Attention Pilots! Increased rewards for inviting new players to the arena are here!

Do you like explosions? Do you like free Tanks? Do you like at least one other human being?

Well then, you’re going to love the new and improved Spider Friends!

That’s right! Spider Friends is back better than ever. We’ve revamped the system and even upped the rewards for prior participants since the rollout of the Spider Friends system.

Referrers have already received their free Components and a critical Honor boost, and soon they’ll get a shipment of free Tank Parts for helping spread the word of the arena.

Celebrate friendship with the new Spider Friends referral system!

New Spider Friends Incentive Details

Just as before, the system rewards users for referring new players in multiple tiers. You can get your unique code to refer new players at https://app.gala.games/social. Each player who signs up with your code will need to achieve 10 wins before they count towards your total.

Tier 1: Refer One Friend

Common Captain’s Hat Prop

Tier 2: Refer Five Friends

• Common Maul Body
• 100 Honor (New!)
• 1000 Bolts (New!)
• 10 Arachnium (New!)

Tier 3: Refer 10 Friends

• Common Bouncer Weapon
• 200 Honor (New!)
• 2000 Bolts (New!)
• 20 Arachnium (New!)

Tier 4: Refer 25 Friends

• Common Tiger Hero Tank
• 300 Honor (New!)
• 5000 Bolts (New!)
• 50 Arachnium (New!)

Tier 5: Refer 50 Friends (New!)

• Rare Tiger Hero Tank (New!)
• 300 Honor (New!)
• 10,000 Bolts (New!)
• 100 Arachnium (New!)

Spider Friends Drawing (New!)

Each two referrals who achieve 10 wins will get you an entry into the Spider Friends Drawing, where one lucky Spider BFF will win an Epic Tank combo!

Please note again that all new rewards have been granted to previous participants in the Spider Friends program as well. Enjoy — you deserve it! This includes drawing entries, and next month’s drawing will reflect all referrals up to that point since the introduction of Spider Friends.

Let the Friendship BEGIN!

So what’s up Pilots? You feeling friendly yet? HumanEmpathyBot37v4.2Σ1’s conclusion was that at least 78% of you would feel a deep longing to go experience thrilling yet isolated destruction in the arena with other human friends.

This, of course, is the desired outcome. Your Planetary Union needs you to go forth with compatriots and unabashedly destroy the hard work of Union factories in the arena for the benefit of Union factories. Fun is highly encouraged.

As humans are widely theorized to be naturally social animals, cooperation and mutual bloodlust in the presence of another human with whom you already share a close bond should be enjoyable and elicit positive chemical releases within the human brains involved. The addition of rewards will hopefully further encourage both destruction and recreation of multiple humans together!

Grab your unique code at https://app.gala.games/social today and shout it from the rooftops! If you lack a rooftop, electronic communication will suffice.

Best of luck human Pilots and human Pilot friends!

Share the destruction. Share the love. Share Spider Friendship!

The Ironclad is the most advanced pod The Planetary Union has ever concocted. Limited quantity now available.

The Ironclad Drop Pod is — in many ways — the pride of the Planetary Union. It is these interplanetary couriers that keep our society running and united.

Direct Agitation of Space (DAS) technology allows the instant transport of any inorganic body within transmission range, but the production of gamma rays at the moment of agitation threshold is intense enough to dissolve any carbon-based object within 937 meters. As a result, it has long been the tradition of the Earthen Cluster to drop these pods from satellites before agitation. This ensures that created radiation harmlessly disperses.

Did you know!?

Ironclad is actually a misnomer, as these models are encased in a shell of lead-234 to limit the reach of their radiation.

They were originally called “Leadboys” until NamingConventionBot56.093 authorized their rebranding to a more inclusive title.

While the rigor of transporting matter through space will quickly wear down Atomic Drop Pods made of synthetic materials, Ironclad Drop Pods have a recommended operating life of 4,934,788 years.

Even better, when you scoop your pod up after it’s done, Ironclad Drop Pods will have purged 97.65% of their contained radiation. This makes it almost entirely without gene-degrading risk to use an ironclad!

Sale Details

Today’s Ironclad Drop Pod Sale will take place in three tiers in the Spider Tanks Store, based on supply. Ironclad Drop Pods are not NFTs and are permanently bound to your account. Each purchased pod will allow your account the permanent ability to deploy an extra Tank of any rarity, without the need to purchase an Atomic Drop Pod for it.

