Tank Tactics - A guide for what they do and how to deal with them

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With dozens of tanks to deal with, how do you get your head around them all? Worry no more, this simple guide will outline each tank's special abilities, and tips on how to overcome them. [HR][/HR]Preface:
Before we begin, here are some general tip when fighting tanks.

• All special tanks except the Duelist Tank are melee immune
• All special tanks except the Armored, Ice and Frozen Drainer tanks are fire immune
• All tanks are immune to explosion stuns
• Avoid reviving under tanks if you do not have max Helping Hand (upgrade which shortens revive speed)
• In some finale maps, you can use the minigun to kite the Tank, as the Tank will always go after the minigun.

For more detailed information on tanks, you can use the !tankinfo command ingame.
Note: Any info with a * means I'm not 100% sure on it being correct. [HR][/HR]Tiers:
Tanks are put into tiers, which effectively denote how strong a tank is. For example, an ordinary tank is put into Tier 0, which denotes the weakest tier. A slightly stronger tank, such as the Paranoid tank, will be in Tier 1. Typically, tanks that are in Tiers 2 and 3 will require the Tank Lure buff to spawn, and are considerably tougher than Tier 0 and 1 tanks, but their rewards are also significantly higher. [HR][/HR]Tier 0:
Consisting of only one tank, the Normal Tank (aka the Baby Tank), this guy is pretty much just a beefy Special Infected.

• Normal Tank
  • Special Abilities:
    • ​None ​
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​Just about anything will hurt this tank.
    • Seriously, hugging it might even hurt it [SUP](not recommended)​​​[/SUP]

[HR][/HR]Tier 1:
These are probably the tanks you are going to see the most, get learning what they do and they'll be a piece of cake. These tanks typically have around 40,000 to 50,000 HP.

