There’s a storm rolling in today as we dive into the strategy behind the force of nature that is the Hurricane Body.

Welcome back to the Spider Tanks Showcase! Today we’re featuring a Body that’s bursting with Energy and can adapt to most any challenge in the arena. Hovering over the battlefield, this well rounded Tank can employ a wide range of Weapons and strategies.

Today is all about Hurricane. This medium Body has fairly balanced Armor and Speed, but its Energy is through the roof for a Tank of its size. Able to compete effectively in nearly every situation, middle of the road on Armor and Speed certainly isn’t a drawback with this Body.

Hurricane’s Energy isn't quite as high as some of the heavier Bodies like Nomad or the massive Titan, but it’s more than you’ll find on any of the quicker Tanks in the arena. It’s average Speed and Armor let you stay agile while also not too breakable. Its quick Energy regeneration really makes it stand out from the other medium Bodies in the arena, and you’ll be able to crank out Abilities nearly as often as the heavies!

Gale Force: Hurricane/Shotgun

For this first build recommendation, we’ll be rushing headlong into the storm. Slap a Shotgun on that Hurricane and make it rain on the opposition. Your well-rounded mobility and durability combine with a high Ability output to pose as much a danger at mid-range as you do up close.

One of the biggest strengths of the Shotgun is how it can exploit the occasions where you’re closing the gap between you and your enemy. Shotgun blasts cover a lot of area, but start from a central point and spread out. This means too far away and not all of your shot will hit. Too close and it’s all or nothing.

The exception is for moving targets. If someone is moving towards you, they will be moving into your more concentrated blast range as it approaches them, thus getting hit with more shots. Your shot pattern is like a funnel, and if they’re moving down the funnel they’re going to get seriously hurt.

With a Hurricane the balanced stats allow you to either run from opposing Tanks or take a few shots to stay in the fray. Use that agility to fire at opponents coming towards you for maximum damage. When someone’s chasing you, you’ll have the Energy you need to pop a Repair Drone or Speed Booster so you can keep laying down fire.

Hailstorm: Hurricane/Brambler

This next build uses the Brambler Weapon from the JACKED O’ Lantern Hero Tank to annoy and harass opponents while staying mobile and tough enough to take a few blows to the face.

The Brambler fires an artillery projectile, which does damage and releases a patch of thorns that slow enemies and apply a DoT while in the radius. The persistent zone of damage can make it difficult for teams to focus on objectives, not to mention the slow effect makes it difficult for them to escape from. While Brambler does a pretty significant amount of damage with its main shot, often it will more or less annoy large groups of enemy Tanks to death, and few Bodies facilitate that better than Hurricane.

Since your Brambler’s thorns continue to do damage even while you’re not shooting, you can really take advantage of Hurricane’s mobility. While it’s slower than the Pumpkin standard for the Brambler, it also doesn’t feel like it’s made of glass… or easily smashable fruit material.

Hurricane also has much higher Energy than a Pumpkin, meaning you can take more advantage of support and repair Abilities. Need to crank up the Speed to run circles around Tanks as they crawl through your briar patch? Unlike a little zippy Tank, Hurricane can support nearly full time usage of cheaper Abilities like Speed Boost for maximum flexibility.

The Microburst: Hurricane/Railgun

For this last build with the Hurricane, we’re going to get a little ahead of ourselves. In the recent community vote on the first Generation 2 Tank to be offered, The Shaman won by a wide margin. This will be a little different from The Shaman build as presented, as we’re subbing the medium-sized, extra tough Crab Body out for its high-energy cousin Hurricane.

The Railgun deals devastating single blasts that can be charged up to excessive power levels for even more damage. While charging, however, the Weapon slows you down to a crawl. This is where Hurricane can be really helpful– not only beating out Crab for the Speed you can get out the gate after a shot, but also letting you use more Abilities more often.

Since you’re nearly frozen in place while shooting, Abilities like Repair Drone or Repair Zone can be very useful. Even usually very niche Abilities like Shield Projector and Smoke Canister can give you a few extra seconds to line up that perfect one shot kill. Cloak Drone is also especially useful, since it makes it very hard for enemies to see you when you’re not moving.

Hurricane’s Energy lets you play with a Railgun in lots of different ways instead of always being relegated to sniping from the rear. While the traditional Crab-powered Shaman may have a toughness advantage, sheer adaptability goes to the Hurricane.

