Guide [Issue 45] Building a Powerful Alt - A Practical Guide

[greyat 2,972]

 

 

As I understand, many of you out there are avid players of Tanki, operating not just your main account but perhaps a few alternative accounts as well. Through these alts, you can make more informed decisions; avoid mistakes that you had committed on your main… as well as a slew of other reasons. Perhaps you take sadistic pleasure in slaughtering helpless newbie tankers. Perhaps you are trying to break a cumulative D/L record. Whatever the reason, I am pleased to report that I do not have a single iota of interest in it at all. So do what you will with this guide – it may well help you, or it might not provide any benefit at all.

 

 

The first and foremost item to keep in mind when making an alt – buy product kits! They allow you to access items multiple ranks ahead of time, immediately giving you an enormous advantage over your peers. For example, the Bulldozer kit, unlocking at Lieutenant Colonel, gives Thunder M3 and Emerald at a rank when many are still playing with M2 and M1 equipment.

But how, you may ask, am I going to save up enough crystals to purchase not one, but many kits?

Now we introduce the concept of a crystal-to-experience ratio. We wish to keep this as high as possible; how does one do so? There are multiple ways of doing so – we will illustrate a few in this guide.

 

I. Pick your battles - literally

 

Only join battles that you know you can win; losing results in a hideously low crystal-to-experience ratio for that battle, which is highly undesirable, second only to leaving in the midst of a battle.

 

At lower ranks, choose long (60 minutes) battles; many of your compatriots will leave before the time is up, especially if the enemy team quits, leaving a large portion of the fund to you. At higher ranks, longer battles run the risk of suffering a raid, so I personally prefer shorter battles.

 

As for maps, any map is good, but I’d suggest Polygon (CP), where the fund-to-score ratio is relatively high, or a large map – in particular, Madness or Dusseldorf. In Dusseldorf, the presence of 40 players means that over the course of a round, many players will be coming and going, making kills, raising the fund, and leaving without claiming their share of the fund. This increases the average fund-to-score ratio, allowing you to receive more crystals for your score. On Madness, players self destruct very frequently, lowering their score by 5 each time. This way, if you’re able to maintain a high score and not self destruct, at the end of the battle you will receive a larger portion of the fund relative to your score.

 

On a similar subject, let us now discuss takeovers. When there is a team with low scores lagging behind a team with high scores, joining the losing team may prove to your advantage – especially if teams are small, and you have excellent equipment. The ideal maps for this are Hill, Island, and Ping Pong. An Island CP can be relatively easily turned around by a Twins-Mammoth, especially if the opposing team has inferior equipment/supply usage. Takeovers allow you to acquire much of the fund for less work; you don’t have to play an entire battle to get the same reward. Be warned, however, that they may consume many supplies, and when failed, yield a minute reward. You will also need superior equipment to commence a takeover, and preferably an empty team, or one with low scores.

A takeover:

 

We’ve been discussing team battles thus far. Now, let us move on to DMs. Deathmatches have a very unusual fund distribution system, significantly differing from team battles, in which fund awards are directly proportional to score. Consider the following battle:

 

 

As you can see, the player “Mihail2365” scored over half the amount of kills as . In a team battle, one would expect the former to be rewarded roughly three-fifths the reward of – around 5,500 crystals. However, in reality, “Mihail2365” received only 4,255 crystals, significantly less than what directly proportional rewarding gives. Hence, it is reasonable to conclude that DMs reward far more than average for doing disproportionately well, and less than average for scoring lower. So, should you wish to receive a large reward in DM, make sure that your score is by far the highest!

 

My final piece of advice on achieving a high fund-to-score ratio: play with high ranks. The fund rises significantly faster in higher ranked battles (which also leads to more gold boxes), quite clearly shown with these next two examples.

 

 

 

 

The two players receive nearly identical rewards, but the Warrant Officer 3 scores nearly twice as much as the Commander, leading to a significantly lower crystals-to-experience ratio. If you play with higher ranks and win, this can happen:

 

 

A fund-to-score ratio of over 1; relatively impressive for Lieutenants. Note that I have purchased a kit – Firewall, allowing effective competition with Brigadiers and above. This brings us into our next topic, II.

 

 

 

I.5

 

This section is kind of an add-on to the first, being mainly about crystals, but for clarity I’ll put it here.