• First 50 Ironclad Drop Pods: $200
• Drop Pods 51–100: $250
• Drop Pods 101–150: $300

There will only be a maximum of 150 Drop Pods available from this sale, so make sure you get the tools you need to be a successful Captain for years to come!

The Arena Family

Piloting and Captaining aren’t the only way to get involved in the community of the arena. The recent community wallpaper contest has wrapped up, and it’s time to vote on a winner! Haven’t voted yet? Head to https://links.gala.com/ST-Wallpaper-Contest-Vote and decide which you think is the best of the best!

Didn’t get a chance to get your wallpaper in? Craving more opportunities to unleash your creativity on unsuspecting opponents? Well, you’re in luck. We’ve just started up a short video contest!

Now that patch 1.4 brought free cam to exhibitions, it seems a great time for Pilots to see who can whip up the best short video. All you have to do is make a short action clip or promo video focusing on Spider Tanks. Submit your ~15 second videos by uploading them to YouTube Shorts and tagging @GalaGames.

The winners of this contest will receive the following:

• 1st Place: $200 in Components of your choice
• 2nd Place: $150 in Components of your choice
• 3rd Place: $100 in Components of your choice

Drop Into the Arena Today

You can’t get those action shots without action, so head into the fray today!

Enjoy the new Drop Pods Pilots, and don’t forget to vote on the wallpaper contest! Your community needs you.

Now tighten those blast shields, arm those torpedoes and go white knuckle the wheel into some high firepower combat! Those other Tanks aren’t going to blow up themselves… the Union needs YOU!

Don’t forget to grab an Ironclad Drop Pod before they run out! Only 150 are available!

Lock and load, because in today’s spotlight we’re running and gunning with the Shotgun!

Welcome to another Spider Tanks Showcase! In today’s edition, we’re looking at a time-honored killing machine that tears through enemies up close. This antique design has been perfected for the modern arena and has achieved all new levels of deadliness.

Today is all about Shotgun. This Weapon may not have the range of other shooters, but it makes up for that by firing a spray in a wide arc. Peppering enemies with shells, this firing pattern is specifically beneficial when you’re up in another Tank’s face so that multiple projectiles find home on their chassis.

The cone of fire from a Shotgun will only hit people up close with every bullet, but that doesn’t mean any that don’t land won’t keep going. You can use it to hit multiple people and control chokepoints and bottlenecks. As your fire spreads out once released from your barrel, opponents at mid distance from you may not get hit by everything, but they’ll definitely have trouble escaping at least some damage.

Riding Shotgun

To create a build with Shotgun, the first thing you need to know is what you’re trying to achieve. If you’re looking for maximum damage overall, a small Body like Flea or Scout will let you bolt across the battlefield and unleash hell on unprepared opponents.

If you’re looking for extreme zone control, a Body like Titan with a Shotgun can plant themselves firmly and control traffic. While they may not maneuver as well to do the damage of the little guys, they’ll ultimately cause more problems for the opposing team even if they get overwhelmed and destroyed eventually.

Most Pilots will probably prefer something more in the middle. The medium range of Bodies like Junker and Hurricane can give you a lot of flexibility in how you play. Extreme strengths leave you with extreme weaknesses, so often balance is best.

Looking Down the Barrel

When you come up against Shotguns in the arena, they should be approached differently than most other Weapons. Unlike longer range linear Weapons such as Cannon or Twin Guns, Shotgun can’t hurt you while you approach. It will, however, start dealing damage very quickly as soon as you break into its range. A good Shotgun player will know the exact moment this happens, and you may not have time to think twice.

Try to make sure that they are chasing you instead of you chasing them whenever possible. Since their blast pattern spreads out as it gets further away, if you’re chasing a Shotgun you are essentially running straight into the funnel of doom coming from the barrel. Conversely, if they are chasing you and firing, their shots are getting less concentrated as you continually move away from them.

Putting a Shotgun in a position where they have to chase you is the best way to bring them down. If, however, you do end up in close quarters combat with a Shotgun, try to control the pace of the melee dance if you can.

A good shotgun player will try to cross through you in the direction they want so they’re ready to blast you with everything they’ve got. If you are the one dictating what direction your paths meet with sudden movements and pump fakes, they may shoot in the entirely wrong direction. Their blast may be deadly up close, but the margin of error is non-existent at that range.

