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Zara is a Tier VI Italian SAP cruiser: her 203mm main battery fires semi-armor-piercing shells (54.9mm of fixed penetration) in place of HE. SAP lands one big guaranteed hit instead of fishing for fires, and it pens reliably without the angle checks AP lives or dies on, so she punishes broadsides, soft cruisers, and superstructures hard. The catch is that SAP shatters on heavy belt armor, so the kit is picking targets it bites rather than trading into a bow-in battleship. Standout traits: top-decile long-range AP brick in T6 CAs (188 mm) and best wide SAP fragments in T6 CAs (30 m).
Hold 12-15 km angles with islands close enough to break line of sight when focus comes; wait for soft cruisers and exposed superstructures where SAP lands full penetration rather than firing into the belt or bow armor it shatters on. The kit pays best when you choose your salvo target, not when you chase one.
SAP shatters on the belt armor AP would pen, so salvos into an angled battleship are wasted damage. Her 37,100-HP hull does not recover from a punished salvo, so hunt the broadsides, soft cruisers, and exposed superstructures SAP bites cleanly, and angle to survive the return fire while you wait for them.
19.0% torpedo damage reduction, top decile of T6 CAs.
85500 HE DPM, bottom decile of T6 CAs. Don't bank on burn pressure.
12500.0 damage per torpedo, bottom decile of T6 CAs.
Zara 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 Zara sits among Tier VI CAs (43 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 Zara -- 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 · 60 s reload · 5 s active
Exhaust Smoke Generator2 charges · 180 s reload · 20 s emit / 35 s cloud active · 450 m radius
Defensive AA Fire3 charges · 140 s reload · 25 s active · ×2 flak burst boost 
Catapult Fighter3 charges · 80 s reload · 90 s active · 5 km patrol radius 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.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: Standard cruiser dispersion baseline.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 (18.3 km), where the shell has slowed to 424.8 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.34 mm ≈ 203 mm caliber / 6 (standard HE penetration ratio).floor(203 mm caliber / 14.3) = 14 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.SAP shell fragment splash radius; the area over which a SAP hit scatters fragment damage. Scales with shell mass (90mm ~ 5, 203mm CA ~ 20-30, 320mm = 175, 406mm = 250, 457mm = 400, max) and is tuned per ship, so two ships with the same SAP caliber can differ (135mm ranges 5-24). Larger value = wider fragment spread per hit.All 8 barrels bear on the broadside.180 degrees / 7 deg/s traverse speed = 25.7 s.2,850 HE damage x 8 broadside guns = 22,800.4,800 AP damage x 8 broadside guns = 38,400.Zero upgrades: 22,800 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 14.5 s base reload = 94,345. All upgrades (top gun): 22,800 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 16 s all-upgrades reload = 85,500.Zero upgrades: 38,400 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 14.5 s base reload = 158,897. All upgrades (top gun): 38,400 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 16 s all-upgrades reload = 144,000.Zero upgrades: 8 broadside guns x 60 / 14.5 s base reload = 33.1. All upgrades (top gun): 8 broadside guns x 60 / 16 s all-upgrades reload = 30.Zero upgrades: 33.1 shells/min x 15% fire chance = 4.97. All upgrades (top gun): 30 shells/min x 15% fire chance = 4.5.detectability / (speed kt x 2.6 community game-speed factor).range / (speed kt x 2.6 community game-speed factor).2 launchers x 3 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 = 6 x 12,500 = 75,000.One side firing, all torpedoes hitting: per-side tubes x per-torpedo simulated damage = 3 x 12,500 = 37,500.Sum across every AA aura on this ship of (aura.continuous_damage x 3.5 x aura.hit_probability). Here: (41×3.5×0.9) + (26×3.5×0.85) + (18×3.5×0.9) = 263. 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.4.5 km × 57 + 30 = 286.5 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: 6×2 100 mm (6/side) × 60/6 × 1500 = 90,000. 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: 1500 from the 100 mm family.Maximum per-shell fire chance across secondary HE families (before target fire resistance is applied). Best on this ship: 6% from the 100 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: 17 mm from the 100 mm family.Hull HP 32,700 → 37,100 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 124+ guns across the bracket. Can’t reliably bow-tank; gets bow-citadelled and overpenned.
AP can citadel a flat broadside even at range. Stay angled and avoid showing the full side.
Superstructure and extremities take HE pens and AP overpens from nearly any gun: steady chip damage. Fire resistance 30%, fires burn 30s. Range-by-range in the Compare tool →
| Section | Plates | HP cap | Threats | Tactic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bow | 16 mm primary (range 16–30 mm) | 3,100 (8% of HP) | Overmatch not possible in its bracketAngle bounces 203mm16 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Bow-tank fits behind this exterior plate. Saturation is FAST here; the cap is often only a few thousand HP. |
| Hull (midship) | 140 mm primary (range 19–150 mm) | 27,800 (75% of HP) | No common caliber overmatches140 mm: no common HE pens | Largest HP pool. Citadel sits behind these plates; thinner deck and side plating absorb the rest. |
| Stern | 16 mm primary (range 16–120 mm) | 2,500 (7% of HP) | Overmatch not possible in its bracketAngle bounces 203mm16 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Mirror of bow. Same fast saturation. |
| Citadel | 150 mm primary (range 13–150 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 19–150 mm) | 2,200 (6% 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 | 18,600 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 (100 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. |
| Rudder (module) | separate HP pool, does not drain ship HP | 11,100 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 Zara. Cards are condensed; use each source link for full context.
Every custom exterior Zara 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.