Type 59

Type 59 is essentially a T-54 that was moved to tier 8. It has good armour for a medium, great mobility, -7 gun depression, but a fairly unimpressive gun.

1. Armour
2. Gun
3. Mobility
4. Equipment, provisions, & consumables
5. Gameplay advice
6. Overall
7. Is it worth getting?
8. Most recently sold for:
9. Camo cost:

Armour

vs 225mm AP
Upper plate 180-195mm
Lower plate 200mm
Turret 290-800mm+ (weakest point 230mm)

(The Type 59 in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

Type 59 can sidescrape since it has a very good 80mm of side armour, though its not a tactic you will use often as its a proper medium and not a heavium.

 

Armour vs tier 7 tanks:
Most tier 7 mediums have 160mm of penetration or less, and most heavies have around 180mm of penetration (except USA & German HT), so in tier 7 battles the Type 59’s armour will be very effective.

Only the few American and German heavy tanks with 198-203mm of penetration can actually penetrate the upper plate of the Type 59, and all the rest will struggle to go through.
The armour image below perfectly shows what a standard tier 7 HT would see facing a Type 59.

Armour vs tier 8 tanks:
In tier 8 there are only a few tanks which will bounce of the Type 59’s upper plate on flat ground (Low penetration mediums and lights).

Most tier 8 tanks will easily penetrate the Type 59’s hull on flat ground. If its angled, some tanks will still bounce off the front.
The best way to bounce tier 8 tanks is to go hulldown, as it hides the hull. The turret is very strong, the weakest part is next to the gun at the bottom of the turret, most tanks will need premium ammo to penetrate here, and its not an easy shot to hit if the tank is moving or at a distance.

The hatches are small and not weak, enemies need to hit the dead center of the hatch or their shells will bounce.

Armour vs tier  tanks: 
Tier 9 tanks will not bounce off the hull unless it is extremely angled, and many tanks will have enough penetration to go through the turret cheeks (just like the premium rounds in tier 8).

In tier 9 battles, the most bounces will come from being hulldown or using gun depression.

Gun

Type 59 mounts a 100mm gun

-Reload time is 8.3s for 280 alpha, giving it 2036 DPM.
-Penetration is 181mm on AP, 241mm on APCR, and 50mm on HE.
-Aim time is 4.1s/4.4s
-Dispersion is 0.353/0.318
–Gun handling is 0.14/0.14/0.08, or 0.12/0.12/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -7 degrees

Among all the tier 8 100mm guns, the Type 59 has by far the worst performing one. Its DPM is low, reload is slow, dispersion is poor, and aim time is slow. While the gun handling isn’t terrible, its quite average, and the penetration is just barely better than other 100mm guns.

-7 gun depression is actually extremely good considering how this tank has a rounded turret like a T-54, low profile, and quite good hull armour.

While its gun stats are unimpressive, its still usable with the other good points of the tank: its gun depression, mobility, and armour.

Mobility

-Top speed is 56km/h forwards, and -20km/h in reverse
-Acceleration rate is 20.8 hp/t on hard terrain, and 19.5 hp/t on medium terrain.
-Traverse speed is good, 62.5 deg/s on hard terrain, and 58.8 deg/s on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 0.8/0.9/1.

Type 59 has very good mobility considering the armour it has. Its acceleration and top speed are both above average, and its traverse speed is good. In tier 8 its definitely one of the faster mediums considering it has quite good armour.

Since the variation across terrains is so little, the Type 59 is able to even drive in water and it loses very little mobility.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

Type 59 has no special consumables or provisions.

Gun Rammer:
Since the Type 59 has low DPM, it needs to use gun rammer. With a gun rammer it has an 8.25s reload and 280 alpha, with isn’t great, though its enough to still be competitive in tier 8 as long as it trades shot-for-shot.
Its penetration is decent enough that the tank doesn’t struggle to penetrate most enemies it faces; calibrated shells is not nearly as useful as the gun rammer on this tank.