 

Daily mission can often provide a large boost in crystals, offering anywhere between 50 to 10,000 crystals for completing certain tasks, which often do not necessitate gaining large amounts of experience (some, such as ‘Finish First in a Battle’ or ‘Pick of X Supplies’, don’t require gaining any experience at all). Hence, they are an ideal way to increase your crystal-to-experience ratio. In order to maximize the number of daily missions that you encounter per gain in experience, I would advise simply logging on daily, changing non-crystal missions using the free daily change, and playing just enough to finish your missions, and logging off again. This way, you can finish many missions before changing rank, allowing you go gain large amounts of crystals in the meantime.

 

 

 

II. Choosing a kit

 

You’ve saved up enough crystals to buy a kit. Now what?

 

As with any equipment purchase, it all depends on your playing style. If you enjoy long-ranged domination, the Centaur or Legend kit will suit you perfectly. Small map CTF? Jackhammer will be ideal. Take over an Island CP or CTF with drugs? Cardinal will prove to be excellent.

 

In general, the attributes of the kit depends heavily on the turret they contain. As I’m sure you’re all relatively familiar with what the turrets are and what their attributes are, I’ll just proceed without going into that. The hull is not as important; for example, Hunter-Firebird offers relatively similar gameplay to Viking-Firebird. As I’ve highlighted a few maps previously in this guide, I’ll go over a few kits that do relatively well on those maps.

 

Dusseldorf

 

Although a large map, there are many corners due to the large amount of buildings, allowing short-to-mid range turrets to flourish. Around the sides, bushes offer sanctuaries for longer range turrets, which can shoot all the way across the corridors that cross the whole map. Turrets with damage fall-off (reduction in damage over distance) tend to fare less well. In addition, light to medium hulls tend to do better, as the scale of the map requires that agility be part of a tank’s attributes.

 

M1

 

Vampire (Wasp-Isida)

Hammer of Thor (Viking-Ricochet)

Fighter (Hornet-Twins)

Firefly (Wasp-Firebird)

Cupid (Viking-Freeze)

Piranha (Hornet-Shaft)

Hero (Dictator-Railgun)

Anvil (Dictator-Hammer)

Bulldog (Hornet-Hammer)

Siberian (Hunter-Freeze)

Osaka (Hunter-Isida)

 

 

M2

 

Stinger (Hornet-Isida)

Tornado (XP)

Boar (Dictator-Ricochet)

Cyclops (Mammoth-Shaft)

Pitbull (Hunter-Hammer)

Minotaur (Viking-Twins)

Firewall (Hunter-Firebird)

Mosquito (BP)

Ant (Wasp-Isida)

 

 

M3

 

Centaur (Hornet-Shaft)

Legend (XP)

Jackhammer (Viking-Hammer)

Refrigerator (Viking-Freeze)

Medic (Viking-Isida)

Boreas (Wasp-Freeze)

Vandal (Hunter-Twins)

Redneck (Hunter-Ricochet)

Prometheus (Hunter-Firebird)

Nomad (Hunter-Railgun)

 

 

Madness

 

Another very large map, but with wide distances separating spawn points and little to no ambush opportunities. Damage fall-off again proves detrimental to certain turrets. Many sniping positions, bottom segment of map provides some medium range combat opportunities. Mobility is key for shorter ranged turrets and for some game modes, as Control Points and flags are separated by large distances.

 

M1

 

Piranha

Hero

Predator (Hunter-Thunder)

Hammer of Thor

Fujiyama (Hunter-Vulcan)

Striker (Viking-Smoky)

 

 

M2

 

Cyclops

Tornado

Boar

Vesuvius (Viking-Vulcan)

Northerner (Viking-Smoky)

Mosquito

Huntsman (Hornet-Smoky)

 

M3

 

Centaur

Legend

Raiden

Paladin (Viking-Smoky)

Nomad

Redneck

Eyjafjallajökull (Mammoth-Vulcan)

 

 

Polygon

 

A variety of gameplay can take place here, ranging from long range camping to close range brawls. Practically any kit, used with skill, is appropriate here. I’m not going to point out any in particular, but I will warn you against using Shaft, which reduces to an inferior, less mobile version of Railgun on this map.

 

 

 

The Very Small Maps (Island, Ping Pong, Hill)

 

Close-to-medium range weapons dominate here; there are few obstacles to hide behind. Consequently, long range weapons tend to suffer.

