VK 168.01 (P)

The VK 168.01 (P) is a tier 9 German superheavy tank. It features good gun depression & quick aim time for its 460 alpha gun, however severely lacks top speed & mobility. Its armour is decent with high HP.

Armour

(The VK 168.01 (P) in the images is using Improved Assembly)

vs 246mm AP (left image), 320mm HEAT (right image)
Armour facing head on:
Upper plate 340-360mm
MG port 170-270mm
Lower plate 140-170mm

Turret cheeks 270-305mm
Cupola 130-200mm

vs 255mm AP (top image), 325mm HEAT (bottom image)
Using -9 gun depression:
Upper plate 410-440mm
MG port 180-270mm
Turret cheeks 270-310mm
Cupola 130-210mm

Strong areas:
-The upper plate is extremely strong to any ammo, only premium ammo from TDs will be able to penetrate through.

-The turret cheeks are strong against standard ammo from all tanks (except TDs), but weak to almost all tier 9-10 premium ammo.

Main weakpoints:
-The lower plate is extremely weak, and can’t even be angled to bounce lower tier enemies.

-The cupola is very weak, even on the rounded edges, and cannot bounce anything.

-The hull MG port is also very weak to all ammo, but mostly won’t be shot at due to the larger lower plate & cupola weakpoints.

Gun

The VK 168.01 (P) mounts a 128mm gun

Firepower:
-Ammo: AP/APCR/HE
-Penetration: 248/312/67mm
-Alpha damage: 460/390/600
-Reload time: 11.9s
-DPM: 2325

Handling:
–Estimated aim time is 3.6/3.9s
–Base aim time is 2.3s, but it can get down to 1.77s.
-Dispersion is 0.389/0.331
–Gun handling is 0.25/0.25/0.18, or 0.22/0.22/0.16 with Vertical Stabilizer.

Usability:
-Shell velocities are 880/1000/880 m/s.
-Gun depression is -9 degrees around the entire tank.

Overall this gun is decent. Alpha damage is high with relatively good DPM for a 460 alpha gun, aim time is quite good, penetration is decent, and gun depression is good. Its downsides are accuracy and on-move gun handling, which mean that its much better suited to a close-range fight, and must stop to aim at longer ranges.

Mobility

Raw stats:
-Forward speed is 20km/h.
-Reverse speed is -15km/h.
-Raw acceleration rate is 11 hp/t.
-Engine power is 1840hp for its 168 ton weight.

Hard terrain mobility:
-Actual acceleration is 11.0 hp/t.
-Traverse speed is 29.9 deg/s.

Medium terrain mobility:
-Actual acceleration is 9.1 hp/t.
-Traverse speed is 24.9 deg/s.

Terrain resistance stats:
–Terrain resistances are 1/1.2/1.5

Overall the general mobility of this tank is not bad terrible its a 168 ton superheavy tank. The acceleration, traverse speed, and reverse speed are decent enough, however it just has an extremely slow top speed, which is the main downside of the mobility.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The VK 168.01 (P) has no special consumables or provisions.

Gun Rammer:
The penetration of the VK 168.01 (P) is already sufficient enough, so there is no need to take calibrated shells on this tank.
Instead use a gun rammer to improve its rather long reload and low DPM. With a gun rammer, this tank has a 14.3s reload with 460 alpha, giving it 1928 DPM. For its alpha, this DPM is still not bad, but you cannot afford to lower it.

Improved Modules:
Use improved modules in this tank. It will benefit it greatly when you play it in gamemodes and want to ram enemies. Improved modules decreases the damage you take from ramming an enemy, and when you’re going at 60km/h in Gravity Force mode, this makes a pretty significant difference.

Improved Assembly:
The VK 168.01 (P) has an armour layout that makes using enhanced armour completely irrelevant. The upper plate is so strong there is no need to enhance it; and the hatch weakpoint on the turret deems it irrelevant to be enhanced. Even if the turret armour got stronger, what’s the point when the hatch is still so easy to hit and penetrate?

Use improved assembly. It improves this tank’s very impressive base HP of 1950 up to an incredible 2067 HP, the highest in the tier (excluding tanks that use sandbag armour).

Improved Control:
The limited 20km/h top speed, along with its actually fairly decent acceleration rate, mean that its actually more beneficial to improve the VK 168.01 (P)’s traverse speed by using improved control. The tank can still just as easily stay at its 20km top speed throughout the battle, but becomes more mobile as its traverse speed will be better.

Improved control decreases the engine power of the tank by 112 hp, but will increase the traverse by about 0.7-0.8 degrees. With improved control equipped, the tank has 28.4 deg/s traverse on hard terrain, and 26.1 deg/s traverse on medium terrain.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Due to its poor gun handling, and the fact that its a frontline heavy tank, the VK 168.01 (P) should use vertical stabilizer. Refined gun won’t at all benefit the tank, as its just designed to not be used at a long distance, and its playstyle won’t support it at all. Use vertical stabilizer and make the tank more capable in close range fights.

Gameplay advice

The VK 168.01 (P) is basically a tank that never stops driving until it gets to a fight. To be able to do effective damage and win battles in this tank, you need to play an active role. Try to always be at the frontline, the only time you shouldn’t be at the frontline is if you are driving to it. This tank is really not suited to being in any other situation other than on the frontline, absorbing damage for the team, sidescraping, going hulldown, and putting in the occasional big damage hit.

