Welcome to your final Orientation Course. Today, we’ll tie everything we’ve learned together to help up your game in the arena.

Welcome to our final session of our introductory Pilot Orientation course. We ask that you refrain from arming any more missiles for the remainder of the class, and please withhold airstrikes on fellow Pilots until the lecture has concluded. Thank you for your attention.

Today we’re tying everything from our prior two Pilot Orientation classes together to help you become the best Pilot you can be. We’ll be breaking down how to upgrade and improve your Tanks, as well as how to advance through the ranks and what the benefits of higher ranks are.

At the end of this class, we’ll be diving back into team strategy now that you’ve gotten a crash course in everything else about piloting a Tank. Hopefully this gives you the groundwork for more advanced coursework, and so you can build on your skills with practice to become one of the greatest the arena has ever seen.

Check out the previous editions:

Pilot Orientation 1: Tank build basics

Pilot Orientation 2: Game modes and team composition

Upgrading: Grow Your Power

For Tank owners out there, upgrading your Tank Parts is the best way to get more power in the arena. There’s no reason you can’t go blow some stuff up at level 0, but the explosions will be much more satisfying at level 30.

You can upgrade Weapons and Bodies in the Garage by clicking the “Upgrade” button under any Part. This button will only appear under Tanks that are on Project Gyri rather than in a Treasure Chest or on the Ethereum Network.

Each upgrade cost is dependent on the current level of the Part and its rarity. Every rarity of Tank Part has a Component associated with it. Upgrading each will require the Component for that rarity as well as all those from lower rarities.

• Common — Bolts
• Uncommon — Scrap Metal
• Rare — Chips
• Epic — Hydraulics
• Legendary — Engine
• Ancient — Energy Core

Once any Part reaches level 17, every upgrade after that point will require a slowly increasing Arachnium cost as well.

Every Tank Part has a max level of 30. Each level is upgraded within a range of effectiveness. Though you can see the actual, specific numbers that an upgrade will add on the upgrade interface itself, it also grades the overall upgrade’s quality with a generalized score: Decent, Good, Great, Excellent, Perfect. These are a range it should be noted, so while all Excellent upgrades are better than Great, not all Excellents are equal.

You can reroll each upgrade offered to you using a fraction of the Component costs used for the upgrade itself. The increase to individual stats on an upgrade are all independently randomized, so it’s important to look at every reroll offered in depth. Sometimes, you may want to reroll to get only the best for your Tank, but occasionally you can end up with a great roll on a stat that’s the most important to you, but poor rolls on other stats that you find acceptable. Upgrading at any quality before the next battle is better than no upgrade at all, so prioritizing perfection strategically is important to grind up your Tank to the highest levels.

Outside of destructive power in the arena, the level of your Tank Parts directly influences their potential Victory Points per win. The base Victory Points any Part can win in a given match is determined by that Part’s level and rarity. Level dramatically increases this base amount, which also means that any multipliers applied to it will compound its increase in your overall total Victory Points for each win.

We’ll dive more into the mechanics behind Victory Point calculations in more advanced materials in the future, but here are a few brief examples:

• A Common Body or Weapon has nearly 100x the potential VP per win at level 30 than it does at level 0.
• The same Common part will increase its base VP potential by over 11x from level 0 to 15, though at that point it is still only around 12% at the full potential of a level 30!
• Upgrades cost more Components for an Ancient Part, but only two upgrades from level 28 to 30 for an Ancient Body would increase potential VP per win by around 600%.
• At level 25 an Uncommon Weapon surpasses the potential VP per win of a Rare level 23 Weapon. If upgraded to 25, however, the Rare Weapon would then have around 25% higher potential than the equal level Uncommon Weapon.

In addition to upgrades affecting your base potential VP, each Tank Part is assigned a multiplier based on how close to perfect their upgrades are. The best possible upgrades each time all the way up to level 30 would result in a 2x multiplier applied to your VP from each win. Most Tanks will not have all perfect upgrades and will fall somewhere below this multiplier, depending on how close their upgrades are to mathematically perfect.

Rise to Glory

Through your glorious battles in the arena, you’ll gradually increase your rank– should you win more than you lose that is! As your rank increases you’ll get matched against more difficult opponents, and your potential VPs from each win will increase.

