The Cavalry Has Arrived: Tanks

Overview

General directives, pros/cons, and component utilization, along with classifications and definitions, of Tanks in Robocraft

What is a Tank? Why Should I play one?

Playing a tank is the easiest role to pick-up, is very friendly to new players, and can make a huge difference in Arena games by capturing and contesting points. Depending on build and weapon load, the Tank is a high health robot, with various utility possibilities in the Light to Heavy range.

Super Heavy tanks lose some of the utility, to exchange it for staying power.

Tank Classifications

In terms of Robocraft, there are multiple classifications of tanks, and a few general guidelines, as detailed below.

General Build Guidelines

• Tanks are GROUND based units
• 70% Health Boost MINIMUM
• CPU between 1700-2000. Anything less than 1700 can be classified as a Brawler, and likely has more CPU dedicated to utility in modules, or larger class weapons
• The Majority of CPU used is dedicated to health chassis blocks for Health Boost %
• Movement ideal is either Mech Legs or any tier of Treads. This doesn’t mean other options don’t exist, but Wheels and Hovers both lose out on some health % boost, for speed and agility respectively
• Legendary Weapons are best unused, as they are a poor utilization of CPU for a Tank
• Weapon Redundancy, with the exception of Modules, is generally going to be 2x minimum (8 for most weapons)

Class

• Light

  CPU: approximately 1700-1800

  Movement: Common Treads x6-x8, Rare-Epic Mech Legs x2-x3, Rare Wheels x6, Rare Hovers x4

  A light tank is your general purpose build, very often lending itself to Air Superiority and Ground support. It has a lot of good options for weaponry and some backups, but trades off redundancy for speed and some damage % boost. Light Tanks serve best in a multiple load, and as such can carry Flak (Sentinels or a Guardian), Nanos, and Lasers, with a small Damage boost. They can’t contest a point for as long as higher classes, but they are going to outlast contesting versus glass cannons or light brawlers, with match-ups against medium brawlers coming down to player skill and team support. Light tanks can and should retreat out of combat and make use of cover often to stay topped off of health and keep their multiple loads. Because of this, they make for excellent Medics.

• Medium a.k.a. “Main Battle Tank” or “MBT”

  CPU: approximately 1800-1900

  Movement: Rare Treads x4-x6, Epic-Legendary Mech Legs x2, Epic hovers x3-x4, Epic Wheels x6-x8

  Medium Battle Tanks can make up the majority of the team, and are meant to be used for medium-fast speed assault and captures, on Near and Mid, generally only pushing for Far if the other 2 points are well controlled and typically not in danger. Medium Tanks still maintain a good health boost, and a small damage boost, while still having some utilization of modules. Because they are more focused on health, they are less likely to split between multiple weapon loads if using a module, otherwise expect to see high redundancy on a single weapon type, with a backup weapon fitted to compliment the pilots playstyle, either Flak or Epic ions. Mediums will often retreat when they get below 55% overall health to get a chance to recover.

• Heavy

  CPU: approximately 1900-2000

  Movement: Rare-Epic Treads x4-x6, Legendary Mech Legs x2, Epic Hovers x4

  Heavy Tanks serve 2 purposes: Contest and Harass. They give up speed and power for the ability to harass the enemy constantly, either by holding and contesting a point or pushing between Mid and Far as often as possible, to force a choice between dedicating someone to killing them or risk losing a point. This works for your team by alleviating pressure on fights for mid, giving Brawlers and Cannons a chance to eliminate any threats there and then follow up, or to just keep a secure hold of Near and Mid. Heavy tanks may utilize a module, or go for higher gun redundancy, but will focus on one specific type of weapon instead of spreading out to cover multiple purposes. Heavies will sometimes retreat from combat if support is on the way, but rarely should before 40% overall health.

• Super Heavy
  CPU: 2000

  Movement: Rare-Epic Treads x2-x4, Legendary Mech Legs x2

  Heavy Tanks serve 1 purpose, and 1 purpose only: Advance the Line. Modules are no longer an option on a Super Heavy, because that CPU is needed for shields and Health Chassis. Weapons will be of 1 type only, and redundancy is likely to be lower, 8-12 guns instead of 16+. The role of the super heavy is to go for Far, as often as possible, and force an opponent to fall back to deal with it, offering requiring 2-3 people to take it down in any reasonable amount of time. Super Heavies do not retreat. Period. The more time people are firing on a super heavy, the better it is doing the job of keeping firepower off of lighter allies and forcing the opponent to stay at Far to prevent it being taken.

