It does indeed. I suspect that in all likelihood, we'll be getting EMP and Stun augments for turrets because people will definitely want them.

Mammoth gets heavy weight and Ares gets AP. About time for Ares, it's been ages since Ares got anything to be frank. AP Freeze (corrosive mixture I think it's called) AP immunity for Ares Mammoth Heavy weight Incendiary mix for Firebird I think it's quite nice we're getting Freeze's AP turret augment. I was contemplating upgrading my Freeze and now have a reason to do so. Also, happy to see that this challenge gives AP immunity so that it the problem with giving AP Freeze is somewhat mitigated. Not sure why we're getting Mammoth Heavyweight though. Definitely would've been nicer to get a more suitable augment, such as heat immunity or Stun immunity.

Appears to me that we're getting AP Freeze, Heavy weight for something, AP immunity for something and incendiary mix for Firebird.

So I had an idea for the new range of EMP/Stun augments. My guess is, Tanki will add Emp and Stun augments for every turret at least, with maybe incendiary and cryo. So, I propose the addition of critical hits (discussed in Vlog 292) such that the effects are applied only on critical hits, and only to the first target hit. So, if I shoot 5 tanks with EMP railgun, only the 1st tank is affected by the EMP. Similarly for EMP salvo, it keeps all the buffs it gets, but you also don't EMP more than a single tank. Furthermore, each of the new EMP/Stun augments should be based off the most powerful preexisting augments for the turret. In the case of Railgun, this would be Large Caliber rounds I claim. In the case of Thunder, Sledgehammer. Doing so wouldn't break the game, because even though it can EMP/stun, the augments do so rarely, and only to a single target. However, it makes no sense to add the EMP effect and then nerf the turret into oblivion for using it (for example what happened with AP Railgun).

I'd definitely have placed it a lot higher if not for the recent nerf. Thank you! Good choice! It's quite a powerful augment.

You are frozen for 0.5 seconds, and the damage is unchanged. It's laughable.

Railgun's Cryo augment is extremely weak while EMP Railgun is too strong. Nice to see that something will finally be done about it. I hope this also happens to EMP Gauss. Hopefully though Thunder doesn't get nerfed as a result of the addition of this critical damage.

Well I imagine the players who want a change of pace. In this setting, games would be about skill (so no drones or OP augments to help you win), would not require you to own anything upgraded (since you are using in match battle points to "purchase" your equipment) and it would be vastly different and longer than regular matches. Adding an element of story of some kind would perhaps make it even more interesting. Yeah, not stupidly huge, but larger than what we have now, with maybe updated textures and such to really make it immersive.

So my idea is similar to Galactic assault for example for Star Wars Battlefront 2. Both teams are trying to capture teritory, 1 team is defending, the other is attacking. All players start out with standard tanks (IDK what, maybe you can have a "light" with Hornet and Firebird, a "medium" with Viking Thunder and a "heavy" with Gauss Titan. No supplies allowed or augments allowed, but you can use your OD. You get battle points (as in SWBF2) for killing enemies with which you can progressively use better (but still standardized) gear. Ideally, in a really, REALLY large series of new maps. I realize that not using custom equipment might diminish the interest of developers in this, so maybe they can make it so that you earn crystals at a slower rate (or maybe even none at all)? Not sure if this'll be rejected. Just that I enjoyed the concept in Star wars battlefront 2, and this might be a great way to add newer, larger maps, maybe create some cool Tanki lore.