Each Pilot is assigned an Elo score based on their victories and defeats. How much your rank increases or decreases in each match depends heavily on the Elo score of your opponents relative to yours. Winning against lower ranked opponents won’t move you up the rankings as fast as victories against those with rank above yours. Likewise, losing to an enemy with a lower rank than yours will be the most painful for you Elo.

Fun fact: “Elo” is not an acronym, but is rather pronounced like “ē -ˈlō” in English. It was originally designed as a rating system for competitive chess by Hungarian physicist Arpad Elo.

Striving for higher ranks won’t just end you up with harder battles with no extra glory though! In addition to the multiplier assigned by the relative perfection of your upgrades, the VP you earn every battle is also amplified by your rank. This can up your VP multiplier anywhere from nothing to an extra 2x based on your Elo relative to all other players in the game.

Team Tactics: Advanced Course

This will be the final section of our Pilot Orientation. Now that you’ve had a chance to explore all the different game modes and the nuances of upgrading and rank, it’s time to take another look at how a three Tank team adds up to something far greater than the sum of the individuals with good gameplay and strategy.

A great team is one where everyone realizes that they need their allies. Every Tank has different strengths, and working together you can overcome any individual’s weaknesses.

If you regularly play with the same Pilots then you know when they may need some covering fire or a well timed distraction. As you play more matches, you’ll get used to seeing this even in groups with random people. It doesn’t take a prior relationship with a Healing Artillery Titan to know that they’re in trouble when they’re being chased by a Muzzle with a flamethrower. Help your team! You need them in one piece!

Keep in mind the game mode, however. If you’re playing Chicken Chaser and one of your teammates is desperately fleeing two enemies, think about leaving them alone and going back to gathering chickens! Unless that ally has a pile of chickens in their hands, they’re occupying two of the enemy with just one of them. This leaves a lot more chickens and room to wrangle them for your team.

The arena would be too simple if everything was a deathmatch. Some game modes you don’t even have to destroy another Tank ever to win. In modes like Capture the Flag or King of the Hill, it’s much more important to be coordinated with your team and stay strong together than to rack up kills. Enemies respawn, so knocking out one enemy at a time will only do so much, and a divided team is easy for the opponent to pick off.

Don’t forget to watch the movements of your team. Sticking close by each other can be great to exploit enemy weaknesses, but a well placed Grenade or Flamethrower blast will destroy you both. Stay in sync, but be aware of the tools the enemy team has to take advantage of your movements.

Last, don’t forget to communicate with your team. You don’t always have to be in voice chat to communicate clearly. Even just taking a moment at the beginning of a Poultry Pusher match to see who is staying with the payload and who is going to harass can be vital for victory.

Don’t forget, you can always talk to just your team by pressing “Y”!

You’ve Graduated Pilot Orientation

Congratulations. You’ve now made it through our rigorous three day training course, and you’re now fully qualified to battle in the arena with a multi-ton death machine. Please do not fire any chambered ordinance in celebration until the speaker has cleared the stage.

We’ll be back in the future to dive even deeper into the strategy of the arena, but first you’ve got to get out there and learn a thing or two yourself. Every match gives you better insight into the next battle, so get out there and learn! Hop in the driver’s seat and go experience the thrill of victory today.

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For this spotlight, we’re heading slow and steady towards victory with the Tortoise! This reptilian wrecker comes with the Blade Spinner– deadly from both near and far.

Welcome back to another edition of the Spider Tanks Showcase! This time we’re giving you a close up view on a community favorite and a serious force to be reckoned with in the arena.

This showcase is all about Tortoise. It keeps itself protected in combat with plenty of Armor, but it can also snap out of its shell at a moment’s notice to gobble up unsuspecting Tanks. Don’t underestimate this massive machine.

Tortoise isn’t as impenetrably Armored as Titan, but it still boasts more protection than nearly every other Body out there. The small tradeoff it makes in Armor compared to the biggest Tanks is made up for by a little extra Speed.

Tortoise also has a very respectable Energy– close to that of Nomad or Santa’s Slay. More maneuverability and the ability to use more Abilities means this Tortoise can adapt to situations far more effectively than a lot of other heavy Tanks in the arena.

