Ke-Ni vs Ke-Ni Otsu

Ke-Ni Otsu, one of the rarest tanks in the game with a reputation for being broken and unbalanced.

Ke-Ni, a tank which many players may not even know exists, looking nearly identical to the Otsu, and since being removed from the tech tree has only been available once.

Both fairly unknown tanks, especially to new players or high tier exclusive players. Due to their visual and statistical similarity, along with the misleading reputation of the Ke-Ni Otsu, this comparison will briefly review the stats of the two tanks and compare their competitiveness and overall feel in battle.

Visually, the way you can tell these tanks apart easiest is by the type of suspension, however the frontal hull angling is also slightly different, and the Otsu has the old stock turret of the Ke-Ni, which is flatter.

Ke-Ni Otsu basic overview

Ke-Ni Otsu is a tank that excels in DPM and gun depression, with almost x2 more DPM than most tanks in tier 3. Other than this its not good at much, with terrible armour, very low HP, mediocre mobility, and average to poor gun stats in areas other than DPM.

History in game:
-Sold in 2015 for roughly 20 minutes before being removed from sale. It was meant to have a 9s reload instead of the 2.9s reload it was released with.

-Remained untouched in update 5.5, gun stood out even more due all other tanks having lowered DPM and alpha, and the tank could farm more damage due to increased HP of other tanks in the tier.

-Enormously powercrept in updates 5.7-7.1, when other tanks all gradually received increased alpha, and DPM back to their old levels. Otsu’s gun stood out due to low penetration and low alpha, and now a lesser difference in DPM.

Ke-Ni basic overview

Ke-Ni is a tank that really excels in many areas, with an amazing 2-shot autoloader with high alpha and DPM, good mobility, and great aim time and gun depression. It has no armour at all.

History in game:
-Added in update 2.4 as part of the Japanese medium tech tree line

-Removed from tech tree in update 5.5, clip size nerfed from 4 shells to 2 shells, alpha damage nerfed from 40 to 30, reload time buffed from 9s to 6.4s. Penetration was buffed, stock modules were removed.

-Buffed between updates 5.7 to 7.1 to have 65 alpha damage, everything else remained the same.

-August 2022, free bundle in the in-game store, first time available since removal.

Comparing stats

For convenience and visualization, Blitzstars tankcompare is used for this section. Its a very useful tool for comparing tank stats, but doesn’t show 100% of the stats, check out the site here.

Gun:
-The Otsu has far higher DPM, but outputs it in a less effective way than the Ke-Ni (explained below).

-Otsu has worse penetration and velocity on all ammo types, but it does carry HE, which Ke-Ni doesn’t have access to.

-Though the Otsu has slightly better handling on move, its worse on turret traverse, and its aim time is far worse.

-Gun depression (not shown) is the same on the front, -15 degrees. Over the sides the Otsu has -11, but the Ke-Ni has -14

Conclusion: In all areas other than raw DPM, the Ke-Ni has a better gun, with just better stats for everything.

Mobility:
-Both tanks have the same top speeds.

-Otsu has worse engine power, which is significant, these 2 tanks both weigh the same 7.2 tons. Its raw acceleration rate is worse.

-Otsu has better effective acceleration rate on hard terrain, but worse on medium.

-The traverse speeds shown here are misleading, as the numbers shown are stock values for hard terrain.
On hard terrain the Otsu traverses faster, but on medium its traverse speed is far slower due to its large disparity in terrain resistance.

Conclusion: The Ke-Ni is more mobile, since tier 3 tanks don’t get put on maps with large amounts of hard terrain, so the Otsu is generally just less mobile.

Durability and other:
-Otsu has better credit making ability, it was originally a premium, and still is. The Ke-Ni used to be a tech tree tank.

-Otsu has 90 less HP, which is an enormous amount in tier 3. The Ke-Ni has 23% higher HP than the Otsu. When equipped, the Otsu has 413 HP, and Ke-Ni has 509 HP.

-The two tanks have the same weight, 7.2 tons. The weight shown on the site is incorrect.

-The tanks have identical armour profiles.

Conclusion: The Ke-Ni wins in durability as well, though neither tanks have armour, the Ke-Ni can actually take hits, which the Otsu can’t afford to do.

Gameplay of Ke-Ni Otsu

Long and wordy section, if you don’t want the details of why, skip to the “Which tank is better?” section for a summary.

Both tanks are played in a fairly similar way due to having the same armour and same frontal gun depression. This and the next section will compare the two tanks, this one focusses on the Otsu, the next one focusses on the Ke-Ni.

