Type 5 Heavy

Last updated on 28 August, 2025.

Type 5 Heavy is a tier 10 Japanese superheavy tank. It features solid all-round protection on its armour, though its among the least mobile of tier 10 heavy tanks. It mounts a 152mm gun with massive alpha damage but low penetration.

Armour

(The Type 5 Heavy in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

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

(Penetration representing a regular heavy tank not using calibrated shells)

Drag slider right -> to view 275mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 367mm HEAT

(Penetration representing a heavy tank with calibrated shells)

Armour when facing head on:
Upper plate 345mm
Upper plate weakpoints 260mm
Angled mid plate 880mm
Lower plate 300mm
Lower plate weakpoints 230mm

Turret face 330-335mm
Cupola 250mm

Hull side armour:
The base side armour of the Type 5 is 140mm thick behind the tracks, with the tracks being 25mm thick, and a 50mm sideskirt covering this area.

Base side armour above the tracks is 110mm thick, with the 50mm sideskirt also covering this area.

Turret side armour:
The turret side is split in 2 halves, the front half is 200mm base thickness, and the rear half is 80mm base thickness.

Armour vs all tier 9-10 enemies:
The main thing to know with the armour is, it’s very hard to deal with if the enemy isn’t using calibrated shells & premium ammo.

Tier 9s:
-Mediums can’t penetrate anywhere except small weakpoints. Even with calibrated shells, only the lower plate is a viable area to shoot (and that’s only if they use HEAT).
-Heavies can penetrate only the lower plate and weakpoints if they use premium ammo. If they have calibrated shells & HEAT, then the upper plate & turret are also penetrable.

Tier 10s:
-Mediums still can’t penetrate anywhere except the weakpoints. If using calibrated shells, then the lower plate and turret (when not angled) will be penetrable.
-Heavies have the same performance as tier 9 heavies. Without calibrated shells, they can’t penetrate the turret front or upper plate easily unless they have very high base penetration (such as Type 71, AMX 50B, or T110E5).

Gun

The Type 5 Heavy mounts a 152mm gun.

Firepower:
-Ammo: AP/AP/HE.
-Penetration: 255/205/82mm.
-Alpha damage: 700/800/1100
-Reload time is 18.1s for a total of 2325 DPM on AP (or 2657 on premium AP).

Handling:
–Estimated aim time is 4.6/4.9s
–Base aim time is 3.15s, but it can get down to 2.42s
-Dispersion is 0.407/346
–Gun handling is 0.2/0.22/0.13, or 0.18/0.19/0.11 with Vertical Stabilizer.

Usability:
-Shell velocities are 500/650/400 m/s.
-Gun depression is -8 degrees around the entire tank.

Overall this is a good gun. Considering its alpha damage, its accuracy and gun handling aren’t insanely bad. Its definitely not an accurate gun, but for doing 700-800 alpha, its definitely not terrible gun handling.

Similar for the DPM, its definitely not good, but its not unusable since you are doing such a big amount of damage and you can easily make trades. The low penetration and shell velocities will be the main causes for either missing or bouncing, and facing hulldown enemies will often require either good aim or just HE spam.

Mobility

Raw stats:
-Forward speed is 27km/h.
-Reverse speed is -15km/h.
-Raw acceleration rate is 10.5 hp/t.
-Engine power is 2113 horsepower for its 202 ton weight.

Hard terrain mobility:
-Actual acceleration is 10.5 hp/t.
-Traverse speed is 27.2 deg/s.

Medium terrain mobility:
-Actual acceleration is 8.7 hp/t.
-Traverse speed is 22.7 deg/s.

Terrain resistance stats:
–Terrain resistances are 1/1.2/1.6

Overall this isn’t terrible mobility. Its comparable to the Maus’s mobility level, but slightly faster. For how much armour this tank has its not a terrible mobility level, though it is noticeably less than other heavy tanks. The tank generally looks faster than it actually is, just due to it being the biggest tank in the game.

Equipment, Consumables, & Provisions

Type 5 Heavy has no special consumables or provisions.

Calibrated Shells:
Despite having a very long reload, gun rammer is not a good choice for the Type 5 Heavy tank.

Calibrated shells is a much better choice, since even though it lowers the DPM and makes the reload around 1s slower, it improves the shot effectiveness of the tank by increasing its penetration (and thus increasing its fighting ability against thicker armour plates).

Think that this tank doesn’t shoot often, but when it does, its damage is massive. You want to try make sure that the massive damage doesn’t bounce off and waste your 18-19s reload.
Calibrated shells improves the penetration on AP from 255mm to 275mm, on premium AP from 205mm to 221mm, and on HE from 82mm to 89mm.

Enhanced Armour:
The Type 5 heavy has 2800 base HP, which is among the highest in tier 10. Improving it would be great, however consider that bouncing even 1 shot from an enemy is worth more HP than the 112 HP from improved assembly.