Chicken, Pork, Quail? (Movements)

Every movement component has a viable use, but some are better than others. When designing your tank, keep in mind what role/class you want to perform in, and try to pick your movement accordingly. The movement type doesn’t classify you as a tank or not — the build does.

— Boar and Gore

Suggested for: Any class of tank

• High Health boost and reasonable Movement Speed boost
• Retain full movement as long as you have 2
• Faster base speed than Mech legs
• Easy to armor over and around
• Multiple nonadjacent connection points

• Can not turn with just 1 tread
• Susceptible to Rail targeting if not covered over at least partially
• “Super Ball Bounce” collisions — bump into something, and you may fly for a few seconds
• Climbing mountains is not a reliable option. It’s going to take you as long to go around it as it is to struggle over the top of it.

— It has chicken legs!

Suggested for: Any class of tank

• High Health boost and reasonable Movement Speed boost on higher tiers
• Good agility with jumping, some grip
• High integral HP
• Multiple connection points

• Speed reduction as legs are shot off
• Build box collisions makes surrounding them in a skirt unwieldy
• Connection points are adjacent, promoting damage transfer
• Low base speed

— I believe I can fly…like a brick (or a lemming)

Suggested for: Light to Heavy

• Easy to armor all around
• Moderate agility with strafing
• When built well, very stable
• Good base speed

• Low integral health
• Erratic movement when unbalanced/losing hovers
• Flipping over on collisions
• Single connection point on all but the Legendary variant

— Too fast, too furious, too…stuck in the mud…

Suggested for: Light to Medium

• High octane base speed
• Moderately easy to cover over with armor
• Moderate integral health

• Single connection point on all but the Legendary variant
• Severe lack of agility
• Steering variant required — can use all steering, but at least 2 wheels MUST be steering if you plan on turning at all

Bring the PAIN! or the tickle….(Weapons)

All dressed up (in Armor), but what good is the cavalry without a gun? Or a backpack at least. Your choice of weapon or module is going to be based heavily on your playstyle as well as what you want to accomplish, and each one fills a different niche. On a tank build, with a few exceptions, that will be addressed, you generally want to stay on the common to rare range for weapons, to get more redundancy out of your CPU used. Tanks are good for DPS and sustained fire, leave the high bursts and kills to the Brawlers and Cannons.

The one you are most comfortable with. The per shot damage on rails means nothing if you have poor aim. The sustained fire of lasers means nothing if you can’t last long enough against your opponent to kill them. The burst of ions is useless if you can’t get close enough to land all, or at least most, of the spread. Every weapon performs adequately when used properly, and every weapon underperforms when used poorly. Find the weapon, or 2, that you like best, and stick with it. Once you are proficient enough with it to have about 80% accuracy, then branch out and expand. The most OP weapon — is a good pilot with reliable aim.

Laser/SMG
Larger collision box than Plasma, but it is a good weapon — high accuracy, multi-range usage, low energy requirements, low cpu cost. Lasers are also very forgiving of poor aim, for the above reasons — you can spray and pray with a laser to just keep suppressing fire down, though it’s not as good as specifically targeting weapons or movements of an opponent. Because of their lower cpu cost, you can step up to epics reasonably, while the commons offer very high redundancy for low cpu cost. Blasters and Vaporizers will give you the best mix of damage and sustained fire, with no worries about Weapon Energy going empty. Disintegrators, try to at least aim with, they will drain your bar out if you are firing indiscriminately.

Lasers also have the distinction of being the hardest type of damage to defend against (point-sustained damage), so can be used versus all class and type of opponents easily and with equal efficiency.

Suggested for: Any Tank

Tier: Wasp – Disintegrator
Overall reliable weapon, for both Team and Solo Queue

Plasma
Small collision boxes let you pack a lot of Plasma onto a tank in a smaller area. The arc of the shot takes some adjusting to, but with practice, patience, and a little luck, you can maintain about 70-80% accuracy versus aerial bots, with about 10% more vs ground (80-90%). Due to the way Plasma disperses its damage through the AoE it is not a reliable weapon for crippling an opponent. Plasma is an all in, overall weaken/kill weapon as opposed to a tactical choice of what to target. You still get the best result by hitting the opponent, but if your aim is a little off, you can always catch them with the splash. You can also turn yourself into a mini-nuke, shooting at yourself and ramming into an opponent, letting the AoE splash do the damage. Not the most reliable method, but a valid tactic.

