Review [Issue 31] TKP's Garage Analysis

[Thekillerpenguin 1,731]

 

After seeing that a lot of the newspaper staff here have done garage analyses, I think I should do one as well. My Tanki career hasn't been a very long one, but I've experienced many things, played in all sorts of maps, and, of course, used a lot of turrets and hulls. Now, without further ado, let's see how my in-game financial planning has gone so far.

 

A brief introduction

 

I started playing Tanki in the beginning of May, 2014. A lot of my classmates were playing it at school, and I was curious about what it was like. I'd played mostly 2D Flash games up until that point, and I'd never seen a decent 3D one. Tanki appeared to be of excellent quality, and piqued my interest. I created an account and started playing; about a day later, I joined the forum. I really loved it, despite my limited knowledge of the game mechanics (I thought you got all the crystals in the battle fund, like many others did). My first match was on a Fort Knox DM, and I remember joining a Highland CTF afterwards, where I was perturbed by Shaft users camping on the Red team side. I soon bought my own Shaft and started spouting the wonders of what I thought was the best weapon in the game. Well, I'm getting sidetracked, so let's get back to the main topic. During this period of time, I bought a wide variety of turrets and hulls; my memory is a bit fuzzy on the order of what I bought, but I'll do my best here.

 

M0s

My first purchase was M0 Wasp at the rank of Private. I felt that M0 Hunter was too slow, and I wanted something fast. Wasp definitely fit the bill, and I liked it. The health wasn't anything to brag about, but the increased mobility was worth it. It's dirt cheap too. Overall, an 8/10 to me.

My second purchase was M0 Firebird. I bought it out of curiosity and also because M0 Smoky was pretty weak. It could roast things very quickly, making it a keeper in my arsenal. My first match with it was a Sandbox CTF, where I accrued multi-kills from the spread and afterburn. I died a lot, but I also got a lot of kills, so it became my go-to assault weapon. I mostly used this with Wasp.

 

Note that this was before the range and damage update for Firebird; it's probably considerably worse now. I'd give this a 8/10 from my experiences with it.

 

After that, I bought quite a few things. I'll give these a quick description, since they're not that important.

 

M0 Thunder: Not that great. It can only destroy M0 Wasps in 2 hits, and even then not all the time. I like it better than M0 Smoky, but that's not saying much. 6.5/10.

M0 Dictator: I liked this quite a bit. It wasn't too slow by my standards then, and I liked the increased health. 7/10.

M0 Ricochet: Probably the second best of my M0 turrets. It dealt a lot of damage per second, and I liked the bouncing effect. 8.5/10

M0 Mammoth I was OK with this, but I stopped using it after a while. Too slow. 6.5/10.

M0 Hornet: One of the better M0s. It's reasonably fast, and the health was pretty close to M0 Hunter back then. 8/10.

M0 Shaft: My best M0. This thing went with me all the way to WO2, and it did not disappoint. 9/10.

M0 Railgun: Somewhat underwhelming, but still usable. 7/10.

M0 Isida: I liked this quite a bit. The ability to drain health from opponents is useful, as is healing teammates with it. The damage wasn't too shabby either. 8.5/10.

 

I also bought a lot of paints during this period of time, but they didn't do much. I'll skip describing them.

 

 

M1s

 

I became more knowledgeable about and skilled at Tanki by the time I was purchasing M1s. Since then, I haven't bought anything that I really regret. Before this period of time, I used essentially random combos when joining battles. I tried out many combinations, finding out the strengths and weaknesses of each.

 

My first M1 was M1 Mammoth. I bought it more out of curiosity than need, since I was wondering what it would be like. While it's certainly not bad for a meager 3,200 crystals, it's not that good either if you ask me. The health is quite impressive for something you can get at Staff Sergeant. The speed isn't impressive at all, which made it boring to use really quickly. I haven't touched it since I got M1 Titan, and it's still sitting in my garage today. I'm not going to M2 or M3 it in the foreseeable future. 6/10

 

Oh, and I think it's ugly too. With these qualities in mind, I basically ignored its existence, and the next piece of equipment I'm going to talk about here is something I consider my first true M1.