Smoky is the first turret to have gotten it's HD skin along with unique and new augments. Coming in at a grand total of 13 augments, a natural question to ask is "But how do they compare?" Read ahead to find out about how Smoky's augments compare with each other! Note: For convenience, I've included three parameters, price, fun factor and rating. While my rating of the augments is based sheerly on the fun factor and performance, price is undoubtedly an important consideration for most tankers. The lowest score is a 0 (for augments only in containers), followed by 5 (for augments which cost 245,000 crystals), followed by a 7 (for augments costing 149,000 crystals) and lastly by a 10 (for augments costing 96,000 crystals). The scores aren't necessarily as important as the ranking though. 13. Explosive Rounds This is an augment I had high hopes for. However, it's ultimately a letdown. Explosive rounds, as the name suggests, allows Smoky to inflict splash damage (1 meter being the range of maximum damage, 4 meters being the range of mid damage, and 7 meters being the range of minimum damage). The Mid splash damage receives a hefty boost of 90%, while the minimum splash damage goes up 10%. So what makes this augment utterly worthless? It manages to perform decently, but when you shoot the floor (to inflict splash damage to a target behind a prop), your round will bounce and fly up. This is a HUGE problem because it means you cannot use the splash damage as it could be with Thunder, for example. Thus, the only time you're likely inflicting splash damage is when you're landing hits directly on tanks. Combine this with the relatively small splash radius, and you might as well use Thunder (Please, for the love of god, use Thunder instead!). This combined with the relatively small radius render the augment useless. Performance: 0/10 (on a scale from 1-10) Fun Factor: 0/10 - As it turns out, having your shot fly randomly into the sky while trying to use the ground to cause splash damage isn't fun. Neither are small explosions. Price: 0/10 Verdict: This augment is suitable only for collection purposes. 12. Rubberized Rounds Admit it. You saw it coming, and I saw it coming, and every player who saw the name of this augment saw it coming. This augment is yet another useless collector's item. Rubberized rounds for Smoky takes away 25% of your projectile speed and allows you to bounce your shot twice while also lowering the minimum ricochet angle to 5 degrees. This feature is completely useless. In combat, you will rarely have to (or manage to) hit an enemy by bouncing shots of a wall (unless you are using Ricochet). In Smoky's case, you're much more likely to engage in head-on combat, as opposed to hiding behind walls trying to find the optimal position to hit an enemy behind a wall. In situations where there's no wall or prop to bounce your shots off, you'll lose 25% of your projectile speed, which makes a difference. If you get this augment, let it collect dust for eternity because even using no augment is better than using Rubberized rounds. The only reason it's above Explosive rounds is that at least it isn't a complete failure when it comes to bouncing shots off objects. Performance: 1/10 (on a scale from 1-10) Fun Factor: 0/10 - As the wise Rick from Rick and Morty said, "This just sounds like stock smoky with extra steps." Price: 0/10 Verdict: This augment is suitable only for collection purposes. 11. High Precision Aiming System This augment might as well be called "wannabe Thunder Subcaliber rounds", because that's pretty much what it is. This augment boosts minimum damage and critical hit damage by 20% while increasing reload time by 40% and reducing projectile speed by 25%. What makes this augment such a waste is that even though the damage buffs make it seem like a hard hitter, it isn't. Your minimum damage with it (at Mk8) is 504, and the maximum damage (at Mk8) is 975, which means you'll be landing hits dealing 740 damage most of the time. However, the reloading speed is significantly greater. When you combine this with the 25% slower projectiles, you're going to spend a lot of time frustrated at either a) the fact that you missed, b) the longer reload time, or c) someone just stole your kill. Overall, the augment is worse than using Smoky without any augments and an absolute waste of 245,000 crystals. Just spend that amount on mines, and you'll likely be better off. Performance: 3/10 (on a scale from 1-10) Fun Factor: 2/10 - There's no fun in this augment. It's a wannabe subcaliber (for Thunder), which is, mind you, the worst augment for Thunder. Price: 7/10 Verdict: This augment is suitable only for collection purposes. 