The problem is that FNIX tanks aren’t even worth fighting most of the time for at least solo players, and I suspect for two person teams as well. The drop rates are way too low for the loot that can only drop from them, the rewards are pathetic in terms of how many resources you have to expend, and they are far from being XP efficient in terms of farming.
Put differently, I fought two FNIX tanks as a pair yesterday, solo (at the safehouse just south of Normyrra). In total, it took me roughly 40 minutes to kill them both, and I earned just short of 1600 XP. So, before even factoring in resource usage (which I’ll get to in a minute), I earned roughly 40 XP a minute. In comparison, I can down a pair of military tanks solo in about 20 minutes under equivalent conditions, and earn about 1000 XP, which translates to 10 more XP per minute, and that’s just looking at tanks for comparison (with FNIX runners, a pack of about 10 will net me almost 80 XP per minute).
Now, looking at resource usage, killing those two tanks took:
- 14 flares (for distracting ticks until I could destroy the tick pods).
- 8 fragmentation grenades (for killing the distracted ticks).
- Roughly 1200 rounds of 7.62 (with a special AI-76).
- 48 rounds of .50 BMG (with an exceptional Pvg. 50).
- 13 HEDP rockets (with a special Grg.).
- 36 standard medkits.
- 20 simple medkits.
- 5 adrenalin shots (technically 4 since I have the free revive specialization).
Even accounting for there being two FNIX tanks, that’s still more than twice what it takes for me on average to kill a military tank (adrenalin shots notwithstanding, since I pretty much never have to use those anymore against military tanks). It’s also enough that it took me almost an hour to restock (which drops the effective XP per minute to a paltry 16, almost as bad as clearing ticks out of houses in a settlement).
In compensation with the drops, I got:
- 1 advanced medkit (which was insufficient at that time to bring me to full health).
- 2 compressed air tanks (which are essentially useless in general).
- Almost 600 assorted (FMJ and AP) rounds of 9mm handgun ammo (I didn’t even pull out my handgun during the fight and already had enough ammo for it).
- Almost 150 assorted (SP and FMJ) rounds of .270 ammo (I didn’t use any at all in the fight, and was not in need of more than I already have).
- 12 rounds of .50 BMG (so one quarter of what I actually used).
- 8 smoke rounds for the Grg (which are useless solo, and mostly useless even in co-op).
- 1 field radio (not even sure why these drop from tanks).
The ammo above I can easily find just scavenging in maybe 20 minutes, which would also include more medkits by total healing, and no useless smoke rounds or air tanks. So, I spent 40 minutes killing these things and an hour’s worth of resources, and got 20 minutes worth of loot, not including any of the stuff that can only drop from FNIX tanks.
Note that, in comparison, killing a FNIX tank with four people who know what they’re doing is usually a walk in the park, and it’s almost always resource efficient and XP efficient for everyone involved. The issue isn’t so much that tanks are a challenge, it’s that they’re heavily accentuating the difficulty discrepancy between co-op and solo.