The Beginners' Guide: Doing It The Smart Way

[OneeSama 86]

Hello! This is OneeSama, otherwise, you can address me as Donald, and I've played this game for a month. After a month of gameplay as a free to play player, here's a guide to help beginners to get started and avoid making mistakes in terms of managing crystals as well as gameplay.

 

 

GET STARTED - THINGS TO LEARN FIRST

Key Ideas People Have Trouble With

• Learn the controls. Some controls such as movement are fairly obvious, but others are not. Commands such as drop flag with 'F' or 'DELETE' to self-destruct are not always used when necessary. The game does a good job showing new players to press 'DELETE' when upside down, but many still frantically call out for help in chat.
• Try out the WASD control if you aren't using them. There is a slight difference in terms of quality of life features. In WASD control, you can turn your turret, move, and fire at the same time: something the arrow keys don't allow in the game (maybe a bug?).
• Learn combat patterns. How many shots does it take to shoot down a Wasp with a Smoky? How many seconds can my tank endure a Firebird? Before getting into a duel or engage on a pack of enemies, thinking about this can often avoid unnecessary deaths.
• Pick up dropped supplies, even if it is out of your way. That double armor or speed might mean life and death when running into the enemy base for flag capture.
• Off hand note: there is a difference between team chat and ALL chat. Use TAB to switch between them after you hit enter. Don't give away where enemy's flag is!

SLIGHTLY MORE ADVANCED GAMEPLAY TIPS

Ways to Improve Quickly

• Turn your turrets. From my observation, many new players don't turn their heads when attacking. Turning your turret allows you to deal damage faster without the need to turn your slower tank. Also, you can peek around corners as one of the in-game tips has already pointed out.
• Use CAMARA CONTROLS, so you can see over buildings and walls. The best way to outplay an enemy is to know where he is at all times. When you are running around a building trying to get a kill on an unsuspecting target this is the best way to make sure no one stops you.
  

• Memorize drop zones, especially repair boxes. Knowing where free supplies are maybe can help you develop a good pathing habit to always think about where you go in, and where you come out. For example, in the map Brest, it is better to jump from the enemy base down towards the center when capturing flags as there can be repair box as well as speed boost present.
  

• Team Battle Tip: Always kill the Isidas first. A full discharge of an M0 Isida can heal a Mammoth to full HP. If the healers go down, so does the amount of potential HP that they bring. For Isida players: you are not the front-line. Charging into five enemies when playing Firebird may be OK, but with Isida, it's most likely a bad call. Stay on the back-line, heal your front-liners at max range so Thunders don't destroy you.
• Supply Usage: Use them at key moments. This point seems rather obvious, but a lot of players do tend to use supplies on a whim (maybe after they died to the same tank way too many times) and not think about maximizing the value. It is good and often necessary to use a double damage to kill off the enemy flag carrier and return the flag, but it is not wise to use a DD to try to shoot a Mammoth down across the map with a Smoky just because he killed you three times in a row with Shaft. Again, it seems obvious now, but you will be surprised how many players forget about this.

CRYSTAL MANAGEMENT

Better Gear Means More Wins

• And more wins mean more crystals, which means better gear.
• Micro-upgrades are often not worth it. If you trouble visualizing how much fully upgrading a hull or turret costs, look up on the wiki. For earlier ranks, you go up so fast you don't get much value out of having your railgun doing 10 more damage as the next modification would be available rather quickly. Just because you get the next modification for free doesn't mean it's worth it. You spend about double the crystals for what is of the same power level as the next modification. The crystals you get from winning matches with MU's don't match with your investment.
• Product Kits: The beginner kits for M0's are nice since they give a discount while providing a wide variety of gears to try out, but don't buy more than one since there's quite a bit of overlap between them. The later kits for M1's are not always worth it. Look at the price tag and what you are getting. Paints are not something F2P players should go after, they have no protection and they don't make much of a difference. For example, the EXTERMINATOR kit isn't worth it as the price of the kit is higher than the price of the hull plus the turret. The FIGHTER kit is as the kit price is 10000 crystals cheaper than the price of the hull plus turret combined. To view a list of all kits including the ones not currently available in the cycle, use the wiki.
  Exterminator vs Fighter

• Be wary of impulse purchase: Just because Smoky M1 is available and you feel like you can boost your damage a bit doesn't mean you should buy it! Try to come up with a plan for what you want to buy, how much do you have to save up. Look up prices beforehand so you are not surprised how expensive things are! For example, my plan for the purchases I made this weekend was to use 33000 crystals I saved since I started to afford the TSUNAMI kit, get another 19300 crystals for Viking M1 before getting to Warrant Officer 1, and then use Hammer M1 and Viking M1 to farm SIMOOM kit for the rank of Third Lieutenant. No other purchases will be made, besides those planned ones.
• Pick a setup, stick with it. Don't expect to be able to collect all the guns and hulls in the game. This goes back to the impulse purchase point. Even if you feel like getting that Shaft M1 would be fun to play for a while, it is rather better to play what you have now and have enough crystals to buy Shaft M2 when the time comes.
• Don't always play with people with ranks under you! You get more battle funds from playing with higher ranks and even if you might not match their gear you can still outplay them with skill. This would improve your rate of crystal gain which nicely plays into that is going to be explained below.
• Finally, for those of you many people out there, you can calculate your crystal gain from games by looking at your EXP GAINED to CRYSTAL GAINED ratio at the end of a match. If you can get about one to one in terms of exp gained to crystal gained, you can expect to get that amount of crystals as you rank up. For example, if I somehow achieve the one to one ratio, from the beginning of Warrant Officer 2 to Third Lieutenant, I can expect 116000 crystals as that's the number of EXP required to rank up from WO2 to Third Lieut. If that's not enough for your purchasing plans, make sure you are doing daily missions (replace supply rewards for crystal rewards with the free replace) as well as trying to catch gold boxes. Don't count on gold boxes, however, as it is quite difficult to catch them consistently.

