VK 90.01 (P)

Last updated 25 April, 2025

The VK 90.01 (P) is a German tier 10 superheavy tank. Its a perfect combination of stats to make it an incredible sidescaping tank, with great armour, a unique gun with high penetration, and even good mobility considering its a superheavy tank.

Armour

(The VK 90.01 (P) in the images is using Enhanced Armour)
Image slider may take a few seconds to load

Drag slider right -> to view 257mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 330mm HEAT
When flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 385-400mm
Mid bar 330mm
Lower plate 268-273mm
Lower-lower plate 205mm
Turret 307-540mm
Cupola 225-300mm

The cupola is a strange weakpoint, its base area (the lowest part), is 300mm thick; the top (highest part) is rounded and is extremely thick (around 500mm). To penetrate the cupola, you have to hit the middle part, right above the base; or you can just shoot premium ammo at the base, as that’s “only” 300mm thick.

vs 255mm AP (above), 330mm HEAT (below)
Using -9 gun depression:

Upper plate 590-635mm
Turret 305-680mm
Cupola armour remains same
Upper side 410mm+
Track wheel 280mm

When using gun depression:
Note that the area under the hull cannot be penetrated, even though it looks like it can.
The turret also goes slightly weaker when using gun depression, as a larger area of it is now “flat” at 300mm.

Also note that -9 is not the full gun depression, this tank can use -10. However, this 1 extra degree requires the hull to be turned more. The optimal situation for this tank’s armour is having to turn the hull less, and thus you should only account for the maximum gun depression needed.

VS tier 9:
Against tier 9 tanks, especially mediums, the lower plate may show up as red. Angling will makes it even stronger, so if you are not in a sidescraping position, always try to angle the hull so the lower plate is harder to penetrate. This is also improved by using the enhanced armour equipment, it benefits are explained more below.

The upper plate is impenetrable to all tanks that are not TDs, and the turret is very strong. Enemies will have to have over 310mm of penetration to go through the turret. If the tank is using enhanced armour, then enemies will need over 325mm of penetration to go through the turret.

VS tier 10:
In tier 10 more mediums will be able to penetrate the lower plate, and the same goes for heavy tanks. Again, if you angle the hull, the lower plate becomes more red, and its also compounded by using enhanced armour.

The upper plate remains impenetrable to all non-TD tanks. To penetrate the upper plate, enemies would need to be facehugging the VK, have good gun depression, and have extremely high premium penetration. If course this an be mitigated by using enhanced armour and turning the hull slightly tot he side to increase thickness.

The turret is still very strong, for any enemy to penetrate it they will still need to shoot premium ammunition (the same armour as stated above). This essentially ensures that no tanks with under 310mm (or 325mm) can penetrate its turret cheeks.

Sidescraping:
You can see in the images above where the tank is angled to the side how its turret and its armour layout make it perfectly suited to sidescraping. The hull is so long and the turret is narrow (unlike a Maus), making it very easy to hide the lower plate weakpoint.
When sidescraping, the only weakpoints on the tank are the turret cheeks and the cupola, both thickly armoured and small targets.

Drag slider right -> to view 240mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 290mm HEAT

This penetration level is more representative of a lower penetration tank, such as a tier 10 medium or light tank, and all tier 9 medium and light tanks.

Note how the lower plate is much more effective against this lower penetration level.

Gun

The VK 90.01 (P) mounts a 12,8cm gun

-Alpha damage is 460 on AP, 390 on premium APCR, and 600 on HE
-It has a 10.8s reload giving it 2567 DPM
-Penetration on AP is 275mm, premium APCR is 320mm, and HE is 65mm.
–Estimated aim time is 4.0/4.2s
–Base aim time is 2.55s, but it can get down to 1.96s.
-Dispersion is 0.326/0.277
–Gun handling is 0.2/0.2/0.08, or 0.18/0.18/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -4 over the front, but only over the hull. Once the turret is turned off of the hull, the gun depression gradually increases, up to its maximum -10 degrees

This gun is quite a decent gun for the type of tank that the VK 90 is. Its handling is ok, but not impressive, and its aim time is quite long; though the accuracy is good.
Alpha damage is nice and DPM is quite average for a 460 alpha gun, what’s really special about this gun is its almost tank destroyer level of standard penetration with 275mm on AP, the highest of all tier 10 heavy tanks.
Overall this gun is quite good, perfectly suited for the gameplay and the role that this tank plays in battle.