Hurricane Away

We hope our examples here have given you some new ideas about how to have some fun in the driver’s seat of a Hurricane. This Body’s main appeal is its adaptability, so there are far more ways to play with a Hurricane than we could possibly list here. What’s your favorite Hurricane build?

That’s all for us today, but we’d bet a bolt or two that we’ll see you in the next generation for more of the Spider Tanks Showcase.

For now, get out there and find your own perfect Tank builds. Refine your strategy, dominate the arena… and then give us all some pointers! Shout your favorite combos to play on Discord or shoot us a tweet @spider_tanks!

Today we’re diving into everything about arena strategy with the well-rounded Junker Body.

Welcome back for yet another Spider Tanks Showcase. Today we’re looking at the Junker! This balanced Body has a fairly even distribution of Armor, Speed and Energy. This allows it to bring tons of distinct strategies to the arena.

A Junker definitely isn’t Junk. In the arena, the extreme weaknesses of a very heavy or very light Body are often what gets you into trouble. Junker is the entire package wrapped into one, which means that opponents will have a hard time figuring out your vulnerabilities.

Since Junker’s stats are solid all the way around, it can vary up strategies to a changing battlefield easily. Different Abilities can further extend your “destructive range”, and it’s tough to find a Weapon combo that Junker can’t make work.

The All Arounder: Junker/Cannon

The versatility that Junker brings to the table means that you can adapt to a myriad of different situations. There’s few weapons that share that synergy as well as the Cannon.

Cannon is a real classic. Historians believe that they were originally invented on ancient Earth somewhere around the 12th century as a method of sending messages over large city walls. Today, they find new use in the arena as one of the most reliable instruments of destruction out there.

Cannon gives you three shots in the chamber, which will reload pretty quickly even while you shoot. This means that you can either utilize it for quick 3 shot bursts, or space out your fire for continual assault. With Junker’s ability to adapt to any challenge, this means that you can vary your strategy effectively to more situations. Nothing will catch you on uneven footing.

Cannon’s range is above average in the arena. While there are some things that may snipe you, dodging with Junker should be fairly easy. You don’t lumber around the battlefield like a Titan, and unlike some of the faster Bodies like Flea, Junker is cool and collected enough that you rarely lose control of it and end up where you don’t want to.

The biggest advantage of a Cannon is that you can close the distance or move away from enemies without hurting the effectiveness of your firepower. Junker’s four padded feet can do some fancy dancing to get you from point A to point B safely… all while you are still lighting up the opposition.

Mobile Assault: Junker/Gatling Gun

The Gatling Gun is a powerful Weapon in the hands of someone who knows how to use it, but it has some drawbacks that need to be strategically accounted for. Winding up the Weapon and reloading take a long time, often leaving you helpless in the meantime. You are also considerably slowed while firing, which means you have to be clever about your escape plan if things should go bad.

Protip: The reload button (default R) is your best friend with Gatling Gun. Any time you know you’ve got the time, reload that thing back to max so you never get caught sputtering out!

Junker is tough enough to take a few hits if you get stuck in a bad place while slowed or reloading. Junker is also fast enough to get out of that bad place quickly. This versatility can be amped up even further with Abilities like Speed Booster or Shield Drone.

Success with a Gatling Gun often depends on creating opportunities for clean shots where you can lay lots of rounds into your opponents. A solid medium Body like Junker is absolutely perfect for giving yourself the best tools to create those opportunities.

With a super heavy Tank, you may have to rely on opponents coming to you to feel your bullet rain. With a super light, fast Tank, you won’t catch many shots in a row on someone unless they mess up with some basic zig and zag fundamentals. Either way, you’re waiting on someone else to make a mistake. Junker lets you effectively take the fight to the opponent faster.

Front Line Artillery: Junker/Crossbow

This build suggestion is similar to the Gatling Gun, in that you use the versatility of Junker to account for the weaknesses in the Crossbow. A Crossbow isn’t overall weak (quite the opposite), but while you’re pulling back your bolt you’ll be significantly slowed.

Playing as a Crossbow on a heavier Tank often results in getting swarmed. Your opponents will know that you aren’t headed anywhere fast, and you’ll be even slower while firing. Crossbow in a lighter Tank lets you maneuver between shots, but your Speed may actually make it harder to hit your targets with more relative velocity to account for. Plus, you’re made of glass and only shoot one bolt at a time. One mistake and you’re component dust.

Junker gives you the best of both worlds. You have the durability to not be relegated to sniping from the back, and the Speed to dance around the majority of projectiles. This ability to function up close and in your face with a Crossbow can be devastating when you’re able to skewer all three opponents at once.

