical to try shooting them in close range. The weakest areas of the turret are at the very base, right next to the gun mantlet.

-The hull is a pike nose, so angling it decreases its effective thickness.

Side armour:
Note the turret side armour in the image below, this is against 252mm AP penetration.

The turret rear area is weakest being 120-220mm thick.
The lower areas of the turret (closest to the hull) are 250-280mm thick.
The upper areas of the turret are 280-350mm thick.
The roof area is 140mm thick, but is only visible from the sides, not the front of the turret.

When playing against an IS-7, and with no clear shots on the hull, most of the time you’ll need premium ammo to penetrate the IS-7’s turret sides reliably.

The yellow areas highlighted in the image above are inverse angles. These areas will be nearly impossible to penetrate to any ammo type, so as an enemy shooting an IS-7, you should never shoot either of these sections.

-The top yellow area is covered in 30mm spaced armour, making its effective thickness (when flat-on like in the image) 285mm.
-The bottom yellow area is behind the wheels, which count as 20mm module armour. This area is an auto-ricochet, and is over 350mm in effective thickness.
(Note that this is only at the middle area of the hull, the front and rear areas are lacking this inverse angle)

IS-7 has typical USSR heavy side armour, as in, its got many troll inverse-angles and areas with spaced armour. Its base side armour thickness is 100mm behind the tracks, and 150mm above the tracks.

Note that the side armour is a half V-shape, shown in this image.

(Note that the inverse angle behind the tracks is only in the middle section, that’s why the bottom of the hull appears flat here)

vs 252mm AP
These 2 images display perfectly why the IS-7 has such a foolproof armour profile.

Note the lower plate, side armour, upper plate, and turret side thicknesses.

The tank isn’t even optimally angled or in a hulldown position in these images.

Armour vs tier 9 tanks:
Tier 9 mediums and lights will generally be unable to penetrate the IS-7’s front reliably, even the lower plate will be red to most enemies. These tanks will also struggle to penetrate the turret sides, and the upper plates.
(There are a few exceptions, such as Type 61, Centurion 7/1, and Leopard PTA with high penetration standard/premium ammo.)

Tier 9 heavies will still struggle to penetrate the lower plate, but most will have a decent chance to penetrate when the IS-7 is not angled. If angled, then most tanks will struggle to penetrate.

Lower penetration heavies will struggle more to penetrate the IS-7’s upper plates when the tank is angled (tanks with 300-320mm), but for tanks with 330-340mm penetration on premium ammo, the upper plates are generally quite easy to penetrate.
(Of course if the IS-7 is not angled at all then the upper plates won’t be penetrable, but the lower plate will be weak.

The turret front is practically impenetrable to tier 9 tanks. Heavies and TDs generally won’t struggle to penetrate the turret sides if using premium ammunition.

Armour vs tier 10 tanks:
Armour performance in tier 10 is very similar to armour performance in tier 9.

The lower plate is strong against most enemies, but to bounce it needs to be angled fairly significantly (as shown in above images against 252mm AP).
The upper plates are very strong, and generally only penetrable when the hull is turned to the side and the enemy uses premium ammo.

The turret sides are still extremely strong, but nearly all tanks can use premium ammo to penetrate it. The hull sides with its inverse angles are no less effective against tier 10 enemies.

The turret front is practically impenetrable to all tier 10 tanks other tank heavies using calibrated shells or TDs using premium ammo. To have a decent sized weakpoint on the IS-7’s turret front, you need roughly 370mm penetration on HEAT (slightly less for AP or APCR), so its really only tanks with 340-345mm HEAT that use calibrated shells, or TDs with that amount of penetration.

Gun

IS-7 mounts a 130mm gun.

-Alpha damage is 460 on AP, 390 on APCR, and 600 on HE.
-The reload time is 10.7s, giving the tank 2584 DPM.
-Penetration is 255mm on AP, 320mm on APCR, and 68mm on HE.
–Estimated aim time is 4.6/5.0s
–Base aim time is 2.9s, but it can get down to 2.36s.
-Dispersion is 0.371/0.334
–Gun Handling is 0.2/0.2/0.08, or 0.17/0.17/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -6 degrees.

Overall this is a decent gun. Though its fairly inaccurate, has poor aim time, and fairly unimpressive DPM, the tank’s durability and mobility allow it to have a fairly unimpressive gun and still perform well.

Some good points of the gun are its nice 460 alpha and good penetration on all 3 shell types, which make it great for damage trading. The gun handling is also quite decent for its alpha.