10. Supercumulative Rounds This is an augment I frequently see, and so I was somewhat surprised at just how underwhelming it was. Though it's nowhere near as bad as the last three, this one isn't particularly impressive either. Super cumulative rounds give you a 50% boost on critical hits while lowering their chance by 60%. Essentially, at Mk8, this takes your chance of landing a critical hit down to 9.08%, while your damage goes to 1200 (a meager 400 damage increase). If you consider the damage's expected value on a critical hit (in this case, obtained by multiplying the critical hit chance by the damage), you get 181.6 without this augment and 108.96 while using this augment. Therefore, you're going to deal more damage without this augment via critical hits cumulatively. Now, numbers aside, you inflict far, far fewer critical hits, and when you do get one in, the 400 extra damage isn't as deadly as the 50% boost makes you suspect. You're more likely than not using Smoky practically without any critical hits whatsoever. Thus, even though the damage buff seems excellent, it's quite underwhelming. Performance: 4/10 (on a scale from 1-10) Fun Factor: 2.5/10 - You're practically using Smoky with assault rounds most of the time (minus the extra speed and impact force). Just use Assault rounds instead. Price: 5/10 Verdict: This augment is suitable only for collection purposes. 9. Sorted Ammunition This augment ensures that you can land a critical hit every four shots. The catch being, the four shots must hit a target, so it's not possible for you to shoot into the sky and then keep firing critical hits. This makes the augment balanced but essentially doesn't do much for you. You get better predictability (if you're the sort of master tactician who can easily keep track of such things), but the augment isn't particularly impressive. When testing it out in MM, the augment doesn't command power or respect. It's pretty much just stock smoky, but with predictable critical hits. Since you cannot affect when the critical hits are going to happen, you're not likely to benefit too much from using this augment. Performance: 5/10 (on a scale from 1-10) Fun Factor: 4/10 - Nothing really powerful here, move along! Price: 0/10 Verdict: This augment is a welcome addition to any garage. 8. Armour-Piercing Rounds Had you asked me about this augment before 29th January 2021, I would undoubtedly have praised it for being powerful. Back then, the AP effect was applied for 5 seconds, and critical hit damage was reduced by 15%. Since then, the AP effect is applied for 3 seconds, and you lose 25% damage on critical hits. Thus, it is the shortest time for which a turret augment can apply the AP effect. At Mk8, you'll most likely be able to get in two shots before it expires, which can certainly be deadly. Still, more often than not, your enemy can take cover, wait until the AP effect expires. At this point, you're a while away from your next critical hit and most certainly going to have some difficulty in terminating your target. The augment is undoubtedly very helpful when it comes to modes such as Siege (albeit not as deadly as Railgun), but in general, your kills will wind up being stolen, and you'll be left with nothing to show for the damage you inflicted. Performance: 6/10 (on a scale from 1-10) Fun Factor: 6/10 - Would be decent if not for the extremely small AP period and 25% damage reduction on critical hits Price: 0/10 Verdict: This augment is a welcome addition to any garage. 7. Paralyzing Rounds Yes, I know what you're going to say, "LOLKILLER, I WILL KILL YOU TO DEATH. THIS AUGMENT IS STUPIDLY POWERFUL. STUN AUGMENTS FOR TURRETS SHOULDN'T EXIST," and I'd agree with the latter, but the augment is relatively weak and team-oriented. The augment allows you to stun targets for 3 seconds (but they don't drop any flag or ball they are carrying), but in return for the benefit, you lose 50% of your critical damage and 50% of your critical chance. This means you deal 400 damage at Mk8 with critical hits, which is less than the regular shot's lowest damage. On the other hand, your critical hit rate is reduced to 11.35%. Due to this, you very, VERY rarely land critical hits, and even less so at the right time. More often than not, you're firing regular shots and not stunning anything. Even when you do stun enemies, it's only for 3 seconds, and you will struggle to kill them unless you're using a powerful drone. Effectively, your kill will be stolen. Is it possible to stun an enemy meters away from your goal post in Rugby? Yes. Is it likely to happen? No. You'll most likely stun the 5000 GS Legend ranked player who just spawned. Well, that, or my luck's just bad. Performance: 6.5/10 (on a scale from 1-10) Fun Factor: 6/10 - Nothing funnier than seeing critical hits which deal less damage than your normal shots Price: 0/10 Verdict: This augment is a welcome addition to any garage. 