The tier 7 Russian heavy tank KV-3 is a formidable foe to come across since it has great frontal armor protection.  The KV-3 also is great for angling like other KV series tanks since its side armor allows it to angle more than other tanks to increase its frontal armor protection.  Coming across a KV-3 in a tier 5 or 6 tank you will be limited in where you can penetrate it unless you know its frontal weak spots.  From the sides and rear the KV-3 is weak without any additional angles added to the armor since it is thinner and less angled than the frontal armor in a lot of areas.  One of the main upsides to the KV-3 is that its turret, especially from the front, is strong and lacks many true weak spots.

This weak spot guide will breakdown the KV-3 into sections based on the weakest areas(green), the strongest areas of armor(red), and armor that can still be penetrated by most tanks but are not always easy to penetrate with lower tier tanks(yellow).  Purple areas are places where there is no hull armor behind to cause HP damage or an area that could cause a zero damage critical hit.

KV-3 Frontal View

Frontally the KV-3 does not have a ton of weak spots under 122mm effective armor but the frontal lower glacis is large enough for most tanks to be able to take advantage of.  Otherwise  on the drivers plate(above the upper glacis) there is a small view port and machine gun with weak armor.  Around the gun on the mantlet these is also a small area with only 92mm effective armor that is easy to damage if you are being face hugged by a KV-3.

Outside of those weak spots there are several areas between 132mm and 157mm effective armor highlighted in yellow.  The good part about this for players facing the KV-3 is that there is at least one weak spot, be it green or yellow, low on the KV-3, in the center of the KV-3’s hull, on the turret front, and also on the commander’s cupola.

KV-3 Side View

The side armor of the KV-3 without any additional angling is surprisingly weak due to the side armor being protected by 90mm on the hull and 100mm on the turret.  The tracks add 20mm to the areas on the side hull which still only brings them to 110mm effective armor.  The best approach is to simply avoid shooting the front or rear sections of the turret and also the commander’s cupola since you run the risk of odd bounces.  Also avoid shooting to low on the hull since the purple sections of the tracks have no hull armor behind them.

KV-3 Rear View

The rear turret on the KV-3 is a tad bit stronger than the side of the turret which makes it less attractive to shoot at than the rear hull.  If you stick to the rear hull you won’t have any difficulty at penetrating the rear hull since the upper part is only 80mm and the lower section is only 90mm.