My first M1 turret was M1 Smoky, purchased at Sergeant-Major. I was somewhat on the fence about this, but after getting my posterior handed back to me by a M1 Smoky in combat, I changed my mind. I bought it on Tanki's birthday, when there was a 50% sale. Boy, was this worth it. I found myself massacring M0s with ease. I used this with my Hornet, and it was a good combination. I have a fond memory of messing up the aim of a M2 Hornet-Railgun with my meager M1-M0 combo. Overall, a very good purchase. 9/10

My third M1 also came on Tanki's birthday. It was M1 Titan. While I did purchase M1 Mammoth earlier, I wasn't satisfied with it. This one was really good. It wasn't too slow, fit well with my Shaft and Smoky, and had great pushing power. Later, the speed was nerfed, and I found myself using it less. It was still definitely worth it. Overall, a 8.5/10

 

 

After the birthday sale, I didn't buy anything for a while, at least until I was midway through WO1. During July, there was the World Cup event, where you could purchase a team paint. If your team won the World Cup, you'd get half of the crystals you spent during the event period back. I purchased the Germany paint, and during the event period I bought M1 Firebird and M1 Shaft.

M1 Firebird was an excellent purchase. It dealt a lot of damage and could ignite targets for a long time (at least back then). I loved it, and it went well with my Hornet and Hunter. With a light hull, it lets you get in, discharge all your napalm, and get out before anybody can catch you. With a medium hull, it lets you storm crowded enemy bases and melt everyone in your way. I had a lot of fun with this. 8.5/10

 

I ranked up to WO2 shortly after buying M1 Firebird. I played hard, and finally I was able to afford something great.

M1 Shaft was a real keeper. It felt similar to M0 Shaft, so I had no problems transitioning, but the increased stats really made it better. I quickly put some micro-upgrades onto the damage, and I was able to destroy unprotected M2 Hornets in one hit. I'm still using it today, since I like it so much. Really worth the crystals. 9.5/10

 

Later, it turned out that Germany won the World Cup. I was then given a respectable sum of about 12,500 crystals. From there, I played with my new equipment and saved up for the good stuff that was coming up at Warrant Officer 3.

 

 

When I ranked to WO3, there was a sale on Wasp and Freeze. I decided to purchase M1 Wasp as a light hull and M0 Freeze just to see what it was like. Note that I'm putting M0 Freeze in the M1s section because I bought it during my M1 period.

M0 Freeze was surprisingly good for a M0; While it was less powerful than my M1 Firebird by a long shot, I really enjoyed the freezing effect and the fast rotation speed. I remember playing Wasp-Freeze on Iran, and I went on several impressive killing sprees against mixed M0s and M1s. Very fun. Hmm, I might want to invest in M2 Freeze some day. 8/10

M1 Wasp was a pretty good choice; it was fast, agile, and cheap. It replaced M0 Hornet as my primary light hull. I paired it with Firebird and Smoky for the most part. It served me very well until Second Lieutenant. If you're really good at using it, this could probably take you to Colonel (with some micro-upgrades).  8.5/10

 

I quickly earned back the crystals I spent on the above items. I then won a newspaper contest, which beefed up my supply of crystals to around 40,000. Certainly not bad.

 

A few weeks later, there was a M1 Medium Kit available in the garage for 59,990 crystals. It contained M1 Dictator, M1 Railgun, Cedar, Storm, Desert, and 50 of each supply. It was an excellent purchase. I'll describe the component parts below:

M1 Dictator: Quite possibly the best part of the kit. M1 Dictator has about as much health as M1 Titan, but it has a similar speed to M0 Viking. With this in my arsenal, I felt no need to use heavy hulls. It goes well with mid to long range turrets, and it'll definitely last until M2 Dictator.  9.5/10

M1 Railgun: The second best part of the kit. M1 Railgun is quite powerful; it can destroy M0 light hulls in one hit, and it can put large dents in the health of M1s and M2s. It went well with my Wasp and Dictator. My only gripe with it is the low rotation speed, which can make targeting at close range somewhat difficult unless you're using Wasp or Hornet. 9/10

Cedar paint: Cedar packs as much Thunder protection as Rustle, so it's definitely useful if you're having problems with Thunder users. When used with my Dictator, M0 Thunder were a joke, M1 Thunders weren't a big threat, and M2 Thunders were manageable. The camouflage is alright for muddy environments. 8.5/10

Storm paint: Ehh, I don't really like it. The only thing Storm has going for it is the 20% Firebird protection. It's quite significant on paper, but I really didn't see any difference when using it. It's quite useless for camouflage too. As such, I haven't touched it since WO3. 5/10

Desert paint: Second best paint in the kit. It has 28% Ricochet protection, which is both noticeable and very useful. The camouflage is alright too for sandy maps. I still use it today if I'm fighting a lot of Ricochets. 8.5/10

 

 

After getting the kit, I ranked very quickly to WO4, since my equipment was very good. When September came along, there was a sale on Tanker's Day. During this time, I got two items: Tundra paint and M1 Thunder.

