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Bismarck is a Tier VII German turtleback battleship: her sloped internal armor bounces plunging shells at close range, so the citadel is safer inside secondary range than at long-line trades. The kit is brawl-positive with secondaries out to 7.5 km that punish anyone who closes. HE pen sits at the 1/4 caliber ratio instead of the standard 1/6, so HE spam is a real damage option here - pens roughly 1.5x more armor than a same-caliber peer's HE round. Standout traits: top-decile punch-through secondaries in T7 BBs (38 mm) and top-decile AP guaranteed-ricochet angle in T7 BBs (65°).
Push to within secondary range (~7.5 km) so the auto-fire battery starts contributing. The turtleback bounces plunging shells, so close range protects the citadel better than long-line trades do; let peers think you are overextending while the kit's brawl angle eats their AP. Bow on between salvos still matters; the bow plate handles overmatch where the turtleback handles plunge.
With no torpedoes you cannot trade back a fight fought inside enemy torpedo range. Hold the band where your guns and secondaries punish them while their fish still fall short, and lean on armor and volume of fire instead of closing the last few kilometers into a spread you have no answer for.
Sloped internal armor between the lower belt and the citadel deck. Bounces AP shells that penetrate the upper belt, so close-range broadside trades are survivable against same-tier guns.
HE pen at the 1/4 caliber ratio instead of the standard 1/6. HE-spam is a real damage option here, not just a fire-starter; pens roughly 1.5x more armor than a same-caliber peer's HE, shared by 15/49 T7 BBs.
65.0° AP guaranteed ricochet angle, top decile of T7 BBs. Auto-bounce kicks in later than peers'.
No stat falls into the cohort's bottom decile across T7 BBs. Stable baseline in every category, no glaring weakness to play around.
Bismarck is a Tech Tree ship. The normal acquisition path is researching and purchasing it in its nation/class line.
Pair with a commander whose unique skill complements her main armament; check the build tool for current recommendations.
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Where Bismarck sits among Tier VII BBs (49 ships). Notable standouts are shown first; the rest of the cohort-ranked stats are in the expand below. Acquisition variants (Black Friday, Founders Edition) are counted once with their base ship, not as separate peers.
Not standouts for Bismarck -- here's where she sits on every other ranked stat in the cohort. Stats tagged NORM are tied across more than half the cohort, so the value is the cohort default rather than a standout.
Damage Control Party∞ charges · 80 s reload · 15 s active
Repair Party3 charges · 80 s reload · 28 s active · 9,688 HP (14% of max HP) total heal (per charge) 
Catapult Fighter4 charges · 80 s reload · 90 s active · 5 km patrol radius 
Observation Seaplane4 charges · 200 s reload · 30 s active · 1 squadron size · Tightens main-battery shell grouping
Secondary Battery Booster3 charges · 160 s reload · 30 s active · +100% grouping · -50% dispersion
Sonar2 charges · 180 s reload · 96 s active · 4.44 km ship detect All values are ship base stats with modifications and upgrade changes denoted inline.
Numbers the spec table cannot show directly: alpha-strike math, DPM, dispersion, AP penetration. Click the formula chip on any row to reveal how it is calculated.
Horizontal dispersion ellipse width at max range, from the verified WoWS dispersion model: Horizontal scatter at a fixed 5 km, from the same verified dispersion model as the rows below - a knife-fight-range anchor comparable across ships.How wide your shells scatter at 10 km, from the same dispersion model as the max-range figure above. Picking a fixed range makes this number directly comparable from ship to ship: max-range dispersion makes a longer-range gun look worse even when it's tighter at any common range. The interactive Dispersion tab on the Charts card plots the full curve from 0 to max range.Horizontal scatter at a fixed 15 km, from the same verified dispersion model - the long-range anchor. Only shown when the ship's guns reach 15 km.Vertical dispersion ellipse height at max range: How tall the same scatter ellipse is at 10 km. Comparable from ship to ship for the same reason as the width value above.50%-hit horizontal radius: 50%-hit vertical radius: Canonical community AP formula (jcw780/wows_shell), evaluated at muzzle velocity: . Matches the in-game spec card.Same formula at the ship's max firing range (21.7 km), where the shell has slowed to 519.3 m/s: .AP penetration at a fixed 5 km, read off the same PC-validated ballistic curve as AP Pen Close/Far: the shell's impact velocity at that range fed through the canonical community AP formula . Fixed anchors make ships directly comparable at the same fighting distance; the Charts card plots the full curve.AP