If that works for you guys great! From my perspective, this guide was written as a way to keep your crystal income flourishing ALONGSIDE gaining experience and ranking so you're not left behind but also not progressing at the speed of a snail.

Looking forward to reading it. :D

Mults drop gold with the 5 key. Sounds like you get the gist. I'm glad it helped- if at least to support what you learned through your first account.

I'm not impersonating staff either, but would you say it was fitting to warn staff/guest writers to not spam when all of the mentioned (bar one) posted only once? Perhaps if they continued...but only one did so to address everyone may not be fair.

...

Your first post too. ;)

The only thing I've stolen is your heart. :wub:

Crystal prizes are issued out on Mondays yes. They won't inform you though. You'll have to check for the results yourself when they are released in the next issue. :wub: :wub: :wub:

Both of us have come a long way. Ironically, I remember we were the same rank at the start and are still the same rank now. The picture was taken years ago. In fact, I'm pretty sure it may have been my first Tanki pic. I'm also fairly sure you were in the same battle. To be honest, I don't know. You have a lot of M1s. More than you probably need. But what's done is done. Just focus on saving up to any M2 kit right now. It comes down to personal preference. I have always like XP/BP combos which is why I bought Tornado, but if you're not a fan of the mode, I would recommend Boar over Anaconda as I do not like Vulcan one bit. But again, personal preference. You may be excellent with Vulcan and so that kit would suit you better.

So that's why you asked kaisdf what videos he watched.

You are right, a lot of my crystals have come from writing contests- which I stated quite clearly in my article. But this guide is called 'Road To 1,000,000 Crystals' not 1.5 mil crystals. Even putting aside the fact that writing contests are a method of earning crystals (mentioned again in my guide), I got to 1 mil without them.

^ You managed to outrun those officers then.