Suggested for: Any Tank, but excels in coordinated teams stacking Plasma damage or with Snipers or other Cannons to follow up for the faster kills on a weakened bot.

Tier: Pulser – Bombarder.
Above the Bombarder, you lose too much sustained fire potential, and at 0 energy, due to the way energy recovers, Bombarders will actually surpass Ravagers for overall fire rate and damage due to getting out more shots with only an 8k difference in damage per shot. That means on low energy, Bombarders will actually be putting out about 20k more than Ravagers

Rails
Very large collision boxes, making them a little annoying to fit unless you build very long or very wide — but extending your tank like that makes you more susceptible to rail. Heavy energy usage, and requires good aim, but valid at all ranges, if a little less reliable close up due to the slower rate of fire. If your aim is poor, stick with lasers for point damage. Very good option for targeting large weapons on an opponent (assuming you have good aim).

Suggested for: Medium – Heavy

Tier:
Medium: Piercer – Decimator
Heavy: Piercer – Erazer

While energy usage is pretty high, the longer time between shots allows somewhat reasonable sustained fire to be maintained on the lower tiers, and the higher tiers offer enough damage output to offset their energy drain. Repeating it again though, because it is that important: Don’t bother with rails if you have poor aim. The higher tier on Heavy tanks allows them to offset losing the damage boost a medium gets, while the Medium maintains the boost by saving some CPU on the lower tier

Tesla
Great damage as long as you can put it on the opponent. For tanks, that can be a bit tricky, but if you can utilize it, then it’s not a bad option. Any part of the blade will cause damage, so don’t be afraid to cover it up a bit.

Suggested for: Light – Super Heavy non-tread tank.

Tier: Nova
Because Tesla is a “quick kill” weapon, and likely to be shot off, you want the biggest to be able to put out as much damage as possible before you lose the blade. Treads lack the speed and agility to reliably make use to the blades, but Hovers, Wheels, and Mechs can all maneuver around an opponent well enough to get some usage out of them.

Protoseekers
High Energy Drain, High cpu Cost, Low Damage per hit, auto-lock but you lose the capability for specific targeting. Okay at taking down drones, but versus anything else quickly becomes pointless. You’ll net a high damage score, but if the opponent has a reasonably strong build picking up kills is very unlikely.

Suggested for: Light – Medium Air-Superiority Builds ONLY

Lock-On Missile Launchers (LOML)
High Energy Drain, high cpu cost, good damage per hit, long time to lock on. Can be hip-fired at close range for a hit without waiting for lock on, or using the lock to scare people and make them dodge behind cover, a very mixed blessing because an enemy that can’t be seen can’t be shot. Hard to have in reliable redundancy.

Suggested for: Light – Medium Air-Superiority Builds ONLY

Tier: Stinger
The Viper just takes up too much space and CPU to be reliably used on tank, just like every other Legendary

Aeroflak/Flak
High CPU investment, moderate drain, good damage versus aerial units once you have stacks up, poor damage versus ground units though you can use it to troll them and stop regeneration. A niche weapon that matchmaking can make either a godsend or pointless.

Suggested for: Medium – Heavy non-Hover Builds. Required for Air-Superiority Builds.

Tier: Any
2 Sentinels or 1 Guardian take identical CPU, shape your robot according to which you plan to utilize.

Ion
High CPU investment, high energy drain, great damage at point blank, but quickly falls off on range. Requires to get very close, and very susceptible to being shot off.

Suggested for: Light – Medium Medic builds as a back-up weapon.

Tier: Destabilizer
The high cpu cost and large profile for the Distorter doesn’t offer enough damage to be reliable on a tank. While the Destabilizer is easier to shoot off, since it is a secondary weapon losing it isn’t the worst situation possible.

Chaingun
High CPU, moderate energy drain, great damage at multiple ranges but strongest up close. A good harass and secure weapon, but vulnerable to being shot off.

