How to play tankmash

1. Hold the base. If it falls, or you run out of lives, the level is lost. Press Play: your first run is the training, about two minutes on level 1. Replay it any time from Replay training in Settings.

2. 

   Drive, aim, fire. Computer: WASD or arrows drive, Space or a click fires at the nearest enemy you can see. Phone: the left stick drives, the right stick aims; hold it to fire.

3. Grab pickups. Shoot the flashing tank and drive over what it drops.

4. Pick a card. Between campaign waves, choose one of three.

5. 

   Tank destroyed? In Skirmish, the campaign, Battle royale, Capture the flag, Domination and Co-op vs bots you climb out on foot. Walk to an empty or enemy tank and press F or Enter, or tap the board button.

• Skirmish

  Hold your base and take down theirs.

  You against a whole enemy base, on a small map. Match setup sets Easy, Normal or Hard. Map of the day gives everyone the same map, new at 00:00 UTC. Without it, every game is a fresh map. How it plays: Skirmish.

• Campaign

  Fifty levels of three waves. Clear one to open the next.

  Level select shows all fifty. Read more: tank defense game.

• Battle royale

  Last tank standing wins.

  Two to eight tanks, no teams; the others are bots. A ring closes over three minutes, and outside it you burn. Match setup picks the map, tanks, lives and hull. Pick lets you drive the tank you chose, Standard, Hare or Boulder; a Hare is quicker and reloads a little slower, a Boulder is tougher with a lighter, slower gun. A ride from the Garage goes on the Standard only. Read more: tank battle royale.

• Capture the flag

  Steal their flag and run it home. First to three wins.

  Four a side: you and three bots against four. Touch their flag to take it, then bring it to your own stand while your flag is home there. A carrier cannot change tanks and drops the flag where it is destroyed; a dropped flag goes home after 20 seconds, or at once when its own side touches it. Nobody runs out of tanks, and after six minutes the side ahead wins.

• Domination

  Take the landmarks and hold them. First to 400 wins.

  Four a side: you and three bots against four, over three zones, A, B and C. Stand in a zone to take it, faster with more of your side in it; while both sides stand in it, it is contested and only the bigger side gains. Every second each zone your side holds scores a point, and two more while you hold all three. A destroyed tank comes back at the zone your side holds nearest where it fell, unless the other side is in it, or at your base. Nobody runs out of tanks, and after six minutes the side ahead wins.

• Online

  Play with friends in a room.

  Press Create room, pick Battle royale, Co-op vs bots, Capture the flag or Domination, and share the link; a friend opens it or types its code under Join room. Co-op vs bots puts your side against the bots; last side in wins. Capture the flag and Domination put two sides of four on the field, people split between them and bots filling the rest. Read more: 2 player tank game online.

• Their core sits in a ring of heavy brick with a watch tower at each corner. Take the core down and you win.
• Factories build the attacks that come at your base. Each one you destroy stops its attacks and weakens the brick round the core.
• Watch towers guard the core and shoot whatever comes near. They fall one at a time.
• Hold your base until the clock runs out and the last assault breaks, and that is a win too. Lose the base, or every tank, and the run is over.
• Credits come with every kill. Shop (B) spends them: a tougher hull, a faster loader, ring turrets round your base, a missile of your own, and allies.
• Repair (R) turns credits into your base's hit points while it is hurt.
• Attack (Q) sends your allies at the enemy base. Left alone, they guard yours.
• Drones fly straight at a target and blow up on it. Shoot them before they arrive. You can buy a swarm of your own.
• Strikes: the core lobs missiles at you. A mark on the ground shows where one lands; drive out of it.

Shoot a flashing tank and it drops one; in Battle royale, Capture the flag, Domination and Co-op vs bots every bot's tank does. Drive over it before it blinks out.

• STAR: upgrades your gun: High velocity, then Twin loader, then Breaching shells, which level brick in one and open steel. Lose the tank and the upgrades go with it. After three, a star is a REINFORCEMENT: a soldier who fights beside your tank, up to three.

