Type 63

Last updated on 19 August, 2025.

Type 63 is a tier 8 Japanese heavy tank. It features great mobility & top speed for a heavy tank, with a very strong upper plate & turret, and a gun that features great accuracy, penetration, and -12 gun depression.

Armour

(The Type 63 in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 225mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 265mm APCR

Armour when facing head on:
Upper plate 270-290mm
Lower plate 130mm

Turret cheeks 330-350mm
Gun mantlet 440mm+
Gun mount rear weakpoint 215mm

vs 225mm AP (top image), 265mm APCR (bottom image)
Using -12 gun depression:

Upper plate 470-500mm
Turret cheeks 400-420mm
Gun mantlet 440mm+
Gun mount rear weakpoint 215mm

Side armour:
Side armour behind the tracks is 70mm, with the tracks themselves being 20mm thick. The side armour above the tracks is 80mm thick.
Overall decent side armour for a heavy, though it is on the thinner side.

Gun

The Type 63 mounts a 105mm gun.

Firepower:
-Ammo: AP/AP/HE.
-Penetration: 219/262/60mm.
-Alpha damage: 320/290/400.
-Reload time is 9.0s for a total of 2134 DPM.

Handling:
–Estimated aim time is 3.2/3.4s
–Base aim time is 2s, but it can get down to 1.54s
-Dispersion is 0.344/0.292
–Gun handling is 0.18/0.16/0.18, or 0.16/0.14/0.16 with Vertical Stabilizer.

Usability:
-Shell velocities are 1100/1100/1100 m/s.
-Gun depression is -12 degrees around the entire tank, except the rear where its -7.

Overall this is a great gun. Its stats are relatively unassuming, but its an overall great combination which make this a good gun.

The penetration is good, with premium AP that easily cuts though anything you face. It has high shell velocity on all shells, with fast aim time and decent gun handling. On top of this it has the combat stabilization mechanic which just make the gun feel even more consistent.

The accuracy is average for a tier 8 heavy, with fairly unimpressive DPM & reload time.

Mobility

Raw stats:
-Forward speed is 44km/h.
-Reverse speed is -14km/h.
-Raw acceleration rate is 18.6 hp/t.
-Engine power is 828hp for its 44 ton weight.

Hard terrain mobility:
-Actual acceleration is 16.9 hp/t.
-Traverse speed is 43.5 deg/s.

Medium terrain mobility:
-Actual acceleration is 14.3 hp/t.
-Traverse speed is 33.5 deg/s.

Terrain resistance stats:
–Terrain resistances are 1.1/1.3/1.8

Overall this is great mobility for a heavy tank. The top speed is very high, the best in tier 8 except for the AMX 50 100, and its reverse speed is average. Its got very high acceleration rate, with great traverse speeds, which allow it to easily utilize the top speed and reach positions quickly.

Considering that its armour isn’t paper, this is a very mobile and quick tank.

Special Mechanics

Combat stabilization decreases the Type 63’s gun handling from 0.18/0.16/0.18 down to 0/0/0.18 when the tank is moving under 15km/h speed.

This means that the gun doesn’t bloom out much when you are stationary or at low speed, so you can be a lot more accurate due to not having to spend so long aiming.

(However do note the poor turret traverse dispersion of 0.18, which is much worse than most tanks and is very evident even with combat stabilization)

Equipment, Consumables, & Provisions

Type 63 has no special consumables or provisions.

Gun Rammer:
Gun rammer works well on this tank, as it has AP for its premium ammo ammo loadout with good penetration on its rounds, generally you don’t struggle to penetrate enemy tanks.

Gun rammer is useful as the DPM of the Type 63 is quite low, at 2134 when using gun rammer. Most tier 8 HT with 310-320 alpha have 2.2-2.5k DPM.
Gun rammer improves reload time from 9.5s down to 9.0s, and increase DPM from 2027 to 2134.

Improved Assembly:
Due to the Type 63 having a very strong turret & upper plate, but very weak lower plate, it doesn’t really gain much use out of enhanced armour.

Its better to use improved assembly, since it will allow you to survive a bit more damage when enemies do go through your lower plate or side armour. Improved assembly increases the tank’s HP from 1700 to 1768.

Vertical Stabilizer/Refined Gun:
Due to having combat stabilization but also poor turret traverse dispersion of 0.18, either of these could work.

