Tanks are too hard

I play alone for myself and since the update the Tanks are even harder for me. I don’t know why but they are shooting at me with their heavy machine gun even if i am far away from them. They don’t really use their mortars or Missiles any longer on me.

Also they seem to be imune against the sticky flares. I throw them, and they give a shit about it… :confused: and it’s happening with all types of them. Prototype, Military and FNIX…

Sure i can handle it and maybe i’m just too stupid to engage a Tank the right way. Okay i mean… my daily tactic is to stun it with an EMP and put some explosives below it. But when there are two tanks or a Seeker busts me i really get in trouble.

On time a Tank shoot at me while i was inside a house for one whole minute nonstop…

But… like i said, i can handle it, even if i have to revive myself some times. Just wanted it to be called out.

Some hints that helped my own solo play:

(1) Try to avoid the tank while killing all the weaker enemies first. It’s a pain to have to deal with a tank and a horde of runners and hunters as well. This includes seekers that will constantly ping you if you don’t take them out.

(2) Get a rifle with a good scope and take out as much of the weaker enemies that you can, while from a distance. Tanks are not so good at spotting you and if you manage to snipe out seekers and runners first (hit them on the cylinder on their backs and enjoy the one-shot kaboom kills) then it will be much easier.

(3) Your tactic for taking out tanks sounds good if you do it right. You’re correct that they are like large elephants that have great power but move and react slowly. So flares are less effective against them. You can run towards them in a zig-zag pattern matching their machine gun bursts until you’re within throwing range of the emp.

(4) Did you try mines? You can do a emp + mine combo as well, but you need to get out of there fast! You can also stay and watch for a second, and try to predict the tanks movements and sneak ahead to place a mine somewhere in its path. It’s so satisfying to outsmart them!

(5) Contrary to what you might think, spamming grenades or rockets at them is not so effective in the solo game. Imo, these are better against hunters. The exception is the FNIX tank that won’t go down from a single canister, you can finish those off with grenades after the first canister.

(6) Lastly, don’t forget large fuel tanks present at farms (large horizontal cylinders), or parked cars! Aim at these if tanks are nearby and watch the fireworks! But you need some serious distance to yourself however - the splash damage is quite unforgiving!

Good Luck!

1 Like

His Autocannon has to far of a Reach to the point were I was amazed. I don’t have many gripes with the game but this is certainly one of them. Leads to unnecessary deaths.

1 Like

Yea it has for me too! I learned the hard way that you’ll loose 9 times out of 10 in a straight up firefight with a tank.

So I started to sneak around them undetected instead, using explosives and such, and I started winning against them!

I usually don’t mind tanks in an urban environment as there are big gas storage tanks and cars around, it’s just the time it takes to lure them into position.

Out in the countryside I tend to avoid them unless I have the advantage

Although you can EMP them and then throw a couple of gas cylinders under their feet, it’s not always possible to do that sucessfully.

Often it’s better to lure them towards cars, gas storage tanks and petrol stations and then blow up the entire area to make sure.

A mine near storage tanks is about the best method and the pay off is so satisfying.

A sticky flare on a Tank can mess it up if there are a good number of Hunters and Runners around to attack it, but stupidly too hard to do successfully in single player.

Sometimes they also won’t cooperate though.

Spent 90 minutes destroying a single tank last night (so much for the 5 minutes before going to bed) yet I had destroyed 3 in about 20 minutes the night before.

After doing initial damage with a couple of recoilless rifle rounds and a nearby car explosion, this one simply sat 100 meters away and refused to move, just shot any time I was visible and releasing waves of Ticks

Finally got bored and spent the last 10 minutes playing peek a boo and shooting put around 150 AK rounds into it and it blew up.

I guess he was badly enough damaged so it decided to stay where it was

tanks really are not too hard. If you think you can 1v1 a giant dealth robot by just standing in the open and shooting him with your puny little guns, you would be mistaken.

This game favors a guerilla style gameplay. Snipe. Ambush. Etc Etc.
Dealing with 2 tanks at once can be a challenge, but just stay at a distance and grab your rockets, or just retreat, wait for it to go inactive, and repeat the ambush technique.

Sometimes just running is the best option.

2 Likes

I always go for shooting it’s weapons off. The machinegun first, as it’s the most lethal. Helps to have cover to pop out of, preferrably at a distance so you have some breathing room. Once it’s guns are disabled (and it’s otherwise undamaged) the Tank will start following you so it can kill you with it’s close range attacks. That’s when you can lay mines, use the environment etc to take him down.

If caught in the open I tend to try the more risky strategy of throwing EMP batteries at him, then while he’s stunned I run up and empty a full mag of 7,62 FMJ into one of it’s guns. It’s often enough to disable. Then repeat. If I don’t have any EMP’s… I just run. Live to fight another day.

