Tank Duel is a one-on-one arena fight with three defining rules: shells bounce off walls, each hit takes a quarter of a tank, and your turret aims wherever the mouse points. Those rules write the strategy for you.

A stationary tank is a dead tank

The AI leads its shots at where you are. A tank that sits still is an aim-assist for the enemy; a tank crossing the arena at an angle forces the AI to keep re-predicting.

The practical pattern is the strafe loop: pick a direction, drive a short arc, turn, drive back. Not a straight line — a straight line is predictable too — but a repeating curve whose timing varies. Your turret does not care which way the hull points, so movement costs you nothing on offence.

In a game with ricochets, standing still is not patience. It is volunteering.

Ricochets are your longest gun

A shell that bounces keeps going, and the AI does not dodge reflections well. Bank shots do three jobs at once: they hit from angles the AI does not watch, they threaten even on a miss, and they punish tanks that hug walls.

The aiming trick is the mirror: pick the wall you want to use, reflect the enemy tank across it, and fire at the reflected point. Same geometry as pool.

  • Straight shot: when you have a clean lane and time.
  • Bank shot: when the enemy is using a wall as cover.
  • Skip the shot entirely when the enemy is dead centre behind cover — shells that bounce twice rarely land where you hope.

The quarter-health rhythm

Four hits win the fight, which means every exchange has a name: you are always trading quarters. Before you fire, know the count — you at three, them at two changes which risks are worth taking.

Ahead on health, aggression pays: push, force the exchange, let the ricochets do random damage. Behind, the opposite: break line of sight, reposition, and make them spend shots on walls. Never take a fair trade while behind — fair trades only convert a lead.

Cover is a lane, not a wall

Sitting tight behind a block just means the AI banks shells at your corner. Use cover the way shooters intend it: move cover to cover, exposing from a different angle each time. The tank that appears in a new place every two seconds is effectively fighting at full health more often than its armour allows.

The finish

At 1-quarter enemy health, they play desperate and straight at you. Give them the straight line they want, sidestep once, and fire down it. Most final kills in this arena are scored on a charging tank that forgot the first rule.