121 is the top tier Chinese medium tank. It has a very good 122mm gun with high alpha and quick aiming, amazing mobility, and good hull armour with a strong turret. It has terrible gun handling, like most Chinese MT.
Click the table of contents below to access the section you want:
- Armour
- Gun
- Mobility
- Equipment, provisions, & consumables
- Gameplay advice
- Overall
- Is it worth grinding?
- Camo cost:
- Tech tree overview
- Historical info:
Armour
(The 121 in the images is using Enhanced Armour)
Drag slider Right –> to view 250mm AP
Drag slider <– Left to view 295mm HEAT
Flat ground:
Upper plate 240-250mm
Lower plate 170mm
Turret face mostly 255-280mm, weakest point 240mm
Turret outer cheeks 380-480mm
Cupolas: 240mm at center, 320-350mm on edges
When turned at an angle, like shown in the right images, the upper plate increases up to 255mm at the weakest point, up to 270mm on the far edge. This increase is higher if using enhanced armour.
Armour vs tier 9 tanks:
Against tier 9 medium/light tanks, it will be much easier to get bounces off the 121’s upper plate, even if its not angled. Tier 9 mediums/lights generally have 220-240mm of penetration, and struggle much more against the upper plate than tier 10 mediums or heavies.
Most tier 9 heavy tanks have roughly the same level of penetration as tier 10 tanks, so they won’t struggle as much against the upper plate, but angling the hull will cause it to go red and make the tank harder to penetrate.
Armour vs tier 10 tanks:
Most tier 10 mediums and lights still struggle against the 121’s upper plate, however it needs to be angled to bounce. As shown above, if not using angling, the upper plate isn’t red at all.
(Note some mediums have exceptional penetration and won’t struggle, even if angled, such as FV4202, which generally has 268mm AP penetration, or the M60 and Leopard 1 if they use calibrated shells.)
Heavy tanks will generally not struggle against the 121’s upper plate if on flat ground, but when using gun depression, and angling slightly, the upper plate will bounce heavy tank shells reliably.
Side & rear armour:
121 has 83mm of base side armour, which makes this tank a good sidescraper (as far as mediums go). It also makes it very HE resistant on its sides, only 150mm+ guns or HESH will be able to penetrate the sides with HE type shells.
The rear armour is also good for a medium, its weakest point is 66mm, meaning again, the only guns that can reliably penetrate the 121’s rear armour with HE are tanks with guns over 150mm in caliber, or using HEP/HESH shells.
Gun
The 121 mounts a 122mm gun.
-Damage per shot is 440 on AP, 380 on HEAT, and 540 on HE
-Reload time is 8.3s, giving it 3197 DPM
-Penetration is 245mm on AP, 290mm on HEAT, and 68mm on HE
–Estimated aim time is 2.2s/2.3s
–Base aim time is 1.0s, but it can get down to 0.82s.
-Dispersion is 0.335/0.301
–Gun handling is 0.28/0.28/0.12, or 0.24/0.24/0.1 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -5 degrees over the upper plate, and -6 degrees over the hull sides.
Overall this is a great gun, it doesn’t trade off any DPM, while still having the best alpha damage of any tier 10 medium. Its accuracy is good for its alpha, and its aim time is insanely quick. Penetration and gun depression aren’t impressive, but aren’t unusably bad
The gun handling is the biggest issue of this tank, and is the big balancing factor for its DPM/alpha, aim time, and accuracy. This terrible handling causes you to be forced to stop and aim every shot fully, since the gun blooms out by an insane amount when you move, and you can’t hit anything if you don’t stop to aim.
This is the gun’s only issue, as it still has very high damage output and is accurate and consistent when not moving.
Mobility
-Top speed is 56km/h, reverse is -20km/h
-Traverse speed is 72 deg/s on hard terrain, and 61 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 19.2 hp/t, it has a strong 748 horsepower engine for its 39 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 34.6 hp/t on hard terrain, and 29.5 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Ground resistances are 0.6/0.7/1
The 121’s mobility is extremely good. It has great top speed and traverse speed, but the strongest point is the effective acceleration rate. This acceleration rate is among the quickest in tier 10, and just let the 121 very easily be able to get to its top speed and maintain it, and it allows the tank to be very agile and active in battle.
Equipment, provisions, & consumables
121 has no special provisions/consumables.
Gun rammer:
The 121 is all about the high damage output of its alpha/DPM combination, and the gun rammer helps to emphasize this. The tank also has almost instant and good accuracy, which allows it to hit weakpoints of tanks easily, so it generally doesn’t struggle to penetrate enemies.
Calibrated shells is a valid equipment choice on the 121, as it already has high DPM, and higher alpha damage than any other medium, so it can afford to lose some of that. However the 121 is really specialized in its damage output, and the gun rammer really lets you properly utilize this and unleash the DPM of the tank.
