Type 57

Type 57 is a tier 8 Japanese heavy tank. It features a high alpha gun with good gun handling, a good mobility and a very strong engine, and great armour. Its downsides are long aim time, reload time, and quite a large lower plate.

Armour

(The Type 57 in the images is using Improved Assembly)
Image slider may take a few seconds to load

Drag slider Right -> to view 225mm AP
Drag slider <- Left to view 265mm APCR

Armour on flat ground:
Upper plate 320mm
Lower plate 170-235mm
Turret 270-300mm
Cupola 95mm

Using -9 gun depression:

Upper plate 595mm
Turret 250-300mm

Notice how tall the lower plate is, be careful not to expose it while hulldown.

vs 225mm AP

Note the angling of the side armour, it makes it very troll, even when its nearly flat-on to the enemy gun.

Type 57 can sidescrape decently. Its lower plate doesn’t extend all the way forward, and front drivewheel can’t be penetrated since there is just air behind.

VS tier 7:
When faced against tier 7 enemies, the only weakpoints will be the center of the lower plate, and the cupola on the turret.

The 2 angled edges of the lower plate will be strong enough to bounce most enemies in tier 7

VS tier 8:
When on flat ground against tier 8 enemies, only the cupola and lower plate are weakpoints.
When using gun depression there will be a few small weakpoints around the gun (shown above), but these are still quite easy to miss, and enemies have to use premium ammunition to have a chance of penetrating.

VS tier 9:
Upper plate is still very strong, only very few tanks that have 330-340mm of premium penetration even have a chance to penetrate the upper plate.
When using the -9 gun depression, most tier 9s will still need premium ammo to have a good chance of penetrating the turret.

Playing against a Type 57:
Weaker with gun depression
-This is one of the few tanks in game where its turret is actually weaker when using gun depression. If against one, just know you have a better chance to penetrate the turret if it uses gun depression.
-If you’re the one playing the Type 57, try going hulldown in positions where no gun depression is needed, such as behind a short rock or balcony.

Driver hatch weakspot
-Its the only grey spot on the upper plate, if a Type 57 facehugs your tank, aim for the driver hatch on the hull, or commander hatch on the turret; if they turn the turret to stop you going for the hatch, hit the turret cheeks since it has weak turret sides.
-If you’re in the Type 57, keep your gun in the enemy’s face, and continuously turn the hull so they can’t shoot the driver hatch.

Superheavy tracks
Don’t be baited by a Type 57 that’s overangled in a sidescrape, the upper sides are angled in a < shape, and underneath that part its a relatively flat 79mm armour. The tracks are 40mm thick, which is double the thickness of most heavy tanks, so the lower sides are really around 120mm of total armour.

40mm rear
The Type 57’s rear armour is only 40mm, most tanks can HE this area, so if you have the back of a Type 57, shoot HE at it.

Gun

Type 57 mounts a 127mm gun

-Alpha damage is 430 on AP, 380 on HEAT, and 570 on HE
-It has a 13.5s reload, giving it 1915 DPM
-Penetration on AP is 218mm, HEAT has 260mm, and HE has 65mm.
–Estimated aim time is 5s/5.5s
–Base aim time is 3.3s, but it can get down to 2.69s
-Dispersion is 0.380/0.342
–Gun handling is 0.18/0.18/0.15, or 0.15/0.15/0.13 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -9 degrees

Overall this is a good gun. Though its not the most accurate or quick aiming, it does have big alpha damage, decent penetration, great gun handling, and great gun depression. Overall this is a great gun for a heavy tank, and it performs far better than the 122mm heavies in tier 8.

If you need to quickly snap in an accurate shot, you can activate the reticle calibration consumable this tank has.

Mobility

-Top speed is 39km/h, and reverse speed is -15km/h
-Traverse speed on hard terrain is 33.2 deg/s, and on medium terrain its 30.4 deg/s
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 15.2hp/t, it has a strong 948 horsepower engine for its 62 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration is 13.8hp/t on hard terrain, and 12.7 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are at 1.1/1.2/1.7

This is an amazing mobility profile for a heavy tank. It has high top speed, very good acceleration, and great ground resistances. Unlike many heavies, the Type 57 hardly loses mobility by going off-road. The traverse speed on this tank is quite average, but is compensated for by the great terrain resistances, which mean it hardly loses mobility when going off-road.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

Type 57 has sandbag armour and reticle calibration for special consumables/provisions. (It does not get the special equipment of tech tree Japanese HT.)

Provisions:
10% food – Especially necessary for improving the reload, aim time, accuracy, and traverse speed of this tank, it also helps with other stats such as view range.
10% fuel – Greatly improves the mobility, but importantly the traverse speed.
6% sandbag armour – This is free HP for your tank. It adds an extra 108 HP, and is a better provision to use than any alternative on this tank.

Consumables:
Reticle Calibration is essential on this tank. It has a huge caliber gun with high alpha, this consumable lets it become ultra accurate for a short period of time
Sometimes you will need to take a long range shot, or not have time to fully aim, that’s when this consumable will come in very useful. No other large caliber heavy has reticle calibration so use it as an advantage against enemies.

Gun Rammer:
Type 57 has adequate penetration. While 218mm AP and 260mm HEAT may be slightly below average for a heavy, its not to the point where you need calibrated shells, this penetration is just fine for its tier.

Use a gun rammer to improve the slow reload and low DPM of this tank, as most other tier 8 heavy tanks will out reload and out DPM the Type 57, it can’t afford to lower it even more.
With gun rammer, its reload time is only slightly longer than most similar tanks, and its important for not getting out-traded in battle.

