Last updated on 04 May, 2025.
Definition
Shell normalization is how much the shell “takes away” from the angling of enemy armour. The enemy armour MUST be angled for shell normalization to affect it.
AP has 5 degrees of shell normalization
APCR has 2 degrees of shell normalization
HEAT and HE do not normalize.
Why is this important?
Shell normalization effectively worsens the enemy tank’s angled armour. This is why when you look at tank’s armour in game, it may appear different to the armour values that were shown by armour viewing websites.
Example:
Left image shows 276mm of AP penetration.
Middle image shows 276mm of APCR penetration.
Right image shows 276mm HEAT penetration.
Armour viewers such as Blitzhangar or Gamemodels3d will tell you the upper plate’s thickness with no normalization, which is what HEAT sees. For a live armour view like the one above, use BlitzKit.
(Note that this is from tanks.gg, a website for WoT, as this page was created before BlitzKit, which provides a live armour view for Blitz.)
What doesn’t shell normalization work on?
Flat armour:
If the armour is angled, then shell normalization makes a big difference, as shown above.
However, against flat armour, normalization makes no difference, as the armour is already as normalized as it gets, being perfectly perpendicular to the angle of penetration.
For example, the Excelsior’s flat turret face, which is 120mm thick with 0 degrees of angling, is exactly 120mm of effective armour when enemies shoot at it in game. This is due to it being completely flat armour.
Auto-ricochet plates:
Armour plates with more than a 70 degree angling, will not be affected by the normalization mechanic. However, as soon as the armour plate becomes less than 70 degrees, normalization will work against it.
Why?
The game checks for the 3-caliber rule (auto-ricochet) before checking normalization. If the shell ricochets off armour completely then its not going to need a penetration calculation.
Armour with more nominal thickness than your penetration:
In the example shown below, the Tortoise’s armour plate next to the gun is 422mm thick (with enhanced armour on). The Obj.268 shoots it with 418mm HEAT, the shot penetrated 5/10 times (this was tested).
The Ho-Ri shoots it with 399mm AP, the shot penetrated 0/10 times (this was also tested).
Even though the AP shell of the Ho-Ri normalizes more than the HEAT shell of the Obj.268, it had no chance of penetrating the armour plate, just because its actual penetration was not high enough.
Notice how the armour highlight for the Ho-Ri is fully red, but for the Obj.268 there’s more grey.
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