World of Tanks 8.0 is now live on all of the servers and the beastly Object 263 comes with it.  This new tier 10 Soviet tank destroyer is a nimble assassin with a surprisingly good frontal armor scheme.  Traditional weak spots like the hatches on top or small sights on the Object 263 do not work as currently they are not treated any differently than the surrounding armor(for whatever reason) so don’t count on shooting those as they won’t even damage the modules reliably if at all.  Glacing over the listed armor stats of the Object 263 you will see an impressive 250mm for the frontal armor, 100mm for the sides, and 60mm for the rear.

 Green= Best chance of penetration

Yellow= Next best chance of penetration

Red= Worse chance of penetration

 Frontal View:

  Frontally the Object 263 has insanely good armor against most tanks. The frontal glacis is 250mm thick at roughly a 55 degree angle making it immune to essentially every gun   in the game(435mm effective armor).  The upper portion of the tank is also 250mm thick but at a lesser angle, around the gun is slightly weaker, and the lower hull is the only true weak spot.  There are some less straight forward weak spots that are unique to the Object 263.  Tanks taller than the Object 263 at closer ranges can shoot down into the open portion on the rear of the tank and do massive module/crew/HP damage with HE.

Area One:

The lower hull will be the main weak spot for most facing the Object 263.  Guns with 215mm of average penetration or above can go through reliably.  The closer you get to the Object 263 the tougher this area becomes however so at close range you will want a gun with 240mm+ penetration.

Area Two:

 On either side of the gun shield(and also below if their gun is pointing up) are locations where the armor is much weaker than the surrounding armor. High Explosive(HE) shells can do massive damage here and penetrating with normal AP rounds is much easier as well.  When the gun is pointing up you can shoot below the gun shield as well and if the gun is aiming left or right it opens the gap on the other side up further making it easier to shoot.

Area Three:

The engine deck of the Object 263 unlike most other tanks you face is in the front of the tank.  Good for artillery but with it hiding behind that massive 250mm sloped glacis plate good luck damaging it straight forward.  At close range however if your tank has good gun depression you can aim down and punch through due to the very thin armor located here. Further away shooting at the portion below the super structure portion of the tank just above the engine deck is viable. Here guns with 235mm+ average penetration can go through frequently.

Area Four:

The “gun shield” or mantlet portion of the Object 263 is 225mm thick and at a 45 degree angle making it 318mm of effective armor.  This makes it capable of being penetrated by only tier 10 tanks if they roll a high penetrating value. Tier 10 tank destroyers can go through roughly 50% of the time however due to them being close to 300mm of penetration already if the random number generator is kind to you.  The 45 degree angle only is true when the gun is level meaning that if the Object 263 is aiming down then the angle is negated and it becomes much easier to penetrate. If the gun is aiming upwards then simply use the weak spot below the gun shield/mantlet that becomes visible.

Area Five:

The frontal glacis of the Object 263 is 250mm thick and at a 55 degree angle making it have a whopping 435mm of effective armor.  Avoid shooting here in any situation.

Area Six:

The super structure portion of the Object 263 is also 250mm thick and at a 45 degree angle giving it another insanely protected part of the tank with 353mm of effective armor.  Only gold rounds from top tier tanks will go through here reliably(and even then they have a chance of bouncing). The sights and also the hatch on top are not part of any special hit boxes and have no different armor values assigned to them.

Angled View:

The Object 263 while angled takes away pretty much all of it’s frontal weak spots while exposing it’s side armor if it angles over 30 degrees. Due to it’s lack of gun traverse(left/right movement) it wont be able to fire if it angles much more than 5-10 degrees however so while it does gain better frontal armor while angling 10-20 degrees it limits it’s capability to actually shoot a tank in front of it.  The more the Object angles the weaker the side armor becomes and due to the sides only being 100mm thick they are easily damaged by 220mm+ penetration guns once the angle falls below 60 degrees.

Area One:

The more the Object 263 angles the more visible the rear open topped section becomes.  Shooting here with HE will do great damage. Avoid shooting the large “scoop” hanging off of the rear of the tank and instead aim for the rear slab of armor since damage is only done if it is inside the crew compartment since the scoop is outside of the tank.

Area Two:

This location that was easy for 235mm+ penetration guns to damage from the front is still viable if the Object 263 is only angled 5-15 degrees.  The greater the angle the greater the penetration you will need and if the Object angles heavily then simply forget this location and shoot the sides as they are the easier target in that situation.

Area Three/Four:

While the Object 263 has great frontal armor it lacks side armor as it is only 100mm thick.  Area three is slightly angled while area four has no angle on it at all.  Due to it being only 100mm thick once the angle drops below 60 degrees fire away as it’s effective armor will be less 200mm.

Area Five/Six/Seven/Eight:

 The frontal armor was already tough to begin with so adding any additional angles on it makes it a very bad choice to continue firing away at it. Areas six, seven, and eight become immune to essentially anything fired at them and the gun shield in area five can only be damaged here or there. The gaps around the gun shield are still weak spots if visible….however the more the object angles the less visible they become.

Side View:

Now that the frontal armor is mostly out of the way…..  The side armor of the Object 263 is easily damaged by any tank facing it under normal matchmaking.  The side armor is only 100mm thick and for the most part not angled.  Area one and area two are the easiest to damage with area four having a higher chance of damaging the tracks and them soaking the damage up. Area three is able to be shot into by taller tanks at close range and HE inflicts massive crew/module/HP damage if a shell lands in here. Area five bounces shells due to it’s height, and slight angle for lower penetrating guns but guns with 240mm+ penetration need not to worry.  The only spots to worry about are the engine deck area which is angled heavily and from this angle has nothing for the round to bounce into and also the 250mm thick plates from the frontal armor in both area six and area seven.

Rear View:

You shouldn’t need help with the rear of the Object 263 as it is only 60mm thick….but I included it anyway. Fire away!