World of Warships – How to avoid getting a pink name (TK) penalty on your account

Your name is pink. What now?

 
Users who have a pink name in game (typically very quickly noticed in the player list), have caused damage to allied ships either by ramming, or by shooting a teammate. These penalties are distributed to users who do so, to try and prevent them from team killing in the future. 
 
Note that not all users who have pink names are to blame for their actions. These penalties are automatically distributed in game, by the War Gaming Team kill tracker. These penalties can be a 50/50 chance if you ram a teammate during a battle, and yes even bots. All damage is registered. 
 
Personally, I attempt to avoid crossing paths with the bots in co-op battles, because they don’t fully understand how to path find, and are not smart enough to understand their boundaries when near allies, or enemies. I’m sure you have often seen AI ships crash into each-other, get penalized for shooting each other, crashing into you, crashing into a teammate, torpedoing you/teammate or vice versa. Even if you accidentally torpedo a bot, you could be penalized, and your account will have a pink username for the next 3-5 battles. Avoiding the bots, or pink named users is your best opportunity to keep your account in good standing. Users who attempt to damage other intentionally, no matter the form of attempt, eventually will be detonated before successfully killing an allied ship (most of the time) so you don’t have to always worry about someone killing you. 
 
 

How to avoid allied ships, and torpedoes.

 
Lets say you are a cruiser, or destroyer – and you are side-by-side with a Battleship. Same rules applies for all ship types, sizes, and tiers – or vice versa. If you or an ally is attempting to cross paths with you, and are way too close for your liking, remember that the default keybind for your ship horn is “N”, if you have it enabled in your settings. Using this usually tells players you need assistance, are saying hello, or anything else up to your digression. 
 
First things first: 
 
Slow down. If you are a new user, you will find that “W” and “S” are your speed controls, “Q” and “E” are your static turning controls, and “A” and “D” are your flexible turning controls. Press “S” until you reduce your speed to half, or completely stop. (This is up to you to determine.) 
 
Simultaneously, turn to the left. Don’t turn into the direction the ally is coming. Only do this if you are sure they are going to move past you quick enough – or are passing you in a perpendicular formation. Doing the opposite here will cause you to crash into the ally, after they have passed the bow of your ship. You may receive the penalty – sometimes War-gaming’s TK tracker isn’t 100% accurate. I have found using a combination of my horn, and moving out of the way to be most effective in avoiding penalties. Using this method, is going to be easiest when avoiding other Battleships – in a Battleship. 
 
 
 
Torpedoes can be treated in the same way, they can be more spread out, but turning into their direction before they pass can be more effective than moving in the direction they are coming, especially moving a large ship. Sailing away and parallel to torpedoes can be the most effective way, some may say sailing into the torpedoes parallel is more effective – this is for you to decide, just don’t be broadside. 
 
 
 
 

Don’t be this kind of player.

 
While joking around in platoons, or with friends in multiplayer games, it can be extremely reckless to tail someone too close. And more times than not, you will pay the price for it. 
 
Be aware of your surroundings. Where are your allies? Where are you?. 
USE YOUR MINI-MAP!!! This is your best-est buddy. It will always be located on the bottom left of your screen, unless you use a game modifier. Note that you can use + and – to resize your map. Most players don’t know this. Adjust it to your liking, seeing is better than guessing. 
 
Don’t cut players off. Users who are sailing and using scoped zoom when firing on enemies, cannot see their surroundings. 
 
 
 
If you cut someone off, you risk receiving a warning, or a penalty just to save two seconds. Plan your routes! Follow your team. A smart concealed ship is easier to fight with, you don’t need to be a speed racer. Ignore when people say otherwise in-game. Move at your own pace, do what you think is best. Yelling at other users messes with their thoughts, you are doing nothing but endangering your teams success – So before getting angry and typing, think to yourself how they ended up where they are, why, and what they are attempting to do. 
 
Remember that you can ping the map, use CTRL to free your mouse, and double click the grid boxes to ping a grid square, and bring it to your teams attention. Dont spam it, all users can see it very clearly. Dont be that one player. 
 
 

Summary

 
You should now have all essential procedures, and basics to avoid receiving penalties, and can use this information to avoid allowing a friend to get punished for making a mistake a releasing those darn torpedoes too soon, or too close. Now get to the bridge. There’s ships to sink. 
 

This is all about World of Warships – How to avoid getting a pink name (TK) penalty on your account; I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!