Tundra paint: One of my favorite paints. It has an impressive 30% protection against Railgun. This will let you avoid being destroyed in 1 hit by M2 Railguns when using Wasp. With Dictator, I could withstand 3 shots from M1 Railgun and many shots from M0 Railgun. It also has very useful camouflage. 9/10

M1 Thunder: This basically carried me from WO4 to 1st Lieutenant. I was amazed at how powerful it was when I first bought it; can destroy light hulls in 2-3 shots, something even my Smoky had trouble doing at this point. It doesn't lose too much effectiveness against M2s either. It effectively replaced my M1 Smoky for most intents and purposes. 9.5/10.

 

 

It was early October when I made my next purchase.

 

A sale on Isida (and related paints) and Mammoth came along. I was a WO5 at this time, and I was thinking of getting M2 Isida. I first purchased M1 Isida and Alien.

M1 Isida was actually not that bad. While it wasn't a big improvement over M0 Isida in terms of stats, the increased damage and healing were noticeable in combat. 8/10

Alien paint was a decent purchase. I was looking for some decent protection against Isida, since M2 Isidas were quite terrifying to me back then. In terms of protection and price, it's a good deal. 8/10

 

After getting those two items, I desperately tried to rank to 3rd Lieutenant in time. I failed, but I was still satisfied with what I had bought, so I went right back to playing with my new gear. A day or two later, I ranked to 3rd Lieutenant.

About a week later, there was a 50% sale on paints. I decided to purchase Dirty paint, since I was somewhat lacking in good Shaft protection. It was worth it. When used on M1 Dictator, I could withstand shots from M2 and even M3 Shaft. It also lets you blend in in muddy environments for reasons that should be quite obvious. 8.5/10

 

On Halloween, there was a decent sale on everything in the garage. I decided to get M1 Hunter. Even though Wasp and Dictator already proved versatile, I wanted something that was an in-between. Something not as weak as Wasp, but not as slow or noticeable as Dictator.

M1 Hunter proved to be a wonderful hull for almost any situation. The statistics were amazing (more health than M1 Viking, far faster), and it was my hull of choice for a long time. It's surprisingly fast, quite durable, maneuverable, and stealthy. Hunter quickly became my favorite pairing for Shaft, Smoky, and Isida. My only gripe with it is the somewhat low acceleration/power, but that's not a major issue. If you're only planning on getting one M1 hull, this should be your choice. 9.5/10

 

M2s

 

I initially only planned to get M1 Hunter on the sale, but I accumulated enough crystals (through various means) to purchase M2 Isida. This thing is a monster; it drains health from enemies very quickly. The healing racks up a lot of XP for you too. Against M1s and M0s, it isn't even fair. M2 Isida also has enough firepower to deal a lot of damage to M2 Vikings, which had been previously very difficult to fight. This might be the second-earliest of the M2 turrets, but it's still very effective. 9/10.

 

 

After that, I ranked to 2nd Lieutenant. In late November, a sale on hulls came up since Tanki had won the Runet prize. I figured buying M2 Hornet would be a good idea. My M1 Wasp was getting a bit too fragile against M2s.

M2 Hornet was better than I had expected. Yes, I did have problems with the drift, but the speed and health were enough to offset its downsides. I got used to the handling, and it quickly became one of my most used hulls. It pairs very well with Isida and Railgun. I plan to replace it in the future for the almost-superior M2 Wasp, but it'll do for now. Still well worth the price. 8.5/10.

 

 

I remained a 2nd Lieutenant for most of December. On Christmas Eve, I bought M1 Ricochet and then ranked up to 1st Lieutenant. The first things I purchased upon ranking were M2 Ricochet and M2 Railgun.

 

I only used M1 Ricochet to destroy one tank (that was the kill that made me a 1st Lieutenant), but it's quite good. The tank was a M0 Hunter, and it only took about half a clip to destroy it. It would probably be decent against M2s as well. Since I only used it for one kill, I don't have enough experience to give it a rating. N/A

 

 

M2 Ricochet was my best turret purchase since M1 Thunder. It was initially very hard to aim at anything past close range, but the high damage and useful bouncing effect really made it an excellent turret. It's replaced Thunder as my medium ranged turret of choice. I've improved my aim since, and it's really quite fun to use. There's nothing like destroying an enemy who thinks he/she is safe when hiding in cover. 9.5/10.