Run in circles and figure 8s with your Junker while firing and keep mixing up your pattern. As you improve with the ballistics of the Crossbow, you’ll be able to use your steady looping pattern as a way to estimate and time shots on moving enemies. This also lets you duck into safer areas regularly to pull that string back for a big shot once you pop back out into the fray.

The Junk Maker

The Junker may seem like a lukewarm sort of Body to those who crave the extreme at first, but there’s a lot to be said for balance in the arena.

Hopefully the few builds we’ve spotlighted here help you understand why Junker is a powerful force in the arena. As with every Body though, the best way to play with Junker is always the way that is the most fun for you!

At the time of this article, there are still some rarities of Junker available in the Gala Games Store!

Remember, you can always try out any Body or Weapon in the Shooting Range!

We’ll be back next week with all the force of Hurricane– the balanced levitator with a little extra Speed behind it.

Are you an ace Hurricane Pilot? Let us know your favorite builds on Discord or in the comments below for a chance to be featured next week!

Blink and you’ll miss it! Today we’re discussing everything you need to know about the Blink Body.

Welcome back to another edition of the Spider Tanks Showcase! Today we’re taking a closer look at one of the smaller Bodies in the arena… but don’t underestimate the speed that it can rain down punishment on other Tanks!

Today is all about Blink. So named for the small optic amplifier on the front of its chassis, Pilots often feel that eye gives them a slow blink right before their Tank’s explosive end. With Blink’s single “eye”, that may technically mean it’s just winking at its victims at the end of the hunt.

This Body has more than its fair share of Speed, but leaves its driver a little less protected than other medium-small bodies. Currently, it’s the third fastest Body in the arena — falling just behind Flea and the JACKED O’ Lantern. It doesn’t lose much in Speed compared to these teeny glass cannons, but it offers nearly 10% more Armor and higher Energy than its little buddy Flea.

The Dragster: Blink/Snowballer

The first build we’ll discuss utilizes the Snowballer from the Santa’s Slay Hero Tank. We’ve talked about this Weapon in the past, but using it on a lighter Body like Flea can totally change up how you play it.

With the Snowballer’s ice trails boosting you Speed by 25%, you’ll leave even Fleas in the dust while sprinting. Throw in a Speed Booster and some well placed ice sheets to slow your opponents by 25%, and suddenly it’s like you’ve slowed time for your opponents.

You can use your superior mobility and bursts of speed to control placement in the arena. Your opponents move at the speed you want them to move — all while you pelt them repeatedly with snowballs.

With multiple ways of increasing your Speed relative to opponents, this works incredibly well as a hit and run combo, as the same ice trails you use to get into the heat of the fray can be used to escape it after you’ve done your damage. Repeat while easily dancing around enemy projectiles, and you’ll dominate the battlefield.

Retro Master: Blink/Cannon

It can be easy to overlook the Cannon with its classic arcade feel, but sometimes simplicity can be deadly effective. The Cannon provides straightforward, high damage projectiles. This means there are two crucially important ingredients to being successful with a Cannon — sharpshooter accuracy and great positioning.

Blink allows you to maneuver the battlefield fast enough to get the positioning you need with a Cannon. It may take some practice to get the feel for dodging enemy bullets, but once you get the hang of it there aren’t many Weapons more effective than the Cannon at firing under pressure.

Accuracy will take some time dedicated to playing with the nuances of Cannon’s projectile speed and reload rhythm. A cannonball either hits or misses — leading opponents is crucial. With some practice, this will just become second nature to you.

Like with the Snowballer, the Cannon’s three shot capacity gives you a great opportunity to strike quickly and flee to safety. Each Cannon shot does about the same damage as a snowball though, so this will pump out damage very quickly if your aim is good enough.

Mobile Ordinance: Blink/Rocket Artillery

Whereas our other two builds today were constructed with a straightforward positioning game in mind, this next one thrives in absolute chaos. Rocket Artillery fires five arcing projectiles that explode on impact around the targeted area. Each rocket can either hit or miss and has damage independent of the others, allowing for minor damage with a near miss all the way to full spectrum splash damage with a direct hit.

Many builds will take Rocket Artillery as a rear support role. Since it can fire over obstructions, it can harass the enemy team even under cover. Without a safe place to regroup or heal up, this can leave teams unable to form a line of defense, continually backing into the corner until their eventual destruction.

