Tank Arena

About Tank Arena

Tank Arena is a free top-down tank battle for your browser. You and five to seven computer tanks roll around a walled arena full of toy blocks and wooden crates, on one of five maps. Drive with one control, aim the turret with another, and fire shells that bounce off the walls. Grab power-ups for a shield, rapid fire or a triple shot. In the standard mode the last tank still rolling wins; switch to Deathmatch for three minutes of respawning chaos where the most kills wins. You can also play live against other people.

Also called: tank game, tank battle, tanks io.

How to play Tank Arena

1. Pick a mode, a bot level and a map (or Random for a different one each battle), then press Play. Your tank is the white one with the yellow turret and the tag that says You.
2. On a computer, drive with WASD or the arrow keys. The keys point the way you want to go on screen, and the tank turns to face that way and rolls. Aim with the mouse and click (or hold Space) to fire.
3. On a phone or tablet, put your left thumb down anywhere on the left half and drag to drive. Drag with your right thumb on the right half to aim, and the tank fires while you hold the drag. A quick tap on the right fires one shot.
4. Shells bounce off walls twice, then stop at the third wall they hit. The dashed line from your barrel shows where a shot will go, including its first bounce.
5. Shoot the wooden crates to break them open. Some drop a power-up. Power-ups also appear on the dashed rings on the floor. Drive over one to pick it up.
6. Each tank can take four hits. In Last standing, you are out when you lose your last heart, and the result card shows your place, kills, accuracy and best. In Deathmatch you come back two and a half seconds later, and the round ends after three minutes.

Rules

• Tanks turn at a steady rate and roll the way the body points, so a tank has to swing round before it can drive off in a new direction. If you steer almost straight backwards, it reverses instead, a little slower.
• The turret turns on its own, much faster than the body, so you can drive one way and shoot another.
• You can have three shells in flight at once, with a short reload between shots. Rapid fire cuts the reload to a quarter of a second and lets you have six in flight.
• A shell bounces off walls and the arena edge up to twice and fizzles after three and a half seconds. Shells that meet in the air knock each other out. Your own shells never hurt you.
• Crates take two hits to break and have a 40% chance of dropping a power-up.
• Shield blocks every hit for eight seconds. Rapid fire and Triple shot (three shells in a fan) last ten seconds. A freshly spawned tank is also shielded for two seconds.
• Last standing: after ninety seconds, sudden death puts every tank on one heart. If two or more are somehow still going at three minutes, the one with the most hearts left wins, then the one with the most kills.
• Deathmatch: most kills after three minutes wins. Ties go to the tank that was destroyed fewer times.
• Accuracy is the share of your shells that struck an enemy tank, shielded or not.

Tank Arena tips and strategy

• Keep moving. A tank that sits still is easy to hit. Circle your target so their shots trail behind you.
• Use the bounce. A shot off a wall can reach a tank hiding behind a block, and the aim line shows you the angle before you fire.
• Don't fire all three shells at once at long range. If you miss, you have nothing left while you reload.
• Lead moving targets. Shells are quick but not instant, so aim a little ahead of a tank that is crossing in front of you.
• Break crates early. The power-ups inside are worth the shots, and the open space makes it harder for bots to hide.
• Hurt? Grab a shield, or back off behind a wall until the fighting moves elsewhere. In Last standing, staying alive is worth more than kills.
• Hard bots dodge well and bank shots off walls. Start on Normal, and move up once you win regularly.