2 Likes

My preferred way of disposing of tanks are gas/O2 canisters and mines.
3 canisters + radio ore some other lure, or 1 mine + 1-2 canisters.

BTW, it’s little bit odd that small gas canisters deal way more damage then a proper RPG :face_with_monocle:

3 Likes

Do lures work for you? I’ve never been able to lure a Tank. Granted I’ve fought mostly FNIX Tanks at this point, maybe they’re smarter.

I think that’s because an RPG will most likely hit “somewhere” on the tank, quite often on an armoured part of it’s body. The canisters lie on the ground however, and if you shoot at it when the tank is straight above it, it will explode right on the sensitive nuts bits of the tank, dealing more directed damage than your average splash over the body. I’m sorta guessing here but this is how I understood it.

TBH I think they are too slow to react to the radio

Ok so im on ps4 and the only beef i have with the two legged tank is the machine gun its lethal regardless of how far you are miles n miles.Try this dont be scared of the tanks you can side step run n gun the tanks even when the machine gun is firing at you litirally meteres away try it.It does get boring in a single player gun fight with the tanks over and over for myself as somtimes it takes alot of time like 5-10mins to disable all components to kill.Tbh i wish the rocket launcher was more effective against the tanks as it showed in the preview video.

The best way to deal with tanks in solo play is with explosive tanks as described above. Propane / air canisters and large fuel cells or using explosive items in the world like cars and propane storage tanks.

If you’re trying to solo a tank with nothing but your guns, you’ll find yourself running out of ammo pretty fast. You really have to pick your fights solo. There’s not a whole lot of return for the time and resources you expend killing a tank if you use guns.

For me, I sneak as close as possible, toss a medium EMP, and drop 1-2 explosive canisters (depending if it’s proto / mil or FNIX) under the tank. I then run backwards and shoot. That takes care of the tank. Sometimes I get caught in the splash damage, but I try to get as far as I can before blowing it up. I’ve only died from the blast a couple of times. Typically I take damage and can heal up. It works every time.

That said, you have to make sure that you clear the area of smaller machines before taking on a tank solo. It’s pretty hard to fight the big guy when you have to fight off all the little ones too. Although that said, I’ve had some success adding a flare to my routine. Toss flare, under tank, attract attention of all smaller bots, then do my routine above. My success rate has been lower doing that though.

Typically, I’ll avoid multiple tanks if playing solo. It’s just too expensive on my resources compared to the payoff.

Yes, but You have to put them relatively close to the Tank (they are sloooow).

On tanks take the armour of .eg knees then shoot joints for one clip on each joint taking weapons of them help to as that is still classed as DMG .depending on what weapons you carry emp rockets work well but don’t last long so run and shoot and drop a land mine unless changed one land mine will take a tank out shooting from distance hiding behind trees work while they shoot shouldn’t but does just sidestep out and shoot at weak spots or hide behind rocks and do same but remember red wired tanks drop ticks too…is funny watching the 10/20 ticks lift a dead tank of floor again shouldn’t but does… harvesters shoot rockets on bk first that will do alot of DMG too…as said b4 this is not a game where you just run in and shoot everything and hope to survive…

1 Like

Hit them with an EMP like this one :wink:

Haven’t had a chance to crop the video yet

2 Likes

Tanks aren’t too hard, not even the FNIX variants IMHO (I play single player as well, and coop with the wife when she feels the need for some sniping action). Just need to play slow and methodically, hitting the weak spots often, affecting the tank’s components and movement until he’s toast.

So devs - please no artificial nerfs for the Tanks (albeit the AI itself could use some tweaking overall).

1 Like

i have found running left or right of a tank at fairly close distance , they cannot aim fast enough to shoot you , also waiting for them to reload gives you a good chance at attacking them. i agree take out the dogs / runners and all things around them first. land mines are lethal also , place 2 of them and a explosive gas tank and shoot it and watch them die in one explosion sometimes. all in all , its strategy , hope this thread is helping.

1 Like

Run n gun is possible

1 Like

I think they are fine in general but I think there is a bug where tanks occasionally know your exact position regardless of what you do or hide behind. I just had such a session with the Troll Toll tank, every time I stuck my head out the slightest bit (at a distance) or sometimes even when I was behind something it would start firing the cannon at me with pinpoint accuracy. It was impossible to get off a shot without loosing like 80-90% health. I even tried fast travel to a different safehouse and back to the lighthouse but it still shot me as soon as I tried to have a look at it so eventually I gave up and restarted the game and managed to kill it without any problems.

1 Like