Suggested for: Medium – Super Heavy Mech Tank
Tier: Splitter
The damage being identical between the Splitter and the Shredder, the Splitter is a clear winner for most builds. While it works best when combined with Legs, it is viable on any tank build as a primary weapon, but will be targeted, so make sure to have a secondary and reliable multi-range option available, like Lasers.

Broadside Time — Gyro Mortar (Weapons cont.)

as of 9/20/17, this is the new kid on the block. High AoE damage, and it seems to function simultaneous as point and AoE damage. The aiming arc takes a little adjusting to, but it is a remarkable weapon in terms of damage for the cpu spent. The size is not extreme on it — it actually takes up less space than the Aeroflak Guardian.

The firing arc has great lateral distance, but the inclination grade indicator on the HUD is a little misleading, as it gives you the angle of orientation of the barrel, but is not inclusive of your bot, so shooting while on an incline will effect your point of impact. The altitude of the shots is abysmal, and the projectile and turret rotation are both slow.

If you are using the Gyro-Mortar, be wary of fast bots who can spin around faster than the turret will track and outpace the canister.

That being said, if you have one, definitely take some time on the test map with it. The floor grid lets you use it as a range indicator to the targets, and you can start to find the optimal inclinations to fire at for various distances. Each Large grid consists of approximately an 80×80 cube square, and I’ve personally found my best accuracy with it is from 1/2 a grid (~ 40 cube) to 5-1/2 (~450 cube) distances, but that is specific to the builds I use and have tested it with so far.

Pros:
Great lateral ranges
Great damage on hit
Great splash damage on near-hits

Cons:
Slow turret rotation
Definite learning curve if you aren’t just going to try to point-blank with it

It’s a personal choice if it’s worth investing into learning how to use it.

It’s a SPIDER TANKING…(Nanos)

While ostensibly a weapon, Nanos really do require their own section, and so here it is. Obviously if you are making a medic, you have Nanos, but any bot can make use of them if you choose to. Also obviously, the more nanos you have, the better.

So why do Nanos need their own section? Because there is a tactic that can be utilized with Nanos that fall outside of general weapon discussions, and because there are some things to take into consideration when building for Nano’s that should be independently addressed.

Special Consideration:

When you are looking at Nano’s, you are really only looking at 2: The Binder and the Constructor.

Constructors give the most heal per hit, while Binders have 0 cost to fire.

So why are we ignoring Menders?

All Nanos have the same fire rate, with different heals per hit and costs per shot
Binder 6.7k, 0 drain
Mender 7.9k, 130 drain
Constructor 10.5k, 229 drain

For the difference in per-hit rate between Binders and Menders, it just doesn’t make any sense to utilize Menders. Using Binders paired with Constructors will allow you to sustain heal until empty with the constructor, switch to the Binder to regain energy while maintaining a heal, and cycle back, which doesn’t work with the Mender. Or you can do a 50/50 split, half the bar on Constructor, switch to full, switch back to drain to half, etc. , making sure you always have enough energy to go on the offensive while keeping your heals mixed between small bursts and long sustain.

That is also what opens up the tactic of Spider Tanking.

Two Medium-Heavy Tanks will park on a point and co-defend it by healing each other while parking as near to each other as possible to minimize the per-component impact of Plasma splash. They form a “web” of healing between each other, thus the name of the tactic. This opens up the rest of the team to focus on Near and Far more often since the two on mid become more resilient between high HP boosts, damage directioning, and constant incoming heals from each other.

The Other Guys (Modules)

We know them, we love (and hate) them. But should you use them?

Not every module is good for every situation. Some on a tank have no real use (I’m looking at you Ghost), while others can buy you a few valuable seconds to live, and all of them can be a waste if you forget to use them, or just fire it off indiscriminately whenever the cooldown is up.

EMP
Your most useful and versatile module. It can be used offensively on enemies trying to cap a point, or defensively to disable them while you are contesting by firing it right at the middle of the pad. A dead robot deals no damage — and neither does a disabled one. Good usage of EMP can set your team up for kills, or buy your tank time for the support to get to the point and secure it.

Suggested for: Light – Heavy

Windowmaker
Variable usefulness. With a backcapper (someone with a fast bot constantly going behind the enemy to steal a point from them) it can be very helpful to see where the enemy is in relation to their current position. Not a high priority, but a possibility.