• Paranoid Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Upon punching a survivor, there is a chance that survivor gets biled, making everything, including the tank, focus on them.
    • Earthquake - when punching an incapacitated survivor, a small earthquake is released, knocking back nearby survivors. The effect is amplified the more incapacitated survivors are nearby the punched target.
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​Your main priority is covering the person who is getting focused by the tank.
    • If that person is you, do not panic, try to run towards your team mates, so when you get downed, they can quickly get you up without causing everyone to fly everywhere.
    • If a bunch of you are down, try to split away from each other if the tank is nearby, or quickly self revive.
• ​​Drainer Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Getting too close to this tank will drain your life, healing the tank for 10x* the amount drained.
    • Will focus on any player with the name 'Mute'
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​Split up from your team mates, but not too far that you become vulnerable to specials.
    • Don't everyone rush in to revive a team mate near the tank, if someone is already going in, let them revive and get out quick.
    • The tank's health is capped at 25,000, so you do not need to worry about it gaining an absurd number of health.
• ​​Bomb Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​This tank operates on timed life. When the time reaches zero, the tank explodes, and all nearby survivors are instantly killed.
    • Those killed by the explosion will have their bodies ragdolled, meaning they cannot be brought back to life with a defibrillator.
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​There is no point in even trying to kill it the normal way, this tank has 800,000 health, and its timer usually starts at around 90 seconds. It will self destruct long before you put a dent into it.
    • The tank will begin flashing red when there is only 10 seconds left before detonation. At this point you should probably run. Fast.
    • If you can't get away fast enough, and if you have the Moustachio Bless skill, you can use a first aid kit to negate the explosion kill, if you time it right.
    • As a last ditch effort, being incapacitated on the floor will also ignore the explosion. Do note that hanging of a ledge does not, and you will die.
• ArmoredTank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Only takes damage from fire sources.
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​Simply burn the tank and wait it out.
    • If you have the Acid Jar skill, you can throw a bile jar to do some small damage (do note the commons won't hurt the tank)
    • If you have no fire, you can buy/use Incendiary Ammo, but instead of simply unloading all the bullets on it, shoot one fire bullet, let it burn for a bit, then shoot another when it stops burning, as fire bullets do not permanently ignite the tank.
    • If you are playing on Hard Rain 3/4, I recommend simply ignoring the tank and running to the safehouse, there is not enough dry land for it to burn. If you are playing Hard Rain finale, lure the tank to the rooftop and hold your ground up there whilst it burns.
• ​Assassin Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • Claw will instantly kill a survivor, bypassing incapacitation.
    • Reduced health (20,000 HP).
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​Keep your distance! If you have an open area, and can see the tank coming towards you, your team should be able to dispose of the tank before it becomes an imminent threat.
    • You can buy yourself, and your team, some time if you have the Moustachio Bless skill. It's claw does not bypass that, so for those 10 seconds, hopefully you can get away or your team can kill the tank.
• ​​Ghost Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​95% invisible, extremely hard to see.
    • Every 60 seconds, the closest survivor will be instantly killed.
    • The tank does bonus damage to incapacitated survivors (250 damage per claw hit)
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​Extremely hard to see doesn't mean invisible. If your graphic settings are high enough (Effect Detail at least medium), when you use your flashlight, a shadow will be cast on the tank, simply shoot at the shadow.
    • You can see the tank's rock when he is about to throw it. Listen out for the tank's throwing audio cue, and look for the rock being pulled up from the ground.
    • You can't really do much about the instant kill, defib them when you can.
• ​​Guardian Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​​​Higher than average starting health (75,000 HP)
    • Guardian Aura which reduces damage of other nearby Special Infected or Tanks by 80%* (the damage reduction does not apply to itself)