 

M1

 

Vampire

Firefly

Keeper

Hammer of Thor

Cupid

Striker

Bulldog

Anvil

Fighter

Siberian

Osaka

 

 

M2

 

Stinger

Boar

Pitbull

Firewall

Atlas (Titan-Smoky)

Minotaur

Northerner

Ant

Huntsman

 

 

M3

 

Jackhammer

Medic

Refrigerator

Paladin

Boreas

Vandal

Prometheus

Redneck

Guardian (Titan-Smoky)

Cardinal (Titan-Twins)

 

 

 

Note that these selections are by no means comprehensive; there are plenty of combinations not listed that work excellently on the given maps.

 

 

 

III. A few final notes

 

You may be wondering about micro-upgrades. For me, after the recent update, they don’t demonstrate an appreciable increase in power for the price, so I would avoid them in preference for saving for another kit. If you have an exceedingly large amount of spare crystals, go ahead and purchase some.

 

And that concludes this guide. Play on that alt, and rule the battlefield!

Edited July 29, 2017 by Hexed

[KillerGnat 3,135]

Great article greyat. It'll help me with my main too.

Edited December 18, 2015 by KillerGnat

[Rohit_1997 456]

Perhaps you take sadistic pleasure in slaughtering helpless newbie tankers.

 

Blew me off :D

[Quarks 2,255]

Very well done cat, but you forgot your signature :P

[Flexoo 6,980]

I need to built my main first :D

[lukey0 27,543]

I literally did that for all of my alts, and look what it got me? Plenty of kits. It does work really well just doing crystal missions. :LOL: It got me 60K real quick at First Sergeant.

 

I need to go for most OP alts without buying. :D

[Lhamster 4,081]

I need to go for most OP alts without buying. :D

I think I've got you there, EatYourVeg is very OP, although I don't play on it atm.

[l.Eat.My.BuIIets 483]

What do you think about my alt ??

[l.Eat.My.BuIIets 483]

I think I've got you there, EatYourVeg is very OP, although I don't play on it atm.

Player LHAMST3R has been banned for a day. Reason : Account sharing, Trading @ Rules

:P

Edited December 18, 2015 by l.Eat.My.BuIIets

[lukey0 27,543]

I think I've got you there, EatYourVeg is very OP, although I don't play on it atm.

I will agree with it being very OP, you bought the old turret kit. ;)

 

What's its drug count? :P

 

[Lhamster 4,081]

Something in the 1000s, and that's not the only kit I've got on it xD

 

My other alt which I play on is also OP, but that's not just from earning crystals in battles.

Edited December 20, 2015 by Lhamster

[E.Leclerc 1,887]

EatYourVegetables <- Best nickname ever! :D

Edited December 20, 2015 by E.Leclerc

[E.Leclerc 1,887]

Player LHAMST3R has been banned for a day. Reason : Account sharing, Trading @ Rules

:P

Seems legit.

[l.Eat.My.BuIIets 483]

Seems legit.

He really was gonna do that

[fordmustang12345 3,910]

But but but... I enjoy slaughtering the noobs on my alt with wasp+railgun

[lukey0 27,543]

Something in the 1000s, and that's not the only kit I've got on it xD

 

My other alt which I play on is also OP, but that's not just from earning crystals in battles.

Some above/almost at 3000. Others above 1500. :P

 

Though the rank difference is a lot.  

[momy950666 960]

Great article greyat. It'll help me with my main too.

[MessagerAngel 33]

Thanks grey at, this should help with my alt that is spelled right: MessengerAngel. ;)

[qianrshci2015 0]

Hum for Sergeant Majors with firebird m1 and wasp m1 I would suggest a 15-min Rio DM or Cross DM. First place gets anywhere from 250-350 crystals assuming there are 10 people playing

[TheUpstartRonin 8]

This article is pretty awesome, I'm definitely gonna use it with my alt... thanks greyat!

[emrakul 7,801]

Great topic, however I knew everything and a lot (ok, not that much) more ;) :ph34r:

[marc.jp_44 20,837]

Great Article!

Edited January 3, 2016 by greyat
Fear me.

[greyat 2,972]

Great Article!

Thanks, fixed.

Edited January 8, 2016 by Contradiction
Noob greyat

[marc.jp_44 20,837]

Thanks, fixed.

Haha, I like that edit! I'll just PM you next time, if you want! :)

I know, when writing Articles, I also tend to be protective! :)

[Quarks 2,255]

Haha, I like that edit! I'll just PM you next time, if you want! :)

I know, when writing Articles, I also tend to be protective! :)

I have noticed