T-34-85 Breakthrough

Last updated on 05 June, 2025.

T-34-85 Breakthrough is a tier 7 Soviet medium tank. This tank has a solid armour profile when its top-tier, with decent mobility, good gun handling, but quite low DPM for its alpha damage.

1. Armour
2. Gun
3. Mobility
4. Equipment, Consumables, & Provisions
5. Gameplay advice
6. Overall
7. Is it worth getting?
8. Most recently sold for:
9. Legendary Camos:

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Armour

(The T-34-85 Breakthrough in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

Drag slider right -> to view 160mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 208mm APCR

Drag slider right -> to view 150mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 194mm APCR

Armour when facing head on:
Upper plate 170mm
MG Port 170mm
Track links 185mm
Lower plate 205mm

Turret front 120-180mm
Turret ring 150mm
Gun mantlet 170mm
Cupola 145mm

Side armour:
Side armour is 45mm behind the tracks, with the tracks being 20mm thick. The side armour above the tracks is 55mm and angled, making it 70mm effective.

Armour vs tier 6:
Against tier 6 enemies, the T-34-85 has good hull armour. Its able to easily bounce most enemies (125-150mm), and it can just slightly angle the hull for the higher penetration enemies. If enemies use premium ammo, then the hull becomes weak and easy to penetrate.

The turret is also quite reliable, though it does have a weakpoint on each side of the gun mantlet which is penetrable to any tier 6.

Armour vs tier 7:
Facing tier 7 enemies, all heavy tanks & tank destroyers can go through the hull armour with no issues. 

All medium & light tanks (except T-34/100 and tanks using calibrated shells)will struggle to penetrate the hull armour if you are using enhanced armour. Just angling the hull slightly will almost guarantee that any shot will bounce off, which would force enemies to use premium ammo. All premium ammo from any tank can penetrate the hull.

The turret is fairly strong except for the weakpoints on each side of the gun mantlet, which are penetrable to all tier 7 tanks.

Armour vs tier 8:
Against tier 8 tanks, the hull armour won’t be able to bounce at all, unless you are facing a very low penetration tank (and angling the hull or using gun depression), such as the LT-432 with 175mm APCR.

The turret is also quite weak, as many enemies will be able to penetrate the gun mantlet.

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Gun

The T-34-85 Breakthough mounts an 85mm gun.

Firepower:
-Ammo: AP/APCR/HE.
-Penetration: 155/190/44mm.
-Alpha damage: 190/160/270.
-Reload time is 5.1s giving it 2227 DPM.

Handling:
–Estimated aim time is 3.3/3.5s
–Base aim time is 2.2s, but it can get down to 1.66s
-Dispersion is 0.326/0.277
–Gun handling is 0.12/0.13/0.09, or 0.1/0.11/0.08 with Vertical Stabilizer.

Usability:
-Shell velocities are 950/1070/950 m/s.
-Gun depression is -7 degrees around the entire tank, except the rear where its -4.

Overall this is a decent gun. It has low DPM and alpha damage for a tier 7 (most 85mm guns have around 300-400 more DPM), it has good standard penetration but low premium penetration, and its aim time is mediocre. However the gun does have good accuracy and gun handling, making it quite reliable.

The main issues with this gun are its low DPM & alpha damage combination for being an 85mm gun, but the tank does make up for it by having good armour against tier 6-7s (it just means its not really great at fighting tier 8s).

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Mobility

Raw stats:
-Forward speed is 49km/h.
-Reverse speed is -20km/h.
-Raw acceleration rate is 19.4 hp/t.
-Engine power is 650hp for the 34 ton weight.

Hard terrain mobility:
-Actual acceleration is 19.4 hp/t.
-Traverse speed is 60.6 deg/s.

Medium terrain mobility:
-Actual acceleration is 14.9 hp/t.
-Traverse speed is 46.6 deg/s.

Terrain resistance stats:
–Terrain resistances are 1/1.3/1.5

This is overall mediocre mobility for a medium tank. Top speed is unimpressive, and while the mobility on hard terrain is good, its mediocre on medium terrain. Considering medium terrain is the most prominent terrain type in game, that’s the important stat; and the tank is noticeably slow at turning and accelerating on medium terrain.

Considering the armour of the hull, its mobility is somewhat justified (but in tier 8 where the armour doesn’t work, it just makes the tank much harder to use).

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Equipment, Consumables, & Provisions

T-34-85 Breakthrough has access to the Improved Engine Power Boost Consumable.

Improved Engine Power Boost is mandatory on this tank. The T-34-85 Breakthrough has mediocre mobility when on medium terrain, making this consumable very useful when needing to run away. When activated, the consumable gives an extra 4-6 hp/t and 15-19 degrees/s traverse speed, depending on what terrain type you’re on. It also increases top speeds to +53/-28.

Gun Rammer:
Due to this tank being placed in tier 7, gun rammer is mandatory. Tier 7 is a tier balanced by very high DPM, and low penetration, which puts the T-34-85 Breakthrough at a big DPM disadvantage compared to its tier. While the armour will hold up for a while, you still need the DPM that gun rammer gives to be competitive against enemy tier 7 mediums.

Gun rammer would reduce the reload time from 5.4 to 5.1s, and increase DPM from 2116 to 2227.