    • The Guardian Aura also makes some damage bypass Moustachio Bless.
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​If there are multiple tanks, generally always target the Guardian first. (of course situationally, if the other tank has barely any health left, you may as well kill that instead)
    • ​If there are multiple Guardian tanks, they will reduce the damage taken for each other. If this happens, do not give up hope immediately, simply separate them far away, and the damage reduction will not apply. Try to lure one of the Guardians away from the rest, and get some of your team mates to help you kill it, making sure they or you don't bring the Guardians back together.
    • If a team mate is pinned, try shoving them to save them before killing the Infected, as the Guardian Aura will make them hard to kill.
• ​​Grenadier Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Throws grenades randomly (~20* damage)
    • Occasionally throws a cluster of grenades, doing high damage.
    • Cannot throw rocks
  • ​Tactics:
    • Follow similar tactics to the Drainer Tank, this tank excels in doing large amounts of Area of Effect damage, so try to fight in a more open area.
    • ​...not really much else to say here, wasn't expecting to have so little to write about this tank.
• ​​Ice Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Passively slows survivors nearby the tank.
    • Throws rocks which further slows survivors.
    • Does higher than average claw damage (150 damage).
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​This is one of the few tanks vulnerable to fire.
    • Unlike the Metal tank, it does not need fire to die, you can still shoot it.
    • The slow will wear off after getting away from the tank.
    • Make sure you stay close by with your team, getting to a downed survivor will take longer.
• ​Speedy Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Moves and punches extremely fast.
  • ​Tactics
    • The tank does reduced damage to downed survivors (100 as opposed to the standard 200), but it does still attack them quickly, revive as soon as you can.
    • Huddle up with your team, if everyone is close by, the tank won't have to run far to target someone else, allowing everyone to focus in on the tank.
• ​​Poison Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Does small damage to nearby survivors.
    • Survivors nearby can randomly be poisoned for 8 seconds.
    • Survivors punched by the tank will be poisoned for 4 seconds.
    • Poison does 8* damage every second, and increases the time taken to revive the poisoned survivor, overriding upgrades.
  • Tactics:
    • ​Avoid reviving anywhere near the tank, the tank will simply interrupt the reviving process, as well as harming the downed player.
    • You can use pills to cure the poisoning, but given how short the poisoning is, and how frequent you are going to get poisoned, it isn't worth using pills to cure them, unless you are about to die.
    • Do not use adrenaline however!
    • If you are about to go down, back far away from the tank, so your team mates can help you safely.
    • If you get poisoned and biled whilst down, just self revive. The tank will not stop hitting you, and your team mates won't be able to get you up in time.
• ​Duelist Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Only takes Melee damage
    • Chainsaws, however, do no damage.
    • Reduced claw damage (65* damage)
    • When punching a survivor, the time it takes to revive that survivor is dramatically increased, overriding upgrades
    • The more people around the tank, the greater its damage resistance (10*players nearby - 2)%
  • Tactics:
    • ​If someone just got downed from the tank, let them crawl away from the tank's reach before trying to revive them, otherwise the tank will continue pounding on them.
    • If you don't have a melee weapon, simply cover your team from other infected, don't bother wasting ammo on the tank itself, it will have no effect.​​​
• ​​Thief Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Steals 2 bounty on punching a survivor, 10 upon incapacitating a survivor, and all bounty upon killing a survivor.
    • The bounty is permanently lost, killing the tank does not return the bounty.
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​Spend some of your bounty before hand if you need to. Buy a few first aid kits or defibs if you anticipate getting hit a lot.
    • Otherwise, this is just a normal tank that can't be ignited or melee'd.
• ​​Pestilent Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Does not punch or throw rocks.
    • ​​Passively reduces the maximum health and incap health of nearby survivors*
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​If you don't have Tenacity, just stay away. The health decay will ruin your max hp, and it'll eventually tick to 1 max health.