Don’t stop moving until you are at the heavy tank frontline. You can’t afford to stop in this tank, as you are so slow that you won’t be able to make up for time lost by stopping. You want to be able to help your allies by providing them with armour, HP, and a big gun; as you’re already slow enough you shouldn’t be stopping at any point before reaching the heavy flank front.

Always angle the hull.
Even though enemies can just aim at and easily penetrate the lower plate, angling does give a higher chance of them missing it and hitting the tracks. It also forces them to take time to aim, which is always important to force your enemies to do, as it lowers their effective DPM when you are fighting them (as in , their DPM is worse due to aiming time + reload time).

Do facehug enemies.
While it may sound counter-intuitive due to this tank’s angled upper plate, large and weak turret cheeks, and a MG port weakpoint; its better to facehug than it is to just let enemies have free shots into the lower plate.
The hatch isn’t even really a huge problem in this situation, your tank is so tall and turret is so frontally mounted that you can easily put the gun mantlet and gun in the way of the enemy shot.
You can also angle the upper plate to increase its effective thickness, and you can turn the turret to make the cheeks stronger. Even if you do still get penetrated, the enemies will be doing less damage as they are forced to shoot premium ammo.

Aim your shots. The VK 168.01 (P) is designed to miss if it does not stop and take time to aim. Thankfully that aim time is not very long, so generally you can put in a fairly effective shot after just a short amount of aim time. This tank aims much quicker than the notoriously inaccurate 122mm heavy tanks at tier 8.
If you don’t stop to aim, or you only give the reticle an extremely short time to get aimed in, you are likely to miss, as this tank has poor accuracy and poor gun handling. Of its accuracy-related gun stats, only the aim time is good.

Go hulldown. By far the biggest weakness on the armour of this tank is its lower plate. This area is both large and weak, if it gets hidden, the tank is immediately much harder to deal with. The other weakpoints aren’t as easy to exploit as you might think:
1 – Most players don’t know that the hull machine gun is even a weakpoint. The players that do often aren’t brave enough to shoot at it, since its so small and surrounded by the 285mm+ upper plate.
2 – The hatch, while tall and weak, is narrow. Its very easy to miss if you keep the tank moving back and fourth, and bobbing up and down on a ridge. When using -8 gun depression, the hatch also becomes harder to hit.
3 – The turret cheeks are by far the easiest alternative weakpoint to hit, but it still requires enemies to use premium ammo to hit it. Hopefully if they do hit it, you put back a shot of 460 alpha, the only tanks that will out-trade you are 150mm+ guns.

Trade shots with enemies. Try to avoid DPM fights, this tank’s DPM isn’t terrible relative to its alpha, but its fairly low in the scope of tier 9 tanks. However, 460 alpha is quite good for trading damage against most tanks. Try to avoid combat with enemies while you reload, stay hulldown or in cover until ready to shoot, then push out (or sidescrape) and shoot them, generally you will win in terms of alpha, as long as you don’t allow enemies to shoot you twice.

Overall

Armour – 5/10
Gun – 6/10
Mobility – 3.5/10
Speed – 2/10

VK 168.01 (P) is overall a mediocre tank.

Armour is strong on the turret, very weak on hull. Sides are easy to HE. Armour isn’t easy to use.
Gun has amazing aim time, high alpha, and decent accuracy; but low DPM, slow reload, & very low penetration. Gun depression is poor.
Mobility is decent (for a 168 ton tank),
Speed is extremely slow at 20km/h.

Is it worth getting?

VK 168.01 (P) is worth it from a price perspective. Generally its very cheap, sold for under 6,000 gold, and thats a good price for any tier 8 tank, just for the fact that its a premium.
In terms of is it getting for being a good tank, no. The VK 100.01 (P) is a better tank, and its fee. In the whole scope of tier 8, the VK 168 isn’t bad, but its also not great.
In terms of is it worth getting for fun, yes. Even in regular battles, this tank can be quite fun, just due to its large gun, size, and high HP; its a different kind of playstyle. However the main reason to get it for fun is to play in gamemodes. In Gravity Force, Burning Games, and Uprising, this tank can ram anything and everything. In tiers 7-9 only the Mäuschen weighs a small 2 tons more. Of course, in Big Boss mode this tank takes multiple roles, but when it gets to be Boss, its one of the best possible tanks to be Boss in just due to its higher HP and weight.

The VK 168.01 (P) is worth 8,000 gold. Its not a terrible tank, it can perform well, and it can be quite fun to play, especially in gamemodes. However, the VK 100.01 (P) is just the same tank but with fewer weakpoints and an armour profile that’s easier to use; its also free.
Buy this if you want to have loads of fun in gamemodes, as thats where the VK 100.01 (P) cannot compete, the VK 168.01 (P) weighs 48 tons more than it.

Price guide:

Prices you can expect the tank to be sold for, based on previous sales in store.
12,000 gold – Camo + equipment + tank.
10,000 gold – Tank only

Camo cost:

VK 168.01 (P) does not have any special camouflages yet.

Historical info:

The VK 168.01 (P) was a real tank, however it was not its own tank. This vehicle was just a development step in the deign process of creating the Maus tank.

This tank looks nearly identical to the Mäuschen as it was the preceding blueprint. These tanks may have also been planned to mount 15cm guns, the same armament that the E 100 and VK 72.01 (K) mount.

In game, it is the 4th heaviest tank by weight.
Type 5 Heavy – 201.6 tons
Maus – 188.98 tons
Mäuschen – 169.85 tons
VK 168.01 (P) – 167.85 tons

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