Special Tank Info & Tactics - 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(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Upon punching a survivor, there is a chance that survivor gets biled.
  • Has above average claw damage
  • 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 anyone who gets biled.
  • 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(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Getting too close to this tank will drain your life, healing the tank for 2.5/5/7.5/10 times the amount drained in Easy/Normal/Advanced/Expert difficulties.
• 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 will only regen up to quarterly increments, so don't be too worried about it gaining health back.

Bomb Tank(top)

• 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.
  • 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.

Armored Tank(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Only takes damage from fire or acid based 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(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Claw will deal 1,000 fatal damage, bypassing incapacitation to kill.
  • 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.
  • Let players with Tenacity (2000+ base health, but dies on 0) take the aggro as they can withstand a few attacks without death.

Ghost Tank(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • 95% invisible, extremely hard to see.
  • Will occasionally inflict Fear on nearby survivors, making them unable to use weapons, and will heal and revive at a reduced speed
• 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.
  • If you are under Fear, avoid reviving allies, and simply try to defend yourself with shoves, it's all you can really do.

Guardian Tank(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Higher than average starting health (75,000 HP)
  • Guardian Aura which reduces damage of other nearby Special Infected or Tanks by 80%, falling off the further away from the Tank (the damage reduction does not apply to itself)
• Tactics:
  • If there are multiple tanks, generally always target the Guardian first, or if possible, split up the tanks so they are far enough away that the Guardian Aura isn't having a major effect.
  • If a team mate is pinned near the tank, try shoving them to save them before killing the Infected, as the Guardian Aura will make them hard to kill.

Grenadier Tank(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Throws grenades randomly
  • 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.

Ice Tank(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Passively slows survivors nearby the tank.
  • Throws rocks which further slows survivors.
  • Does higher than average claw 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(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Moves and punches extremely fast.
  • Deals below average claw damage.
• Tactics
  • The tank does reduced damage to survivors, but attacks lightning fast, effectively rendering a survivor useless if pinned into a corner. Try to jump or maneuver your way out.
  • 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(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Does small damage to nearby survivors.
  • Survivors nearby can randomly be poisoned for 6 seconds.
  • Survivors punched by the tank will be poisoned for 3 seconds.
• Tactics:
  • Being poisoned will deal a base of 3 damage periodically, increasing up to 15 based on your movement speed. Generally you want to stand still when poisoned to mitigate the damage.
  • 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.
  • 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(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Only takes Melee damage
  • Reduced claw 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(top)

• 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(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Does not punch or throw rocks.
  • Being near the tank will inflict survivors with Sickness stacks
• Tactics:
  • Each sickess stack reduces permanent health by 0.1% (minimum 1HP) every 5 seconds. If you have no permanent health, you'll begin losing max health instead. Heal if you are low, or ask for help.
  • Try to take it out from a distance to avoid the Sickness stacks

Electric Tank(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Stuns anyone that takes damage from it. A survivor can't be stunned again for 10 seconds.
  • Occasionally will stun everyone nearby the tank. This ignores the previous stun immunity.
• Tactics:
  • Being stunned leaves you completely defenseless, so stay near your team so they can cover you.
  • The Health Dispenser buff completely removes stun effects during its lifetime, which can make this tank a piece of cake.

Warrior Tank(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Higher than average starting health. (75,000 HP)
  • Courage Aura which increases the damage of nearby Special Infected by 300%, which scales off the further away from the tank. (the tank itself doesn't gain anything)
  • Very fast attack speed.
• Tactics:
  • The Courage Aura makes Special Infected ferocious. Dispose of them as soon as you see one.
  • The Tank itself is also capable of dealing serious damage in a small time, so keep an eye out on your location if the tank targets you to avoid getting pinned in a corner.

Void Tank(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Looking at the Tank will begin to darken a survivor's vision. If their vision becomes fully dark, they'll be blinded for 5 further seconds.
  • If the Tank punches a survivor, their vision will darken as well.
  • If the Tank punches a blind survivor, they will be stunned for 3 seconds.
• Tactics:
  • When your vision is nearing fully dark, you can look away for a few seconds to clear your vision.
  • Biling the Tank will allow it to be visible even when completely blind, allowing to keep up the damage.
  • The Health Dispenser buff will restore your vision during its lifetime, allowing you to deal with the Tank with relative ease.

Mirage Tank(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Upon spawning, the Tank will summon 2 other fake tanks with it. The two fake tanks deal 50% less damage, and take 3x as much.
  • The fake tanks give nothing upon death.
  • If the real Mirage Tank dies, it's fake tanks die with it.
• Tactics:
  • Keep an eye on how much damage you take from or deal to the tank. You can use this information to inform your team as to which is the real tank.
  • Be careful not to freely shoot all the tanks, as you don't want to take aggro from all 3 at once. Whilst one may be weak, all three can quickly overwhelm a survivor.
  • Killing the real Mirage Tank also kills it's fakes, so if you figure out which one is fake, avoid shooting it and try to find the real one.