[HR][/HR]Tier 2
This is where it gets interesting. These Tanks will give you a run for your money, and will require some good teamwork to defeat. These tanks typically have around 200,000 HP. All these tanks will also summon reinforcements when they reach certain health thresholds. These reinforcements will include a large number of Special Infected, so cover you team mates if they get jumped.

• Shaman Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Randomly biles all nearby survivors
    • Randomly mutates all nearby survivors, temporarily removing all upgrades, skills and buffs the survivor has, as well as removing the ability to use chat.
    • Deploys an inferno which deals massive damage
    • Randomly teleports to a random survivor
    • Regenerates health slowly (1,000 HP every minute or so)
    • Temporarily puts up a tank shield, rendering it damage immune for a few seconds.
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​Avoid its inferno at all costs. A fully healed survivor will flat out die in seconds. You can tell where the inferno is by the giant red crosses.
    • If someone has been mutated, cover them. They will have no knives to release themselves from special infected, and cannot write in chat when they have been attacked. Just make sure not to drag the Tank into them.
    • Fighting in a open area is greatly recommended, as then the tank will not be able to bile, mutate or inferno as many people.
    • You can also buy the Shaman Handler Buff to significantly reduce the damage the Shaman tank deals to you. It also reduces the inferno damage, though it still hits pretty hard. Do note that if you get mutated, this buff also gets disabled. The only way to stop this is to get the Mutation Shield buff.
• ​Knight Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • Paranoid Tank's Big, Bad Brother.
    • ​Upon punching an incapacitated survivor, a massive earthquake is produced, launching all nearby survivors high up, with a fall enough to kill any of the launched survivors.
    • Claw does some area of effect damage.
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​You can either try to keep your distance from the tank, or find a ceiling and stay under if that isn't possible.
    • Due to the tank's AOE punch, it is not recommended to hide in a small room, it will quickly sweep you all up.
    • You can use the Knight Handler Buff to reduce the damage the tank does to you, however this does not reduce damage taken from falling, so you still need to be wary of where the tank is, and who is hits.
    • If you were downed by tank, immediately begin crawling away from the tank. If you are biled and down, self revive as soon as possible before the tank kills those trying to help you.​​​
• ​​Bloody Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Heals 300HP from consuming nearby commons.
    • Nearby incapacitated survivors take more damage from all sources, and bleed out faster.
    • Nearby commons (greater range than the consumption) will deal greater damage (50* per hit).
    • Deploys special witches around the tank, following the tank. If a survivor is nearby when first deployed, they will be slowed and have a chance to be cursed. Cursed survivors take 1000% damage from all sources for 8 seconds. The special witches last a couple of seconds, and survivors nearby the tank when the witches disappear will take 500 damage.
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​Don't use bile! I don't recommend throwing it anywhere, unless someone else has fire, and even then I still don't recommend it. The commons have a high chance to get consumed by the tank, or when the bile wears out, those commons will be hitting you hard.
    • If you get cursed, leg it. If you can't get enough distance, you can use Moustachio Bless to try to avoid the damage.
    • Try to avoid crawling near the tank, unless necessary, you will end up taking 100 incap HP per second whilst crawling.
    • If you can't get away from those witches, but have enough health, you can let the tank punch you away from reach, so long as it doesn't continue to chase you.
    • Heavily recommended to not fight in small or indoor areas due to the witches.
• Corrosive Tank
  • ​Special Abilities
    • Claw which applies acid claws, doing damage over time on the punched survivor.
    • ​Deploys acid randomly around itself, and every so often, under all survivors.
    • Throws a rock which deploys acid where the rock lands.
    • Every hit of the acid will:
      • ​Reduce your maximum HP by 1, to a minimum of 20 HP.
      • Reduce your maximum incapacitated HP by 4, to a minimum of 100 HP.
      • Reduce your movement speed by 0.01* to a minimum of 0.1*.
      • Reduce your melee swing speed by ?.
    • ​These effects will last the entire map, even after the tank dies.
  • Tactics:
    • Use whatever terrain you have to your advantage. Stand on cars, stand on fences, stand on those small poles, anything that avoids standing on the actual ground. Just don't get too comfortable, you can still get hit from the acid in some places.
    • Use your judgement well, is it worth going into revive someone who is surrounded in acid? Sometimes you can go for it, sometimes you have to wait out the acid.
    • If you have no terrain available, stay mobile, standing in one place will quickly lead to health loss.
    • After the tank is dead, your health will not restore for the remainder of the map. Be sure to cover those with lower health, one common may be enough to down them.
• Frozen Drainer Tank
  • ​Special abilities:
    • ​Combined abilities of Ice and Drainer tanks
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​This tank regenerates health faster than the Drainer tank if on fire
    • Tank is fire vulnerable, so throw a molotov to deal extra damage
    • Follow similar tactics to the Drainer and Ice tanks, find an open area, and shoot away.
    • Due to the insane drain rate, Snipers are recommended to keep away from the Tank
• Hunter Tank
  • ​Special abilities:
    • As the fight with this tank progresses, this tank does more damage with its claw.
    • Will randomly deploy a trap on a survivor. Trapped survivors cannot move and will take damage, the damage increases the longer the survivor is trapped. The only way to free a survivor is for another survivor to stand on the trap for two seconds.
    • When it kills a survivor, the tank regains health equal to 55 times the dead survivor's level.
    • Reduces damage taken by 2 HP per alive survivor.
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​Surround the tank and shoot. This tank only has single target damage, so if everyone stands around it and shoots, the tank will only hit one person. Someone with max Helping Hand can pick up the downed survivors and continue shooting. With everyone so close, releasing survivors from the traps is also easy.
    • The traps are yellow objects placed on the ground.
• Freezing Tank
  • ​Special abilities:
    • ​Similar abilities to Ice tank except:
      • ​Fire immune
      • Slow is stronger than Ice tank
      • A survivor who has been slowed too much will become frozen. Frozen survivors cannot move or shoot, and if the tank punches them, they will shatter, permanently killing the player for the rest of the map.
  • ​​Tactics:
    • ​Follow similar tactics to the Ice tank.
    • Try to cover a frozen team mate. If they are about to get punched by the tank, try to take the hit for them so they don't get killed. A shattered body cannot be defibbed, so they are dead for the rest of the fight.

