Guide [Issue 60] Expanding Your Battle Expertise

[St.Guardian 514]

 

Fun fact: Most persons' first word of the year is "happy". However, that is beside the main point of what I am writing. It's a new year; a new you. Time to improve your skills (if you had any hhh)! So, I have compiled a list of a few techniques to assist you in this process. A little disclaimer before we begin: I am not a professional and these are all partial hypotheses because they work for me.

 

Let's dive right in!

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Battle Awareness and Not Wasting Time

 

To further develop your gameplay in battles, you, of course, will first have to know exactly what is going on presently and potentially in the battle. What I mean to say is that the instant you join a battle, you should try to figure out exactly what is occurring and continue to do so for the rest of it. Check to see if a stalemate is being conducted or if an opponent is attempting to steal away with your flag and react accordingly. Try not just to go around focusing on your D/L or plainly killing opponents randomly, instead, attempt being methodical in your actions. For example, if you see an opponent running away with your flag using a Speed Boost, the best action to take is to arrange a temporary rendezvous point between you and the attacker rather than plainly chasing said opponent. This way, they can be caught off guard when you intercept them further on into the map as they will probably be focused on your teammates who are busy damaging them.

 

After seeing the opponent run away with the flag, one must think clearly of where to engage said opponent.

 

Too many times I see oblivious players who would, rather than trying to destroy an enemy camper in their base, decide to scuttle off into the enemy base. Although flags decide the outcome of a battle in a CTF and not kills, this is just not a one-way street. There are many conditions in which kills allow/disallow flags to be captured, some more obvious than other. If the camper mentioned previously was spawn-killing your teammates and the battle had only now started, the best thing to do would have been to destroy the camper before any more damage was done or they took complete control of your base. Also, prioritize your targets! Don't always go for the opponent who is being destroyed by your teammates as this could lead to you wasting a shot on an already destroyed opponent.

 

A quick side note: if you are looking for a hidden opponent and are not sure if they are destroyed, look to the top right of your screen at the killboard. Throughout the battle, you should always know your next move and not waste a second of your time, because that second could change the outcome of the battle.

 

 

The "Super" Dodge

 

This next tip is one that Star Series players used to perform a lot 'back in the day', and it can still be seen in today's advanced players. It involves suddenly shifting your tank and lowering your surface area (in a fashion similar to fencing) exposed to the enemy in order to dodge their shot. It is very useful when you have no cover to evade enemy fire and can get you out of a sticky situation (and looks really cool in slow motion). Here is how to execute it.

 

When you are driving past an enemy and you see they are about to shoot at you, stop moving suddenly (it works best with a light hull or sometimes Hunter) and turn your hull immediately so that you face them vertically with the front/back of your hull. This basically creates a sudden decrease in the relative size of you and because the opponent is already moving their turret, it will be exceedingly difficult to turn it back a few degrees to hit you.

 

 

 

Plus, it works really well as your enemy will probably have been aiming at the edge of your tank and thus will have to adjust their aim by an even greater portion. You can personalize this trick if you wish, by doing something such as swinging your tank around in a beautiful 360-degree shot which will add an element of surprise to the trick. You could even memorize which direction to shift your hull in before being shot at by the opponent. Just remember, you should always try to minimize your exposure to the enemy; a smaller target is harder to hit right?

 

 

Knowing When and How to Die

 

Getting destroyed in Tanki Online is actually not as bad as you may think. You are respawned in a relatively safe zone (your base), with full health, away from the enemy base. Additionally, it is the fastest way to travel throughout the map. But that's all perspective, right? The fact is, you shouldn't freak out or get upset when you die; make the best out of your situation. If you are destroyed, use the opportunity to study the battlefield from a bird's eye view and plan your movement throughout the map accordingly. One common circumstance I could envision is if you are an attacker with the enemy flag and you are about to be destroyed. Once you are being followed by your teammates, the best thing to do would be to drop the flag and move in the direction of the opponent who is shooting at you. What this will do is 1) prevent your corpse from flying in your teammate's way and 2) possibly block your opponent from reaching and/or damaging your teammates (if your enemy shoots them through your almost dead body). 