Mobility

-Top speed is 42km/h, reverse is -15km/h.
-Traverse speed is 37.3 deg/s on hard terrain, and 29.9 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 16.3 hp/t, it has a fairly strong 1170 horsepower engine for its 72 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 13.5 hp/t on hard terrain, and 10.8 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Ground resistances are 1.2/1.5/1.9

Overall for a heavy tank, this is good mobility. For a heavy tank as heavily armoured as the IS-7, this is amazing mobility. The tank has great acceleration rate with a strong engine, and still decent acceleration on even medium terrain. Traverse speeds are both good, which is a very strong aspect considering how the IS-7 relies on turning its hull to make its lower plate stronger, to troll with its side armour, or to angle up its front plates. On top of this, the top speed is a very good amount for a heavy tank, and the IS-7 really has no problems reaching and maintaining that speed.

One more point to note is the turret flexibility of the IS-7. It has one of the slowest turning turrets in tier 10, at 18.22 degrees/s. This means that sometimes you may find yourself unable to get shots due to it, or having to turn the hull to get the gun on target faster. Generally its not an issue, but it is a very noticeable aspect of the tank.

Consumable loadout

IS-7 has access to tungsten shells, this is the only special provision/consumable it has.

Take adrenaline, multi-purpose repair kit, and tungsten shells.

-Adrenaline boosts reload speed by 20% and increases module damage by 10%. Its good for high pressure situations, such as defending a push, rushing enemies, or if in a 1v1 scenario.
-Multi-purpose repair kit keeps the tank functional in the battle if anything gets damaged or set on fire. This is essential on every tank.
-Tungsten shells increases alpha damage by 15% up to the max roll of the tank. This gives the IS-7 a new alpha damage of 529, and it will only roll within the damage range of 483-575. This is useful in any situation where you have a clear shot into the enemy.

If you notice yourself taking constant module damage, then switch out either adrenaline or tungsten shells for a small repair kit.

Which to switch out?
-Adrenaline gives a bigger DPM boost than tungsten shells, but for you to get full benefit from this consumable, you have to try shoot on-reload. This consumable is very situation reliant, since if you can only shoot once and then the enemy runs away, then the consumable is wasted.

-Tungsten shells gives a much smaller DPM boost, but is not situation reliant. You can activate this at any time when you have a clear shot on the enemy, and as long as you penetrate, you gain benefit from using the consumable.
(You also aren’t under reload pressure when using tungsten. Its duration is 20s, which gives you loads of time to try find another target. You also still gain benefit even if you getting 1 shot while using the consumable, since your alpha damage of that shot was increased.)

Equipment & provision loadout

Gun Rammer:
Due to the good penetration on all 3 shell types, and the fact that the IS-7 carries no HEAT or special HE shells, it doesn’t benefit from calibrated shells much. Improving the reload is better, since the IS-7 has a fairly long reload among tier 10 heavies, and a quicker reload is better for the brawling frontline gameplay that the IS-7 has.

Gun rammer would improve the reload time from 11.5s down to 10.7s, and the DPM from 2403 to 2584.

Enhanced Armour:
Both equipment pieces in this choice can work well, but note that even 1 bounced shot from any tier 9-10 enemy (even a fully stock Centurion 7/1 with 190 alpha) outweighs the benefit of improved assembly.
Improved assembly adds 153 HP, but bouncing even 1 extra shot from any tier 9-10 tank is generally worth 300-700 HP of damage.

Enhanced armour would improve:
-Lower plate from 250mm to 260mm effective.
-Mid bar from 330mm to 343mm effective.
-Upper plates from 340mm to 354mm effective when not angled; from 265mm to 275mm when at worst angle (hull turned roughly 40-50 degrees away from enemy).
-Turret weakest point from 300mm to 312mm.

Improved assembly can also work well on the IS-7 due to its high base HP of 2550, and already troll and resilient base armour profile. Improved assembly would increase the HP from 2550 up to 2703, but generally enhanced armour adds more benefit just due to how much armour it adds and how troll the IS-7 already is.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Though IS-7 has fairly poor dispersion of 0.371, its a frontline brawler tank, and is most often in a close range fight where it doesn’t get the time to fully aim in. Using refined gun would require you to sit still take take a bit longer to aim your shot, which just isn’t beneficial when your tank relies on moving its armour to make it troll, and often turning the hull to get the gun on target (hull traverse speed is much faster than turret traverse speed).

Vertical stabilizer helps the tank to maintain accuracy when its moving, turning the hull, or turning the turret, which is a very important improvement to have on a brawling heavy tank. Vertical stabilizer will decrease how much your reticle blooms out when moving, making it more accurate in the active frontline playstyle of the IS-7.

