TANK FU: Complete Strategy Guide

Overview

TANK FU is an experimental character action fighting game from Knight Owl Games, a small studio that asked the question nobody else thought to ask: what if a tank fought like a martial artist? The answer is a fast, loud, gloriously absurd spectacle fighter where a tank dashes, flies, punches, and kicks its way through arenas. Think Devil May Cry's style meter, Bayonetta's airborne combos, and Hi-Fi RUSH's rhythm-forward energy, compressed into a tank with a punch.

The game is currently a pre-alpha playtest on Steam. The scope is deliberately tight: a 4-arena tutorial covers most of the moves, and a single 5-minute endless arena challenges you to post the highest score on a global leaderboard. The Steam page states plainly that everything is open to change, which makes this guide a snapshot of the current build. The meta will move, but the fundamentals will not.

Who it is for: character action fans between Devil May Cry and Bayonetta releases, score attack players, combo lab enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to say "my tank does a flying kick." The premise is a meme, the execution is a real spectacle fighter.

Who it is not for: players who need a campaign, a story, multiplayer, or a finished product. This is a fighting proof of concept with a leaderboard. The community's loudest request is already visible in the forums: people want more than the solo arena.

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Getting Started: The Playtest

The playtest is small on purpose. That is good news for learning. Two modes exist: the tutorial and the arena. The tutorial spans four arenas and teaches most of the moves. The arena throws endless enemies at you for five minutes and ranks your score against every other player on the board.

First Session Plan

1. Run the tutorial twice. The first pass teaches you that moves exist. The second pass teaches you how they chain into each other. Spectacle fighters hide their depth in move interactions, not move lists. The second run is where the game actually opens up.
2. Learn the dash before the punch. Movement is the combo glue. If you cannot reposition between hits, your combos die against anything that moves. The dash is not an afterthought, it is the connective tissue of the entire kit.
3. Take the air seriously. Air and ground combos are separate systems. The game gives you flight for a reason. The highest score routes live in the transitions between ground and air, not in either one alone.
4. Watch the score meter, not the enemies. The score is the feedback loop. If the multiplier is falling, you are repeating moves. Variety is the scoring mechanic, and the meter is the only honest teacher.
5. Spend one arena run on failure. Go in knowing you will drop the combo, take hits, and finish low. Use that run to learn the enemy flow and the arena layout. The second run is where the score starts.

Beginner Mistakes to Avoid

First Run Priorities

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Core Mechanics Explained

The Score Chain System

Tank Fu's scoring is accumulative. Keep the streak alive and the score grows. Break it and the chain resets. This is classic spectacle fighter scoring, with one twist that defines the strategy: the accumulation rewards variety. Using a wide range of moves climbs the score faster than repeating your single best hit. The Steam page says it directly: "the scoring can be accumulative as long as you keep your streak going and use a variety of moves, so don't rely too much on just a few combos."

The practical implications:

• Every move is a tool, not a toy. The 16+ moves exist because the score system wants them used. A move that looks weak in isolation can be the variety button that keeps a multiplier alive.
• Downtime is damage. Between-kill gaps, running across the arena, waiting for enemies to spawn, all of it bleeds the chain. The best players are never not attacking something.
• The end of the arena matters most. A 5-minute run is scored as a whole, but the final stretch decides leaderboard tiers. Players who save their best routes for the last minute beat players who coast.

Tank Movement: Dash, Fly, Punch

The gimmick is that this is a tank with martial arts mobility. Dashing and flying are not flavor text. They are the movement verbs that build combos. The tank can get airborne, which is absurd, and also the source of the best score routes in the game.

Movement strategy:

• Dash as an attack extender. Dash into a hit to close distance without breaking the chain. The dash keeps the combo alive across gaps that would otherwise kill it.
• Fly to reset. Air mobility escapes ground clutter and repositions you for the next combo. When the ground gets crowded, the sky is the reset button.
• Mix states constantly. Ground combo, launch, air combo, finisher, land, repeat. State mixing is the whole game. Players who master the transitions control the arena.

The 5-Minute Arena

The arena is the entire endgame of the playtest. Endless enemies, five minutes, one score. It tests three things: move knowledge, chain discipline, and the ability to stay aggressive under pressure.

The arena meta follows enemy flow. If enemies spawn in predictable patterns, the optimal route keeps you moving between spawn points with a live chain. If they spawn scattered, the meta shifts to fast area clear and repositioning. Either way, the enemy is a timer wearing a monster costume.

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Progression Strategy

Tank Fu has no XP, no unlocks, and no upgrade paths. The progression is you. That makes the progression strategy about skill acquisition order: what to learn first so everything else gets easier.

Skill Acquisition Order

1. Dash cancels. Learn to cancel any ground attack into a dash. This single skill prevents more broken combos than any other.
2. Launch timing. Find the move that launches an enemy, and learn its range. Every air combo starts with a launch.
3. One air string. A single reliable air combo gives you the transition toolkit. Expand it later.
4. Finisher priming. Learn what state primes each finisher. Finishers are the score spike.
5. Chain preservation under pressure. Learn to keep the combo alive while enemies swarm and the camera gets busy.
6. Route optimization. String everything into a repeatable arena route.

The 4-Arena Tutorial as a Gym

Treat the tutorial arenas as training rooms, not a checklist. Each arena teaches a slice of the kit; revisit them in order when you hit a plateau. If the arena scores have stalled, go back and rebuild the fundamentals. Spectacle fighters punish skipped foundations.

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Builds and Tier Lists

Tank Fu has no equipment and no character builds. The "build" is your route: the sequence of moves you execute in the arena. Think of it as a loadout of habits. Here is a tier breakdown of the move categories, judged on how they contribute to a leaderboard score.