Gun rammer would decrease the reload time from 7.9s down to 7.3s, and increase DPM from 3199 up to 3440.
Improved Assembly/Enhanced Armour:
Either of these can work well. Improved assembly is better if you want to play the tank in a way that doesn’t rely on the armour as much, as you’ll have more HP when you do take hits. Enhanced armour does improve the armour quite significantly, and will let the 121 bounce more from all tanks, but especially medium and light tanks.
Enhanced armour mainly benefits these areas:
Upper plate from 240-250mm up to 249-259mm
Turret face from 255-280mm up to 266-291mm
Hull side armour from 83mm up to 86mm
Improved assembly would improve this tank’s base HP from 1800 up to 1908.
Vertical Stabilizer:
The worst gun stat of the 121 is its stabilization (gun handling), the other accuracy-related stats are both good and don’t need improving further. Using refined gun wouldn’t help, as the gun bloom of the tank would just be enormous after moving, and as a medium tank, you’ll be moving around the battle a lot
Unlike other tanks with similar guns (T-34-3, STG, or T-34-2), the 121 doesn’t have bad dispersion, and its handling is even worse. So while refined gun is a better choice on those other tanks, its not on this one.
The 121 needs vertical stabilizer to improve its accuracy and bloom while on the move, but most importantly, after it stops moving and is aiming in. The very quick aim time will let it aim in almost instantly, but the stabilizer makes a noticeable difference due to how fast this tank can move and how active it can play.
Gameplay advice
The 121 is a very unique medium tank, with really no other medium tank (other than the WZ-120) like it in the game.
Its odd gun handling/aim time combination is replicated in the T-34-3, STG, and T-34-2, but these tanks don’t have the good accuracy, penetration, or DPM of the 121, which makes their gameplay very different to this tank’s.
The 121 is a standard medium, however it has some different traits to most mediums which cause it to have to play just slightly differently, however most positions and tactics of other similar mediums will still work in the 121.
General gameplay:
The 121 is a standard medium, so it should be taken to the MT side of the map (as long as your team doesn’t abandon you to go alone).
Use the great speed and mobility to take aggressive positions, go hulldown, and trade damage with enemy medium tanks. Flanking and circling enemies also work well in this tank.
Go hulldown and use gun depression:
The 121’s armour is good, but it only really becomes “very strong” when it goes hulldown, or uses its gun depression.
Going hulldown will hide the hull, which is weaker than the turret. The turret is very reliable, and LT, LT, and HT will all need premium ammunition to be able to penetrate you in a hulldown position.
Gun depression is what lets the upper plate become very strong. On flat ground and when angled its decent, but using gun depression is still the strongest. Only a few degrees are needed to make the upper plate impenetrable to same tier standard ammo.
The 121’s hull is long and it “only” has -6 gun depression, but you can still use many ridgelines and positions, there’s a guide on how to do this here.
Angle the hull:
As shown in the armour images above, the 121’s hull armour is just below the level of penetration of tier 10 tanks. This means that it doesn’t need much for the hull to become strong and “red” to enemies.
using gun depression is the most effective way to bounce on the hull, but on flat ground you should also try to keep the hull turned slightly to the enemies, this increases the effective thickness and makes it harder to penetrate. Also driving at enemies in a diagonal direction while zigzagging will force them to aim for the lower plate, as the upper plate will be flashing between red and grey (penetrable and non-penetrable).
Stop to aim:
The 121’s gun stats are designed in a way to make you miss if you don’t stop and fully aim. The terrible gun handling, and the 121’s ability to be very fast, combine to make it atrocious for firing on the move, or taking snap shots/clutch shots.
The aim time is extremely quick, and accuracy are good, so when you do stop, your gun will aim in and become accurate extremely quickly. It is worth stopping to aim each shot, as the 121 is really based around its high alpha and damage output, and there’s no point playing the tank just to always miss.
Trade alpha damage:
121 has higher alpha damage than any other medium. Its more favourable for it to use this to its advantage, and only expose itself when reloaded.
If you try to trade in DPM, tanks with quicker reloads can easily get the upper hand if you bounce or miss a shot, as the enemy will reload faster and have more chances to shoot you.
Flank enemies:
Use the amazing mobility of the 121 to relocate around the map. You can easily isolate enemies, flank behind the slower enemies, or just retreat to a safer position where you can support your team.
The mobility can be useful in any situation where you can’t progress the battle further or if you notice an open opportunity. Just sitting in a same position all game is wasting the tank and what it can do.
The 121 has a similar playstyle to other Soviet/Chinese mediums, just having to aim more carefully, and able to rely on its hull armour a bit more confidently. It can use all the usual standard medium tank positions and tactics, as it plays a fairly standard medium role.