I initially wasn't very crazy about my M2 Railgun, but it grew on me. My only gripe with M1 Railgun was the slow rotation speed; M2 Railgun solves that problem in addition to augmenting all the stats. I found it went very well with my Hornet and Dictator. It was great for flipping people until the recent update that decreased its impact force. It's still very useful these days, even if you can't flip people as often. 9/10.

The next purchase (which I made on Christmas Day) was one I'd been looking forwards to for a long time. It was M2 Dictator, and it exceeded all my expectations. It's decently fast and very tough; a perfect defender, attacker, and midfielder. I've been using almost nothing else since I got it. It might be a medium-heavy hull, but it's just as maneuverable as a light hull. A real delight to drive and fight in. 9.5/10

I purchased Sandstone paint on the third day of the sales. While the vanilla stats aren't too impressive (comparable to Corrosion), I found it very nice to have. The Railgun and Shaft protection is quite useful for saving you from one-hit-kills. The Thunder protection isn't that noticeable, but it does help. And I disregard the Twins protection, since it doesn't really do anything. Judging from the vanilla stats alone, I'd give this a 8.5/10

 

I bought a PRO pass and a few supplies on the fourth day of the sales. Nothing much to note there. On the fifth day of the sales, micro-upgrades and speed ups were heavily discounted. Having a prodigious supply of crystals, I decided to start micro-upgrading my equipment. I know a lot of you are probably having a heart attack from reading that, but I find that it was worth it.

 

The first thing I did was maxing out my M2 Dictator's health. While 220 health was already quite good, I MUed it up to 278.2 health points. This is more than a lightly-upgraded M3 Viking. This allows my Dictator to absorb massive amounts of damage; I can take a full charge from a M2 Firebird and still survive for a while. Against M2 Vikings, this almost isn't fair. I also partially upgraded the speed to 7.35 mph. Overall, very worth it (a 9.5/10), but I recommend that you do this ONLY if you have more crystals than you can use. Otherwise, just upgrade your M2 Dictator's health a few steps to keep up with M2 Vikings.

 

The second thing I did was to micro-upgrade my Sandstone paint. The Thunder protection went from 14% to 20%, the Railgun protection from 20% to 25%, and the Shaft protection from 15% to 20%. I think we can all agree this is some pretty good protection by M2 standards. At this point, the only other paints I use are Tundra (for camouflage when sniping), Dirty (for non-camouflage sniping) and Desert (for Ricochet protection). 9/10.

 

Finally, I put a few micro-upgrades onto my M2 Ricochet. Mostly into the damage, since I'd have to micro-upgrade the reloading time a lot to notice a difference. It helps. 8.5/10.

 

Again, I emphasize that you should only micro-upgrade your equipment this much if you have more crystals than you can use. Otherwise, you're wasting your crystals.

 

 

This is the first new section since I've published the guide.

 

I continued playing with my Christmas equipment for the rest of January and well into mid-February. On February 21st, there was a 25% sale on all items in the garage due to the Iron Days event. I decided to purchase M2 Vulcan, M2 Hunter, and M2 Thunder.

 

M2 Vulcan was the first thing I bought. I really enjoyed playing with Vulcan on the test server, so I wanted to have it on the main servers as well. I originally wanted Digital, but I swapped it out for this. It appears to have been the right choice- I already have plenty of Railgun protection, and a new turret would be really fun to play with. M2 Vulcan is very effective in the right hands- I'd already gotten used to its handling on the test server, so using it in combat was a piece of cake. I put it to the test in an Alexandrovich CTF, and I did exceptionally well with it. It certainly outguns M0 and M1 Vulcan, which are more common but underpowered at my rank. Overall, a 9/10.

M2 Hunter was the second thing I bought. It's rather uncommon on the battlefield, compared to the volumes of M2 Hornets and M2 Vikings out there, but it's really an excellent hull- it handles very well, has good health, and looks very cool. It's not quite as powerful as M1 Hunter is compared to the other M1s, but it's well balanced and capable of taking on the other M2s. A good pair with just about everything I own. I plan on micro-upgrading the health a few steps during the next micro-upgrade sale. A 9.5/10.

M2 Thunder was my last purchase on the sale. It's capable of destroying M2 Hornets in 3 shots, while M1 Hornets and Wasps will typically fall after 2. Thunder's quite powerful, but the damage per second isn't the best among the medium turrets. I purchased it for its long range capabilities and splash damage- especially useful when fighting on larger maps or Polygon CPs. I find the damage to be be slightly underwhelming against M2 Vikings and Dictators, but overall it's still a good purchase. A few micro-upgrades on the damage should solve that problem. 9/10.