Firing the gun of the Otsu, you immediately notice a few things:
-It takes so long to unload damage, its 2.01s, compared to the 0.67s of the regular Ke-Ni
-Your alpha is low, you only hit for 40, if you miss or bounce a single shot, 25% of your clip damage is gone.
-Penetration is extremely low, you can’t penetrate the front or even sides of many higher tier tanks, but you will even struggle against quite a few same-tier tanks.
-Your reload is extremely fast, 3s with calibrated shells? You can basically reload whenever you want without any penalty.
-Your accuracy is ok but not great, its hard to hit longer range shots due to the aim time combined with poor shell velocity and accuracy.
-You have to use a large amount of premium AP, further reducing your DPM and alpha. 36 alpha with 1728 DPM (1750 if using vents)

Playing the Otsu, you will notice:
-It turns very slowly, its a light tank, but it doesn’t feel very mobile due to poor medium terrain traverse speed. Its top speed and acceleration feel fine, but the hull turn rate is slow.
-It feels very flexible, its very small size and amazing frontal gun depression allow it to use essentially any position you can think of.
-The gun feels awkward, you have to shoot so many times, you have to be exposed to the enemy for a full 2 seconds, the enemy hits you so hard, yet your “high DPM” isn’t dealing with the enemy quickly enough. Basically, in the current tier 3 meta, the Otsu does not burst out damage quickly. Compare it to the Ke-Ni’s burst (shown below).
-The HP is low with only 413 HP, the lowest alpha tier 3 tank that’s not the Otsu does 50 damage. One hit from this takes away a full 12.1% of your HP. The scariest tank you could face is a Covenanter, which does a 220 alpha burst, that takes away 53.3% of your HP.

Gameplay of Ke-Ni

Firing the gun of the Ke-Ni, you will notice:
-It unloads damage extremely fast, only taking 0.67s to deal a 130 alpha burst, the Otsu would only have done 80 damage in the same time, with much worse penetration and aim.
-Alpha damage is not lower than the average in tier 3, even if you only hit 1 shot and reload, you damage is still a good 65
-Reload time is quick, its not insane like the Otsu’s 3s, but 6.5s is still an extremely flexible and quick reload, especially considering the Ke-Ni’s more favourable burst.
-Penetration is fairly low, but its a significant improvement over the Otsu. The Ke-Ni does still struggle to penetrate tier 4 heavy tanks, but its significantly better equipped at doing so.
-You have very quick aim time, this combined with better shell velocity, and only a 2 shell burst, makes the Ke-Ni a much more effective and dangerous damage dealer.
-You have to use premium AP much less than on the Otsu due to having 10mm better standard AP penetration, but when you do need premium, you lose much less DPM.
The smaller magazine size means you only lose 5 alpha per shot with only 2 shots, compared to the Otsu which loses 4 alpha but with 4 shots per magazine.

Playing the Ke-Ni, you will notice:
-Its more mobile than the Otsu. In tier 3 matchmaking, you don’t get on “hard terrain maps”, maps which are about 80%+ hard terrain, such as New Bay, Himmelsdorf, or Dynasty’s Pearl.
In tier 3, you are only put on maps with mainly medium terrain, so medium terrain mobility is what matters on these tanks, and the Ke-Ni just has better acceleration and much more comfortable traverse speed than the Otsu.

-Its extremely flexible, with amazing gun depression all round and an small size profile. This can use all the same positions the Otsu can, but even better, as it has an extra 3 degrees of gun depression on the sides.
-The gun feels very comfortable, quick aim, decent penetration, high alpha burst with fast intra clip, and a quick clip reload.
-The HP is still low, but significantly more than the Otsu. If the Ke-Ni with its 509 HP gets hit by the same 50 alpha gun, it only loses 9.8% HP (2.3% less HP lost per shot).
The scariest gun it can face is the Covenanter’s gun with a 220 damage burst, but unlike the Otsu, the Ke-Ni would actually be able to survive 2 of these bursts; it would take away 43.2% of the tank’s HP (10.1% less HP lost compared to Otsu).

Which tank is better?

If you have read the above sections, its probably quite clear already which is the better tank.

The Ke-Ni just outclasses the Ke-Ni Otsu in every way other than its raw DPM.
Does the raw DPM even matter?
The Ke-Ni’s effective DPM output is higher than the Otsu, as it just hits and penetrates more shots, those shots also deal more damage, and lose less DPM when using premium ammo. It can also actually trade damage, as it actually has the HP needed to do so, but also because its intra-clip is so short, and its overall burst is only 30 damage less than the Otsu.
It does this burst in only 2 shots instead of 4, and these 2 shots are far more accurate and with higher penetration. The Ke-Ni only needs 0.67s to shoot, the Ke-Ni Otsu needs 2.01s, and its also far more likely to bounce or miss than the regular Ke-Ni.

The Ke-Ni is a far more competitive and stronger tank than the Otsu. The Ke-Ni is arguably overpowered in tier 3 due to its amazing damage capabilities, with flexible gun angles, great aim time, alpha, DPM, and good mobility.
Its a bit like a Bourrasque, but with insane aim time, intra-clip, magazine reloads, and gun depression.

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