6. Incendiary Rounds Since everyone and their dog has Heat immunity, this augment's power has been somewhat diminished. Incendiary rounds will ignite the target to 50% of the maximum temperature while disabling excess damage from critical hits and lowering critical hit damage by 25%. In essence, your critical hits are swapped out for a burning effect. Unlike Hammer's dragon breath, the effect tends to last for a longer time, which means that you can use it to determine where your enemy is while also whittling down their health behind cover, assuming they take cover after a critical hit. The benefit of this augment is that it allows you to deal damage to enemies in two modes. Firstly, your regular shot damage (which can be stopped by using protection modules, double armor, and Defender/Crisis. Then there's the heating damage, which cannot be blocked by using protection modules for instance. If your enemies don't have Heat immunity, you're going to find this augment to be quite powerful, but due to how common Heat immunity is, you're unlikely to get as much use out of this. Performance: 7/10 (on a scale from 1-10) Fun Factor: 7/10 - A little heat never hurt anyone (except for the tank you just hit) Price: 5/10 Verdict: This augment is a welcome addition to any garage. 5. Assault Rounds No, I didn't think I'd be doing this either, yet here I am. Assault rounds is a fantastic augment, more so after the latest update. This augment increases projectile speed by 200%, impact force by 35%, and removes critical hits. At first glance, that sounds silly. Why would you want rounds to hit harder? There's Magnum, Gauss, and Railgun, which certainly hit harder than Smoky. The answer to that particular question is that smoky's quick reload means you can discombobulate targets. If you use this augment properly, your enemy will be left perpetually trying to readjust their position to aim at you (unless they have heavyweight construction, in which case you're out of luck). This means that you can keep slapping them around in any way you see fit. Of course, this is only an elementary application of the augment. In fact, you can use the augment to force your targets to drive into walls with mastery. The ability to make players completely change their path can ruin someone's attempt to capture a flag or score a goal. The extra speed means that this is your go-to augment for long-range shots in massive maps, such as Berlin or Dusseldorf. What's more, is that this augment is the cheapest and has good bang for your buck. Performance: 8/10 (on a scale from 1-10) Fun Factor: 9/10 - Use this with Viking's OD and slap some tanks over entire continents Price: 10/10 Verdict: This augment is a must-have for Smoky fans. 4. Cryo Rounds "But LOLKILLER blah blah, they gave cold immunity away for 7 hulls. That ought to make this augment useless," you say. "Not quite," I say. Cryo Rounds lower your target's temperature by 100% of the minimum temperature while disabling critical hits and excess damage from critical hits. This augment is powerful because you can follow up a critical hit with an assortment of tactics to best utilize it. If need be, you can use it offensively to slow down a tank to whittle down their health and finish them off. You can also use it to slow someone down temporarily to escape or slow down an enemy with a flag or ball. These sorts of potential strategies are what really bring this augment together for me. Needless to say, the whole effect is somewhat underrated. A single critical hit will render your enemy immobile for a few seconds, which opens up plenty of opportunities. Moreover, despite the large amount of cold immunity for hulls being given out, it's still very much viable for you to use the augment because Cold immunity isn't used by most players. Performance: 9/10 (on a scale from 1-10) Fun Factor: 8/10 - cold go brrr Price: 5/10 Verdict: This augment is a must-have for Smoky fans. 3. Adrenaline This is arguably one of the least used augments for Smoky, yet it is most definitely one of the very best. When you're low on health, you automatically deal between 0 and 33% more damage (depending on how low you are). Overall, this augment is undoubtedly one for a more aggressive playstyle because, really, you want to have less health to maximize your utility from it. Using this augment, if you get the average boost in damage of 16.5%, then you're looking at between 489.3 and 757.25 damage on regular hits and 932 damage on critical hits. This