Special Tank Info & Tactics - 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(top)

• 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(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Very high base claw damage.
  • 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.
  • If an earthquake hasn't occured in at least 30 seconds, the next punch will activate an earthquake, and the tank will gain bonus movement speed for each additional second.
  • The tank has Flesh armor. Each point of flesh armor corresponds to 1% damage reduction. Each time it takes damage, it's flesh armor is reduced by 1. It regenerates flesh armor at a rate of 1 each second, up to 100.
• Tactics:
  • You can either try to keep your distance from the tank, or find a ceiling and stay under if that isn't possible.
  • 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.
  • Remember that the tank will earthquake after 30 seconds, so if there hasn't been one in a while, prepare for it in advance.
  • High rate of fire weapons, or shotguns, are highly recommended as they shred through the tank's flesh armor.

Bloody Tank(top)

• 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 other sources for 8 seconds. The special witches last a couple of seconds, and survivors nearby the tank when the witches disappear will 25% of their health as damage (doubled if cursed).
• 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, or Health Dispenser buff to remove the effect.
  • 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(top)

• 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 1% to a minimum of 95%.
    • Reduce your melee swing speed by 0.1%.
  • 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(top)

• 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(top)

• 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(top)

• 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 take 1,000 fatal damage. If they die from this, their body is destroyed too.
• 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.
  • The Frozen Protection buff can also help in preventing death.

Butcher Tank(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • Uses chainsaws to attack survivors, so it doesn't knock them away.
  • Each chainsaw hit does 100 + 5% of their max health as damage, and slows by 8%. Each consecutive hit on the same target increases damage by a further 1%.
  • If a survivor is killed by it's chainsaws, their body is completly destroyed.
  • If the tank kills a survivor, it gains a Meat Shield. The Meat Shield will block all incoming damage, and can only be destroyed with melee attacks on it.
  • The tank also gains a smaller Meat Shield when incapacitating a survivor, or hitting the same survivor 5 times in a row.
  • If the tank has a Meat Shield active, it attacks significantly faster.
  • The tank will occasionally call down a rain of chainsaws. Anyone hit by it will suffer 2.5% of their health as damage each second for 4 seconds.
• Tactics:
  • This tank focuses on single target damage, as a result, back down if you end up taking too much aggro.
  • Having a melee weapon is a must for this tank, without it, almost nothing can hurt it with it's Meat Shield.
  • As a result, if it gets a Meat Shield, taking it down is a priority. You can tell when it has a Meat Shield if it's glow changes colour and is flashing. !tankhp also shows it's Meat Shield status.
  • However, defense ignoring abilities, such as the Berserk Buff, or Acid Bullets can ignore the Meat Shield and hurt the Tank directly. Note that these don't damage the Meat Shield, so if these abilities expire, you still have to deal with it.
  • The chainsaw rain can't be activated if there isn't enough clearance above the Tank. Try to keep it in low ceiling areas.

Glutton Tank(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • The tank will occasionally eat a nearby survivor. Survivors that are eaten cannot do anything until released, or are fully consumed and killed. The tank can have up to 4 survivors in it at the same time.
  • Survivors eaten by the tank have 120 seconds of life. The eaten survivors can be saved by other survivors shoving the tank. Each shove has a 3% chance to rescue the survivor, but inflict 10 damage upon the shover.
  • Each second the survivor is inside the belly, they will lose 1/120 of the health they had when eaten by the tank.
  • For each survivor inside, the tank loses 5% movement speed, but gains 10% defense, and 50 HP regen, as well as regenerating the damage dealt to each survivor inside.
  • If a survivor is not freed from the tank's belly inside 120 seconds, they have been processed by the tank and are killed.
  • For each fully processed survivor, the tank gains 50 bonus claw damage, 25,000 max health, 100 HP regen, and a 1% chance to return 15% of the damage dealt to it.
  • If a survivor is successfully freed, they will be inflicted with the Gastric Juice status condition for 20 seconds, and those nearby the tank for 10 seconds. The Gastric Juice status condition reduces the survivor's movement speed, weapon fire rate and weapon reload speed.
• Tactics:
  • The moment someone is eaten, you should prioritize saving them as you will have fewer survivors damaging the tank. If left unchecked, you won't be able to out-damage it's health regen.
  • Adrenaline Run or Shoving Expert buffs will remove the shoving cooldown making it easier to save an eaten ally.
  • The Health Dispenser buff will remove the tank's knockback on punches, allowing you and your team to get in close to shove it and save anyone trapped.
  • The Health Dispenser buff will also remove the Gastric Juice status condition.

Cloaked Assassin Tank(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • 95% invisible, extremely hard to see.
  • Deals 1000 fatal damage, bypassing incapacitaion to kill.
  • Moves and attacks slower than the average tank.
  • The tank is completely silent.
  • Upon punching a survivor, the tank will be more visible than before for 3 seconds.
  • If a survivor withstands its punch, they will be inflicted with a rupture, dealing damage over time. The damage can be reduced by crouching still and not moving.
• Tactics:
  • Take extreme care if you do not have the Tenacity buff. Let those that do take the aggro.
  • Keep an eye and ear out for when it punches someone. It's punch lets out a loud bloody spill and makes itself visible for a few seconds allowing you to get in some damage.
  • 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.
  • If you are unsure where the tank is, keep moving, it won't be able to catch up to survivors moving at speed so try not to lead yourself into a dead end.
  • You can still shoot or shove whilst affected by the Rupture, just be careful not to drag the tank towards yourself.
  • Rupture damage over time can be reduced to 1. At that point you are free to move around as it can't go any lower.

Splitter Tank(top)

• Special Abilities:
  • When it dies, it splits into two more tanks. These split forms have half as much health as the previous form, but gain more damage, move speed and attack speed.
  • The Splitter Tank splits up twice from its original form before fully dying.
  • Occasionally, the Tank can pulverize its victim, causing them to be flung into the air, and making the victim unable to see any other Survivors or Special Infeced for 7 seconds.
  • The Splitter Tank is completely immune to stagger effects, including that from the Strength Burst buff.
  • Every 10 punches, the Tank will inflict it's victim with Heart Splitter, halving their maximum health for a duration of time. The count for the punches is shared between all Splitter Tank forms, and the duration decreases based on the Splitter Tank split state.
  • The Health Dispenser Buff, cannot remove Heart Splitter.
  • If a Splitter Tank form is near another, it gains 15% defense. This cannot stack with itself, so it only applies once.
• Tactics:
  • Focus down one Splitter Tank tree instead of spreading the damage. You can have as many as 4 Splitter Tank forms active at once, whom will quickly destroy the survivors.
  • Be careful if affected by the tank's puvlerising punch, it may not last long but you can be quickly overwhelmed by the lack of vision.
  • The Health Dispenser buff removes the effects of the pulverising punch during its lifetime, but the effects don't last that long, so it's your call if you wish to use it then.
  • If affected by Heart Splitter, it is greatly recommended to stand down from damage tanks and try to protect yourself during its duration. You will recover the health that you lost when it first activated, when the duration ends.