Suggested for: Team Queue

Ghost
As a Tank, it’s really only useful for breaking a LOML lock-on…and as a tank, you really don’t care about the LOML lock-on. Use it if you really want to, but ask yourself why, because I don’t have an answer for what situations it’d be good for a tank to have.

Suggested for: None

Blink
Fast approach. Fast low-hp retreat. While it won’t go well with Heavy and Super Heavy, Light and MBT’s can see some usage out of this.

Suggested for: Light-Medium

Weapon Energy
You want to sustain your fire, so you use a lower tier weapon to minimize drain. It can help recover from taking an EMP hit if you survive the assault, but really just wastes CPU that could be used better elsewhere for the most part.

Suggested for: Light-Medium Medic

DSM
Good control of fire from the small area that it covers. Not very reliable up close, where a tank is functioning, as you can just run through it. Not necessarily a waste, but not ideal either.

Suggested for: Light-Medium Medic, Light Tank vs Sniper fire

Smithing and Smiting (Building Your Tank)

At its simplest, Triforcing is using Prisms to connect components together without actually sharing faces. This limits the directions that damage can transfer to, and when properly utilized will raise the Time To Kill (TTK) of your bot somewhat. It’s a trial-and-error process to find the right amount and placements of triforcing for various builds, but once learned becomes a very valuable defensive method in your toolbox. Controlling the directions of damage transfer combined with all chassis blocks having the same HP makes this a very efficient technique when used properly. Just be careful about overdoing it — reducing too many connections can make you easy to gun down in huge chunks instead of controlled areas of damage. Increasing your TTK is one of the most important things you can do as a Tank.

While it may not seem huge, even 5 extra seconds taken to destroy a tank is 5 more seconds that cannons and brawlers aren’t taking fire. It’s 5 more seconds to get to a point under assault or to cap a point that is unguarded.

Look at it like this — 1 seconds = 5 plasma shots.
5 shots/second = 25 shots
25 Devastator shots = 1.19 million damage

That 5 seconds extra you lived just saved a cannon or brawler robot (which have between 700k-2 million HP).

Don’t ignore seconds of life when damage is measured in shots per second.

Similar to Triforcing, offering more solid connections laterally, while limiting connections vertically. The upper layers connect via hitbox while the lower layer is directly connnected via faces. Useful as an intermediary layer.

Using rods filled in with an inner slope chassis block so that they share a hitbox. The idea is that when the inner slope block is destroyed, the actual rod portion (not the connection plates) becomes immune to taking further damage. Useful for gun mounts, as 1 connection point on multi-connection treads (Elephant and Mammoth), and for helping control where damage goes to since there are only 2 connection points total (one on either end).

Strutforcing is similar to rodforcing, but instead of trying to force the strut into damage immunity you utilize it to cover a larger area of your robot, and limit the direction of damage spread to 2 blocks, 1 on either end. This is mostly utilized for the aesthetic quality of the strut instead of actual efficiency, due to the cpu cost and lack of health boost % on either component (rod/strut).

Strutweaving is a high risk/high reward utilization of struts. You forego a health boost to instead create 2 layers of perpendicular struts, limiting damage on those areas to the mounting components only. One such utilization is connecting 3-5 struts to each other for the length, and crossing them across the width utilizing 2 directly connected short struts. It is a trade-off of health boost for damage directioning, and offers some protection to the underlying components versus ions and tesla.

Strong absorb for AoE damage (Plasma and Ion), some point protection versus Rail and Laser, and on a ground bot lets you forget LOML even exists. Bury the connections when possible, i.e. fill in the area under the shield for maximum protection, either with solid blocks or alternating layers of weaving and triforcing. Shields can be utilized to spread damage further and mounted on to rods for controlling how far and where it travels, but try not to utilize more than 300 cpu towards it. Medium – Super Heavy limit cpu dedicated to shields to approximately 200 or less.

Unless absolutely necessary, do not rely on a single defensive method to make you a tank. Good tanks layer multiple types of defense to protect against as much damage as possible. The fewer types you use, the more vulnerable you are.