Protip: A non-omnidirectional Tank like Nomad can actually synergize quite well with Shotgun. Due to the looping motions often needed to maintain constant motion, these Tanks can offer greater control over enemies crossing the range threshold or which part of the cone makes contact.

Shotgun in the Heat of Battle

Being severely limited in range can be a major liability in battle. Depending on the teams you face, much of any given fight may be mostly about posturing and positioning rather than actual Tank on Tank violence from your perspective. That doesn’t mean you aren’t part of the team… more that your very presence acts as a deterrent.

Most good Pilots will know better than to just roll up on a Shotgun. You holding down a chokepoint necessarily means that less traffic will approach it, and when they do, they’ll come in hot. This forces them to match you 2v1 or 3v1 often. You may lose, but what is the rest of your team doing while they concentrate on a single bunkered in Shotgun?

This ability to dominate opponents’ sense of urgency is the biggest bonus of Shotgun. Take the example of a Chicken Chaser match. If you are able to pin down two enemies in their backfield, that means that the race for chickens just became 2v1 in your team’s favor.

Likewise in a game mode like King of the Hill, you can instantly make your opponents sound the alarm and abandon their plans when you threaten the Control Point. This makes Shotgun the perfect option for kamikaze attacks and particularly destructive decoys.

Two Cheers for Shotgun

Shotgun overall can leave you with some very serious weaknesses. Its fire rate isn’t very good, its range is severely limited, and at extreme close range it gets less accurate even as its damage rises. Still, its strengths and unique playstyle make it worth all of its failings.

Shotguns were discontinued at the end of Generation 1, but you can still find Shotguns from other Pilots on the official Spider Tanks OpenSea collection.

That’s all from us today, but we’ll be scuttling back this way in a few weeks to discuss the Crab Body for the next Spider Tanks Showcase!

Are you a CrabMaster!? Tweet at us @SpiderTanks with a clip of your insane crustacean skills to be featured in the next edition!

Get ready for an improved arena experience and some sweet bundle packages to keep you at the top of your game!

The time has come again for improvements, balances, and other general awesomeness to come to the arena! This patch is already live, and you can find all the details about it below!

Drop Pods v2

Drop Pods are better than ever now, with added options for Captains that will help add up to a smoother experience for Pilots.

Captains may now “redeploy” one or all Drop Pods using the previous build in the Drop Pod. For owners of multiple Drop Pods and those that work with long-term Pilots, we hope this is a welcome quality of life addition!

Captains will also now notice an “Unpack” or “Unpack All” option available to them. From now on, when a Pilot is done with your Tank it will now stay in the Drop Pod until unpacked after it is returned to you. This will allow Captains a chance to view their Pilot’s progress from the previous day if they want before collecting their Tank parts.

Deployed Drop Pods now have an “Unlock” option, which will instantly return the contained Tank to you from the Pilot it has been sent to. This option will carry an Arachnium cost, but will be free for the first 10 minutes of deployment, just in case you make a mistake.

The cost to unlock a Drop Pod after the 10 minute grace period will be .5 Arachnium per 12 hours that remain on deployment.

Drop Pods may also be deployed for a variety of time periods now, depending on the rarity of your Drop Pod.

P&E View v2

The Play and Earn menu now shows far more statistics about your activity than it previously did.

This page will display the current market price of SILK, as well as the most recent VP/SILK ratio. You’ll also be able to track lifetime stats now for your account on this dashboard.

This feature is under maintenance at the moment, and has been pulled out of the build until it can work as intended. Hopefully there will be a solution shortly.

It’s not just this main dashboard though! Each Weapon, Body, Map, Node or Drop Pod now shows more statistics about the rewards you’ve accumulated.

Report v2

The mute button on the in-game scoreboard is now a “mute and report” button. Muting a player will stop you from receiving communications from them, and will also report them for in-game communication abuse.

Any reports for communications abuse will now no longer be punished with game bans, but instead with a global mute.

Every player now has a maximum of three reports to spend daily. It’s important to note that the above “mute and report” action will never count as one of these three reports.

If you report a player and that player is found guilty of abuse and is punished, you will receive an in-game notification and receive an extra report that you can use whenever you need it.

Killfeed v2

Get ready to get vicious out there Pilots!

The in-game killfeed UI has been overhauled, and tons of new ways to stand out from the crowd in battle have been added.