Enhanced Armour:
One of the main traits of the T-34-85 Breakthrough is its armour, using this equipment would maximize on that. If not using enhanced armour, then you may as well play a different tank with better gun & mobility traits.

Enhanced armour mainly benefits the hull armour:
Upper plate from 170mm to 176mm
MG Port from 170mm to 177mm
Track links from 185mm to 191mm
Lower plate from 205mm to 213mm

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Vertical Stabilizer/Refined Gun:
Considering that this tank has mediocre aim time, but good gun handling and accuracy, both equipment pieces can be good.

Vertical stabilizer will help to balance out that poor aim time a bit by improving the gun handling, making the gun aim in slightly faster.
Refined gun will min-max on the accuracy, making the tank very good at snapping shots without much aiming, but the aiming time itself doesn’t improve.

Gameplay advice

Its very important to note how the T-34-85 Breakthough’s “traits” differ depending on what enemies its facing.

When facing against:
All tier 6 tanks – It has very good armour (for MT) with good DPM.
Tier 7 MT/LT – It has good armour with low DPM.
Tier 7 HT/TD – It has weak armour outside of using gun depression with decent DPM.
Tier 8 HT – It has weak armour in all situations with low damage & DPM.

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Essentially, when you fight tier 7 mediums & lights, and when fighting tier 6 tanks, you can rely on the armour; but when facing tier 7 heavies, or tier 8 tanks, you can’t use that armour at all.

Tier 6-7 match gameplay:

Angle & wiggle:
Try to angle & wiggle the hull, the armour is good but doing this makes it stronger and more troll. It will make the MG port and track links (strong points on the hull) more likely to bait a shot from enemies due to the erratic movement, and the constantly moving hull will cause its armour to vary and harder to penetrate (especially if enemies almost have enough penetration to go through.

Trade damage & DPM:
When facing tier 6 enemies, 190 alpha is often higher than most medium & light tanks, and your 2.2k DPM is definitely higher. Utilize this combined with your armour, against isolated enemies you can generally quickly finish them off.

Don’t facehug:
Since this tank’s armour relies a lot on good angling (and isn’t thick enough to bounce head-on), you can’t get in a facehug situation, as it will completely ruin the effectiveness of the hull armour. Enemies in close range or looking down on your armour will easily be able to penetrate the upper plate with standard ammo, even with low penetration.

Tier 7-8 match gameplay:

Don’t rely on armour:
In a battle where you are bottom tier, the only enemies that you will be able to bounce are the tier 7 enemy light and medium tanks. Tier 8 lights and mediums will not bounce off your armour except for some random and lucky bounces.

Be wary of your DPM & alpha:
When fighting tier 7-8 enemies, both your DPM and your single-shot damage are low. Most of the time you can’t out DPM enemies, and your 190 alpha isn’t good enough to damage trade unless facing a very low alpha enemy.
Your best option is to try put in 2 shots for every 1 against enemies with high alpha (280-310+), since enemies with 200-240 alpha generally have the same or even better reload than you.

Utilize the speed boost:
In tier 8 matches, this is more important. You may need to run away more often, since if a flank falls or your ally dies, there is no chance for you to use your armour or gun to win against a tier 7-8 enemy alone. You’ll need the speed boost to run away, since your mobility is mediocre, and you need to stay near allies to play the support role.

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The gameplay of this tank varies greatly depending on the tier of the match. When you fight tier 6-7s, you can rely on the armour and even use it to your advantage, it helps balance out the downsides of the gun and the mobility.
However, when you fight tier 7-8s, you essentially have to play a support role, as your armour won’t work, your gun has low alpha & DPM, and your mobility is mediocre.

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Overall

Armour (top tier)– 8/10
Armour (bottom tier) – 5/10
Gun – 4/10
Mobility – 4/10
Speed – 5/10

T-34-85 Breakthrough is overall an average tank.

Armour when top-tier is very good, with great upper plate & lower plate armour, the ability to angle, and a decently strong turret. 
Armour when bottom-tier is weak, and no better than the average tier 7 medium, as tier 8 penetration will butter through most areas of the armour.
Gun is mediocre, low DPM for its low 190 alpha, with poor premium penetration. It has good accuracy, gun handling, & -7 gun depression.
Mobility is mediocre, its hard terrain mobility is good, but on medium terrain its traverse speed and acceleration are both noticeable. Reverse speed is also average at -20km/h.
Speed is average, 49km/h.

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Is it worth getting?

If you are interested in having a medium with reliable armour (but only in top-tier battles), then the tank is worth getting. In terms of its gameplay its a fairly unique medium, since when its top tier it has good armour and quite a unique gameplay feel due to it.

Unfortunately the issue is that its armour is terrible when facing high tier tanks. Consider that the tank’s good armour is balanced by mediocre gun and mobility, then when fighting tier 8s (where it has no armour), it has nothing to utilize/help it against those tanks.

The T-34-84 Breakthrough is worth 3,000 gold. Its not the best tank but when it does get into a top tier match it can be very strong and interesting to play. Other times when you face tier 8s, it just feels pointless as other tanks with 85mm guns just have far better stats to deal with tier 8 enemies.

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Most recently sold for:

Release by free subscription – June 2025

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Legendary Camos:

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