CONCLUSION (TL; DR)

• FIRST THINGS FIRST: Basic mechanics of the game such as controls is a big component of player skill. Don't be that guy who still don't know how to turn a turret!
• OTHER TIPS: Being observant in the game is important, but the process thinking about the game from a strategic standpoint, even when not playing the game, may help improve your play - helping your macro and micro decision making.
• CRYSTALS: Manage them like they are real money. You won't spend hundreds of Dollars (or Euros, or Pounds, whatever you prefer) on a whim, so don't do that here. A little planning can go a long way!

Edited October 10, 2016 by Hexed

[Quarks 2,255]

Edits:

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[Blackdrakon30 2,943]

I'm not sure what a "Free to Play" player is, but decent article. I would have called it something along the lines of "The Beginner's Guide: How to Play Smart", since currently the name doesn't really inform me of what's in the article.  Handy guide though. 

 

Also, 500th post!

Edited October 10, 2016 by Blackdrakon30

[Penguin40 1,714]

Wow, great, incredible job for a player who's pretty new (altho I don't believe you're telling the full truth) :d tho most of us already knew :p Great job tho!

[asifmehmood 1,576]

Nice tips more then expected at ur rank.

[MSI 1,926]

Nice, I hope you'll write more articles like this!

[Hex 11,520]

Title edited.

 

Nicely written - good job!

Edited October 10, 2016 by Hexed

[ToHoYoNTaDa 1,147]

gr8

[shotgun123_awesome 443]

NO i don't think you are playing from a month because You are looking like a gismo , when i reached 3rd lieutenant then i learned how to capture pictures . Outstanding very nice and good luck.

[OneeSama 86]

NO i don't think you are playing from a month because You are looking like a gismo , when i reached 3rd lieutenant then i learned how to capture pictures . Outstanding very nice and good luck.

I've played other tactical games (StarCraft 2, Dota 2, LoL, Duelyst, as well as made some mini guides for them) so I guess I'm naturally more inclined to notice those things. 

Also game economics (in this case crystal management) is always something I'm interested in no matter it's from the player or the dev perspective.

Edited October 10, 2016 by OneeSama

[Penguin40 1,714]

I've played other tactical games (StarCraft 2, Dota 2, LoL, Duelyst, as well as made some mini guides for them) so I guess I'm naturally more inclined to notice those things. 

Also game economics (in this case crystal management) is always something I'm interested in no matter it's from the player or the dev perspective.

As for the former, I'm also pretty inclined to making sure I know well how to play in every game I join or play :p

[r_I_already_won0 2,339]

Good job for a month player- that crystal management section could really help beginners out, you might want to post this in the ADVICE OF EXPERIENCED PLAYERS TO BEGINNERS SECTIOn.  Glad to see someone who plans ahead like me, as I am also F2P and a lot of what you said, I actually have already done.  STicking to one combo is key. And you're right about micro-upgrades, not worth the extra crystals you get from them in battle.  Planning ahead for sales, (for example, you rank up to second lieutenant on October 12, don't buy hornet m2, wait for the sales that always comes during holloween.  It's a good idea to memorize Tanki holidays so you know when the sales are coming and you will have enough crystals to get what you want during the sale.

[OneeSama 86]

Planning ahead for sales, (for example, you rank up to second lieutenant on October 12, don't buy hornet m2, wait for the sales that always comes during holloween.  It's a good idea to memorize Tanki holidays so you know when the sales are coming and you will have enough crystals to get what you want during the sale.

I should probably look up the sales dates then.

[PracticeParkourStunt 2,542]

As a beginner, Weeeeell done!

[Ninja 10,468]

 

• Try out the WASD control if you aren't using them. There is a slight difference in terms of quality of life features. In WASD control, you can turn your turret, move, and fire at the same time: something the arrow keys don't allow in the game (maybe a bug?).

This is called keyboard 'Ghosting', It's the keyboard at fault. Most cheap generic ones will suffer from this however look for anti-ghosting functionality to avoid this.. Check this for more info: http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=293582

Edited October 16, 2016 by Ninja

[Viking4s 10,791]

Use CAMARA CONTROLS, so you can see over buildings and walls. The best way to outplay an enemy is to know where he is at all times. When you are running around a building trying to get a kill on an unsuspecting target this is the best way to make sure no one stops you.

 

What is CAMARA CONTROLS ?

Edited October 17, 2016 by Viking4s

[TTK_229 1,080]

Masterfully done.