Gameplay advice

IS-7 is just a frontline brawling heavy. Its gameplay isn’t really complicated, as the IS-7 just has to drive to the front and shoot. The armour will just work in most situations.

IS-7’s gameplay is not easily comparable to other tanks in the game, as none have quite as reliable or troll armour with a big gun; but the closest comparisons would be Obj.252U, IS-6, or IS-3.

General gameplay:
Play the IS-7 aggressively. Don’t camp behind allies, don’t wait for allies to push. If you need to make a play, lead the push and get your allies to follow you. IS-7 just doesn’t have the kind of gun to farm, and its armour and mobility are suited to playing aggressive and pushing the frontline.

This tank works best on the HT side of the map, where the terrain is generally more favourable (flatter), and other tanks have more similar levels of DPM and speed. Its the perfect tank for getting to the heavy front quite early and brawling with other heavies. You can use buildings to sidescrape and angle the hull, or go hulldown and be practically impenetrable.

Angle the armour correctly:
In some situations for the IS-7, its best to turn the hull to the side slightly, in other situations its best to not turn the hull at all.

Angle the hull armour:
-Do this when you want to make the lower plate stronger, and know the enemy is likely to use standard ammo. This is good for if you’re out in the open with no cover.
-Angling the hull causes the lower plate to become stronger (against standard ammo), but the upper plates to become weaker (against premium ammo, standard ammo generally still bounces).

Keep the hull faced straight:
-Do this in a facehug situation, and in any situation where you can go hulldown. When the lower plate isn’t visible, there is no point to weaken the upper plates by turning the hull.

Wiggle the hull:
This is different to angling; angling is where you turn the hull and maintain that angle that you’ve turned to, wiggling is where you continuously turn the hull left/right.

Wiggling the hull is very effective in the IS-7, as it causes armour plates to have constantly changing thicknesses. This means that the lower plate, upper plate, and side armour will all be quite unreliable to penetrate, as your continuous movement causes the effective thickness of these armour areas to increase/decrease.

Enemies can still penetrate you while wiggling, but it causes them to aim more carefully, and there’s still a good chance that they will hit a spot that goes red due to your movement.

Go hulldown & use gun depression:
When hulldown, the IS-7 is practically invincible. It has essentially no turret roof weakpoints (like cupolas), no upper plate weakpoints, and no turret weakpoints. Only 2 tiny weakpoints to the left and right of the gun are penetrable, and its nearly impossible to hit these areas unless in very close range,

For enemies to even have a chance of penetrating a hulldown IS-7, they’d need between 350mm and 370mm of premium penetration, and other than TDs, very few tanks can achieve this.

IS-7 only has -6 gun depression, but that doesn’t mean its unable to use hills and ridges. There’s a dedicated page for how to use gun depression positions in tanks with only -5 or -6 degrees here.

Sidescraping:
IS-7 can sidescrape decently, but don’t expect to bounce shots off the front plates when doing so.

The strong side armour will hold up well, and you can expose the hull’s rear to bait shots from enemies. However, when you reverse out to shoot the enemy, note that your upper plate is at a bad angle, and any enemy can easily use premium ammo to penetrate your upper plate. Some higher penetration tanks can even use standard ammo to penetrate.

When sidescraping, only reverse out when you’re actually fully reloaded. If you start reversing when you aren’t yet reloaded, you’ll likely take a shot of damage and be unable to shoot back before the enemy gets to cover.

Facehugging:
Facehugging in the IS-7 has both some benefits and some drawbacks.

The benefits are that the armour will be very difficult to penetrate, as the driver hatch is not a weakpoint, and you can use the gun and mantlet to block the enemy aiming at weakpoints (such as the turret cheeks or tiny cupola).

The drawbacks are that enemies can use premium ammo to aim for the weakest points on the turret cheeks, which are right next to the gun mantlet, or aim for the cupola on the roof.
The very slow turret traverse of the IS-7 can make it more difficult to gun block the enemy shots.

Tanks with high premium penetration and great gun depression may be able to shoot down on the hull, so be careful with what enemies you choose to facehug (for example, facehugging a Type 71 or T57 Heavy is probably a not a great idea).

The gameplay of IS-7 is fairly simple and fairly standard for a heavy. Just go to the frontline, get in a hulldown position or angle your armour, and trade damage with enemies. Also consider the typical pike-nose armour layout when angling and wiggling the hull, and that the lower plate is stronger when the hull is turned, but the upper plates are stronger when the hull is not turned.

Overall

Armour – 9.5/10
Gun – 5/10
Mobility – 7/10
Speed – 7.5/10

IS-7 is overall a great tank.