• Domination: Destroying the same player two times in a match before they destroy you sends a notification that you are dominating them! This gives extra points at the end of the match.
• Revenge: Destroy a player Dominating you to get a Revenge notification and your own extra points.
• First Blood: A shoutout and extra points granted to the first player to destroy another.
• Multikills: You’ll now see info about multikills broadcast to the entire match!

Introducing: Freecam

You’ve all been waiting for it… and the time is now!

Spectators in Exhibition matches will now be able to freely move their camera about the arena, rather than having to follow the point of view of one specific player.

Use this power wisely Pilots. Explore the arenas, get into the action, record epic battles!

Hidden Ranks

The overall goal of Spider Tanks as a gaming experience is to create a competitive and rewarding experience, but also for players to just have some good old fashioned fun.

Testing has shown that ranks being visible before a match has a negative effect on players’ enjoyment of the game and perception of matchmaking, while offering no meaningful strategic benefit. It arguably could also detract from the time that they devote to thinking about team composition and strategy in the limited window before Ability selection.

We want players to enjoy the game as much as possible, so now players will no longer see the rank of other players before a match.

Players will, however, still be able to see ranking info after a match. This change will not affect matchmaking, but only change what is displayed and when.

Improvements

• A player that manually leaves a match will now be counted as abandoning. Players who manually leave a match can no longer re-join this match.

This should make sure players won’t be able to quit and rejoin on purpose to prevent death, while still keeping the possibility to rejoin for players whose game has crashed or got disconnected.

• The Select Region popup is now much more descriptive about which region will be chosen for “Use Best Region”.
• [BOT] Players on your team will no longer callously ignore the flag! Rejoice!
• Weapon and Body properties in the Garage now show a lot more information about each.
  This feature is under maintenance at the moment, and has been pulled out of the build until it can work as intended. Hopefully there will be a solution shortly.
• The match placement UI is more clear overall.
• Players affected by the “Jammed” status effect (applied when being hit by the Stun Grenade, Grapple or when using the Shield Drone) can now no longer Deliver Chickens in Chicken Chaser, Contest or push the Payload in Poultry Pusher, Capture or contest hills in KotH, or carry the Chicken in CtF.

Survey Says…

The results of the community survey on everyone’s favorite game modes are in, and the distribution of modes randomly chosen in matchmaking has been adjusted accordingly.

While the results of this survey were certainly tilted towards certain game modes, it’s also obvious that the community is somewhat divided in the games they enjoy most. Everyone enjoys the arena how they enjoy it, and that is perfectly fine!

To help accommodate all Pilots, no matter how they enjoy playing, game modes have been weighted at the following levels for every match:

Team Deathmatch:

16.66% ⭆ 24% chance

King of the Hill:

16.66% ⭆ 22% chance

Kill Confirmed:

16.66% ⭆ 18% chance

Hold the Flag:

16.66% ⭆ 17% chance

Poultry Pusher:

16.66% ⭆ 11% chance

Chicken Chaser:

16.66% ⭆ 8% chance

Balance Adjustments

-The Good News!-

All Bodies

Changed Speed/Armor distribution to generally give lighter bodies a little more health.

Sniper Rifle

Damage at max range: 4000 ⭆ 4400

Reload Time: 2.1 ⭆ 1.8

Fire Artillery

Explosion Damage: 1320 ⭆1450

Rocket Artillery

Explosion Damage: 630 ⭆ 666

Laser Blaster

Projectile speed: 17 ⭆ 18

Base projectile damage: 500 ⭆ 550

Brambler

Explosion Damage: 1200 ⭆ 1300

Bladespinner

Projectile damage: 2000 ⭆ 2150

Crossbow

Self slow while charging: 25% ⭆ 15%

Flamethrower

Self slow on use: 40% ⭆ 30%

Eggxecutioner

Projectile speed: 17.2 ⭆ 18.5

Explosion damage: 1250 ⭆ 1350

Grapnel Launcher

Self slow: 50% ⭆ 45%

Pull force: 0.75 ⭆ 0.8

Stun Grenade

Explosion Radius: 4 ⭆ 5

-The Less Good News!-

(Just a few though)

Triple Threat

Projectile Damage: 550 ⭆ 525

Reactive Plating

Self slow: ⊘ ⭆ 15%

Energy cost: 6 ⭆ 7

Repair Zone

Repair amount per tick: 500 ⭆ 450

Pest Control

As usual, the bug assassins have been working behind the scenes to root out problems.