When utilizing any movement besides Mech legs, having a spine that connects to your main armor via prism/triforcing greatly improves your survival. It allows you to maintain your movement components longer than having solid bricks connecting everything together and if done properly will make rail shots need to hit the same spot a minimum of twice to actually hit the spine at all. The more you can move, the harder you are to hit reliably, the longer you live.

Any exposed component is a viable and desirable target. Some components you can’t avoid this with, like guns or a Windowmaker. Some it is unwieldy to cover up (Legs). Anything else should be armored over to protect it just a little longer — whether it is a movement component or a module. That doesn’t mean you have to fully encase everything at all times, but limiting how much of it is directly visible goes a long way towards protecting that part. You can also use this for a psychological boost — leaving some elements that are actually well protected/damage controlled in a position of high visibility (high mount guns on rods, with blocks around them, small shields mounted on rods sunk into the armor) to draw fire first since they are so prominent and available to be focused.

You can blockspam and extend your tank to massive proportions — but why? Building a good tank, the idea is to pack as much mass into as small an area as possible. As a general rule, Thicker and Deeper is going to be better than Longer. This limits your length and width somewhat, but being at least 4 blocks thick is going to severely inhibit rail shots, which only penetrate 3 blocks. It’s going to help against ion and chains by requiring them to cut through more. It helps inhibit plasma by having more components in the AoE to dissipate the effective damage done to each element. That doesn’t mean you have to build short, but the longer you go, the leaner you are, and using weaving and triforcing means each layer needs to be cut through individually instead of taking off whole chunks simultaneously.

You are building a tank, not a meal. “Beefy” bots will have a lot of hp boost, usually via blockspam, and so while they absorb a bit more damage, they also transfer it a lot more wildly. This reduces the TTK on them overall. So don’t be Beefy, be HAMMY.

What’s the difference?

Beefy is a Cow or Bull — it’s built solidly, but one good hit in the right spot, and it is on it’s way to being your next hamburger. Good for your belly, not so much for your diet nor keeping objectives.

H.A.M. — look up the acronym yourself if you need a definition, but the idea is to be more like a Wild Boar than any variant of Moo-Cow. Take the hits, and keep trying to gore your opponent.

While it is tempting to do, don’t just make a brick on top of movement and call it a Tank. Take some pride in your self, and at least attempt to make something with some type of visual appeal, theme, design. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, function wins out over form, but be a little more creative than “Cube on Legs”.

The Ultimate Tank

So how do you build the ultimate tank?

Decide the class of tank you want to utilize (Light, Medium MBT, Heavy, Super Heavy)

Layout your ideal count of weapons, shields, rods, struts, modules and movement components on the corners of your garage bay. If you aren’t sure but think you may utilize a few of a component, add it on just in case.

If applicable, build a spine to function as the core of your build.

Attach movement components to the spine, and proceed to build armor where necessary.

Alternate and adjust each layer to have variable types of defenses, while creating an aesthetically pleasing silhouette for your tank.

As you get to your target CPU range, check your bay for any unused components. Decide if preserving the CPU is more important than the component, and adjust as necessary. Make sure you have a minimum health boost of 70% or greater.

Load up into a match, and have fun. Refine your build as necessary.

TL:DR

Then go back and read it.

The information presented in this guide is for those who are serious about building effective and efficient tanks, not just smacking down some blocks and saying “Good enough”.

If you really can’t be bothered to read, why did you look for a guide in the first place?

• Practice your Aim
• Health boost 70-100+%
• Learn to build multiple types of defense (Shielding, Layering, Triforcing, Strut-reinforcement)
• Learn how to control damage transfer (Triforcing, Rod-forcing, Strut-forcing)
• Layer defenses

Gallery of Tanks — Tread Models (plus 1 half-track)

Gallery of Tanks — Mech Models

Credits

Game: Freejam for Robocraft, because while it’s not perfect, what game is?

Guide Icon Art:

a digital artist out of China with some very beautiful fantasy and gaming inspired work on their page. [link]

Changelog (Edits/Explanations)

9/21/17 — Added Gyro-Mortar rangefinding info/section including screenshots. Added a Mech gallery. Grammar corrections for better readability.

9/20/17 –Added screenshot of “Real Starter Tank II” — proof that you don’t need high tier parts to build a good tank. A lot of weaving and directioning in that build.

9/14/17 — Added screenshots to help explain concepts

9/16/17 — Added screenshots section/examples of tanks