 

 

 

The Future!

 

Now we've reached the end of what I've purchased so far. I'm looking forwards to obtaining more M2s in the future. After all, it's nice to have a lot of options to play around with.

 

At Major, I will most likely be purchasing only M2 Shaft. It's a huge improvement over the already-impressive M1 Shaft. In addition to destroying M2 light hulls with ease, it can destroy anything weaker than a M1 Hunter in a single hit. The micro-upgrades are pretty good as well (a few of them will let you destroy M3 Mammoths with a DP). Need I explain more?

 

At Colonel, I will try to get M2 Smoky. It's widely considered to be the best M2 available for a good reason. It fires very quickly, deals a lot of damage on critical hits, has unusually high impact force, and has infinite ammunition so you won't be caught empty-handed like you would with M2 Ricochet.

 

I might get M2 Wasp as well, but it's not that vital since M3 Hornet unlocks just 2 ranks later. Regardless, I'll do my best to get it since M2 Wasp owners almost unanimously praise it.

 

 

That's about it for this garage analysis. I hope you found this article informative and interesting.  If you have any comments, post them below. Thanks for reading!

Edited July 30, 2017 by Hexed

[doduobird 315]

Cool garage :3

[LeIouch_Vi_Britannia 6,163]

Nice topic pengo :)

 

Only 1 thing i gotta say,

 

M1 shafts MUs are far better than m2's,taking the damage from 135 to 175 i think, while M2 is from 185 to 200 :p

[MA3CTPO_HA_XAHTEP 832]

nice ;)

[bravo30 136]

COOL

[beaku 2,656]

You are damn rich. Even I bought m2 hornet on runets discount.

P. S. I had never bought m1 hornet.

[WarMonkey51Austin 68]

You are damn rich. Even I bought m2 hornet on runets discount.

P. S. I had never bought m1 hornet.

He's a reporter, he gets crystals from every topic he makes in the reporter section -_-

 

Anyways, good guide, I'll still beat you with my m2 firebird (I got MU's as well)

Edited January 31, 2015 by WarMonkey51Austin

[jazz20 1,181]

Nice :)

[Penguin40 1,714]

Good analysis, but there is one funny thing there. I bought M1 Ricochet the same day as you, and that helped me rank up to Second Lieutenant similarly to how it helped you rank to First Lieutenant.

[DarthvaderjonGTR 615]

Amazing garage for your rank :) 

[GG_reg 1,521]

Very nice, detailed, informative and concise, well done! :)

[greyat 2,972]

Too bad about the impact force decrease :/

[lukey0 27,543]

Awesome enjoyed reading it. ;)

[liverpoolaum 811]

cool garage

[Athena369 265]

Nice analysis! I pretty much have to agree with most of the stuff you mentioned. Keep the good work up!

[Helindu_2014 830]

not that good

rail n dic m2 is cool

[Langlas 11]

Very nice. Was somewhat confused at first, didn't understand where all the cry was coming from. Then realized you're a buyer.

Edited February 1, 2015 by Langlas

[blackflag444 256]

awesome! i started a bit later than you, and the that account got hacked :(, but it never stopped me. but seeing this garage, i envy you, and now i sort of want to cry :(.

[Langlas 11]

awesome! i started a bit later than you, and the that account got hacked :(, but it never stopped me. but seeing this garage, i envy you, and now i sort of want to cry :(.

Was it really necessary to qoute the whole article?

[blackflag444 256]

Was it really necessary to qoute the whole article?

yes, yes it was :P i'll just put it in spoiler

[liverpoolaum 811]

i need a garage like this

[DangDawg 20]

I got medium m1 kit too when I was Wo3 :P

[Superlative 500]

Good.

awesome! i started a bit later than you, and the that account got hacked :(, but it never stopped me. but seeing this garage, i envy you, and now i sort of want to cry :(.

You should have linked it.

[ultimatetomato 0]

I love railgun and smoky. However, I can't believe they tuned down the impact for those, but left hammer untouched.

 

Also, viking was never addressed. It's m1 is pretty good with rail for me, maybe a bit lower than my hunter m1. Viking thunder or freeze is excellent.

[Superlative 500]

I don't see any signatures. Quite unusual, frankly speaking. Once you rank higher to about a COlonel, update this article.