Fixed:

• Ripper range not properly being increased when upgrading the weapon.
• Bouncer Gun bounced projectiles going through walls and barriers.
• Shield Projector being able to push players out of bounds.
• Poultry Pusher chicken sometimes being the wrong teamcolor.
• Upgrade UI elements sometimes being in the wrong positions.
• [BOT] players with healing weapons to sometimes try and heal full-health players.
• Shield Drone flying too far for its user sometimes.
• Artillery Turrets shooting past targets when having a weapon equipped with upgraded projectile speed.
• Several localization fixes.
• Various small fixes.

Arena Bundles of Joy

Do you think that’s all!? Of course not, Pilots!

We’re introducing a series of new products in the Spider Tanks Store designed to give people a one-stop shop for improving their Tanks… as well as giving those that may be grabbing their first Tank an easy way to get started!

Component Bundles have now been introduced to the store. These bundles come in a variety for each rarity, and have been priced at an introductory discount of 50% off the overall cost of all Components contained within!

Purchase Component Bundles with $GALA or ETH and receive an additional 5% off!

Have you been Piloting other people’s Tanks and are ready to strike out on your own? Have some friends that want to get into the arena and don’t know where to start? Well then, get excited about our new Starter Bundles!

Starter Bundles come in four varieties currently. Each contains a Common Body, Common Weapon, 15 Arachnium and 1500 Bolts!

Note that these bundles cannot be bought in bulk and the store will only allow one per transaction.

Any of these new bundles give you tons of extra components compared to buying a la carte from the store. Now is a great time to trick out your ride!

Experience the New and Improved Arena!

Wow, that was a mouthful!

Oh, are you still here? That means all the other Pilots probably have a destructive head start on you. You better hurry over to the Spider Tanks Store and load up on these discounted components so you can get to the arena!

We hope you really love this new build… but for chicken’s sake — Get out there and blow some stuff up already!

Prepare yourself for the inevitable alien invasion with a live fire exercise in defense of humanity!

The Planetary Union has flourished in the millennia since the settling of the Four Sisters, absolutely unopposed in our dominance of this planetary cluster and larger solar system. This has been the golden age of humankind… but that which is not protected can easily be lost.

The Coming Invasion

In the icy pits of Chione, researchers have discovered numerous relics from an ancient, advanced civilization. In the deep caves of Cacus, ornate halls and glittering treasures leave us hints of a long-dead society that settled the planet in the ages before The Migration.

These planets were devoid of life long before they settled into their current orbits to be colonized by humanity… the echoes of the past, however, let us know that we are certainly not alone in the galaxy.

The presence of a living extrasolar being has never been officially confirmed in the historical record. What will our first meeting with them bring? While we all hope for peace and prosperity, we prepare for the worst.

All Pilots at the Ready!

Tomorrow, September 6th, we will hold a solar system wide readiness test. All Pilots are encouraged to join in the exercise and prove that we are prepared for the inevitable alien invasion. This will take place in a specially designated exhibition space at 11am PT on the US East Server.

DefenseBotV44.89 stands at the ready on the Kuiper Wall. ReconBotV78.92 roams interstellar space, searching for early warnings of incursion. This is not enough! We need the Pilots that make up the heart and soul of this Planetary Union ready to defend what we’ve built.

CommunityBotV466.⍵ has organized a live fire exercise to test the readiness of all Pilots in the Union. His crack team of specially programmed, independently sentient assassin bots have been outfitted with highly classified salvage discovered within a crater near the south pole of Chione. The weapons held by these “Invaders” are beyond the technology of The Planetary Union, and should be engaged with extreme caution.

This is a live fire exercise. Each of The Invaders carries a neutrino pulse rifle capable of putting out over 700,000 Volts in a fraction of a second. Take this seriously… someday, our entire civilization could depend on it.

The Heroes of The Union

Those that choose to stand against the invading menace will be more prepared for what the future brings than other, more complacent Pilots. All participating Pilots will receive the Discord title of “Defender of the Union” to commemorate their dedication to civic duty.

All participating Pilots will be given a special code that can be entered in Discord to get their title…also opening up the chance for them to win a pile of components, totaling up to 2500 Bolts and 1000 Scrap Metal! Five participating Pilots will win this bundle, as just a small way to thank those brave enough to rise against the alien menace!

So get into the arena and warm up Pilots. We never know when The Invaders will strike, so take advantage of this training event!