Overall
Overall the 121 is a great tank that’s very unique at tier 10. Its the only medium tank with a high alpha gun, and its also the only Soviet-style (low slung, rounded turret) medium tank with some proper hull armour at tier 10.
It has both high DPM and alpha damage, with great aim time and good accuracy, though it has terrible gun handling. The mobility is very good, being very fast for the big gun and decent armour that it carries, and having a good upper plate and turret armour profile.
Is it worth grinding?
The 121 is worth grinding but not for all players. This tank is very good, and its unique, but not every player will enjoy its terrible gun handling and the fact that this tank has to stop to aim every single shot it fires. Other than this, its essentially the perfect medium tank, and many players will like the alpha damage and instant aiming that this tank offers.
Camo cost:
“Typhoon” camo: 2D, costs 2,550 gold
“Neon Holiday” camo: 3D, costs 5,500 gold (6,000 on release)
Tech tree overview
To unlock the 121, you’ll have to grind through the Chinese medium tank tree. All tanks of this tree (tier 5-10) have similar traits, with good mobility, strong turrets, and -5 gun depression(the 121 has -6). The top 3 tanks all have large caliber guns with quick aim time.
All of these tanks (other than the Type 58 and T-34-1) have terrible stock grinds, with many modules to unlock, and quite painful stock guns you have to use. Its advisable to have as many of these modules unlocked from other Chinese tech trees, to make your stock grind easier. The “shared” modules are listed below to make your grind easier:
IS-2 top engine – also top engine in T-34-2
IS-2 top gun – also top 122mm gun in the T-34-2
110 top gun – also the top 100mm gun in the WZ-120
WZ-111 1-4 top engine – also top engine in WZ-120
-Tiers 1-4 are all fairly similar tanks, all have light armour, decent to good mobility, great guns, and great gun depression. All are fairly easy and enjoyable to grind.
-Tier 5 is the Type T-34, its essentially a T-34 with the 57mm gun, just with much improved accuracy and DPM. This tank has an extremely quick reload with very high penetration, and good accuracy for a tier 5 tank. Its armour and mobility are decent but nothing special.
The stock grind of this tank is terrible, its extremely slow for a medium, has atrocious penetration, very poor accuracy, and very low DPM. Getting the top turret and gun are imperative, get the tracks after that, then the engine if you feel like the tank needs it. (The tracks are what make this tank slow, the stock tracks have terrible terrain resistance).
If possible, play this tank in a game mode where you can gain abilities, as its very frustrating to play when stock in the random queue.
This tank is worth keeping, as it leads on to both the Chinese TD and LT trees, in addition to the mediums.
-Tier 6 is the Type 58, essentially a T-34-85 with its middle gun. This tank has good turret armour, and a great 85mm gun with comfortable alpha damage with good DPM and decent accuracy. The hull is fairly weak and the mobility is good but nothing special.
The stock version of this tank is good. Even though its slow, it gets an 85mm gun with good alpha and still decent DPM (a notable difference to the T-34-85, which has a terrible 76mm gun for its stock weapon). Its turret armour is still good due to its angling. This tank when stock is perfectly playable and grindable, though its still not strong (as with all stock tanks).
Keep this tank and grind all of its modules, they are used on other tanks in the Chinese tree, and the Type 58 also leads on to the Chinese heavy tank line up to the 113.
-Tier 7 is the T-34-1, a powerful medium with a very low profile, a strong turret, and a great 100mm gun. This tank has great alpha damage and good DPM, along with great penetration and aim time. The turret is rounded and strong, and great in hulldown positions, though its hull is weak. Mobility is good but nothing special.
(This gun’s accuracy isn’t great, so refined gun is actually a good choice for equipment).
The stock version of this tank is fine. It has great DPM on its stock 85mm, and good accuracy, the main issue is low penetration. The stock turret has very well angled turret cheeks, but the front is fairly weak, with a decent gun mantlet. All 3 of its engines are available on the Type 58, so the tank should be mobile as soon as you buy it.
-Tier 8 is the T-34-2, which has a choice of 2 guns. This tank has great turret armour, but a weak hull, and is also very compact (easy to hide/use terrain to avoid enemies). Its mobility is significantly improved over all previous tanks, and its quite agile for a medium.
One of the tank’s gun options is a 100mm gun, with good DPM, aim time, accuracy, and 280 alpha with a 7.6s reload.
The other gun option is a 122mm gun, with low DPM but high alpha, even better aim time, but worse accuracy, and 400 alpha with a 12.6s reload.
