Update 0.12 Statistics - Part 2: Credit Earnings

The first part of our article series covered the winrates of various vehicles in Armored Warfare. Now we are going to take a look at credit earnings. As with the previous article, the numbers represent the statistics from the 0.12 launch onwards.

Player versus Player

One of the most commonly asked questions is which vehicles in Armored Warfare earn the most credits per battle. Statistically, the top credit earners are of course the premium vehicles, since one of their main features is the 50% bonus to credit income. But which ones are the best earners?

For the following table we will disregard the ICE and MERC special edition vehicles, as those are heavily influenced by the fact that their average owners are amongst the most skilled players. Furthermore, the statistics are based only on the European server – the order on the North American server is roughly the same but the absolute numbers are influenced by a comparatively lower playerbase.

Please note that the numbers represent the average net credit income per battle in PvP mode (after removing repair costs and ammunition costs).

The very high numbers of the BMPT and Expeditionary Tank (and partially the Taifun and RDF-LT) are again influenced by their playerbase, which comprises highly skilled and dedicated players (Founder’s Pack and Collector’s Edition owners) who have had time to get used to the game. When it comes to regular vehicles, the credit economy in Armored Warfare considerably differs from other tank games, where players earn gradually less and less as they progress through tiers. This mechanism was implemented to keep players from progressing too fast and to force them to play on lower tiers by making them earn credits on mid-tier or premium vehicles to afford the costs (ammunition and repairs) of the high tier ones.

In Armored Warfare, we believe players should be free to play on whichever tanks they want. As such, we have implemented a system where the higher the tier of vehicle a player uses, the more credits per battle they obtain. The intention is to fill lower-to-mid tiers by other means rather than by forcing players to participate in these battles.

As such, the best earners are actually the highest tier vehicles and therefore it makes no sense to find the “mid-tier best earner” like in other games, since all the vehicles earn enough credits to make them viable. Instead, here are the best credit earners per tier (net profit):

The BMPT-72 and Draco AFVs are generally underperforming, which is why they are being buffed in Update 0.12.1776.

The low credit-earning potential of the T-90 is partially caused by the vehicle’s popularity: on average more less-skilled players play on the T-90 than – for example – the Stryker. To improve the situation, the T-90 was buffed in Update 0.12.1776 along with several other T series tanks. The high earnings of the Paladin compared to the Panzerhaubitze 2000 are due to the reload bug that appeared in 0.12 that allowed the Paladin to perform considerably better than intended. This situation will normalize after the introduction of Update 0.12.1776, which corrects the issue that allows the Paladin to over-perform.

The Tier 7 credit earning rankings are dominated by AFVs that – despite relatively mediocre winrates – are earning considerable credit income for their tiers. The underperformers include the T-80, both of which are currently being looked at by the developers.

At tier 6, the Bradley is the clear underperformer and is also scheduled for a buff. The VBL scout has proven to be quite a nice credit earner. The T-72A situation is also being looked into – the vehicle was buffed in 0.12.1776 – and the situation of both the tier 6 artillery vehicles is being closely monitored.

T-72 Ural – the worst performer – was buffed as a part of the T series buff in Update 0.12.1776

The Swingfire is a specialist vehicle that is difficult to consistently perform well with and requires a skilled player to be effective. The high M109 credit earning potential is on the other hand influenced by the same issue as that of the Paladin.

And the remaining three tiers:

Player versus Environment

The PvE mode rewards in Armored Warfare have been a hotly debated topic ever since the Open Beta launch – the main player concern is that PvE rewards are insufficient. The developers are currently working on a complete overhaul of the PvE reward system, which will introduce a large number of changes to make the rewards comparable to the PvP mode, especially on higher difficulties.

That being said, the current Player versus Environment rewards are lower than those of the Player versus Player mode. Net profit per battle of the XM1 Tier 6 MBT:

• PvP: 45,724
• PvE (Easy): 24,975
• PvE (Medium): 33,198
• PvE (Hard): 34,479
• Decrease from PvP to PvE (Hard): 24.6%

The small increase from Medium to Hard is caused by the jump in difficulty. AFV vehicles are performing considerably better in PvP than PvE when it comes to credits. Using the Tier 6 VBL as an example:

• PvP: 54,655
• PvE (Easy): 25,670
• PvE (Medium): 28,769
• PvE (Hard): 28,905
• Decrease from PvP to PvE (Hard): 47.2%

For the Tank Destroyer class, we can use the Tier 5 ERC 90 F4 as an example:

• PvP: 46,243
• PvE (Easy): 21,742
• PvE (Medium): 25,698
• PvE (Hard): 23,100
• Decrease from PvP to PvE (Medium): 44.3%

Light Tanks are represented by the Stingray 1:

• PvP: 43,233
• PvE (Easy): 25,360
• PvE (Medium): 30,173
• PvE (Hard): 30,790
• Decrease from PvP to PvE (Hard): 28.8%

And finally, the artillery – Tier 6 Palmaria:

• PvP: 33,212
• PvE (Easy): 25,755
• PvE (Medium): 29,923
• PvE (Hard): 29,078
• Decrease from PvP to PvE (Hard): 12.5%

Tier 5-6 was selected as an example because the vehicles of this tier tend to appear in battles of all PvE difficulties, whereas Tier 9 vehicle owners practically never enter the PvE Easy mode battles. The table also disregards the fact that, on average, PvE battles last longer than PvP battles.

Generally speaking, the class that loses the least credits when switching from PvP to PvE is Artillery. The Main Battle Tank class performs okay as well, while Tank Destroyers and AFVs do suffer from the current PvE setup. The developers are working on improving the PvE mode to make it more viable for the two abovementioned classes. These changes along with the reward system overhaul should finally balance the income discrepancy between PvP and PvE. The abovementioned PvE reward changes are coming in Update 0.13.