means your average shot deals 673.275 damage, and your critical hits deal 132 damage more than usual. If you get the whole 33% bonus, you'll be dealing between 558.6 and 864.5 damage on regular hits and 1064 damage on critical hits. This means your average shot deals 711.55 damage, much higher than the average damage of 535 and 1064 damage on critical hits, which is a pretty decent boost from the stock 800 at Mk8. The extra damage may not seem particularly significant, but it can definitely stack up and turn smoky into a hard hitter. The playstyle here is quite different, though, because you want to take as much damage as possible while staying alive to maximize the damage you inflict on enemies. Performance: 9.5/10 (on a scale from 1-10) Fun Factor: 9/10 - As joker once said, "HIT ME!" Price: 5/10 Verdict: This augment is a must-have for Smoky fans. 2. EMP Rounds These rounds apply the EMP effect to enemies on critical hits while reducing your critical hit damage by 15%. This augment is definitely not anywhere near the likes of EMP salvo for Gauss or Railgun's new EMP augment, but as go Smoky augments, it's one of the best. Once your enemy is not using supplies, you'll generally find it quite an easy task to take them out, making the augment universally helpful, whether you seek its power for defense or offense. The ability to remove supplies from players is, as some might put it, game-breaking. Smoky being a turret that doesn't have shot effects or a massive explosion, it's quite likely that the person who's lost their supplies might not pick up on it (if they are sufficiently distracted). Of course, when their supplies are down, you can easily take them out (unlike certain augments where your kill is almost always stolen *cough cough* Railgun AP *cough cough*). Of course, dealing with players using EMP immunity will put you at a disadvantage. However, the damage reduction of 15% on critical hits isn't huge, so you can still continue to use the augment unless almost every enemy uses EMP immunity. Performance: 9.5/10 (on a scale from 1-10) Fun Factor: 7/10 - Just not really that fun to use I guess Price: 0/10 Verdict: This augment is a must-have for Smoky fans. 1. Autocannon No, I'm not undermining the danger that EMP or paralyzing rounds present. No, I'm not being paid to tell you this so that people don't feel so irritated about EMP immunity or Paralyzing rounds. I'm telling you this because it's the truth. Autocannon is hands down, the best augment you can get for Smoky. Autocannon makes Smoky's reload time a short 0.5 seconds while reducing regular shot damage by 75% and impact force by 66%. What makes this augment so dangerous is that you can deal lots of damage very quickly, and moreover, continuously, not giving your enemy even a second of respite as you relentlessly fire a barrage of shots. The quick reload also means that it's possible to repeatedly make your enemy miss any shot they take, which is also certainly extremely helpful. In theory, it is also possible to get a critical hit after 3 or so shots (though this doesn't happen often). Since the critical hit chance rate or damage is unchanged, you generally can get a lot more critical hits (which is really what this augment is based around). Essentially, it allows you to inflict damage continuously, thus rendering repair kits in a battle next to useless. "But how can you say it's better than EMP rounds or paralyzing rounds?" I hear (and if I don't, just take a minute to say it). Well, EMP rounds are dangerous, but you can only apply the EMP effect to a single tank. Even then, EMP immunity can render it completely useless. As for paralyzing rounds, yes, it is very deadly at the right times, but you very, VERY rarely get critical hits in the first place. I've had instances using Viking's overdrive where I haven't gotten a single critical hit to put it into perspective. It doesn't happen often enough for it to be truly deadly. Slap on stun immunity, and you might as well use a peashooter. With Autocannon, there's no such thing as damage immunity, so regardless of what your enemies use, you'll always have some amount of power. Performance: 10/10 (on a scale from 1-10) Fun Factor: 9.5/10 - There's just something about Autocannon's reload speed that makes you feel absolutely awesome Price: 5/10 Verdict: There's a reason this augment is number 1. That reason is that it's the best. Buy it! So there you have it! Every single augment for Smoky ranked in the order of how good it is! I certainly hope you've enjoyed reading this review. If you have any suggestions for what you'd like me to include in later guides, or want to share your ratings, feel free to do so in the comments!