Vertical stabilizer would help with the bloom while moving and turning the turret, which is important due to the combat stabilization mechanic. While this would reduce your gun handling from 0.18/0.16/0.18 to 0/0/0.18, that 0.18 while turning the turret isn’t affected by the mechanic, and the gun’s bloom while turning the turret is still very noticeable.
Using vertical stabilizer would help with this and improve gun handling to 0.16/0.14/0.16.

On the other hand, you can cut your losses with the turret traverse dispersion and just run refined gun, which gives you an overall accuracy improvement in all situations. You’ll aim slower and have slightly worse bloom when moving or turning the turret, but the overall dispersion reticle will be smaller, from 0.344 down to 0.292.

Gameplay advice

Overall gameplay of the Type 63 is just normal heavy tank gameplay.

General gameplay:
Generally you should just play this tank like you would any other heavy, as it has the usual heavy tank traits. There are a few differences which you should watch out for though, such as:

-Low HP, with 1700 base HP the Type 63 is among the lowest HP tier 8 heavies, so you have to be more conservative with your HP and more reliant on armour, rather than HP trading.

-High speed & mobility, which can allow you to easily play like a heavium if you need to and go with the medium tanks. Just watch out for the low DPM against medium tank enemies.

-Amazing gun depression, -12 degrees is the best of any tank at this tier, and allows you to use positions that wouldn’t be possible in other tanks. Mainly in gameplay try to focus on how you can outplay your enemies by using your gun depression in sneaky positions. If you aren’t using gun depression as an advantage over enemies, then there isn’t much reason to play the Type 63 over other heavy tanks.

Using the armour:
There are a few things to note about this tank’s armour:

Turret:
This is only strong when pointed directly at an enemy. If you turn it to the side it becomes quite weak due to how it’s angled.

Upper plate:
Don’t facehug enemies unless its your only option left. The upper plate is angled in a way that facehugging enemies will only make its angling worse and thus weaker to enemies with enough gun depression to shoot down on it.

Lower plate:
Be wary of tanks with HESH, as this lower plate is only 130mm effective, even low penetration HESH tanks such as Comet or A46 are able to go through it easily. Tanks such as Caliban, Charioteer, ATAC, or Centurion 7/1 also have 0 issues dealing with the lower plate armour.

Use gun depression:
One of the main reasons you’d be playing the Type 63 is for its improved gun depression of -12. you should try to utilize this in battle whenever possible, as its a massive advantage over enemy tanks that you can use.

Be careful about the turret weakpoints at the rear, the more gun depression you use, the more exposed they become.

Raising the gun:
Raise the gun after you shoot, especially if you are hiding your lower plate in a hulldown position.

The reason to do this is that it hides the weakpoints at the rear of the turret, which are small but quite weak. Be careful to only raise the gun by 1-2 degrees of elevation, as the gun mantlet is quite weak and can be penetrated if you use your full gun elevation (5 degrees).

Overall

Armour – 6.5/10
Gun – 6/10
Mobility – 6.5/10
Speed – 8/10

Type 63 is overall a great tank.

Armour is very solid, with a strong turret & upper plate. The only weakpoints on the turret are small & easy to hide, though the lower plate on the hull is large and weak. Great for hulldown, not for sidescraping.
Gun is great, good aim time, gun handling, penetration, and an amazing -12 gun depression. Dispersion is average, and DPM is quite unimpressive for 320 alpha.
Mobility is great, with high traverse speed, a strong engine, and good terrain resistances.
Speed is very good at 44km/h.

Is it worth getting?

Only somewhat. The gameplay of this tank is essentially just an improved/enhanced version of regular heavy tank gameplay, which you can find on tanks such as T32, Tiger II, VK 45.02 (A), T54E2, etc.

It has some unique & better traits, such as good speed, very good gun depression, and premium AP, but overall its gameplay feel isn’t too far off of the generic/regular tier 8 heavy.

The Type 63 is worth 9,000 gold. Its a great tank, however its gameplay just doesn’t feel like anything super special or interesting. Its nice to have that speed & gun depression, but it doesnt massively change how you use the tank compared to a tank with 40km speed & -10 gun depression (such as a T54E2).

Most recently sold for:

Release in lottery ball event – June 2025

Legendary Camos:

Type 63 currently has no special camos.

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