Weak Spot Guide: KV-4 - World of Tanks Guru

The tier 8 Russian heavy tank KV-4 is massive at tier 8 in weight, size, and its overall armor protection.  Its listed values of 180mm/150mm/90mm for its hull and 180mm/150mm/140mm for its turret make it out to be a difficult opponent to penetrate and this thought it only partially true.  The KV-4 is difficult to damage over most of its armor for tier 6-8 tanks facing it, while tier 9-10 tanks can easily punch through most of its armor.  However, frontally and from the sides/rear there are always areas for low penetrating guns to get through and they are not to difficult to hit at close to mid range.

This weak spot guide will give you the easiest places to penetrate the KV-4(green areas), followed by the second best places to penetrate(yellow areas), and then the toughest pieces of armor on a KV-4(red areas).  Avoid shooting any purple areas since these areas are either track sections with no hull armor behind them or view ports that will potentially cause zero damage critical hits.

KV-4 Frontal Weak Spots View

KV4_Frontal1

Starting out with the KV-4’s frontal hull you will notice that while it is strong it also has several weak spots to utilize.  Starting with the view port and machine gun port on the flat section of the upper glacis you will find a few small areas that are very weak.  The green areas here have between 120mm and 140mm of effective armor with the yellow areas going up to 160mm of effective armor.  This flat section of the upper glacis has 210mm of effective armor, so while it is hard to penetrate for most tier 6-8 tanks it isn’t out of the question for higher penetrating tier 8 and up tanks to go through this section.

Moving down the heavily angled section of the upper glacis should be avoided since you will have no chance to penetrate this area unless you are firing from above the KV-4 from a ridge/cliff.  The small yellow strip at the top of the lower glacis still has 180mm of armor but only has 196mm of effective armor.  Further down the green area of the lower glacis drops to 160mm with only 174mm of effective armor making it a very easy weak spot to use to your advantage.  Avoid shooting the lowest part of the lower glacis since it is angled more and will be difficult to penetrate.

For frontal turret weak spots take a look at the next KV-4 frontal view below that gives a better view of the KV-4’s turret.

KV4_Frontal2

Although the KV-4 has good “on paper” stats for its turret armor it is full of holes that most tanks can exploit depending on the height of your tank and the distance you are to the KV-4.  Since the KV-4 is very tall it is harder for small tanks to shoot at the turret weak spots since you are firing up at the turret and thus changing the view and angle of the armor.  For most heavy tanks and also tanks firing at longer ranges the weak spots shown in this picture can be used.  For tanks firing up at the KV-4’s turret you should stick to using the weak spots closer to the hull armor.

Looking at the turret front there is a flat section below the gun mantlet across the entire bottom of the turret as well as above the turret mantlet before the armor slopes into the roof armor.  The green area along the bottom has 180mm of effective armor and the one above the mantlet has 161mm of effective armor.  The green box around the gun has zero turret armor behind the mantlet and is protected by 182mm of effective armor.  These three areas on the frontal turret are good weak spots to use if you are to close to aim at the lower glacis or if your tank is not tall enough to hit the large roof turret at very close ranges.  The yellow areas across the frontal turret armor range from 185mm-195mm of effective armor while the red sections start at 225mm and go up to insane values of over 1000mm effective armor.


The large yellow section of the roof armor is very small when looking at a KV-4 but it is able to be overmatched by 120mm+ guns.  The large roof turret has a small flat green strip that has 180mm effective armor with the yellow sections going up to 195mm effective armor.  There is also a very small yellow strip at the top of the roof turret above the small gun mantlet it has with 196mm effective armor, but due to its size and height it isn’t a practical weak spot in 99% of cases.

KV-4 Side Weak Spots View

KV4_Side

The size of the KV-4 becomes a large negative for its side armor since the KV-4 has a long, tall, and flat side profile.  The KV-4 has 150mm of armor covering most of the side armor that drops to 130mm behind the green/yellow areas of the tracks.  The green area of the tracks are not covered by track armor and only have 130mm effective armor, while the yellow section has an additional 20mm of armor added to it because of the tracks.  Above the lower side armor the armor is 150mm and easy to damage if you avoid hitting the tracks.

Moving on to the turret armor there is a small green strip of armor just behind the gun mantlet that is protected by 120mm and has no angle on it.  This weak spot isn’t easy to hit but it is the weakest armor out of the entire side profile of the KV-4.  The orange sections of the side turret are protected by 150mm armor plates slightly angled making them have closer to 160mm effective armor, which is still easy to damage but worth noting for lower tier tanks the KV-4 faces.

KV-4 Rear Weak Spots View

KV4_Rear

The KV-4’s rear armor is very weak with limited areas that will cause issues.  Avoid shooting the heavily angled red sections on the sides of the turret/roof turret as well as the small red strip of heavily angled armor at the top of the rear hull.  Aside from those areas the rear hull armor is only 90mm thick and is very easy to penetrate.  The engine deck highlighted in yellow can be overmatched by 90mm+ guns making it a great weak spot if the KV-4 is reverse angling.  The rear turret armor is protected by 120mm of armor in the green area and 140mm in the yellow section.  The roof turret however has 150mm so while it is weak it can be difficult for tier 6 and tier 7 tanks shooting up at it.