Death Tank is a two to seven player game (no single player options). To play with more than two players, a multi-tap is required.
To start the game, select ‘Play Game’. Each player must then press the ‘A’ button to join the battle. The tank color you will play is determined by the order in which you join: red is first, blue is second, etc. When a player’s tank activates it will pulsate and that player may enter a name and/or change the number of rounds for the game. The mystery tank will only appear if a seventh player joins the game.
To adjust the number of rounds in the game, press LEFT or RIGHT on the control pad after you have activated a tank.
You have the option to name yourself or your tank. This name will be tracked in the running statistics (see below). To enter a name, press up and down on the control pad to change the current letter, and press the ‘A’ button to lock in the letter. To back up a letter, press the ‘B’ button. When you are finished with the name, press the START button. When all players have pressed the START button the game will start.
Control pad up and down – Control power of shot, illustrated by the length of targeting arrow. A short arrow is less power, and a long arrow is more power.
Control pad left and right – Control angle of shot, illustrated by the angle of targeting arrow.
Shoulder buttons left and right – Move your tank left and right while on the terrain or in flight. The tank can ascend only average degrees of grade and will slow to a stop if the terrain is too steep. While using the hover coil, the tank will drop rapidly if both shoulder buttons are pressed simultaneously.
BUTTON A – Fire selected weapon. Each weapon takes some time to recharge. The arrow will turn green when the weapon is charged and ready to fire.
BUTTON B – Cycles down through the available weapons to your less powerful weapons.
BUTTON C – Cycles up through the available weapons to more powerful weapons.
BUTTON X – Activate jump jets or hover coil.
BUTTON Y – Activate shield.
BUTTON Z – Activate targeting computer.
The status of each tank is displayed at the top of each screen. The health of a tank is represented by a bar of the appropriate color. Next to the bar is an icon that shows the jump jets, shield, or a weapon currently selected and charging. For the jump jets, shield, and all weapons except the basic projectile, a secondary bar shows the amount of fuel or ammo remaining for the selected item. A third bar, representing the time remaining before the hover coil deactivates, appears when a player first activates a new coil.
Use the control pad to move your cursor and press the A button to buy stuff (assuming you have enough money). Once you buy something you are stuck with it. Press the START button when you are finished.
With the money you earn or find in battle, you can purchase weapons and items to improve your tank. Each time you purchase an item, you will receive one load of ammo or fuel. Any ammo or fuel remaining after a given round can be used during the next round. You may never use more than a single load per round.
BASIC PROJECTILE (Normal Shot) – This is the weapon you start with, and you will never run out of ammunition for it. This is the weakest weapon and will require 3 direct hits to destroy a tank.
MACHINE GUN – Not very powerful, but fires very fast and at high velocity.
MISSILES – You get five missiles with your purchase. With a direct hit, they are just as powerful as the normal shot. The missiles are guided with the control pad while in flight, but have a limited amount of fuel. You can fly them off the screen and back onto the screen. LEFT on the control pad rotates the missile counterclockwise and RIGHT rotates clockwise.
JUMP JETS – These allow you to take off and fly to other parts of the play field. If you hold X for too long you will quickly use all your fuel. Steer left and right with the shoulder buttons. The secondary bar under your life meter will show how much fuel you have remaining, while it’s in use.
SHIELDS – Holding the Y button engages shields that will deflect most projectiles. The shield is stronger if it is given time to charge fully before a projectile hits. The secondary bar under your life meter will show how much energy you have remaining, while it’s in use.
ROLLING MINES – Buying this weapon gets you ten mines. You shoot the mines like a projectile, and they will roll after hitting the ground. They do the same damage as a normal shot.
NUKE – A nuke is a very powerful single shot weapon that will carve out a large portion of the landscape. A direct hit on an undamaged tank will nearly destroy the tank. This is an excellent finishing weapon and is also great for killing more than one tank at a time. When a nuke detonates, the bright flash will temporarily blind your opponents, often causing missiles to miss targets.
MIRV – This is a normal parabolic projectile, which splits into five separate projectiles at the apex of its flight. Each projectile is slightly more powerful than a normal shot.