Armour is essentially perfect. Strong upper & lower plates, strong turret front & sides, very troll side armour. HE/HESH protection is very high. Sidescrape/angling ability is decent but not great.
Gun is decent. DPM & gun handling are decent, penetration & alpha damage are good. Accuracy & aim time are poor, gun depression is mediocre at -6 degrees.
Mobility is good for the armour, with decent acceleration and good traverse speeds. Reverse speed is good.
Speed is great at 42km/h.

Is it worth grinding?

The IS-7 is worth grinding. It has a very unique trait in tier 10, which is just all-round troll armour in any situation. While other heavy tanks can offer reliable armour in certain situations, none are quite as troll or annoying to deal with as that of the IS-7’s.

It also has good mobility to go with this, which makes it overall a capable tank in battle. Its gun is nothing too special, but still decent. Its the armour/mobility combination that make the IS-7 such a great tank.

This tank is great for newer players due to its forgiving armour and its good mobility with high alpha gun. Experienced players will also do extremely well in the tank just due to the fact it has the armour, hitpoints, and mobility needed to be very influential in battle.

Due to its rather unimpressive gun, you may find the IS-7 is not worth grinding if you dislike somewhat derpy guns which aren’t always reliable or accurate (a similar trait shared by the Type 71, this is not a gun-focused tank, its durability focused).

Camo cost:

“Battle-Hardened” camo: 2D, costs 2,550 gold

“Baba-Yaga” camo: 3D, costs 5,500 gold

Tech tree overview

To get to the IS-7, you have to grind up the IS series tech tree, which splits off from the KV tech tree at tier 6.

All the tanks in this line have generally ok and usable stock grinds. They still have typical stock tank traits, but none are so bad to the point were they are unusably slow, inaccurate, or lacking in penetration.

-Tiers 1-4 are low tier light tanks. All have great mobility and guns, but all also lack armour. None have bad stock grinds, and these tanks are quick to get past.

Note for the A-20:
This tank actually has a better stock gun than the top gun, due to much better aim time & accuracy. The stock gun’s DPM and alpha re just slightly lower than the top gun, but its made up for by the far better accuracy and aim time.

-Tier 5 is the KV-1, a great heavy with a strong turret and good gun. The hull armour is good against same and lower tier tanks, but weak against tier 6 tanks, and it must always be angled to be effective. Mobility is fairly average for a heavy.

The stock version of this tank is extremely slow, having both a terrible engine and abysmal medium terrain resistances (1.7). The gun lack penetration but is the least of the problems of this stock tank.
Upgrade the engine first as it only costs 2.5k XP, then upgrade the turret and unlock the top 85mm gun as each of these also cost 2.5k XP and will allow you to deal with tier 6 enemies much more reliably (penetration and damage increase). Finally unlock the tracks, as they improve effective acceleration and traverse speed enormously, and improve the gun handling. Tracks cost 5k XP hence why they should be left for last.

The 3rd engine doesn’t improve engine power, it only decreases fire chance, so there’s no need to research this. This engine is unlocked by default on the KV-1S, so researching it on the KV-1 would just be a waste of XP and make your grind longer.
(If you already have the SU-152, then the 3rd engine of the KV-1 will already be unlocked.)

-Tier 6 is the KV-1S, an incredibly powerful tank which could be considered OP in the right hands. It has 400 alpha with -8 gun depression, very high penetration, and a decent reload rate. speed and mobility are both very good for a heavy tank. Hull armour is weak, but the turret is decent.

The stock grind of this tank is ok. It only has 160 alpha with -5 gun depression, but this gun is still usable due to decent penetration. The stock turret is weak but has a smaller profile than the top one, and the stock engine and tracks are fairly decent.
Upgrade the turret first, then you can decide if you want to either:
1- Make your grind longer but slightly less painful by unlocking the 85mm gun with better DPM & alpha, or:
2- Make your grind shorter and less painful by using the 76mm gun to grind for the 122mm gun.

The engine and tracks can be left till last. While they do boost the mobility quite significantly, the stock mobility of the KV-1S isn’t terrible, and getting the 122mm gun makes grinding the tank much easer and more enjoyable.
(This 122mm gun would already be unlocked if you’ve already fully upgraded the KV-3 from the IS-4 tech tree.)

-Tier 7 is the IS (or IS-1), its similar to the KV-1S in the fact it has a 122mm gun with good mobility. The IS differs with its speed, which is 9km/h, but it has much more reliable frontal hull & turret armour. Gun depression is downgraded to -6 degrees, a more common trait of this tech tree from tiers 7-10. This is a good tank but nothing too special or insane.