penetration at a fixed 10 km, read off the same PC-validated ballistic curve as AP Pen Close/Far: the shell's impact velocity at that range fed through the canonical community AP formula . Fixed anchors make ships directly comparable at the same fighting distance; the Charts card plots the full curve.AP penetration at a fixed 15 km, read off the same PC-validated ballistic curve as AP Pen Close/Far: the shell's impact velocity at that range fed through the canonical community AP formula . Fixed anchors make ships directly comparable at the same fighting distance; the Charts card plots the full curve.95 mm ≈ 380 mm caliber / 4 (improved HE penetration: German BBs, Yamato-class, and a handful of others).This ship's HE shells use a 1/4 (~0.25) caliber-to-pen ratio instead of the standard 1/6 (~0.167) - 0.249 in this case. Lets HE pen ~95mm armor instead of ~63mm. Hits every German cruiser (150mm CL, 203mm CA) and BB (350mm+), British heavy cruisers / Lion / Nelson, a handful of other premiums.floor(380 mm caliber / 14.3) = 26 mm (AP auto-penetrates plating this thick or less).AP shell over-penetration splash radius; scales with shell mass. Wickes 102mm = 3, standard 152mm CL ~ 20, Iowa 406mm ~ 270, Yamato 460mm = 400, Incomparable 650mm = 550 (max). Larger value = bigger splash damage area when AP over-pens.All 8 barrels bear on the broadside.180 degrees / 5 deg/s traverse speed = 36 s.4,400 HE damage x 8 broadside guns = 35,200.11,600 AP damage x 8 broadside guns = 92,800.Zero upgrades: 35,200 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 26 s base reload = 81,231. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 35,200 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 23.4 s all-upgrades reload = 90,256.Zero upgrades: 92,800 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 26 s base reload = 214,154. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 92,800 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 23.4 s all-upgrades reload = 237,949.Zero upgrades: 8 broadside guns x 60 / 26 s base reload = 18.5. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 8 broadside guns x 60 / 23.4 s all-upgrades reload = 20.5.Zero upgrades: 18.5 shells/min x 34% fire chance = 6.28. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 20.5 shells/min x 34% fire chance = 6.97.Sum across every AA aura on this ship of (aura.continuous_damage x 3.5 x aura.hit_probability). Here: (51×3.5×0.75) + (83×3.5×0.7) + (51×3.5×0.75) = 471. Covers AA-only mounts plus dual-purpose secondaries (Bismarck 105mm, USN 5"/38 cruiser secondaries) and dual-purpose main batteries (Sumner-class 5"/38, Akizuki-line 100mm). Formula validated against in-game captures on California, Sumner, Manfred von Richthofen, Dante Alighieri (exact) and within +/-17% on the remaining verified ships. Flak is NOT included: flak stops triggering once planes are inside 2.5 km, and its avoidable burst damage is shown separately in the Flak bursts section.Longest-reaching aura across AA-only + dual-purpose auras.SUM over AA auras of (aura DPS x aura range km). A plane crossing the AA bubble is exposed to each aura for a time proportional to that aura's range, so long-reach DPS is worth more than the same DPS in a short bubble. Units: DPS*km; used to rank overall AA threat across the cohort.Max dispersion = range (km) × 57 + 30. Each dispersion type sets its own slope; this is not a percentage applied to a standard baseline.7.5 km × 57 + 30 = 457.5 m.Same per-type line evaluated at a fixed 5 km: 5 km × 57 + 30 = 315 m.Sum across all secondary families of (per-side barrels × 60 / reload_s × alpha), where per-side barrels = mounts × barrels-per-mount / 2 (the guns that bear on one broadside target). Per-family: 4×2 105 mm (4/side) × 60/3.35 × 1200 = 85,970 + 4×2 105 mm (4/side) × 60/3.35 × 1200 = 85,970 + 4×2 150 mm (4/side) × 60/7.5 × 1700 = 54,400 + 2×2 150 mm (2/side) × 60/7.5 × 1700 = 27,200. Assumes every shell hits (real hit rate is lower; the Brawl matchup tool on the Compare page folds in dispersion + target armor).Maximum HE damage per shell across secondary HE families. Best on this ship: 1700 from the 150 mm family.Maximum per-shell fire chance across secondary HE families (before target fire resistance is applied). Best on this ship: 8% from the 150 mm family.Maximum HE armor penetration across secondary HE families (caliber × 1/6 for most nations; 1/4 for German/UK BBs). Shells whose pen falls under a plate's armor thickness shatter for 0 hull damage though fire chance still applies. Best on this ship: 38 mm from the 150 mm family.Hull HP 64,500 → 69,200 with hull upgrade, distributed across 5 hull zones, each with its own plate thicknesses, saturation cap, and pen thresholds. HP caps are the exact in-game values, not estimated.
Overmatched by only MusashiARP Musashi. Angled, everything else bounces.
Citadels come from a flat broadside at close range; held past ~30° of angle, AP shatters or bounces.
