Trajan's Tanks | WW2 Tanks Mod

Trajan's Tanks is a Minecraft mod that brings World War II armor into your survival world. You craft blueprints, build parts across several workbenches, then climb into a drivable tank and fire shells from its cannon. The mod leans on Trajan's Core and GeckoLib, so it ships with detailed animations and a proper multi-stage production line rather than a single magic block.

Driving and Firing a Tank

Once a tank is crafted, you control it from the keyboard. The defaults are W to move forward, S to reverse, A to turn left, and D to turn right, with shooting and movement also rebindable in the keybinds menu. Aim with the mouse, then press G (or your rebound fire key) to send a shell downrange. You cannot fire without shells loaded, so always load up before rolling out.

Tanks also need fuel. Right click the vehicle with coal, coal blocks, or lava buckets to top it up, and it will keep running as long as the fuel holds.

Crafting a Tank From Scratch

A tank is not handed to you in one step. You first craft a blueprint for the vehicle you want, then drop that blueprint into the tank crafter. The crafter pulls together a set of parts you have to manufacture yourself across dedicated workbenches, which is where most of the progression lives.

Plating Press

Shapes the armor plating that forms a tank's hull.

Turret Factory

Builds the turret and gun assembly that sits on top of the hull.

Engine Fabricator

Produces the engine that powers movement and lets the tank actually drive.

Shell Workbench

Crafts the ammunition your cannon fires. Shell choice matters more than raw quantity, so experiment with each type.

Steel Manufacturer

Supplies the steel that feeds the other workbenches, making it the backbone of the whole production chain.

The WW2 Tank Roster

Each vehicle in Trajan's Tanks has its own stats, handling, and role. The roster pulls machines from Germany, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and the lineup has grown with each update.

Panzer II

Tiger I

T-34

Anti-Tank Artillery / PAK-40

Cruiser MK1

M4 Sherman

Valentine Archer

More vehicles arrive with each update, so the list keeps expanding.

Shell Types and How They Behave in Combat

The shell you hold in your offhand slot is the one your cannon fires, so swapping shells mid-fight changes your damage profile instantly. There are five options, each with a clear tradeoff.

Standard shell is the cheap general-purpose round, with a medium blast radius and low damage. Armour-piercing shrinks the explosion but raises damage and stays affordable. High-explosive throws a large fiery blast that is great against structures and grouped mobs. HEAT (high-explosive anti-tank) keeps a tiny radius but hits hard and costs more. APCR (armor-piercing composite rigid) has no explosion at all, deals very high damage, and is the most expensive round in the mod. The Anti-Tank Artillery / PAK-40 specifically uses anti-tank shells, so plan its loadout accordingly.

Installing Trajan's Tanks

This is a Forge mod built on two required libraries, and it will crash if either is missing or mismatched. The setup is straightforward if you follow the order.

1. Install Forge for your game version, then launch the profile once to generate the mods folder.
2. Drop in the Forge build of GeckoLib. Do not grab the Fabric GeckoLib, the mod will not load with it.
3. Drop in Trajan's Core, the companion library that supplies the machines and parts.
4. Drop in Trajan's Tanks itself and launch.

If you want a broader walkthrough of the install process, our guide to installing Minecraft mods covers the common pitfalls. Because this is a Forge-only project, it will not run under Fabric. The standalone Fabric branch was abandoned back in 2021 and never received the features covered here, so Forge is the only path to the full roster.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do the tanks need fuel? Yes. Right click the tank with coal, coal blocks, or lava buckets to refuel it. It will not move or fire without fuel.

Where do shells go? Shells sit in the offhand slot. The cannon fires whatever shell type you are holding there, and you cannot shoot with the slot empty.

What dependencies does it require? Two: Trajan's Core and GeckoLib. Grab the GeckoLib build that matches your setup, since a mismatched one will crash the mod on launch.

Is the mod still being updated? The most recent release shipped in December 2024. It is not a fresh project right now, so check the project page for the current status before building a pack around it.

Is there a build for other loaders? No. The alternate build was abandoned back in 2021 and never returned, so the main build is the one to use for the full feature set.