The APCR rounds have 10.94% penetration drop off over distance, so they will lose 8.75mm of penetration every 100m, and level off at 285mm at 500m.
The AP rounds don’t have bad shell drop off with only 5.45% of penetration lost at 500m.

Mobility

-Top speed is decent at 30km/h forwards, and -15km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 34 deg/s on hard terrain, and 31.1 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 12.6 hp/t, it has decently strong 1150hp engine for its 91 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 11.4 hp/t on hard terrain, and 10.5 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are decent, having 1.1/1.2/1.6

Out of all the German superheavies, the VK 90 has some of the most impressive mobility. Its top speed is quite good, and has typically good reverse speed; acceleration is also quite good, with a fairly strong engine and good ground resistances. The traverse speed is by far the most noticeable point of this tank’s mobility, as it turns relatively quickly for a heavy, let alone a superheavy.

Special Mechanics

VK 90.01 (P) has the “combat stabilization” mechanic.

Visualized, this mechanic would be as follows:
“When moving at speeds of 15km/h or less (forward and reverse), gun handling becomes 0/0/0.08”

This is actually a very helpful mechanic on the VK 90, as it doesn’t have particularly high acceleration or top speed. In hulldown, sidescraping, and flat ground battles, you’re often moving at very low speeds, just due to how heavy tank fights play out.

Due to this mechanic, your gun will stay essentially fully aimed and not bloom out until you start moving at speed. This mechanic is compounded by the great penetration and great accuracy of the tank.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

VK 90.01 (P) has no special consumables or provisions.

Gun Rammer:
As the VK 90.01 (P) has very high standard penetration, and decent premium penetration there really isn’t any need to be using calibrated shells on this tank.

The reload time of the VK 90 is quite important though, as it has to be able to keep enemies at bay while it sidescrapes.
This is even more important if you don’t have many allies to support you while sidescraping.
Ideally you want the fastest reload possible so that you can just keep putting out damage consistently and not taking much in return. This helps to deter enemies from pushing or rushing you.

Gun rammer increases the VK 90.01 (P)’s DPM from 2439 up to 2622, and reload time from 11.3s down to 10.5s.

Enhanced Armour:
Enhanced armour benefits the VK 90.01 (P) enormously. Generally the armour plates of this tank are very thick, and they are angled, meaning that the VK will benefit enormously form enhanced armour.

Turret from 307mm to 319mm (cupola roughly same)
Upper plate from 385mm to 401mm
Lower plate from 268mm to 279mm
Side armour from 120/140mm to 125/146mm (when shooting at it flat)

The benefits to the armour are very significant, and when you angle the hull its even more noticeable. Enhanced armour is what makes the lower plate challenging for lower penetration heavies, and the majority of medium and light tanks.

While improved assembly increases the tank’s HP, its not as important on this tank as armour. Unlike a Maus, this is meant to have less HP but a more specialized armour profile. Even when using enhanced amour, the HP is still a very good 2450 base.

Vertical Stabilizer:
For multiple reasons the VK 90 does not need refined gun.
For one, its already very accurate, with 0.326 dispersion; secondly, its a frontline heavy tank, and would benefit more by having good and consistent gun handling in close ranges, which is what the vertical stabilizer improves.

Improving accuracy really won’t do too much for the tank as its already so accurate for its alpha, and generally doesn’t fight at long ranges, where improved dispersion would be more noticeable.

Gameplay advice

The VK 90.01 (P) is a typical German superheavy. Its slow and it has a big gun with great armour and a nice HP pool. While it may feel similar to other German superheavies in some scenarios, the VK 90 specializes in sidescraping, and thats quite a big gameplay difference.