(Personal note: I think the 122mm gun is the better choice, as this tank just has terrible gun handling no matter which gun you take. The big alpha with great aim time just work very well on it, combined with that great mobility and small size. With this gun, the gameplay could be compared to a slower, armoured T49 with lower alpha and better accuracy, as it has the same sort of ambush, hit-and-run gameplay.
The 100mm doesn’t work as well, since aim time is worse, alpha is lower, and gun depression is still -5, along with that terrible gun handling. For a 100mm gun, you should try the T-44 instead.)
The stock grind of the T-34-2 is shocking. WG does not let you use the 100mm gun from the T-34-1 until you unlock the top turret, so you have to suffer with a 200 damage 85mm gun with 128mm AP penetration in tier 8. The reload is good and accuracy is ok, but you cannot penetrate anything. The stock turret is decently armoured, but significantly weaker than the top turret, and there’s only 1 engine to research, which doesn’t add much horsepower. Tracks should not be skipped on this tank, as they improve gun handling and mobility greatly.
-Tier 9 is the WZ-120, another tank with 2 gun choices. This tank has the strongest turret in this line so far, and the best mobility. The WZ-120 is the first tank to break 50km/h and also has very good acceleration along with that improved top speed.
One of its gun choices is a 100mm gun, it has 310 alpha with a 6.7s reload, with slightly less DPM, penetration, and the same accuracy with worse aim time than the other top gun.
The other gun choice is definitely the best gun choice, a 122mm gun with 400 alpha and an 8.4s reload. It has good penetration, amazing aim time, great DPM, and good accuracy.
(Both of these guns have the same -5 gun depression, and both have the same terrible gun handling, so using the 122mm gun on this one is just much more competitive.)
The stock WZ-120 is the worst stock grind in the game. If you skipped over all engine upgrades up to this point, and have no other modules unlocked, you would have to grind through 7 different modules, using 3 different stock 100mm guns. The WZ-120 has the highest number of stock modules, with the weakest stats of any stock tier 9 tank, its a painful grind.
The gun you start with is the T-34-2’s 100mm gun, it has low DPM, bad penetration, low alpha. The next gun is a new 100mm gun, still has low DPM, penetration is hardly better, alpha is still the same (280), but accuracy is slightly improved. The final 100mm has much improved DPM and penetration with 310 alpha, but you only get this after the top turret.
The stock turret has decent turret armour, but can still be penetrated with good aiming. Stock engines can all be unlocked from other tanks, the top one comes from the WZ-111 1-4. Stock tracks are worth it to improve gun handling.
It is highly advisable to unlock this tank and then just wait until a fun mode is released.
-Tier 10 is the 121, its by far the most accurate tank so far in the line, with the best hull armour, best mobility, and best DPM/alpha combination. It takes a big gun handling downgrade compared to the previous tank (one of the WZ-120’s big advantages in this tech tree), but does make up for it with its higher alpha damage and very good DPM.
The previous tanks from tier 7 up till tier 9 perfectly encompass the gameplay of the 121, and it should feel really familiar to the previous tanks in the tree.
Historical info:
Note:
This tank’s correct name is 121, not “WZ-121”.
Originally in the game, the Chinese tanks were all named correctly, however WG added the “WZ” to their names a while after, without giving a reason (this applies to 110, 112, 113, 121, & 113G FT, 122TM came later but also named in the same way).
Such naming is incorrect, and causes confusion with real life tanks with the same name that aren’t in game.
Tanks without “WZ” are prototypes, they never went into mass production, as WZ stands for “armoured weapon vehicle” and was only given to tanks which actually entered production (like the Type 59, which is WZ-120).
The 121 was a prototype Chinese medium tank, the WZ-121 is the Type 69, a tank not present in game, and a completely different tank to the 121.
The 121 is a real tank project, though not much is known about it due to most tank prototype projects from 1960’s China still being classified to this day. The 121 prototypes, like many other Chinese military vehicles from the 1960’s, were made the subject of nuclear tests and destroyed.
The 121 project shouldn’t be confused with the WZ-121, or Type 69 as its better known. The Type 69 was a mass produced MBT based on the Type 59, and it featured a very similar hull and turret to the Type 59, with a 100mm gun, very different to the 121 tank.
Naming:
WG has named this tank and many other Chinese tanks incorrectly. “WZ-121” is wrong, as “WZ” designation was only given to tanks that entered mass production.
Tanks that remained as prototypes were just given their number, nothing else. Examples of these tanks that were named wrongly in game are below:
113, 112, 110, 121, 122-2 (known as 122TM), & 132.
Tanks that have “WZ” actually entered production, hence are correctly named:
WZ-120/Type 59, WZ-131/Type 62, WZ-111
The WZ-111 is a prototype and seemingly an exception. It may have been given the WZ designation as it was intended to be mass produced, or as it was China’s only heavy tank that actually got built.
GuidesBlitz 