• SHIELD: shells and blasts do nothing to your tank for 10 seconds.

• FREEZE: every enemy tank within 10 tiles stops for 8 seconds.

• WALLS: the walls around the base are rebuilt in steel for 30 seconds. Classic and the campaign only.

• +1 LIFE: one more life.

• ROCKET: a rocket launcher in your second gun slot. On foot, four rockets. Not in Classic.

• +HP: repairs part of your hull, or heals you in full on foot. Battle royale, Capture the flag, Domination and Co-op vs bots only. Elsewhere a cleared wave or stage repairs your tanks.

On foot you can take only ROCKET and +HP.

Campaign only. After each wave but the last, pick one of three. From level 4 you also pick before the first wave. Lose the tank and its cards go with it; Spare crew and the base's walls stay.

• Rapid loader: Reload 15 percent faster.

• High velocity: Shells fly 25 percent faster.

• Reinforced hull: Adds a third of a Standard hull, filled now.

• Wide tracks: Drive 12 percent faster.

• Steel the walls: The brick around the base turns to steel for a wave.

• Field repair: Rebuild the brick around the base.

• Spare crew: One more life.

• Twin loader: Two shells in the air at once. Needs a gun quick enough to fill it.

Slot 1 is your hull's own gun; a gun card or ROCKET fills slot 2. The Standard, the Hare, the Boulder and the Heavy carry plate, which stops the MG and the FLAME.

• Cannon: on every hull but the Mortar.

• Machine gun (MG): Fast and light. Plate shrugs it off.

• Rocket launcher (ROCKET): Slow, heavy, levels a wall in one.

• Mortar: Hold to lob it over a wall.

• Flamethrower (FLAME): Close range, and it never stops.

Any empty or enemy tank in reach can be taken, never a boss. An enemy player's tank takes a two second hold of F, Enter or the board button. Classic has no boarding.

• 

  Pick: you drive your tank, each bot is dealt one of the three.

• 

  Standard: three hits, a cannon, nothing to learn.

• 

  Hare: quicker, and reloads a little slower.

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  Boulder: tougher, with a lighter, slower gun.

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  Heavy: shrugs off light guns, slow enough to catch.

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  Bike: one hit kills it. Nothing can catch it.

• 

  Mortar: lobs over walls. Helpless up close.

• 

  Copter: over water and walls. Only the base stops it.

• 

  Jeep: one hit, a cannon, outruns all but the bike.

• 

  Random: a hull at random for every tank.

Every fifth level ends in a boss. It leads the last wave, and its banner says how to beat it.

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  Anvil Level 5: Thick front. Hit its side or back.

• 

  Ironside Level 10: Thick front, escorts. Go round it.

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  Lancer Level 15: Fast. Hit its side to stop it.

• 

  Rampart Level 20: Break its tracks, then take its back.

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  Beacon Level 25: Kill it and the column stops coming.

• 

  Bulwark Level 30: Kill the leader. Hit its back.

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  Thunderer Level 35: Big gun. Step off the line.

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  Hammer Level 40: Dodge the gun. Hit its back.

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  Hauler Level 45: Stop it before it unloads.

• 

  Colossus Level 50: Leader first. Dodge the gun. Go round.

Win a campaign level to earn medals. Level select shows the ones you hold.

• Base Intact: the base at full strength when the level is won.

• No Losses: not one life lost.

• Perfect Run: both of those.

• By the Book: a boss level won the way its boss teaches.

Ranks

• Skirmish, Campaign, Classic: tank 10, Heavy or Mortar 20, Copter 30.
• A wave held 50, a level won 100; a boss adds 125, a mini boss 75.
• A man on foot 5; a rival hull 10; outlasted 15 a life, once you kill.
• Skirmish: a building 100, a win 300 to 600. A Classic stage 150.
• Online pays the same from 60 s; what your team holds needs your kill.
• Prizes pay once. Sergeant Major up needs Campaign medals. Never lost.

The Garage, on the front's corner or the Service record, is where your rides are; a ride comes with a grade, a medal count or a held chapter, and the Courier with the tankmash Newsletter.