Commanders!
In our continuous effort to improve the crew system, we will introduce several changes with Update 1.24.1. The new features will affect existing crews and the recruitment of new crew members, making the system more convenient to use, but will not change any perks.
This is the latest step forward in an ongoing process, with more updates of features like the crew perks planned for later this year. So stay tuned!
Quality of Life Improvements and Changes:
Revision of Major Qualification Level—No More Penalties to Vehicle Performance
All crew members with levels above 50% and below 100% have been set to 100%.
This change renders the major qualification level as an indicator of crew performance obsolete, replacing it with crew efficiency. The XP previously invested in increasing the qualification level is now converted toward perk progression and counts as a percentage of each crew member’s total XP amount.
Crew Efficiency and Perk Efficiency—Boost Your Crew to New Heights
Two new performance values determine the effectiveness of your crew members.
- The crew efficiency value can be increased with specific perks, consumables, equipment, and the Commander’s bonus.
- The perk efficiency value determines the effectiveness of learned perks and is set to 100% by default.
- Retraining operations performed for free or credits will reduce the perks efficiency value below 100%, negatively impacting the effectiveness of all learned perks. Perk efficiency of 50% means learned perks are only half as effective.
- The reduced value can be linearly increased with Crew XP to a maximum of 100,000, so a 1% perk efficiency increase is equal to collecting 1,000 Crew XP.
Simplified Crew Member Recruitment
Removing the major qualification level requires a redesign of the recruitment options.
The reworked system allows you to recruit a fully trained crew (previously known as a 100% crew) for free. After recruitment, you can start the process of training your first perk straight away.
Redesign of Training and Retraining
We have made a few changes to retraining operations to make the system easier to understand and more straightforward.
The new system allows any crew of the same nation to command any vehicle regardless of the class without negatively impacting the vehicle’s performance. Even if the crew is not trained for the specific vehicle, you can roll straight out into battle.
Penalties and Disabling of Crew Perks
- The same penalty to perk efficiency will be applied regardless of whether you perform a retraining operation on the same vehicle class or with a class change.
- Crews assigned to a vehicle they are not trained for will not benefit from learned perks until retraining is completed.
- Retraining for a vehicle can be done for free with a decrease in perk efficiency to 30%.
- Retraining a crew member for 20,000 credits now allows you also to change the major qualification.
- Perk efficiency is lowered to 60% if trained for a different vehicle without role change
- Perk efficiency is lowered to 40% if trained for a different vehicle with role change
- Players gradually remove the applied penalty by collecting Crew XP in battles. The perk efficiency experience pool consists of 100,000 Crew XP. All Crew XP gained after a retraining operation will first go to fill this pool to 100%.
- No penalties will be applied if a crew member is retrained for 200 gold or with retraining orders.
Example: A loader with a 100% Brothers in Arms perk and an 80% Concealment perk is retrained for credits. A 40% penalty to perk efficiency is applied, reducing the effect of all perks. The BiA perk, for example, now only provides a 3% bonus, and the Concealment effect is also reduced. It requires 40,000 Crew XP to return to full effectiveness. After collecting 19,000 Crew XP in battles, the perk efficiency is at 79%.
Perk Reset Operations Remain Unchanged
The perk reset operation for updating and adjusting the trained perks of your crew members will remain mostly unchanged. The system will continue to allow you to reset trained perks at once, with a penalty to the total amount of experience if done for free or with credits.
- Resetting crew perks for free will deduct 20% of the total perk experience.
- Resetting for 20,000 will deduct 10% of the total perk experience.
- Resetting for 200 will have no penalty applied.
Barrack Clean-Up—Convert Unused Crews to Crew XP
For 90 days, starting from the first login after update 1.24.1, you can mass-dismiss crews that you no longer need to free up barrack slots and gain nation-specific Crew Books.
A special button added to the Barracks screen will remove crews that started training toward a first perk but have not yet mastered it. The accumulated experience will be automatically compensated based on Crew XP divided by the number of crew members in the trained vehicle.
Example: Dismissing one German Loader with 100,000 Crew XP trained for the Tiger II (a vehicle operated by five) will be compensated with one Training Booklet (Germany).
This option will only affect regular crews without a fully trained first perk. Crew members assigned to a vehicle, those from special events, those with zero-trained perks, and celebrities will not be dismissed. You will keep the corresponding Barracks slots, but temporary slots will be removed. To activate this option, you must log in before the release of Update 1.25. It is a one-time operation and can't be reverted.
Simplified Crew Transfer
We have improved the crew transfer operation between vehicles and the Barracks.
You can now switch crews directly from one vehicle to another, even if you don’t have free Barracks slots.
It is also possible to send crews to the Barracks even if they are at capacity and there aren’t any free slots available. In this case, you won’t be able to recruit a new free crew member.