An Introduction Before The Introduction I'm going to take you through my thought process on how I've come to write my first ever guide. Is this part a waste of time? Possibly, yes. But hey, you're already reading this. I've written all sorts of articles. Stories, reviews, pieces that I imagine must go in the 'other' category. What I haven't and initially never planned to write was a guide...ever. I told myself I must never go down this route. No matter what happens, I should never be tempted to stray down the dark path of writing a guide. Because once you're there, there's no coming back. And well...here we are. Granted this isn't your conventional guide and I have no intention on writing in the same formality as other guides. One must not deter a reader from this opportunity of education after all. Nah. That's not me. You'll find my writing style pretty relaxed for a guide. Worryingly so you could say. I also can't be bothered to look up synonyms in order to unnecessarily complicate stuff using long, complex words. Take this as my present to you. The Actual Introduction Life as a non-buyer is hard. I feel your pain tankers. But buyers don't have to have the advantage in battles. Yes, you heard me right. They don't! Careful planning and being conscious of your crystal wallet will leave you on level platform. No. A higher platform. Suddenly, buyers will be envying YOU. Why? Because they spent money to get to the position you are at - you, who spent nothing. Zilch. Nada. I have no doubt many of you (if not all), clicked on this article due to the word crystals being followed by a large number of 0s. Too good to be true? It gets even better. I am telling you that you can earn 1,000,000 crystals all by the rank of (Lieutenant General) without spending a cent. What qualifies me to make such a bold and daring statement? Well, by , yours truly had more than 1,500,000 crystals stacked up on this account without touching my real, physical wallet. Yes, I have one and no the credit card is not my mums'. Let's take this bit by bit. Why did I choose the rank ? First, let me get this out the way, this guide is absolutely NOT aimed only for players below the rank of (Lieutenant General) exclusively. Whether you're a Legend or a Warrant Officer, these tips will come in useful to all. Now on to the rank itself. As many of you know, is when M3s first unlock in the form of kits. As such, this is the rank where you will want as many crystals as possible so that you can take your fancy and splash out on some M3 gear early. Needless to say this will instantly give you an advantage in the field. In a nutshell, this guide will go through my journey including both the stuff I did and some of the stuff I wish I did to get to that 1 mil crystal goal. So let's get to it. There are two ways to get to 1 million crystals. You can either go down the short, easy route or the long, hard route. The Easy Way - How To Get 1,000,000 Crystals In A Matter Of Seconds ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ If for some bizarre reason, the above is not possible you're going to have to take the hard way to 1,000,000 crystals outlined below. The Hard Way _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Create a plan ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Exactly what it says on the tin. The first step to getting to that magic 7 digit crystal count is by managing your virtual wallet. And to do that you need to have a plan. A long-term plan. Now, this next part is going to sound very much like a garage analysis. But trust me, you need to know it to understand how I regulated my crystal expenditure. Personally, I always knew that M3s were the ultimate goal- as obvious as that sounds (and I will get on to that later). For that reason, in the early ranks, all I used was Firebird M1. I had managed to save up to be able to buy a single M2 kit by Warrant Officer 5. That kit was of course Tornado. The M2 XP kit with the very expensive Spark paint (which costs more than the entire kit). This was a good choice on my behalf even if I do say so for myself. In the lower ranks, M2 railgun was incredibly effective and it allowed me to participate in XP/BP battles early. The format which I enjoyed the most. Magical 'Tornado' gold hunting abilities B) But I knew I couldn't stick with this combination forever in normal battles. Soon and still at the same rank, I had purchased M2 Isida at a sale. This purchase was actually partially funded by something else (which again, we will get to later). Just those 3 M2s lasted me a whopping 8 ranks. Unfortunately, by that time I had reached the high ends of the M2 ranks and M3s started popping up frequently in my matches. And let me tell you. Having a light hull, I would constantly be slaughtered in non-PRO battles. Well, no more I said! No more! At Brigadier, I had enough of being tossed around in battles and surrendered some crystals to be able to buy Viking M2 at another sale. By then I had a comfortable 400k from just saving up and using the drugs I gained from my missions only. I have no regrets on buying Viking M2 mainly because I knew I had the crystals to spare, but also because it helped me to complete my missions a lot faster. In addition to that, I was able to get a real taste of the hull and loved it. I knew that I needed the M3 version in my garage. After what seemed like forever (and actually not that long ago), I had reached the promised land rank of Lieutenant General with around 1,500,000 crystals in my pocket. Before then, I had a general idea of which kits I wanted to buy. A light, a medium and a heavy. The light would have been Touche, simply due to the fact that I wanted M3 BP. The medium was going to be Paladin for two reasons. One, it has Viking. Two, it was one of the cheapest M3 kits out there and a bargain compared to others. I wasn't 100% sure about the heavy kit but I had contemplated between Rock Climber, Gustav, and Ram. In the end, I realised I had a strong dislike for heavy hulls and ended up being set on Prometheus. I loved using Firebird and the M3 looked incredibly fearsome. Unfortunately, it is also the only Firebird kit (sort that out Tanki, seriously). To summarise, the main points to take away here is to have at least an idea on what you are going to buy and when. This will not only help you in avoiding splashing out on irrelevant purchases but will give you a target to save up to. Once you get the distractions out of the way and have a clear goal alongside a plan to get there, it is so much easier to save those crystals. The second point here is to keep an eye on kit rotations in the garage. Plan in advance when you're going to get your hands on a kit and make sure it's a nice variety so that you can mix and match. Don't get a kit where you already have 1 or more of the items. Keep an eye on those kit rotations! The final, obvious key thing to note here (yes, I expect you to be taking notes) is that M3s are available only in KITS at Lieutenant General. That means many, many, many tankers face plant spectacularly in the trap where they rank up to but don't have enough for a kit. This is so easily avoidable if you plan early on. So don't be that guy! Or girl! Get that advantage and get your hands on those M3s before you reach Marshal so you can have blissul gameplay for a couple of ranks. Shop Smart ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ As I've mentioned above, M3s are your "end game" turrets. As such, everything before is just temporary until you reach your end-game turret. With that in mind, you can see how it is pointless to buy every single M2 and M1 leading up to the M3 ranks. Those crystals are better saved for the M3 equipment you will actually need. Ignore the people who say you've got a weak garage because you only have 3 or 4 M2s at Major General. If you have an impressive number of crystals set aside