Improved Assembly:
Enhanced armour is not needed on the Type 57. Though the turret would benefit from it, the hull would not; and due to the way the turret is angled, enhanced armour wouldn’t actually help the turret enough (when the tank uses gun depression) to justify using it. When using enhanced armour, enemies can still penetrate the weakest points with about 260mm penetration.

Its better to use improved assembly, as this stacks very well with the sandbag armour that the tank has access to. Improved assembly adds an additional 108 HP, and when you already have sandbag armour on, this gives the tank a total of 2016 HP, making it one of the healthiest tier 8 heavies.

Improved Modules:
The tank weighs 62 tons and can accelerate quickly. Its quite a good ramming tank, so take improved modules. Improved modules will reduce the damage you receive by ramming an enemy.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Even though the Type 57 has poor dispersion of 0.380, it should use vertical stabilizer. This is a frontline brawling heavy, so it needs better gun handling rather than better long-range accuracy. Vertical stabilizer will improve the gun handling and the gun will be more consistent after moving.
If you need to take a long distance shot, activate reticle calibration.

Consumable Delivery System (CDS):
Reticle calibration lasts for 20s, you can easily get 2 shots off in that time. Getting a shorter cooldown to use it again would be more useful than being able to use it longer.
Situations change fast, and usually as a heavy you don’t need to make 3 accurate shots in a row, 13s apart. Its better to have the consumable be ready to use again sooner rather than having to wait longer.

Gameplay advice

Type 57 combines gameplay of tanks like the Škoda T56 with the gameplay of the 122mm heavy tanks. It has great mobility and armour with a big gun, but an unusual trait of -9 gun depression, along with high durability.

This means you can play the Type 57 quite like a 122mm heavy, but its just far more capable due to that great gun depression, better mobility, and higher HP. The general gameplay of this tank is quite generic, just play it like a regular heavy tank: use gun depression, go hulldown, trade damage, ram enemies, sidescrape, etc.

There are a few things to note though:

Aim your shots:
The Type 57 has a fairly significant aim time, it also has a long reload time. If you miss one shot, that’s taking out 22.5% of your DPM. Taking the time to aim in this tank is definitely worth it, as it deals big damage.
If you must aim quickly, don’t hesitate to activate reticle calibration.

Don’t be cautious with using consumables:
Battles can happen quite fast, you shouldn’t be afraid to immediately activate reticle calibration at the first moment you need it.

This consumable makes your gun very accurate, lowering its base aim time down to just 1.49s, and dispersion down to 0.228/0.190. This is a huge advantage in battle, as it lets you take very accurate shots, even at long range, or just at small weakpoints.

With CDS, the cooldown of this consumable is only 56s, so you shouldn’t hesitate to use this consumable when you need.

Don’t over angle when sidescraping:
This tank is able to sidescrape decently. Note that even though the lower plate looks very wide and large, only the center part of it is not angled, the 2 side edges actually are angled back. This means that when the tank sidescrapes, and an enemy shoots the track wheel, there is no hull armour directly behind it for the shell to hit (you can use an armour model viewer to see this).

However, if you over-angle the tank, then the angled side area of the lower plate can be hit through the drive wheel, so you should try to only sidescrape to the maximum angle you need, and keep the drive wheel hidden.

Overall

With tier 8 heavies, there are 3 gun classes. The small caliber (190-280 damage), the mid caliber (310-350 damage), and the large caliber (380-460 damage) heavy tanks.

The Type 57 is among the strongest of the large caliber heavy tanks in tier 8. It just has all the stats it needs to perform very well in battle, with great armour on its hull, turret, and even the sides. It has great mobility, with a good top speed, high acceleration, and decent traverse speed; and its got one of the best large caliber class guns, with great alpha, gun depression, and handling.
It also has the very strong traits of an amazing -9 gun depression, and the reticle calibration consumable.

Is it worth getting?

Yes it is worth getting. The Type 57 just offers everything that a heavy tank player could possibly want. Its got the strong armour, its got great mobility, and its got a nice, big damage gun.
This is a tank that should be quite enjoyable to most players, as it doesn’t really lack any comfort features (speed, armour, gun depression), and really any player will be able to perform in this tank due to this.

10,000 gold is a reasonable price for the Type 57, anything above that is too expensive. This tank is fairly new player friendly due to having high HP, strong armour, and good gun depression. Its playstyle is easy to get used to, but the tank is also very strong in the hands of great players, so its not limited.

Most recently sold for:

Crates – June 2022
15,000 gold (Full bundle), 12,500 gold (Tank only) – September 2022
10,000 gold (Tank only) – February 2023
8,500 gold (Tank & equipment) – Blitz Birthday event, June 2023

Camo cost:

“Mecha” camo: costs 2,500 gold, 3D, has both shooting and idle animations.

Historical info:

This tank is fully made up by Wargaming.

It has some features (mainly the hull) inspired by Soviet heavy tanks, namely the Object 257, though this hull has very odd angling and deign features.

The turret seems to somewhat resemble the AE Phase I’s turret (especially noticeable from the rear), but also could have some inspiration from Japanese mediums such as the STA tanks.

The gun is seems to be also fake, as its name is literally the “Type 57 127mm gun”. However, WG does include its caliber, L50, so this could be WG implying that this is the 127mm L50 Type 3 naval gun, converted to be used on a tank.

The engine also seems to be made up, though the naming is quite realistic (named as the Mitsubishi 12ZF, which may be a fake engine. Mitsubishi 10ZF was a real engine used on the Type 74 tank).

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