AIR STRIKE – This weapon is fired like the normal shot, producing a homing beacon for a squadron of bomber aircraft. These planes will carpet bomb and destroy nearly everything in the vicinity of the beacon. Shooting down the planes will cause them to break open and drop all of remaining bombs at once.
DEATHS HEAD – This is a huge MIRV that deploys a lot of projectiles at its apex. This is the strongest weapon in a game with many opponents.
CARBOMITE – Carbomite is special tank armor which explodes into deadly projectiles when your tank is destroyed. With each unit of carbomite, you get more and more projectiles shooting off your burning tank. You can buy as much carbomite as you want (or have money for). Each time you die, you loose one unit of stockpiled carbomite.
TARGET COMPUTER – Pressing the Z button activates the computer showing a cursor where a normal shot will land at the current power and angle settings. As you change the power and angle, the cursor will move. This computer will not show the correct path of missiles, machine guns, or lasers. This item only lasts till the end of the next round, regardless of whether you use it or not.
HOVER COIL – As implied, this item allows your tank to hover with a slight downward descent for about one continuous minute. The bar below your ammo bar will show how much time you have remaining. This item takes precedence over jump jets, though the jets may be used when the coil is spent. Pressing the two shoulder buttons together will drop you to the ground quickly. This item is only good for one round and then it is gone, regardless of whether you use it or not.
Occasionally airplanes will fly by that drop money in the form or parachutes that become white dots on the ground (worth 100). This bonus money dos not contribute to your score.
Occasionally special presents will be buried in the landscape that can be retrieved by digging them out with weapons. If you grab one, and it isn’t a blessing or curse (see below), you’ll know you retrieved a special weapon. These weapons will show up by scrolling to the highest powered weapons with the C button.
NUKE MISSILE – This is a special guided missile that is even more powerful than a standard nuke and is controlled just like a standard missile.
TURRET – This is an automated machine gun turret that shoots line of sight at any tank but your own (unless you are in the line of fire). Depending on where the turret lands it may not be able to fire, as it won’t fire on e friendly turret and must have line of sight to detect opponents.
LASER – A deadly line of sight weapon, which acts much like a machine gun, but with no arc and far greater power.
BLESSING – A moderately powered shield that you will keep until you are killed, even from round to round. Unfortunately, it also repels beneficial items (like parachute money). A high velocity projectile or ancillary damage from a nuke or missile must be used to penetrate the shield and damage the tank within. When a blessing’s power is destroyed, the blessing will roll from the tank, allowing someone else to pick it up.
CURSE – A black void around your tank that attracts projectiles and items. Like the blessing, it stays with you until you are killed (though you’ll likely be killed). The curse will also roll from a destroyed owner, allowing someone else to acquire it.
You get 25 points for surviving a round (shown as a flag), 50 points for a basic kill, 100 points for the leader (if the leaders are tied it reverts back to 50), and minus 50 if you kill yourself.
If one player kills every opposing player, that player is awarded a ‘Groovy’. The player’s score for that round is increased by 50%.
All points a player gains in a round are added to his money reserve in addition to 10 just for playing the round.
If you want to exit the game you can self-destruct by holding the START button and pressing A B & C. The other players can continue playing future rounds, or of all players self-destruct, the game will reset.
A save game location will be used to track the statistics of up to 100 players. If you intend to follow the stats, you should always use the same name when starting a game. To view the stats, select them fro the game menu. KPR is kills per round., and PPR is points per round. First place in any game is worth three points, second is worth two, and third is worth one.
Try to shoot at the leader or a wounded player. The leader is worth double points and the wounded are easy kills.
Use the normal weapon to get your trajectory before trying to use a nuke, air strike or turret.
Once you have a near-miss trajectory, fine tune your aim by moving the tank, rather than changing the angle or power.
Long high shots take longer to reach their target than lower trajectory shots, giving the target time to move.
Pay attention to the leader board and form alliances if necessary to get to the top.
Let someone else do al the work and steal their kill at the last second (by swooping in with a missile or well-timed nuke).
Target damaged tanks that are close to each other with a nuke and kill all of them at once.
Watch the status indicators at the top of the screen for warning about big weapons charging and jump jet out of harms way.
Don’t overbuy weapons you can’t use before the end of the game.