Enhanced armour is far more beneficial, as it pushes the armour thickness of the turret & upper plate just over the normal premium penetration level of tier 10 heavies, which is around 325-335mm.
Enhanced armour will improve the Type 5 heavy’s front by around 10-15mm effective thickness on any area.

Vertical Stabilizer/Refined Gun:
This choice is really down to personal choice. Try out the tank first with your usual preferred equipment and see how it feels.

Vertical stabilizer can be good due to the mediocre gun handling and poor base aim time of the tank, whereas refined gun can help to snap shots in a bit better and give overall improved accuracy when you get aimed in.

Gameplay advice

Overall gameplay of the Type 5 Heavy is similar to other superheavies, sort of like a mix between E 100 and Maus, but with bigger damage than both.

General gameplay:
The Type 5 Heavy is very large and also slower than nearly all other tanks in the tier, so it should be taken to the heavy flank. The larger cover should help to keep the tank hidden, especially if you are facing multiple enemies at different angles.

Do try to aim shots as much as you can. The tank isn’t insanely inaccurate, but aiming does take a bit of time, and you have to consider the shell velocity of the shells. With the lower penetration of premium AP, you will have to aim most shots decently well against enemy heavy tanks.

Be wary of enemies at different angles. The sides of the Type 5 are vulnerable and if you have to constantly turn your turret or hull face different enemies, your 2.8k HP will just be a free farm for enemies.

Also watch out for faster tanks (mediums & lights), since you have a very slow combined traverse speed on the hull and turret, and a massive size profile. A good medium player can easily circle around you and you won’t be able to catch them.

AP use:
Use premium AP as your “standard” ammo, the reason is that this is the lower penetration shell, and if you can’t penetrate an enemy, you’ll be able to switch immediately to a different shell.

If you are using standard AP as default and only using premium AP when you think you can penetrate, you’ll be missing many opportunities for extra damage.

Standard AP should only be used if you can’t penetrate with premium AP. And if you can’t penetrate with either, use HE.

Use HE:
Use it whenever possible, as the HE has very good penetration (89mm with calibrated shells), and very high damage of 1100. Its still worth using against tanks with spall liner and it will do more than your premium AP.

Also use the HE for splashing enemies which you can’t penetrate. Due to its high damage, you can generally still do around 400 damage with a non-penetration if you hit close to a roof deck or engine deck.

Angling armour:
The reason to angle is to make the lower plate stronger, and make the weakpoints on the hull a bit more challenging to hit.

However, you have to be careful due to the angled hull “shoulders” on the edge of the upper plate. These are 210mm base thickness, and make it so that the Type 5 always has a weakpoint when angling or sidescraping.

Try to turn the hull to face the enemy if you see them aiming for that hull shoulder weakpoint, and turn it away if they are going for the lower plate or upper plate weakpoints.

Trades:
When fighting any enemy, always trade in damage, not in DPM.

This means when an enemy shoots you, you shoot them back to trade damage. Since your alpha is so high, you will win the trade nearly always. After shooting you have to try avoid being damaged, since your reload is long, but taking another shot would cause your trading to be less effective, losing you more HP.

Overall

Armour – 8/10
Gun – 7/10
Mobility – 3/10
Speed – 2.5/10

Type 5 Heavy is overall a great tank.

Armour is very solid all round. Turret, upper, and lower plate are strong, with small weakpoints. Side armour is very thick and hard to HESH.
Gun is good, massive alpha with decent penetration, and great HE shells. Accuracy, aim time, & gun handling are unimpressive but don’t feel too terrible. Shell velocities are very slow, gun depression is -8 degrees.
Mobility is slow, its terrain resistances are good, but acceleration rate and traverse speed are both among the slowest of tier 10.
Speed is slow at 27km/h.

Is it worth getting?

When considering this tank, its important to remember that even if you are a good player who can aim for weakpoints or often use calibrated shells, the majority of Blitz players don’t even use equipment. This is important for the effectiveness of the Type 5’s armour. You may not struggle to deal with it, but for the general player, its armour will cause them some issues.

With that in consideration, this tank is worth it. It has very effective armour for most situations, it has a unique ammo configuration with massive damage for trading, and its mobility isn’t terrible, all things considered. It offers quite a lot of different and desirable traits compared to tanks such as E 100 or 60TP, while still keeping a relatively similar gameplay feel.

The Type 5 Heavy is worth 22,000 gold. Its a great tank, its unique, and its definitely fun to play if you enjoy having big damage and strong armour.

Most recently sold for:

Release in crates – August 2025

Legendary Camos:

“Hakage” camo, 3D, non-animated. Costs [unknown] gold.

“Seikai” camo, 2D, non-animated. Costs [unknown] gold. Not released.

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