Blink can use this strategy but in a much more active role. With Blink’s quick movement, you can move rapidly across the battlefield, destabilizing the balance of the arena in your favor. Don’t give your opponents a moment’s rest. Find them and pelt them with rockets just out of reach.

Using this strategy, you’ll find most teams will still be scrambling by the time the match ends. If your teammates are skilled, they’ll travel back and forth on the path of your berserker rage to pick off the survivors from your bombing frenzy.

Blink Out

Blink is a Body that isn’t without its down sides, but in the hands of the right Pilot it is a force to be reckoned with in the arena. Like any Tank Body, there are tons of other ways to play a Blink. Try mixing it up with some other Weapons and find that build that’s your favorite way to play.

At the time of this article, there are still some Blinks of multiple rarities available in the Spider Tanks Store!

That will do it for us today, but we’ll be back soon with another spotlight for you. Next week we’re featuring a well-rounded Body that is one of the most versatile rides in the arena — Junker!

Are you an ace Junker Pilot? Let us know your favorite builds on Discord or in the comments below!

GAMEDIA’s Spider Tanks is about to seriously level up. Read on to learn more.

TL;DR

VP earnings are changing (see below).
It’s getting easier to level up Tanks.
Supercharge is an awesome new thing that’s coming.
Captain/Pilot VP earnings are going up.
Atomic Drop Pod prices are going down.
This is only the beginning.

We hope you’ve been enjoying the world’s first Web3 esport, created by the wizards of GAMEDIA!

Tons of players have already enjoyed the fast-paced arena brawler action, the ownership, and especially the rewards. The game is an absolute blast even without any kind of reward, but we want players to enjoy a little bit of everything that Web3 has to offer, so there are always reward opportunities.

We love to reward our community. It’s kind of our thing. Sometimes after community feedback or extensive observation, balance adjustments are required to ensure that everyone gets the most fair and rewarding gaming experience.

Earnings Adjustments

The following adjustments to the economy will stabilize earnings among all the various rarities. Data we’ve collected has shown that for a healthy and sustainable economy, these changes were definitely needed.

• Common (+88.57%)
• Uncommon (+65.57%)
• Rare (+25.59%)
• Epic (-25.44%)
• Legendary (-40.53%)
• Ancient (-76.29%)

Supercharge

As a special sneak peek, next week’s update will be followed up soon with a new feature called Supercharge…

Supercharge will allow users a massive VP boost (5x the VP for your first win of the day) for 5 matches. The idea here is that if you pick up a supercharge and win the majority of your games for those 5 matches it’s activated, you will come out the other end with explosive VP earnings. There are a few notes on this one just to cover any potential questions that may arise:

• To prevent this feature from being abused, once a Supercharge is activated, you may only join Solo queue for the next 5 matches until it’s been used fully.
• Supercharge will not remain tied to a tank part if it is transferred or bridged.
• There will be a maximum of one Supercharge per part, per day. This limit is imposed on the tank part itself. You may not apply a Supercharge then send it to a friend so they can Supercharge it as well.
• This feature is coming at a later date, not at the same time as the rest of what we’ve detailed here.

Upgrade Adjustments

Another economic adjustment is to the upgrade system. We’ve made it significantly easier to level Tanks up early on, and redistributed the overall components cost on the way to 30 to make it less of a grind.

Pilot Program

There are also two changes coming to the Pilot Program.

First, we will boost all Captain and Pilot VP earnings with a substantial increase as an experiment (subject to change) to see if folks enjoy that and utilize the system more.

We thought a nice pairing to go along with this would be to severely reduce the prices on all Atomic Drop Pods in the Gala Games store. This change better allows Captains to get everything they have to offer out there for Pilots to enjoy.

Next week’s is the first change of many coming upgrades and we hope everyone enjoys the overall benefit this brings to the Spider Tanks economy. We wanted to give everyone a heads up well ahead of time to prepare for these changes to go live. We’re shooting for sometime next week to implement all of this (except Supercharge). We’ll also be following this up with testing out a Bonus SILK period some time next week as a huge thank you to everyone!

Thanks for reading, feel free to ask any questions you have in Discord, and we’ll see you on the battlefield!

We’re back with a Hero Tank combo that makes sure it’s never safe to go back in the water… or anywhere else.

Ahoy, and welcome to another Spider Tanks Showcase! Today we’re spotlighting a terror from the briny depths of ancient Earth. The historical ballads speak frequently of both the beauty and terror of this primordial ruler of long since vaporized oceans. This week is all about the WhaleShark Hero Tank!

