Nov 04 2009

The Tank

Published by Kevin

Tank in Left 4 Dead 2For those of you that have never played Left 4 Dead 2, the tank is like a bulldog – its big, its mean, and its bite hurts a lot. Instead of biting like a bulldog, the tank slaps people around like ragdolls, and throws these big pieces of rock. The tank is not playable all of the time, and only appears at certain times in the game. The player that takes control of the tank is picked at random, so it can be anyone from the infected team.

If the person playing the tank does not attack the survivors, control of the tank is passed to one of the other infected players. If that person still does not attack the survivors, control of the tank is passed to an Artificial Intelligence Director. When this happens, the tank rushes in and does as much damage as possible.

When the tank starts to appear, some special music will play. If the survivors are wrapped up fighting a horde, they may not hear the music. If that happens, the tank may be lucky enough to get in a couple of good hits.

Some “elite” survivors try to avoid the strikes of the tank by jumping. If your playing the tank, and the survivors are jumping to avoid your hits – just aim a little higher. This works really well on rooftops and will usually knock the the survivors off the top of the building.

Left 4 dead 2 tankFor attacking the survivors from a distance, the tank can pick up rocks and throw them long distances.  The thing about this kind of attack – the tank can stand at a safe distance and throw rocks over buildings, over trees, over houses,,, anything the tank can take shelter behind and not be exposed to the gun fire of the survivors.

When playing against a team that is carrying noobtubes (the autoshotty), sometimes its best for the tank to stay at a safe distance and throw rocks instead of rushing in.  Sometimes a team with a bunch of noobtubes can take a tank down with ease.

Throwing rocks can also buy the infected team some time to respawn, regroup and work out an attack plan.  So when you playing the tank, its not always the best idea to rush in.

l4d2 tank on fireIf the tank is so big and bad, how do you kill it?   One of the best ways to kill the tank is with extra fire damage.  If your team thinks there is going to be a tank up ahead – at least 2 players need to have molotov cocktails – these are the things that explode into flames when thrown.

When the tank stops to pick up a rock, it has to stop moving.  That is a perfect time for throwing the molotov cocktail and catching the tank on fire.  If any of your team members are down, be careful not to throw the molotov cocktail in their direction – fire does damage to team members as well.

Be sure to visit the Left 4 Dead 2 Forums.