[HR][/HR]Tier 3:
The big guns. These guys will even take out the toughest of teams. Prepare for a hell of a fight. These guys typically have around 300,000 HP.

• Supreme Shaman Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Same as Shaman Tank, plus:
    • Occasionally drops meteors from the sky
    • Has a drain effect (doesn't regen health from it)
    • Will randomly poison nearby survivors for 20 seconds.
    • Will randomly cause Radiation Exposure to nearby survivors
    • Every time the tank punches a survivors, it has a 1/3 chance to deal a random status condition to them
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​Pretty much follow Shaman's Tactics, the Shaman Handler also works for this tank.
    • Try to find some cover when it drops the meteors, or you might get stun-locked.
    • Use pills if you must to remove the poisoning, and remember to self revive if your allies can't get you up whilst poisoned.
    • If you are irradiated, get away from your team, it can cause significant damage to them.
    • If you are barraged with tons of status conditions, you can use a Health Dispenser to get rid of them.
• Fighter Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Knight Tank's crazy cousin
    • Above average claw damage
    • High swing speed
    • When it punches an incapacitated survivor, a different sort of earthquake is produced, launching survivors further away rather than higher up.
    • Will randomly dive bomb, damaging nearby survivors.
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​Do not fight indoors or close quarters. If someone gets downed in close quarters, the tank will quickly pound them to death, bouncing around nearby survivors, preventing them from reviving the downed survivors.
    • The dive bomb is fairly easy to avoid, when you see it jump up, just run.
    • The tank can hit a downed survivor multiple times in quick succession, which means even in open areas, you should be careful about not dying to fall damage, as the earthquake launch stacks.
    • You can follow similar tactics to the Knight Tank, but do note, the Knight Handler does notwork for this Tank.
• Infernal Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Randomly drops fire, and fire will drop from its rock's impact.
    • Takes 50% less damage if not exposed to water.*
    • Summons a homing meteor shower.
    • Summons a demon witch, which targets a random survivor. If the witch attacks a survivor, that survivor and any nearby survivors will be infused with an organic bomb. After 5 seconds, the bomb will deal damage relative to how much the survivor has moved.
    • Launches an earthquake upon punching a downed survivor. (similar in strength to Paranoid tank earthquake)
  • Tactics:
    • Unlike the Shaman's inferno, the tank does not telegraph when it drops fire, also unlike the Shaman's inferno, it won't kill you instantly, but you should still avoid it.
    • If you can, try to lead it into water.
    • Get into cover when the meteors begin falling, a survivor will pretty much be stun-locked for the entire duration if they are out in the open.
    • If a survivor is getting hit by the meteor shower, leave them incapacitated for a bit so they don't get revived into the stuns again, just make sure not to let them bleed out.
    • The demon witch is a small witch, but has a purple outline around it, so if you can, you can try to kill it before it implants the organic bomb.
    • If you get implanted, don't move! The more you move, the greater the range of the explosion, which could wipe your whole team.
    • If you see someone else get implanted, try to stay away until after the explosion.
    • In some cases, the Tank may punch you or another infused survivor, so make sure to try to stay far away from the Tank, or lead the Tank away from an infused survivor.
• Executioner Tank
  • Special Abilities:
    • Claw only does 40 damage to survivors, but will deal 1,200 damage to any incapacitated survivors.
    • Throws a rock which slows, drops fire, and drops acid at the point of impact.
    • The tank is mute and does not emit any sounds.
    • The tank has an Anti-Moustachio aura, completely nullifying the effects of Moustachio Bless nearby the tank.
    • Upon punching a survivor, the survivor gets confused and cannot see their team mates for 20 seconds.
    • As well as this, there is a 10% chance that survivor drops their primary weapon.
    • The tank will randomly deploy fake distractions, resembling survivors being pinned by imaginary special infected.
    • Summons crows to deal damage over time.
    • Every so often, all survivors will have their HUD temporarily disabled, preventing you from seeing your own or your allies' health.
    • Deploys seeking grenades which home into a survivor.
    • Deploys bombs randomly on the ground, detonating if a survivor gets too close.
    • Deploys a purple square trap, any survivor that enters the square must stay in it for its duration, as leaving the square will deal 300 damage.
    • Spawns Joker Tanks, which last 45 seconds.
    • Upon reaching 5,000 HP, the tanks enters desperation, disabling all other abilities, increasing its claw damage to 300, incap claw damage to 2,400, and increasing the tank's swing and movement speed. At this point, the tank is immortal, and will self destruct after 55 seconds.
  • Tactics:
    • Reviving allies is your top priority. This tank, with all its special abilities, will quickly down survivors, so make sure you stay close together.
    • The tank also will prioritise incapacitated survivors, reinforcing the previous point.
    • Always be near someone else. The tank will incapacitate someone, somehow, so make sure you can easily revive someone, and that you can be easily revived.
    • Defibrillators are also greatly important, but make sure not to use them near the tank, as it will quickly incapacitate and kill them again.
    • Be careful when the tank confuses you, and try to listen out for nearby survivors or gunfire. Additionally, hold your interact button (default E) and run around the place if you hear a survivor getting incapacitated, you may not be able to see them, but you can still save them.
    • It's rocks will quickly tear through a survivor's health. Try to shoot down the rock.
    • Frequently check your own health, and eat pills if you need to, since you probably won't be able to pill revive an ally in time.
    • Try to utilise your First Aid Saving skill. Gather your team mates to a nearby location and quickly heal them all up.
    • You can use the Guardian Moustachio buff to save yourself from one incap hit from the Tank. After one hit, the tank will kill you, so hopefully an ally gets you up before then. This buff only triggers once a map, so it's usefulness is questionable.
    • When the tank enters desperation, simply run and split up. If survivors are too close, the tank will be able to sweep them all. Don't even try to revive, as chances are, you won't be able to in time.
• Joker Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Immortal
    • Does not throw rocks.
    • Deals 0 claw damage.
    • High swing and movement speed.
    • Only spawns from Executioner Tank.
  • ​Tactics:
    • ​The sole purpose of this tank is to annoy you. It does no damage, and takes no damage, so try to ignore it.
    • This tank will try to pin you in a corner and repeatedly slap you, so try to avoid getting punching near walls.
    • It will automatically disappear after 45 seconds.