Newcomer Bonuses—Experiment with Your Crew Setup
New players get a chance to experiment and familiarize themselves with the updated crew system thanks to discounts on retraining operations.
While learning the first perk, newcomers can freely switch crews between vehicles and retrain them without any penalties to perk efficiency using a 100% gold discount!
After the crew has reached their first 100% perk and while learning a second perk, new players will still see a 50% credits or gold discount to retrain the crew.
Frequently Asked Questions
ExpandWhat will happen to my crews in the barracks with less than 100%?
All of your crews with less than 100% major qualification level will automatically be set to 100% regardless of whether they are in the Barracks or assigned to a vehicle.
Where will my accumulated Crew XP between 50% and 100% go? Will it be lost? Was my grind for nothing?
None of the accumulated XP will be lost. Collected Crew XP on crews between 50% and 100% will contribute to the total crew experience pool and is added to the currently trained perk.
What happens if a crew is not trained for their assigned vehicle? Will I still be able to fight in the vehicle with a penalty?
A crew assigned but not trained to a vehicle can still roll out into battle. However, they will not benefit from any perks until they are retrained for the vehicle.
How many battles or how much Crew XP does it take to negate the penalty from a perks reset if done for free?
You will lose 20% of your total crew experience. It will be a different amount of experience depending on how many perks you have trained. For example, resetting the first fully trained perk will result in losing 42,012 Crew XP, which is about 40 battles.
What happens to celebrity crew members like Arnold if they haven’t been assigned to a vehicle and are in the Barracks?
Celebrity and other special crews are unaffected by the changes and will not be dismissed.
Will I be able to change my crew from one role to another?
Yes—now this operation can be performed either for 20,000 credits with a perk efficiency penalty or for 200 gold without any penalty.
What happens to the perks of a crew member covering two roles if I move them into a tank where only some of the role-specific perks are required? Example: A Radio Operator/Gunner moves to a tank where they only utilize the Gunner perks.
If a crew member covers two positions in one vehicle, you will have the option to re-specialize while moving them to a new tank, and the perks are not reset. The Radio Operator perks will be disabled until you retrain the crew member back for a vehicle where both qualifications work.
The current update aims at quality of life improvements regarding crew operations. Interactions between perks and additional roles will receive improvements in the next crew update.
I have been playing this game for 13 years, and these changes will mess up the setup I worked so hard for. All my effort was for nothing. Why should I continue playing?
We very much appreciate your engagement and your hard work. If you take the time to go through the changes in detail, you will see that nothing of your progress is lost. You will keep all your XP, and all our effort was put into making the crew system more logical, accessible, and balanced for our players.
When are these changes going to happen? Is it possible to opt out of them?
The quality of life improvements will roll out with Update 1.24.1 and will be implemented on all servers. It is not possible to revert the update or opt out.
The new perk efficiency system is a bit unclear. Can you give a more specific example? What causes the % of perk efficiency to go up or down?
Perk efficiency only concerns retraining operations for free or for credits. They will result in a penalty to perks efficiency that can be removed by collecting Crew XP in the battles.
I want to take the time to go through the crews in my barracks before they are mass-dismissed. How long do I have the option to automatically clean up the barracks?
Once you log in after Update 1.24.1, you will have three months (90 days) to utilize the convert button and dismiss unwanted crew members for crew books. This operation is irreversible and can only be performed once. To enable this option, you have to log in before Update 1.25 is released.
Will I still be able to recruit crew members for free or for credits?
With the removal of major qualification levels, we have also removed the option to recruit crew members for credits or gold. You can now recruit fully trained crews for free.
Why is a percentage penalty applied to the efficiency of my crew when retraining for free or for credits? Aren’t all crews supposed to be 100% from now on?
From now on, crews will have two independent efficiency levels. Crew efficiency will never fall below 100%, but it can be improved, for example, with food consumables.
The perk efficiency level determines the effectiveness of perks and is only negatively affected when retraining for free or credits.
Isn’t adding a penalty for retraining crew members just another way to say they have a lower major qualification level? Doesn’t this contradict the point of this crew rework?
The new system removes penalties to a vehicle’s performance caused by a crew below 100%. This shift aims at leveling the playing field and prevents situations where a player with the same setup in the same vehicle can outperform another player because of different crew levels.
Improvements from perks are added bonuses to a vehicle and the crew. They are more specific and require tactical finesse, unlike a direct penalty to the vehicle’s performance. The new penalty system will affect your battle performance much less.
These are the major changes to the crew system introduced with Update 1.24.1, aimed at streamlining the system and preparing for the next step later this year.
Make sure to check the full guide for more in-depth details and examples.
Roll Out!