to invest in M3s when you reach the M3 ranks, you can be smug knowing you are going to destroy the person who said that very soon. If you don't however, then I seriously question where those crystals have gone. Utilise those sales. Don't buy a turret or hull at full price. Try and be patient, wait for a couple of weeks in order to get the same piece of equipment for half the price. Remember there's almost ALWAYS a sale accompanying an event. Use this knowledge to your advantage. Don't spend crystals outside sales. Unless, it is of course, to buy a kit because sales don't apply there my friend. Having said that, AVOID the temptation to go on a shopping spree before the M3 days. Just because there's a sale DOES NOT mean you need to purchase something. Play Smart ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ There's one big point I want to get across in this section. And that's drugging. I can't stress how many times I see players drugging like there's no tomorrow. I don't mean just buyers. There are non-buyers who seem to have their fingers stuck on the numbers from 1 to 4 (not 5 because let's be real if they had gold boxes, they'd drop it for themselves). Drug conservatively. Use supply drops in battle as much as you can and don't jab the 2,3,4 keys as a reflex as soon as you spawn. Use drugs which you have gained from missions and other events. Try not to use supplies as soon as you spawn when there are no enemies around. Make full use of your overdrives. Make full use of your teammates' overdrives. The list of different strategies goes on. Seriously going crazy with drugs will only feel good for a short while. Not only will you be craving for that fix when you run out of supplies, but it also seriously dents how deep your crystal pocket goes. It's time you got out of the habit. Ultimately, drugs cost crystals. Suns out, guns out, drugs out! For reference, the above picture is how to NOT drug sparingly. Avoid joining the losing team in a PRO battle. If the scores are close, then by all means feel free to join. But if a side is losing by a large margin and will inevitably lose by the end of the match, do not join in the hope of a miracle comeback. It sounds cold, but you have to think about the crystals you will be missing out on. Of course, this is totally irrelevant in matchmaking where you won't be able to choose your teams. Finally, perhaps the most simple point, do not leave before a battle ends. Again, it is just crystals being lost. Eventually, all these crystals that you never collected will start adding up. Every Mission Helps ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Do your missions! There are so many bonuses from doing them that it becomes a crime not to. It will help you to stock up on drugs as well as crystals. Even more than that, you never know what you could get from containers. It might be 1,000,000 crystals from the exotic container which would not only make your life a lot easier but would render this guide useless. I'm going to leave it at that. It's a pretty simple concept. Do your missions. Widen Your Horizon ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This was without a doubt, my main source of income. Let me explain what I mean by 'widening your horizon'. Put bluntly, there are pots of crystals OUTSIDE battles! When I bought an M2 Isida straight after Tornado kit, you may be wondering how I accumulated those crystals at such a low rank without buying. The answer lies outside battles and in the forum. Having joined a clan, I had discovered an entirely new world in Tanki. The Tanki Online Forum. Before long, I began participating in a weekly contest called the Tanki Thinking Challenge. For clarity, this was the first edition when it used to be run by several years ago. Little did I know that was only the start. Years later, I was back to earning crystals through the forum. This time, on the other hand, it was through writing. I had begun to win countless crystals from writing contests such as 'Continue The Story' and 'Write For The Newspaper'. Entering articles in these competitions seriously boosted my crystal wallet in a very short space of time and in a few months I gained several hundred thousand crystals. I smell contests... But if you don't enjoy writing and feel you utterly despise it, I will first ask you what you are doing reading this on the Tanki Online Newspaper. But after that, I would tell you that there are other ways of earning crystals other than writing. If you're artistic, there are always contests floating around for hand-drawn art and even ones that test out your photoshop skills. If you believe you have no creativity at all but know the game well, there are still contests in the Newspaper that test your Tanki Online knowledge such as quizzes or 'Guess The Map'. If you're extremely skilful, why not have a go at eSports tournaments and try and earn colossal amounts of crystals from winning and maybe even prestigious paints. A huge benefactor for me was the Tanki Online War. Having been on the winning team and participating in every round, I had a mountain of containers by the end of it. This probably totaled around 200k in raw crystals alone along with plentiful drugs and some paints. The list goes on. There is something for everyone. Always keep an eye out for News and Development for up and coming contests. So that's the story of my life... Okay, it's time to wrap things up. I've been rambling on about my Tanki journey for a long time and it's time you returned to yours. These tips are by no means a secret. Nor are they exhaustive. There will be other ways to get crystals. There's no magic way to conjure up 1,000,000 crystals without any work whatsoever (actually there is, but its called hax. Not recommended people, got it?). Despite this, you'd be surprised at the vast number of players who don't put the above guidelines into practice. So many players struggle on saving up crystals. But if you work hard to get those crystals, it'll be so much sweeter and more rewarding than if you clicked 'Buy' in the Shop. In effect, you'll enjoy playing with that turret more knowing you earned it. If you can put into action only a few of these tips, you'll see your crystal income start to flourish. I can guarantee you of that. A lot of players manage their crystals poorly and so their garage suffers in the later ranks. This can lead to a lot of frustration in battles where you will inevitably pay the consequences of having weaker equipment. As a sort of domino effect, it's not uncommon players end up quitting the game complaining that buyers have ruined the game. Some quit the game entirely while others create new accounts so that they can get better equipment and not go through the same mistakes as the first time. There will always be buyers. The game cannot run otherwise. The trick to successfully competing with buyers is being careful how and when you spend crystals. In the modern day of Tanki, it is as hard as ever to keep up without buying. But nowhere near impossible. Don't be left behind! Header created by my one true love: @Viking4s

This was a nice read. Don't get to see many eSports guides.

Nice designs

Brilliant!

Good luck to @Maf in your new adventures and @Hexed in your new role!

:)

Good to see the sudden rise in French articles. :)

You took the mini pics in the header? O_o The Captain of Jack Hammers didn't tell me.

Prepare for the essay!

Inevitable that England will start dominating at World Cups soon. They won the U17 and U21 World Cups do just waiting for the young 'uns to come through. :D

Congrats!

*cough* Don't know what you're talking about. Haven't smashed anything in my life. I choose to ignore A-levels exist until results day.

Unfortunately the targeted audience of my article would probably change from ordinary players to serial killers if I added real life pictures of 'massacre'.