[HR][/HR]Tier 4:
This last tank needs no introduction. If you see this tank, one of two things are occurring. 1) Someone is farming, and this tank is going to stop them. 2) Some admin is having fun at your expense.

• Destroyer Tank
  • ​Special Abilities:
    • ​Immortal.
    • A plethora of abilities from the other tanks.
    • Will kill you, eventually.
  • ​Tactics:[IMG2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/AdiBPrO.jpg"}[/IMG2]

[HR][/HR]That is all the tanks as of right now. If anyone knows anything I've missed, or has tips of their own, do let me know.

 

Reserve post if I need more space.

 

Truly nice work Mute, great contribution and will help a lot players, especially new ones, thanks a lot

 

Just updated to complete all the tier 2 tanks. Thanks for the updates on what I missed, added Hunter, Thief and Pestilent Tank, I'll deal with Destroyer at the end. As for Pestilent, I know near next to nothing about it, so if anyone knows anything about it, fire away.

 

Just attach my spray, Mute made that too

 

Alright, I have finished up the guide, concluding with all the tier 3 tanks, and a 'tactic' for the Destroyer Tank. If you have any other tips of your own, or something I have written down is incorrect, do let me know, thanks.

Also, good lord, ~4,200 words. I have trouble writing 2,000 word essays over a few weeks and yet I put this out in a few days.

 

Mute, great job you detailed mofo I wish I could hire you at my company!

 

Thanks Timkit, good info!