Tank.io is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game that doesn’t feature fantasy heroes from mythical or anime-influenced worlds, but rather tanks that take the form of blips and dots on the .io radar screen. There are 16 different tanks at the moment, but the developers promise that they will be adding more in due time, giving players something to look forward to in the next update. And while 16 tanks might not sound like much for a game of this kind, you can keep on upgrading them as you strive to defeat more human players and score more points in the game.
It’s rather strange that the developers say that this is a game where you can earn your “wings of valor” – tanks, after all, are purely land-based vehicles, and are as far away from airplanes as you can get. Questionable language aside, the game’s simple description does say it all – you’ll be battling against other human players, and your main goal is to score as many points as possible. But in order to defeat more players and get a high score, we suggest reading our Tank.io strategy guide first, as we’ve got virtually every general topic covered here.
1. Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew
Starting out in the game, you really won’t have much of a prayer against the competition. Go for a conservative approach at first, and don’t pick on anyone who is not of your own size; the sad fact is that you may get bullied around a bit if you’re new in the game and operating a tiny tank. That means you should run if you see any bigger tanks in your area, and challenge the small geometric shapes you see on the map; it won’t do much for your size, but it will, at least, gain you some experience. There’s really no shame in hiding, because as the old adage goes, he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. And if you want to score more points, fighting the proverbial “another day” is the best way to do so.
2. Know Your Stats And Improve Them
There are different stats in the game which you can add one stat point to with each time you level up. Health is represented by a purple heart, Power corresponds to the red fist and represents the damage dealt out by your bullets, Fire Rate shows up as green arrows and refers to how quickly your tank fires bullets, and Movement Speed appears as a blue shoe and refers to how quickly (or how slowly) your tank moves around in the board.
So which stat should you work on before the others? Our best advise would be to start out with Power; upgrade that red fist a couple of times during your early level-ups. That’s going to help you destroy more geometric shapes while grinding for experience.
3. Prioritize Your Gun Upgrades
If you’re looking to move up in the ranks and become more and more intimidating with your tank, you should first work on those gun upgrades before others. You can delete guns much faster once upgraded, and that’s also going to allow you to be faster when it comes to wiping out the geometric objects we told you about in the first tip. And since that also allows you to gain more experience faster, it’ll take you less time to level up if you focus your upgrades on the guns.
4. What’s The Best Gun To Uprgrade To In The Game?
The answer may vary, but one valid school of thought is to go for the twin front-facing cannons, or Double Cannon, when you make your first upgrade (once your turret is at level 10), as that’ll give you twice as much firepower as normal. The spread gun, which you can unlock once your turret is at level 25, will make it difficult for your opponents to avoid your shots, and when using this gun, it’ll be all about the strafing to further throw your opponents off.
Aside from the Double Cannon, you can opt for the Improved Cannon or Back Cannon once you’re at level 10. The former upgrade makes your cannon resemble a cone, and allows you to fire faster than you normally would, with a tad more power. As for the latter, you’ll get a second cannon on the back, which takes out enemies from behind; if the Double Cannon doesn’t suit your fancy, you can always try the Back Cannon upgrade. The Improved Cannon upgrade, for us, is best left avoided.
5. Be Aggressive Once You’ve Got The Weapons
Once you’ve upgraded yourself well enough and made your tank larger than most the others on the .io board, you can then start hunting other tanks and going for more and more points. Taking out enough opposing players will catapult you to the top of the leaderboard, and if you want to stay there, you’ll want to remain on the move, and not stay too long in one spot. Doing that will leave you fair game for other tanks, who may be looking for an easy opportunity and find one in your tank.
6. Smarter Than The Average Bot
For better or for worse, Tank.io will pick up the slack if there aren’t enough human players to tangle with. That means it will add computer-controlled bots, whose names will undoubtedly be familiar if you’re a League of Legends fan. You’ll also know if a character on the board is a bot if you notice that they’re named after a country. So why should you care whether there are bots or not in the game, especially since bots are typically unsophisticated and predictable?
The reason is simple – they’re not. Unlike AI-controlled characters in other mobile games, the bots in Tank.io are actually quite smart and aggressive; they won’t let you off of their sight if you happen to chance upon one. That’s because bots’ movements are based on those of other players, including high-level players on your server. Run if you’re spotted by one of those super-smart, super-skilled high-level bots, as they’re typically in their final evolution, with some eye-popping stats to boot. But if you play your cards right, you could, at some point, take them down and earn a ton of experience for the difficult kill.
7. Keep Yourself Moving
It’s also important in this game to be frequently in motion, whether you’re dealing with human opponents or bots. Stay as mobile as possible, as being in motion makes you more difficult to take down. You’ll also want to make your movements as shifty and unpredictable as possible; strafing in one direction is a recipe for disaster, as chances are human opponents will have you figured out in no time. Learn the art of misdirection and, as a bonus tip, also keep moving if you’ve suffered a lot of damage. Look for safe ground if you’ve gotten banged up quite a bit, so your tank can regenerate its lost health, albeit at a very slow and glacial pace.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our list of tips and tricks for Tank.io. In case we discover more hints in the near future, we will update this guide with those hints!