Superstructure and extremities take HE pens and AP overpens from nearly any gun: steady chip damage. Fire resistance 37%, fires burn 60s. Range-by-range in the Compare tool →
| Section | Plates | HP cap | Threats | Tactic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bow | 32 mm primary (range 20–60 mm) | 2,100 (3% of HP) | Overmatch not possible in its bracketAngle bounces 410mm32 mm: HE pens from 203mm+ | Bow-tank fits behind this exterior plate. Saturation is FAST here; the cap is often only a few thousand HP. |
| Hull (midship) | 110 mm primary (range 38–320 mm) | 51,900 (75% of HP) | No common caliber overmatches110 mm: standard HE shatters; improved HE (DE / FR BB) pens from 460mm+ | Largest HP pool. Citadel sits behind these plates; thinner deck and side plating absorb the rest. |
| Stern | 32 mm primary (range 32–110 mm) | 1,400 (2% of HP) | Overmatch not possible in its bracketAngle bounces 410mm32 mm: HE pens from 203mm+ | Mirror of bow. Same fast saturation. |
| Citadel | 320 mm primary (range 25–245 mm) | ≈ 165,500 (effectively no cap) | Citadel pen: full damageOver-pen: ×0.10 damage | Effectively no cap; citadel pool sits at ~165k HP on every ship. An AP citadel penetration deals the shell's full damage, the biggest single hit available; only over-penetrations are damped, to ×0.10. |
| Superstructure | 19 mm primary (range 19–50 mm) | 4,700 (7% of HP) | Any HE ≥16 mm pens at full damage | Any HE ≥16 mm pens at full damage. HE-spam target, and the section saturates fast (often only a few thousand HP). |
| Turret (module, per magazine) | separate HP pool, does not drain ship HP | 34,600 magazine HP | Magazine detonation1–30% chance · below ~75% HP | Per-turret powder-magazine HP. Detonation chance scales from 1% (no mag damage) to 30% (full mag damage); this range is the in-game value. Detonation can't roll while the ship is above ~75% HP (the standard detonation-protection threshold, not a per-ship stat). Smaller magazines saturate to the 30% ceiling faster. |
| Secondary mount (150 mm mount) | separate HP pool, does not drain ship HP | 800 per-mount HP | Destroyed at 0 HP | Per-mount HP for the heaviest secondary on this ship. A mount destroyed at 0 HP is out for the rest of the battle; DCP does not repair destroyed mounts. Smaller (lighter-caliber) secondaries typically share the same HP value. |
| AA mount (37 mm mount) | separate HP pool, does not drain ship HP | 200 per-mount HP | Destroyed at 0 HP | Per-mount HP for the heaviest AA on this ship. An AA mount destroyed at 0 HP stops shooting down planes for the rest of the battle; DCP does not repair destroyed mounts. HE shells specifically target AA mounts since the small-caliber HP pool falls fast. |
| Engine (module, research) | engine coefficient (unconfirmed) | -0.080 research estimate | Largest on BB/BC; zero on destroyers | Engine durability isn't a per-ship value in the game data. This small negative coefficient is non-zero only on battleships, battlecruisers, and the heaviest cruisers, and is exactly zero on every destroyer, so it scales with hull displacement rather than any commander skill. Most likely an engine drag or power term in the same family as the deceleration stats; its exact meaning is not yet confirmed. |
| Rudder (module) | separate HP pool, does not drain ship HP | 20,800 module HP | Incapacitated at 0 HP | When module HP reaches 0 the rudder locks at its current angle until DCP repairs it. Repair via Damage Control Party. |
Saturation cap = HP a section can absorb before further damage to it is reduced (the "bow-tank" effect). Citadel pool is ~165k on every ship (effectively no cap); damage is gated by pen/over-pen multipliers instead. Superstructure saturates fast but HE always pens regardless of the plate thickness. Rudder (and other module HPs) are a separate pool from ship HP: damaging a module doesn't drain ship HP. Incapacitated modules like the rudder and engine are restored by DCP, but secondary and AA mounts destroyed at 0 HP stay out for the rest of the battle.
Balance updates affecting Bismarck. Cards are condensed; use each source link for full context.
The real Bismarck that gave this ship her name. Facts cross-checked against the linked Wikipedia article.
Sunk 27 May 1941 in the North Atlantic. Crew scuttled the ship to prevent capture after sustained gunfire and torpedo damage. Roughly 2,200 dead; 114 survivors. Wreck discovered by Robert Ballard in 1989 at ~4,800 m depth.
Every custom exterior Bismarck can equip, from in-game data.
Filtered to official World of Warships: Legends pages where this ship is a focus, reward, line member, or high-context variant mention.