 

Furthermore, if you are an attacker and are about to die in the enemy base, use your last seconds to get into position to block the enemy defenders who are chasing after your teammates. This would provide a little extra time to your teammates and prevent the enemy defenders from pushing their way through and shooting them, which will be much appreciated. Seriously, corpse-blocking these days is really underestimated by too many tankers who fail to see the importance of a single flag capture.

 

A diagram illustrating the sheer importance in a defender blocking an opponent.

 

Another example where corpse-blocking would be proficient could be if you are a defender whose base is surrounded (and are about to die). Here, if you would die on the flag it would probably take the enemies a long bit of time to push your corpse out of the way, take the flag, and run away. This is effective as a defender because it slowed the attacker's speed and probably provided enough time for your teammates to either respawn or get to your base and engage the enemy attackers. Plus, when enemy attackers try to push your corpse out of the way, their momentum is broken: they slow down and have to accelerate again.

 

A quick note: if you want to be effective in corpse-blocking, you should not be moving about too much when you are about to die. This is because your corpse will continue moving when you die and you will probably want it to stay in place and block your opponents.

 

 

The "Auto-Aim" Damage Inhibitor

 

Ever missed a shot on an enemy with your flag because you shot his teammate who was on a ramp above him? Well, I've noticed this on numerous occasions throughout my Tanki career, and I wish to turn it into a selfless feat of gallantry (maybe an exaggeration). There could be many ways to use this but the main objective would be to make an opponent shoot you instead of a teammate. Additionally, the trick could be done in many ways. Suppose your teammate, on high ground, has a flag and is going in for the final capture of the round. You see an enemy below, you are about to aim at them and you are too far away to physically block or knock off the opponent's shot.

 

 

Based on this situation, there would only be one possible way to save your teammate: the auto aim 'damage steal' method. Once you are on the low ground (either at the same level or a level of height between that of your teammate and your opponent), get in vertical line with your teammate. That way, when said opponent is firing at them, you will receive the damage because a shot will go to the closest enemy in vertical line. Great job! You used the physics of Tanki to defeat your opponent (I managed to do this successfully quite a few times during my time in XP/BP battles). Sure, this is conditional and/or specific to situations with various elevated surfaces but it can be really useful and surprising, so give it a try!

 

 

High Understanding of Game Dynamics

 

First thing's first: If you wish to improve your skills, you must first recognize that each of the different hulls and turrets has different statistics. You must also realize that you should know what they are capable of before you actually engage with them in a battle. This gift of 'foresight' is actually what separates some professionals from less-skilled ones. An example of what I am referring to would be: You, equipped with Railgun, spawn in a battle behind a teammate who is being attacked by a Thunder. You know of Thunder's capabilities of splash damage and Railgun's reduction of damage when shooting through hulls. Based on this, what you should do is avoid splash damage and move out of the way of your teammate while shooting said opponent.

 

This was probably not the best of ideas. On the bright side, I might...slip through the slit in the wall to my right?

 

Another example could be when you have a melee weapon (such as Firebird or Isida) equipped and you see a Shaft in scope mode. What you should do is either wait for it to shoot giving you quite a bit of time to escape it, or sneak up behind it and damage it in surprise. Other examples could be using correct supply drop control or not shooting with a recoil turret as you speed up an elevated surface.The main gist of these examples is that before you act rashly, you have to make a logical decision based on what you know about the game's dynamics. Therefore the more you know about the game, the better off you may be. Learn from mistakes and apply it to future circumstances.