I thought you meant hull augments included (ignore that bit). Well you do much better using Booster, but unlike say Hooper, Crusader isn't built around its OD, so you could easily get by without using a drone such as Booster. If you really want the OD to count, then booster's your go to, but there aren't many times where it really matters, except killing a Juggernaut, in which case Booster is required (if you use Crusader's OD)

Awesome skin! The nerf to EMP salvo is nice, however it would be better if it got nerfed a bit harder. The buff for AP salvo is what worries me.

I wasn't talking about their effectivity, but how they affect the total number of combinations in the game

What you're saying makes sense. At this point, there are however around 173 augments (no doubt with more coming), 14 turrets, 10 hulls and 14 protection modules, so It's hard to make the game more confusing, especially as we'll be getting many more turret augments in the future.

What? These would be available for crystals. Needless to say, they cannot be given to players for free (for obvious reasons) It does add a lot more augments to the game, but it'll mean that non-buyers can finally have some weapons to fight against EMP/AP/Stun turret augments or ODs.

Well of course, buying is the easy way to get it. If you want it badly then you have to buy it, but at least it's an option now.

So my idea is simple. We have immunities, but in most cases these wind up being common among the buyers. So, I think it'd be interesting if we had resistances similar to heat or cold. Here are how they could work: EMP resistance: Each hull gets 3, speed, double armour or double damage. Whichever one you buy cannot be removed. So if I have EMP resistance double armour, then no matter what my double armour cannot be removed. AP resistance: If the AP effect is applied to you, your enemy only ignores 50% of your defensive beneficiaries (Double armour, protections, drones) Stun resistance: Will make sure you don't drop objectives, but you will be immobilized To make it even more helpful to non buyers, it'd be nice if players can use 2 resistances of different type. So, I cannot use EMP resistances for double armour and damage, but I can use AP and EMP resistance. Naturally, available for 245,000 crystals like heat or cold resistance. I think this would definitely help make the game more balanced without removing an incentive to buy actual immunities.

Well obviously, Tanki wants to promote people to buy their products and so they're more likely to take better care of buyers. If you're not buying, then you're going to be at a disadvantage compared to people who do buy. That's not something that'll be eliminated I don't think, because Tanki is free to play. I do agree that some of these things could be better balanced though. What I mean is, imagine you're an F2P tanker who mains Hammer. You really want Hammer's AP augment. Everytime you get supermissions which give ultra containers, you do it in the hope you get Hammer AP, yet container after container, you never do. Now, you have a chance to save up your tankoins and get the augment of your dreams. Might take some time, but it's more likely than not a certainty that you'd be able to.

Well, the point is, this challenge gives you an AP turret augment. To get one earlier, you'd have to pay much larger sums. Now, however, you could just use 500 tankoins you got from doing previous challenges to get it (or buy 400 tankoins, complete the challenge and get it), along with a whole bunch of other rewards. As for the immunity, I've seen quite a few players running around with Viking's AP immunity, and I imagine as time goes by there will be more AP immunities given away too. That's besides the point. This quite possibly opens the floodgates for even more rare turret augments in the future, which means that non buyers will only need to wait longer to get what they want (and not by waiting to open a few containers every so often)

Awesome challenge! The fact that an AP augment is being given away is a BIG step in closing the gap between buyers and non-buyers. Yes, I know you don't have any control over which augment it is. Yes, being able to get an augment isn't going to all of a sudden make the game completely fair for everyone. But, this is definitely something which I hope continues, because it can potentially mean that it is no longer a matter of luck, but of time before a non-buyer can gain access to these rather rare augments. The hull augments are fantastic too. It's great that we aren't getting just heat or just stun immunity but both. I do recall that players wanted a bit more theme to challenges, so the spring paint is a nice addition. I'm not particularly fond of either of the paints, but the AP turret augment more than makes up for it.

I believe that augment is actually not EMP Gauss, but an AP turret augment. I believe there are multiple turrets which share that icon such as Magnum AP (though I may be mistaken), so it may or may not be Gauss AP.

Basically, make juggernaut skins you can only buy available for purchase. I don't really see any harm in this, and I mean it'd be interesting to see Juggernaut Terminator XT.

As with literally everything though, using drones, supplies and augments will allow you to do better. Hull augments have no effect on your OD with crusader (unless you mean getting stunned by a hunter for example, but then a similar argument can be made for wasp). As for supplies, yes supplies make your OD much more potent, but I mean most players should be using supplies anyways, since that's pretty much a requirement to be competitive in today's MM. By drones, I assume you specifically refer to Booster, and I agree your OD is made much more powerful, but the same thing applies for Viking or Hornet for example. Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind with crusader is that the hull isn't built around it. Crusader is quite useful for its speed and strafing abilities, much more so than the OD I would even claim.

Hound is the reason I like using Vulcan so much, reminds me of him and his cool gatling gun.

I wouldn't agree. There isn't really any hull that's "buyer exclusive" or made for buyers. I've seen players with EMP salvo, Viking Gauss Ultra... you get the idea. I've also seen viking ricochets with 4k gs. The hull that's generally used by buyers seems to be Hooper, for it's OP OD.