Tank Stars: A Battle Beginner’s Guide

Tank Stars is the newest free-to-play mobile game from developer Playgendary. You play as a tank who is trying to destroy another tank. Sound simple? Not quite. After a short tutorial, the game drops you into a world of tanks, artillery, and upgrades. If you’re not sure where to start, you’ve come to the right place. Here are some tips for developing your strategy and blasting other tanks to bits.

The Battlefield

Use the ground to your advantage: it’s easier to fire shots from the top of a hill, so use your fuel to get as high above your opponent as you can. Striking the ground in front of them can also make it harder for them to line up their shots; the terrain also changes naturally as the battlefield is hit multiple times during a match.

Keep an eye on the distance between you and your enemy. If you get too close, the splash from your weapons can hurt you as well, but being further away also means that it’s harder to land shots.

In addition to damage, most attacks also cause knockback—missiles move tanks when they connect. Use this to your advantage by knocking your opponent into a hole, causing them to use more fuel to get out and making their next shot more difficult.

Green boxes will periodically spawn on the battlefield. Each contains a powerful weapon that can be used against an enemy tank. Enemies can also grab these boxes, so snag them if you can, but don’t ruin your positioning just to get one, as it can put you at a disadvantage. (The boxes often spawn at either end of the map, making it easy for tanks on both sides to grab them.)

Weapons

Attacks have two aspects to them: power and angle. Power determines how far across the map a missile travels, and angle is how high in the air they go. Enemies far away from you will need a shot with high power and a low angle, while enemies closer to you require a shot with low power but a high angle.

Different weapons have different distances. Some of the missiles have a shorter range than others, so consider what weapon you want to use before using your fuel to move within range. The Abrams tank has a lot of short-range missiles, which function better if you’re closer to the enemy.

Each purchasable tank comes with different kinds of missiles. Learn which tank suits your play style best and use your coins to buy upgrades for it. The Vertical Slam ability, which comes with the Abrams tank, is useful because it homes in on the enemy if you get close enough, allowing you to get hits while still working on your aim. As you become more skilled, it’s best to find a tank that has a mix of short- and long-range weapons so that you can handle a variety of enemy placements.

Tanks’ weapons are more important than the tanks themselves, which are just about identical. The best way to find your play style is to try out all of the tanks’ arsenals and then pick the one with the weapons that work best for you. Once you’ve picked your favorite and started upgrading it, there’s really no reason to pick another unless you want a change of pace.

Tank Spotlight: Coalition

When you start the game, you’ll begin with the Abrams tank. While its short-range missiles are good to start with, you should start testing other tanks as soon as possible to find the one that fits your play style. The most easily purchasable tank is Coalition.

Each tank’s collection of weapons is unique, and Coalition’s is no different. Coalition has more long-range missiles than Abrams, and its missiles focus more on area damage. Here’s a little about each missile and how to use them.

Artillery Support: This is a long-range weapon that causes no damage on immediate impact, but causes three large missiles to fall from the sky in a path from right to left. It works well for enemy tanks that are grouped together, as it’s difficult (if not impossible) to hit one tank with all three strikes.

Cluster Strike: Like Artillery Support, this missile deals no damage during impact. However, after it strikes an area or a tank, it causes a cluster of mines to fall from the sky. Landing a perfect shot will cause the missiles to combo and deal more damage, so make sure to aim carefully.

V-Strike: V-Strike is significantly more short-ranged than the previous two weapons, so it should only be used for enemies that are really close to you. After striking, it causes a volley of missiles to be shot up from the air in a V shape, cascading down on the tank below it. It does significant damage to the environment, so it can also be used to blast a hole in the ground that makes it harder for your enemies to aim.

Leaper: This is a good missile for hitting enemies all the way across the map. Leaper is a long-range weapon that fires a second shot from its initial strike point, making it an excellent choice for groups of enemy tanks.

Scatter Shot: It might not look as impressive as its long-range friends, but Scatter Shot is a powerful missile in its own right. It unleashes a barrage of shots a short distance from the impact site,decimating any tank caught in its range. Note that this is one of the few weapons that does not affect the environment, so don’t try to use it to blast a hole in the ground.

Auger Shot: The Auger Shot is probably the most unique weapon in Coalition’s arsenal. It sticks to the enemy, then releases three missiles from the ground that move up and blast the area around the initial strike point. The attacks don’t do much damage, but it’s definitely a cool shot to watch.

Upgrades

Each tank is upgradeable, as are each of its weapons. They can be upgraded with weapon cards and coins, which you gain through winning battles and opening chests. Once you’ve gained enough cards to upgrade a weapon, you pay a certain number of coins to unlock the upgrade.

Each upgrade grants a star for that weapon, and there’s a 5-star maximum for any given weapon. These upgrades provide higher attack damage (and occasionally greater explosion range), so they’re useful for facing other players in the game’s PvP mode. Tanks can also be upgraded in the same way (which increases their HP), though the required tank cards are rarer.

A quick way to gain coins and tank/weapon cards is simply to open the game once a day. Free chests are given for the 5^th, 10^th, and 15^th consecutive days of logging into the game, and materials can also be gathered through completing daily missions.

The game has ads, which are an annoyance present in many free-to-play games, but sitting through them can actually be helpful. You can watch a video ad—usually about 30 seconds long—to unlock additional chests and get a free revive if your tank is destroyed in an AI or Tournament battle.

Tournament Mode

Chests can also be earned through Tournament Mode, the game’s toughest challenge. The mode allows you to put two of your tanks up against waves of enemy tanks, and the goal is to clear all of the waves without getting both of your tanks destroyed. Tournaments can be played on easy, normal, and legendary difficulties, and you’ll need two different tanks for each difficulty (for example, you can’t use a tank in normal difficulty that you used in easy.) Winning each difficulty grants precious chests.

Area-effect weapons are useful in Tournament mode. Since you need to destroy several tanks for each wave, blasting more than one at a time makes for more efficient combat. Knock enemies together first, then hit them with a large area attack for the most bang for your buck.

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These tips should get you ready for epic tank battles between you and your friends. The game’s multiplayer modes allow you to play against other people you know as well as random people over the internet. Once you’ve found the tank for you and upgraded your arsenal to the max, you’ll have no problem blasting your way to tank superiority.