The IS actually has a great stock grind, as in, its fairly easy and relaxed. The stock 100mm gun has good DPM, penetration, and reload, with fairly decent accuracy. The stock engine and tracks aren’t great but also aren’t abysmal, its only the stock turret which is rather lacking in armour. The best thing to upgrade first would be that turret, since armour, HP, & reload time all improve, and it lets you use the 122mm gun from the KV-1S. After this you can choose if you want better mobility from the engine or tracks, or a better 122mm gun from the top gun upgrade.

(Again, if you’ve unlocked the ISU-152, the top engine will already be unlocked. The top gun would be unlocked if you’ve already grinded the KV-3 fully.)

-Tier 8 is the infamous IS-3, a good tank with a very strong turret and good mobility, with a gun comparable in performance to the IS-7’s, just at a lower tier. IS-3 has very weak hull armour against same tier and higher tier enemies, so it relies on flat ground hulldown positions to make its armour work. Though its front is fairly weak, it can reliably bounce tier 7 tanks, and the turret sides are strong, and hull sides have troll inverse angles (like an IS-7). Gun depression is -5 degrees. Overall this is still a good tank but requires a bit more skill than most heavies due to its more derpy gun, weak hull, and poor gun depression.

IS-3 has an ok stock grind, just like the previous tank. It has the same stock guns, able to mount any of the 3 guns from the IS, the stock 122mm (from KV-1S), the middle 122mm (from IS), or the 100mm (from IS).

The best guns to mount when grinding the IS-3 from stock are either the middle 122mm gun (D-25T), due to its very high DPM for a 122mm gun; or the 100mm gun (D-10T) for more reliable accuracy and penetration than the 122mm.
First upgrade the tracks. Like the KV-1, the stock tracks give the tank terrible terrain resistances, and are the main reason the tank slows down. Tracks also improve gun handling. Next upgrade to the top gun (122mm BL-9), this gun can be mounted on the stock turret, and gives a huge penetration increase and accuracy improvement from the stock 122mm guns.
Upgrade the turret last, since it doesn’t improve reload time for any gun, and only gives higher HP and slightly improved turret armour. Even IS-3’s stock turret has great armour.

The engine upgrade is fully optional, it only adds 50 horsepower, so if you didn’t get it from the IS, it doesn’t add a huge benefit to the IS-3, and its not used on the IS-8. If you want to skip it then there’s no harm in doing so (however, do note that this engine is used on the ISU-152 and Obj. 704, in case you want to research them in the future).

-Tier 9 is the IS-8 (or T-10), its an incredible tank featuring many similar traits to the IS-3. Its hull armour is weak, but turret is strong. Gun depression is only -5, but has great mobility and amazing 45km top speed. The selling point of the IS-8 is its insane gun, with very high DPM for 420 alpha, incredible penetration, great accuracy, and amazing gun handling. This tank is the most skill requiring in the line, since it has no hull armour whatsoever, and relies heavily on its speed and gun to work in battle.

The stock version of this tank is also ok, just like with the IS-3. Its stock turret armour is much weaker, but it can mount the top gun without needing to be upgraded. The stock engine and tracks are usable, just like with the KV-1S. The very stock gun should not be used, the middle BL-9 gun from the IS-3 should be used as it has decent penetration and better accuracy. At tier 9 the D-25T is unusable as a gun, even when stock.

Recommended upgrade path is to get the top 122mm gun first, then either the engine/tracks, or the turret, depending on what you prefer to have in your gameplay (either speed or armour). Eventually you’ll get both but when stock you have to decide which to get first.

-Tier 10 is the IS-7, which embodies the same traits throughout this tech tree: good mobility, strong turret armour, high alpha, and mediocre gun depression. Where the IS-7 really differs from all previous tanks is in its hull armour, which is extremely reliable from the front, and very troll on the sides.

IS-7 is actually the biggest contrast to the IS-8, and is actually more similar to the IS-3 in gameplay. It relies more on its hulldown positioning, hiding its lower plate, and occasionally relying on the troll hull and turret side armour (which the IS-3 also has). Its DPM is fairly low, reload is fairly long, and accuracy fairly poor (all like the IS-3, and unlike the IS-8), and its speed is good but not breaking any records (in contrast to the IS-8, and more like the IS-3).

You’ll have to kind of un-learn much of the IS-8’s gameplay, since the IS-7 relies so much less on its gun, and so much more on its frontal and side armour. Its not hard to get used to though, since strong hull armour is so easy to use in battle.

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