While the E 100 and Maus can sidescrape very well, they are beaten by the VK 90 due to its perfect hull shape, gun angles, and high penetration. The VK’s main gameplay revolves around just angling the armour and reversing out to shoot enemies. If you drive around a corner with your hull in front, you’re missing the entire point of this tank.

General gameplay:
Basic gameplay is just to drive to the heavy tank frontline. Don’t go to any other area on the map, unless your whole team is going in one direction. This tank only really does well against slower enemies, and medium and lights will just be able to ignore the armour by circling around it.

Once you get to the frontline, angle your armour, turn your hull so the lower plate and the general front area are hidden behind cover, then reverse your hull out backwards and shoot at enemies; then drive forward again so your turret is hidden, angle up, then repeat again. That’s the gameplay of this tank, sidescraping.

Of course it does do more than this, in situations such as when it pushes enemy tanks with its team, uses gun depression on a ridgeline, or has to relocate to defend a losing flank; however its main gameplay does just revolve around sidescraping and using the gun/armour.

Sidescrape:
You want to do this in all situations, on any map, against any enemy you face. Its what the VK 90.01 (P) is built for and its what it is perfect at doing. No tank can sidescrape better than the VK 90, and it means that if you are able to keep the enemies at bay, you will just be essentially invincible to damage (unless enemies are smart and shoot at the cheeks with premium ammo or shoot the hatch).

Do this where its practical of course, don’t just abandon your team so you can go use a sidescraping position. The VK must have team support for when its sidescraping, as its own gun alone (and the fact enemies can’t penetrate it) will often cause enemies to push more aggressively just to try and get a penetrating shot.

Aim your shots:
While the tank is accurate, its aim time is still long, and gun handling is not anything too special. This means that to be very accurate, you will need to spend a bit of time stopping the tank to aim. Luckily sidescraping does allow such moments where you can just stop to aim; and due to the tank already having good base accuracy, you shouldn’t even have to aim for too long to get the reticle to a point where it can easily hit a shot.

The high base AP penetration also helps with this, as you can just penetrate so many more areas than other heavy tanks can. If you don’t have the time to aim and the shot is crucial, do use your reticle calibration consumable, that’s what its there for.

Use gun depression and ridgelines where possible:
If there isn’t much flat ground on a map, or sidescraping locations, you can try using gun depression. The best way to do this is only turn the turret to the minimum degree you need. If you need to turn the turret too far from the hull to get your gun down, enemies will be able to penetrate the hull sides.
It may take some trial and error to get using the gun depression correctly on this tank, but its there for a reason and its a strength the tank can utilize in battle. Practice positions in training rooms if you have to, but if you want to get really good with this tank you have to learn how to effectively angle while being able to use gun depression.

Facehugging enemies:
Even though your gun depression over the front is quite poor, you have high standard penetration. Often you should only facehug enemies in a desperate situation, such as if you don’t have enough HP to take another hit, and an enemy is trying to rush you. The upper plate is very string, but be aware that tanks with good gun depression and 340mm+ heat penetration may be able to penetrate the upper plate, and if they can’t, then they will try for your turret cheeks.

Slightly wiggle back and fourth while facehugging an enemy, as in increases the hull’s angle, and thus the effective armour thickness.

Overall

Armour – 9.5/10
Gun – 8/10
Mobility – 6/10
Speed – 3/10

VK 90.01 (P) is overall a great tank.

Armour is very strong, great turret and upper plate armour, a strong lower plate, and good side armour. Armour is fully HE proof, but not difficult to HESH. Reliable when hulldown, sidescraped, and angled.
Gun has amazing penetration & accuracy, good alpha damage, with decent DPM & gun handling. Aim time is mediocre. Gun depression is -4 on the front, -10 on the sides.
Mobility is good for its armour, with a strong engine, decent acceleration rate, and good high traverse speed. Reverse speed is average.
Speed is limited to 30km/h.

