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Karl XIV Johan is a Tier VIII European bow-tank battleship: top-decile bow and deck plate shrugs what peer guns cannot crack, so she holds the line bow-in and soaks fire while the team trades around her. Deck torpedoes punish anyone who closes. Standout traits: best burny secondaries in T8 BBs (13) and best torpedo speed in T8 BBs (86 kt).
Anchor a flank at 14-17 km with bow toward the closest threat. Rotate one or two map cells with the team rather than holding solo; a battleship alone on a flank is a free focus target for the enemy.
A battleship caught broadside by two same-tier guns at mid range loses more HP than any single salvo trades back, so rotate with the team or hold your angle instead of charging in first.
13.0% best HE fire chance per secondary shell (before target resistance), best of T8 BBs. Stacks fires faster than peers in a brawl.
86.0 kt torpedo speed, best of T8 BBs. Less reaction time for targets to dodge.
5.2 km AA reach, best of T8 BBs.
30.0 mm superstructure, best of T8 BBs. HE farms less.
Angled bow-on, the bow and belt bounce AP that would citadel a flat-side peer -- but show a full broadside even for one salvo and you hand out a citadel. Commit to a lane you can hold angled; you can't afford to swing broadside to dodge torpedoes.
Karl XIV Johan is a Premium ship and not available to unlock in the Tech Tree. Acquisition paths: Containers and Campaign. Container chances are shown as the listed odds of receiving this exact ship, dividing grouped ship-pool odds across the resolved ships and including nested container paths when a crate can drop another crate.
Super VIII crate
5%
One of the Tier VIII Premium ships
Event · Super VIII crate · 1 of 20 ships
Mystic Lantern
0.045455%
Tier VIII Premium ship
Event · Mystic Lantern · 1 of 22 ships
Want the full picture? Each container page charts the odds as you open more crates — including pity guaranteed-reward timers and, for Fleet Members, pack math personalized to your port.
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Where Karl XIV Johan sits among Tier VIII BBs (32 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 Karl XIV Johan -- 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 · 10,206 HP (14% of max HP) total heal (per charge) 
Sonar2 charges · 180 s reload · 98 s active · 4.68 km ship detect 
Secondary Battery Booster4 charges · 100 s reload · 30 s active · +100% grouping · -50% dispersionAll 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 (21.4 km), where the shell has slowed to 490.9 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.51 mm ≈ 305 mm caliber / 6 (standard HE penetration ratio).floor(305 mm caliber / 14.3) = 21 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 12 barrels bear on the broadside.180 degrees / 6 deg/s traverse speed = 30 s.4,350 HE damage x 12 broadside guns = 52,200.8,400 AP damage x 12 broadside guns = 100,800.Zero upgrades: 52,200 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 25 s base reload = 125,280. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 52,200 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 22.5 s all-upgrades reload = 139,200.Zero upgrades: 100,800 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 25 s base reload = 241,920. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 100,800 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 22.5 s all-upgrades reload = 268,800.Zero upgrades: 12 broadside guns x 60 / 25 s base reload = 28.8. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 12 broadside guns x 60 / 22.5 s all-upgrades reload = 32.Zero upgrades: 28.8 shells/min x 28% fire chance = 8.06. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 32 shells/min x 28% fire chance = 8.96.detectability / (speed kt x 2.6 community game-speed factor).range / (speed kt x 2.6 community game-speed factor).4 launchers x 4 tubes.tube count / 2 (symmetric port/starboard launcher layout; common on cruisers and battleships with deck torpedoes).All tubes hitting one target: tubes x per-torpedo simulated damage = 16 x 9,800 = 156,800.One side firing, all torpedoes hitting: per-side tubes x per-torpedo simulated damage = 8 x 9,800 = 78,400.Sum across every AA aura on this ship of (aura.continuous_damage x 3.5 x aura.hit_probability). Here: (192×3.5×0.75) + (47×3.5×0.75) = 627. 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.6.5 km × 57 + 30 = 400.5 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: 6×2 120 mm (6/side) × 60/3 × 1700 = 204,000 + 14×1 150 mm (7/side) × 60/7.5 × 2200 = 123,200. 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: 2200 from the 150 mm family.Maximum per-shell fire chance across secondary HE families (before target fire resistance is applied). Best on this ship: 13% 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: 25 mm from the 150 mm family.Hull HP 72,900, 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 7 guns here: Incomparable SE 25IncomparableYamato and 4 more. Angling still helps against the rest.
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 40%, fires burn 60s. Range-by-range in the Compare tool →
| Section | Plates | HP cap | Threats | Tactic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bow | 32 mm primary (range 32–50 mm) | 1,800 (2% 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) | 150 mm primary (range 30–350 mm) | 54,700 (75% of HP) | No common caliber overmatches150 mm: no common HE pens | Largest HP pool. Citadel sits behind these plates; thinner deck and side plating absorb the rest. |
| Stern | 32 mm primary (range 32–100 mm) | 1,600 (2% of HP) | Overmatch not possible in its bracketAngle bounces 410mm32 mm: HE pens from 203mm+ | Mirror of bow. Same fast saturation. |
| Citadel | 330 mm primary (range 19–255 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 | 30 mm primary (range 30–340 mm) | 3,000 (4% 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 | 36,500 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 (40 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. |
| Rudder (module) | separate HP pool, does not drain ship HP | 21,900 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.
Every custom exterior Karl XIV Johan 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.