According to our historical record, the WhaleSharks were a proud but fierce race of mariners who controlled the sea travel of all denizens of Earth in ancient times. The exploits of their greatest hero, Jaws, is detailed in many primary source historical accounts. This amphibious messianic figure seems to have brought WhaleSharks from a simple ocean predator into a golden age as the dominant species throughout many of the oceans, lakes and ponds on planet Earth.

The WhaleShark Hero Tank is likewise always one of the dominant rigs in the arena. This Tank combines the tough body of the terror of the water with homing missiles that are deadly by land, sea or air. WhaleShark isn’t fast, but its toughness and keen aim allow it to be something far more important… persistent.

WhaleShark has some of the highest Armor available in the arena, without the extremely low Speed of a massive Body like Titan. Its Energy is likewise quite generous, so you’ll be able to utilize Abilities more often and be able to easily budget for higher cost Abilities.

No Running From WhaleShark

The Whale Shark Hero Tank is a combo package consisting of the Shark Body and the Finisher Weapon. It also gives you the use of the Deepsea Terror Skin, so you can fully complete the nautical nightmare look.

The Shark itself is a medium-heavy Body with a little extra into Armor compared to some of the other Tanks out there. The Finisher Weapon is a missile launcher that fires homing projectiles that fiercely swim through the ground… but they also aren’t opposed to flying towards your target if there should be no ground under them.

The Finisher is like no other Weapon in the arena, so there’s a lot you can do with it to complement your team’s strategy. The missiles themselves have a very long range comparable to other Weapons, and will somewhat steer themselves towards nearby opponents before exploding with splash damage to all surrounding enemies on impact.

Since the missiles home in on opponents, you can leverage their long range to fire around obstacles. Enemies will think they’ve gotten out of harm’s way only to find the missile still pursuing them.

Thar Be Monsters Here

One of the biggest advantages of the WhaleShark is how much persistent and consistent damage it can lay down against somewhat stationary enemies. The Weapon only holds one round, and takes a little while to reload. Fortunately, the rate you can unload missiles should be more than enough to terrorize your foes.

The missiles do splash damage in a small radius on impact, and this makes WhaleShark particularly excellent at assaulting clustered enemies, like in Poultry Pusher or King of the Hill.

Since your missiles have excellent range and can cross gaps in terrain, you’ll be able to hit opponents in places that other Tanks can’t, and their normal defensive methods will struggle to adapt. Meanwhile, the decent bulk on your Body and unrelenting missiles can dictate the positioning of both teams throughout the whole match.

Seafood Sampler

Like all Hero Tanks, WhaleShark gives its owner access to both the Weapon and Body that makeup the set. WhaleShark is an amazing combo, but there are a lot of fun and effective ways to mix up these two Tank Parts.

First off, you’ve got to try Finisher on a lighter Body. The high Energy and high Armor of the Shark allow you to control the pace and positioning in the match very well. With a zippy Body beneath your Finisher, however, you’ll just push the pace and positioning viciously all match. If your projectiles can’t be escaped on a slow Body, how much harder will it be for the other team to get to safety when you can run them down without your missiles?

The Shark Body also can be used as a medium-heavy Body. Its stats are very similar to a Nomad or Santa’s Slay, though unlike those two Bodies it has omnidirectional movement.

It’s low Speed but high Armor and Energy can be useful for builds that don’t need to be close, such as Rocket Artillery or Crossbow. It could also potentially do well with up close and personal Weapons like Flamethrower and Shotgun if you get good enough with utilizing your Abilities to your advantage.

It also is worth mentioning that the face of the WhaleShark is on the Body itself. We wouldn’t be much fun if we didn’t recommend you slap an Executioner on there to try out a 2-headed monstrosity with non-stop rockets and enough Energy to rapid fire Abilities.

Shark Attack

Overall, the WhaleShark can be a powerhouse in the arena. The heavy Body of Shark and the firing rate of Finisher do pose some limitations, but the unique firing pattern and homing projectiles of the combo are well worth it.

As always, the best way to play with a WhaleShark is the way that you enjoy the most. There are tons of ways to build your perfect Tank. With a little practice you can all hold your own in the arena with nearly any combination.

Keep your eyes open wide for our showcase next week, because we’re getting into everything about the Blink Body. If you have a favorite build for Blink that you’d like us to share, shout it out in the comments below or in Discord!

Are you a top Blink Pilot? Tweet an epic clip to us on Twitter with the hashtag #STShowcase and we may feature you next week!