 

 

Diverting Your Opponent's Damage

 

Another thing players more proficient at the game are able to do is use their turret's impact force to, well, prevent themselves from receiving damage. Indeed, knocking off your opponent's aim has been a 'thing' since, well, the beginning of the game. A lot of players who play professionally sometimes focus too much on hitting their opponents alone. Yes, of course hitting your opponent is the priority but sometimes you should take a risk and channel your energy into preventing the opponent hitting you. For me, the best technique is shooting the opponent's hull directly (in a straight line) through the side of their hull, like this:

 

 

It has the greatest pivotal effect possible if your opponent is facing you forwards. If your enemy is facing you sideways, shooting them like this:

 

 

will produce the greatest turning effect on their hull, thus making it harder for them to shoot you. However, any angle close to the one mentioned previously would produce a relatively similar effect on your enemy. The best way to use this is to shoot your opponent after they land one shot on you; a certain time right before their reload is complete. Refer to this list to see how much time to wait for before shooting at a certain turret to knock its aim off:

 

Hammer: Shoot one second after one shot in its clip is fired
Smoky: Shoot one second after it fires at you
Striker: Shoot at it 3 seconds after its laser locks onto you
Thunder: shoot 2 seconds after it does
Railgun: shoot 4 seconds after it does

 

 

Battle Radar

 

This next technique is a seemingly obvious one once you think about it but is not recognized by a large portion of tankers. It involves using knowledge of impact force and keen observation to deduce the location of your opponents. So basically, you can build a brief system of 'radar' in your head to keep track of where most of your opponents are. For example, suppose you are driving through a map and you see a space between two houses on the left. A short while later you abruptly get shot by a Railgun and the impact of the shell sends the back of your tank a little to the right. You turn around and no tank is in sight. Based on this information, you know (due to the conservation of momentum) that the shell was fired from the left; traveling right. Therefore, the most probable location of the cheeky Railgun must be behind those two houses so you move into engage and destroy it. Circumstances similar to this are where the most skilled players can flaunt themselves.

 

The enemy is somewhere behind me, to my left. If I spin immediately in the direction of the arrow I might hit them.

 

Another circumstance where this 'radar' would be useful could be where you get shot at by a weapon whose projectile you can not see, such as Smoky or Thunder. In this case, you can not see the line of the shot itself, but knowing that its projectile travels in a straight line you can still figure out where the shot came from by backtracking your line of movement: you go forward to the left, the shot came from behind you to the right. This is also why some eSports players are capable of performing shocking spin shots; you could use the opponent's impact force to swing your hull around and shoot the enemy. Furthermore, it is the reason why you should not shoot an enemy who has their back turned to you while you are sneaking into their base. With practice, you will be able to do these deductions in every battle, for every opponent who shoots at you.

 

 

An Interesting Principle

 

This last tactic is more of a postulate that I had come across a good while into my TO career. Sometimes, after you take the enemy flag and are traveling through the map, the best return route to your base is the original path you took into the enemy base. Hear me out. My reasoning for this is not just because it may not be expected by your ponderous opponents. Think about it carefully. When you first took the route into the enemy base, you lured most of the defenders you that you passed, away and/or diverted their attention completely, so the enemy defenders probably will not be in that same location when you are trying to escape.

 

My apologies for the seemingly confusing diagrams. I compiled a before (top) and after (bottom) image.

 

Additionally, the said opponents were defenders, so chances are that they respawned there and will not have moved from their initial respawn spots. Thus when they get destroyed, they will have a low chance of respawning in the same location and your route back to your base will be relatively clear. The only possible way enemy defenders will be waiting for you is if enemies (possible attackers) are only now respawning. From my experience, this principle holds and works in my team's favor 7/10 times.

 

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Well, there you go. I hope you found this article useful, and I'll meet you all on the battlefield!

 

Edited May 17, 2018 by Flexoo

[TTK_229 1,080]

Nice article. BTW, in "the auto-aim damage inhibitor" section, you misspelled XP/BP.

[benjiblob 99]

 make an opponent shoot you instead of an opponent shoot you instead of a teammate.

???

 

Was this intentional? Because if so, you really fooled me for a minute there.

 

BTW this article is really helpful. Thanks

Edited January 10, 2017 by benjiblob

[St.Guardian 514]

Thanks for pointing that out, 'twill be fixed. ;)

[Zenyth 6,494]

excellent tips

[fast900 5]

Great tips, haven't seen some quality tips in a while thanks!

[scralnax849 19]

great article, hope to see some more good tips in the future.

[gokuMI6 1,290]

Really help full thx