The Hare’s Nightmare: Tortoise/Blade Spinner

A Tortoise isn’t just another heavy Tank Body with a cool, half-shell style. As a Hero Tank, Tortoise comes as a package deal with its signature Blade Spinner Weapon. This makes it a beastly build in the arena straight out of the box. Tortoise’s slow and methodical movements are complemented by Blade Spinner’s unique attack style and blindingly fast projectile speed.

The Blade Spinner launches out a single spinning blade of death that can be charged up to control its distance. They’ll zip out of your Tortoise’s mouth and decelerate as they rush towards the opponent, with their range depending on how long you charge your shot. Once they reach the max distance, they’ll slow down and turn about. They are just as deadly on the way back to Tortoise’s waiting maw as they were coming out. This not only means a Pilot that’s skilled at firing a Blade Spinner can hit another Tank twice with one shot, but means you can absolutely devastate your opponents if you fire perfectly to make the blade stop and reverse right on top of them.

It can take some Pilots a little while to get used to the very different feel of Blade Spinner… but opponents will also have trouble adapting to it! Especially in frenzied assaults, opponents exert so much effort dodging the shots coming from one side that they can often forget to look for what’s coming back at them from behind.

Slow and Steady Wins the Brawl

Tortoise may be slow compared to most other Tanks, but with a Weapon that fires as far as Blade Spinner does, that can sometimes be an advantage. A Tortoise Pilot that’s well practiced with the Blade Spinner can snipe someone from behind the protection of other Tanks nearly all the way across the arena, but when pressed they can still be deadly at close range.

Blade Spinner’s projectiles shoot at much higher velocity than most other Weapons. With how fast blades spit out the mouth of Tortoise, an opponent may not even have a chance to dodge a full strength blade before it gets to them.

Shots taken right at an opponent could hit multiple times, but can be dodged much more easily since they slow as they approach. These big hits are worth it if you can reliably pull them off — A well placed direct hit could shred a Tank to scrap even from full Armor. You also have the freedom to blast the enemy at full power so they just can’t get out of the way though. Knowing how to use this versatility is the key to really excelling with Tortoise.

A Blade Spinner won’t fire very quickly though, and with very long shots your projectile may be a long time returning to your mouth. This means it’s important to know your capabilities and time your shots right. A Tortoise with a Blade Spinner can be the bane of an opposing team in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing, but without practice you may miss too many opportunities to deal damage.

Tinkering with the Tortoise Combo

Both Tortoise and Blade Spinner are solid Tank Parts, and they can be used to great effect with other Parts in your Garage. Tortoise itself is a nice choice for someone who wants a heavy Tank with good Energy, but would rather have a little more maneuverability than the lumbering Titan and wants to avoid the more limited movement of a Tank like Nomad.

While it doesn’t move a lot faster than Titan, that little bit of extra speed makes a world of difference — especially when you’re up against another big hunk of metal. Its huge Armored shell is great at keeping it in one piece, which can give you a lot more flexibility in how you play your favorite Weapons.

Blade Spinner with a different Body can be a lot of fun as well. With how fast and far it can shoot, imagine a tiny, zippy Tank like Flea firing spinning blades across the arena! No one in the arena is safe from a fast combo with a Blade Spinner like this, but it can be incredibly hard to have the precision that this Weapon requires while moving too fast. Most Pilots will find that a medium Body like Muzzle is a much better fit for a more mobile Blade Spinner build.

Some Tortoise Tanks are still for sale in the Spider Tanks Store! Keep an eye out, and you may even catch one on a daily Tanksgiving sale through the end of November!

The Glorious Tortoise

Squaring up across the arena from a Tortoise can be intimidating, but having one on your side could be a huge asset. This Tank isn’t easy to master, but hopefully this feature has given you some insight into how you can dominate the arena with this Hero Tank.

You haven’t heard the last of us here at the Spider Tanks Showcase! We’ll be back later this week with some festive holiday poultry, arena style. We don’t have any turkeys in the arena, but the people of the galaxy still tell the tales of the mighty chicken of old Earth– the greatest alpha predator the universe has ever seen.

That’s right! When we come back we’re going to have a discussion about the Alpha Executioner, and it’s going to be finger-lickingly explosive! Let us know your favorite strategies with this mighty bird in the comments below or in Discord… or you can always tweet a clip to us with the hashtag #STShowcase!

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