Improved Optics:
Type 59 has the joint best base view range in tier 8, with improved optics it has 302m, which is as good as many tier 10 tanks. This allows the tank to spot tanks at a more comfortable distance than most other mediums in tier 8.

Enhanced Armour/Improved Assembly:
The Type 59 has low HP of 1300, using improved assembly would improve its HP to 1378, which is still very low for a medium in tier 8. 
Type 59 has an emphasis on its good general armour as a medium tank, so using enhanced armour does actually benefit the tank significantly. It allows the tank to bounce more on its hull when its top tier, and it can bounce more tier 9s off its turret when bottom tier.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Type 59 is an active medium tank, so it constantly moves around the battlefield and is rarely stationary. Even though its dispersion at 100m is poor, it benefits more by improving its gun handling by using vertical stabilizer.

Gameplay advice

Type 59 plays very similarly to the tech tree T-44, just with better mobility and more armour, but a worse gun. Its a fairly easy medium to play once you get used to the constraints that the gun has, as its armour and mobility can really allow this tank to work very well.

General gameplay:
The Type 59 should be played just like it has the armour of a typical medium tank. Don’t rely heavily on the armour, but it can be used effectively if you know your enemy’s penetration.
While the armour of the is good, its hull is only strong only against tier 7 tanks. When faced against tier 8 and 9 enemies, most can easily penetrate the hull, and well aimed shots with premium ammo don’t have much trouble against the turret cheeks of the tank.

Always try to use gun depression and/or go hulldown:
The strongest points of the Type 59 are the fact it has a rounded T-54 type of turret in tier 8, and it also gets an amazing -7 degrees of gun depression. The Type 59 can be extremely strong in hulldown positions due to this, and its one of the factors that helps to mitigate its quite lacklustre gun.

Trade in alpha damage:
When fighting any enemy, trade damage shot-for-shot. Don’t ever get into a DPM battle with any tank, the tanks with worse DPM than you either have autoloaders or higher damage per shot, and the tanks that have lower damage than you will have much faster reloads and higher DPM. The best way to win an engagement is to conserve HP and use the Type 59’s armour while it reloads, and only expose the tank when there’s a shot loaded.

Aim properly:
Make sure to aim every single shot. The Type 59 can’t snapshot, since its aim time is poor, its dispersion is poor, and its gun handling isn’t amazing. If you are not aiming in every shot properly, you will miss many shots. The more shots you miss, the worse it makes the DPM, and since the DPM on the Type 59 is already low, it can’t really afford to miss.

Overall

Armour – 8.5/10
Gun – 4/10
Mobility – 8/10
Speed – 8/10

Type 59 is overall a good tank.

Armour is good on the upper plate, lower plate, and hull sides. The turret is very strong, and armour is easy to angle and use hulldown.
Gun has great gun depression, decent gun handling, penetration & alpha, but mediocre aim time and accuracy.
Mobility is good, a decent engine and great acceleration rate, with good traverse speeds. Reverse speed is average.
Speed is great, at 56km/h.

Type 59 is a great tank, but its not a tank that everyone will enjoy. Many players will be frustrated by its gun, which just has a slower reload and worse accuracy than it feels like it should.
Though if you can get around that fact, and be ready to work with the tank’s slow reload and lacking accuracy, its able to be very strong in a battle, as few other tier 8 tanks have such a nice combination of gun depression, armour, and mobility.

Is it worth getting?

Type 59 is worth it for players who can stand a lacking gun on a tank. It has very good stats in its mobility and its armour, so as long as you can get around its gun, the Type 59 has quite a lot of potential and flexibility in a battle.

The Type 59 is worth 7,000 gold, but can often be bought cheaper.

Most recently sold for:

6,500 gold (full bundle) – October 2021
5,500 gold (full bundle) – October 2022
4,500 gold (Starting price), 3,300 gold (Final price) in Auction – August 2023
5,500 gold (Tank only) – January 2024

Camo cost:

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