Overall the VK 90.01 (P) is a great tank. It has a very good armour profile, especially considering its flexible gun depression, and incredible sidescraping ability. The gun is fairly good, and has a nice unique aspect of extremely high standard penetration. The mobility is also good, not compared to all tier 10 heavies, but when compared to its superheavy counterparts, the VK 90 is the most mobile one, and its definitely not bad when you also consider the armour.

Its overall also a fairly easy tank to play, as long as you know how to sidescrape or are willing to do some trial and error to get it right. Its a fairly simple playstyle, but the tank is still not at all a boring vehicle.

Is it worth getting?

You have to consider what kind of player you are before buying this tank. You need to think about whether the slower style of gameplay, with sidescraping and less mobility/longer reload than other tier 10 heavies is your kind of suited gameplay.

If it is, or you are wanting to try something new, then yes the VK 90.01 (P) will be worth it for you. Its quite unique and its perfectly suited to its role in battle, there is literally no downside to it when it is sidescraping (other than the cuolpa, but that’s still small and quite strong).

However, if you enjoy more generic and regular heavy tanks, or just other tank classes in general, then the VK 90 may not be worth it.

The VK 90.01 (P) is worth 21,000 gold. Its a fairly easy tank to play, and if you know how to sidescrape then its almost impossible to get wrong. The tank is also unique and quite interesting to play, even the tanks that are “similar” to it are still so different in playstyle.
Its overall a very strong tank that can perform very well in many situations.

Most recently sold for:

Blitzfair Auction (starting at 20,000 gold)	December 2022
16,000 gold- Tank & Equipment only	November 2023 (Black Friday event)
Blitzfair Auction (Starting at 17,500 gold)	January 2025
Auction (Starting at 17,500 gold)	March 2025
20,000 gold- Full bundle	April 2025

Camo cost:

“Blade” camo: 2D, costs 2,550 gold.

Historical Note:

The VK 90.01 (P), and its WoT PC counterpart VK 75.01 (K) are both fully fake tanks made by WG.

The WoT PC tankopedia says:
“A concept of the development of heavy tanks with rear turret placement. No prototypes were built, never saw mass-production.”

However in the the WoT Blitz tankopedia, they don’t even try to cover it up, even making fun of the WoT PC description of the tank (underlined):

“Esteemed professionals argue that the VK 90.01 (P) project is one of the suggestions for the development of heavy tanks with its rear turret placement and that it was never built and definitely never mass-produced. In fact, the VK 90.01 (P) was created in the Holiday Shop by Chris Dev, inventor extraordinaire and holiday enthusiast.”

It does however have some real components:

Turret:
From VK 100.01 (Mammut) project. If you look at the VK 100.01 (P) in game, you will notice how the turrets are almost identical in overall design and shape.

Gun:
12.8 cm Kw. K. 44, a field gun used in WW2 and modified for the Maus and the Jagdtiger tanks. Though this one is L/61, indicating a barrel length of 61 calibers. The only real tank to mount and field such a gun was the St. Emil, though in game it is also on the WT. Auf Pz. IV and the Jagdtiger as its top gun.

Engine:
Maybach HL 234 (WoT PC)/ Porsche Deutz Typ 188 (Blitz). The PC version is the engine from a Tiger II, this is a upgraded HL 230 with fuel injection, it had 800-900 horsepower. Supercharged, it could reach 1100-1200 horsepower, ironically its same horsepower that the Blitz version has.
Not much information on the Porsche Deutz Typ 188, it seems to not even be a real engine, it could just be the supercharged Maybach HL 234, but renamed; or it could be an upgrade of the Porsche Deutz Typ 180/1 or /2 engines, planned for the VK 45.02 tanks designed by Porsche.

The hull is completely fake.

Though the tank never had any real plans, its quite a good effort by WG to make a believable tank. It uses real components from real and planned German tanks, it uses German WW2 tank design doctrines (hull mounted MG, interleaved suspension, middle engine placement, angled frontal armour, etc, etc…)
The tank also incorporated many Porsche designed parts (rather than parts from multiple tank designers), making it truly blend in perfectly with its “real” German counterparts.

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