The S-tier insight: finishers and air combos are not the flashiest moves, they are the highest-value moves. A route that touches the air regularly and ends clusters with a finisher will outscore a route that stays grounded, no matter how clean the ground strings are.

Route Archetypes

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Step-by-Step Strategy

Strategy 1: The Opening Minute

1. Do not rush the first cluster. The chain starts at zero; build it high early, then protect it.
2. Open with a long ground combo to stack the multiplier before the pressure sets in.
3. Transition to air at the combo's peak. Air hits score more and reset your position.
4. Land and immediately dash into the next spawn. Never walk between fights.
5. End the first minute with the multiplier maxed and a finisher in reserve.

Strategy 2: The Mid-Arena Slump

The middle minutes are where runs die. The horde is denser, the camera is busier, and fatigue sets in.

1. When surrounded, go up. The air is the safe zone; the ground is the kill zone.
2. Use the finisher to clear the cluster you are stuck in, then dash out of the wreckage.
3. Rebuild the multiplier from the top of the air string, not from a panicked ground mash.
4. Drop the "perfect" route and switch to the survival route: keep any combo alive, even an ugly one.
5. Save one dash charge for escapes; never spend the last dash on offense.

Strategy 3: The Final Minute Push

The last 60 seconds decide leaderboard tiers. This is when the score doubles or dies.

1. Stop playing safe. The run is ending; there is nothing left to preserve.
2. Chain every enemy cluster into the same combo. Let the horde feed the chain.
3. Cycle the move list faster. The variety multiplier is the difference between top-10 and mid-board.
4. Prime a finisher for the final cluster and spend it as the timer ends.
5. If the combo breaks in the last 30 seconds, restart it instantly; a full chain in the final stretch beats a dead one.

Strategy 4: Finisher Priming

1. Learn the exact state each finisher needs: airborne, launched, or crowd-primed.
2. Gather enemies before spending a finisher. A finisher on one enemy is style wasted.
3. Use finishers as combo resets, not combo endings. The cinematic can buy time for the next launch.
4. Against scattered spawns, hold the finisher. Spend it only on clusters of three or more.
5. Never end a route empty-handed; keep one finisher primed for the closing seconds.

Strategy 5: The Leaderboard Read

1. Study the top scores before every session. The meta is visible in what leaders do.
2. If the top of the board is all air routes, the ground game is leaving points behind.
3. If the leaders finish tight, the final-minute push matters more than the opening.
4. Copy a top route once, then improve it. Copying is how you learn the route shape.
5. Post your best run, then chase your own ghost. Self-competition is the fastest improvement loop.

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Advanced Tips

• The dash is a combo extender, not an escape. Dash into hits to close gaps and keep the chain alive. Escaping with the dash is emergency use only.
• Fly early, fly often. Air combat is not a special move, it is the default state for high scores. The transition from ground to air is the most valuable moment in the kit.
• Variety is a timing mechanic, not a checklist. The score system wants a mix of moves, but the mix has to happen at the right moments. A variety move at the wrong time is a dropped combo.
• Watch the leaderboard, not the tutorial. The tutorial teaches inputs. The leaderboard teaches routes. Both matter; only one tells you what wins.
• Every playtest build is a new game. The devs are actively moving things. Recheck the in-game options and move lists after every update, because the meta shifts with each patch.
• Feedback is a feature. Knight Owl is building in the open. Bug reports and balance complaints shape the actual game. Early players are voting on the meta, not just playing it.
• The forums tell the real story. The community's loudest asks right now are for more content and multiplayer. The current build is a foundation, not the final shape.
• Short sessions beat long ones. Five-minute runs are perfect for focused practice. Three deliberate runs teach more than one hour of autopilot.
• Character action rewards rest. If a route stops improving, stop forcing it. The patterns consolidate overnight; the next session is usually the breakthrough.

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Controls and Settings

The playtest is a character action game, which means explicit inputs. Twin-stick movement on WASD or the left stick, dedicated dash, separate light and heavy attacks, a jump for air work, and a finisher input.

Min spec is friendly: an Intel Core i3, 4 GB RAM, and Intel HD 4000 or equivalent integrated graphics, with 1 GB of storage. The cartoonish style scales well, so most machines can hold a stable frame rate, which matters for a combo game where dropped frames kill timing.

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FAQ

Is Tank Fu out? No. The full game has no release date. The pre-alpha playtest is on Steam now.

Is it a fighting game like Street Fighter? No. It is character action in the Devil May Cry and Bayonetta tradition: stylish combos against arena enemies, not duels against another player.

How long is the playtest? The tutorial spans four arenas. The main mode is a 5-minute endless arena with leaderboard scoring.

How many moves are there? Over 16 moves in the current build, including air and ground combos and cinematic finishers. The count will change as the game develops.

Does it have multiplayer? No PvP yet. The leaderboard is the multiplayer layer for now. The community has asked for co-op and PvE; the devs have not confirmed anything.

Will my playtest progress carry over? Never assume. Playtest builds get wiped and reworked constantly. Treat everything as practice.

What are the system requirements? Minimum is an Intel Core i3, 4 GB RAM, Intel HD 4000 or equivalent, and 1 GB storage.

What is the scoring rule? The score accumulates while the streak stays alive, and the multiplier rewards variety. Repeating a few combos caps your score.

Is there a campaign? No. The playtest is a tutorial and an arena. The full game's content is unrevealed.

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Common Mistakes

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Bottom Line

Tank Fu is a weird, fun, and sharply focused experiment. The premise is ridiculous, the execution is a legitimately solid character action core, and the score system gives it real depth beyond the meme. The game sits in good company: its Steam neighbors include Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Darksiders, and En Garde!, and it holds up as a spectacle fighter rather than a novelty.

The best advice for the current build: learn the dash, respect the variety mechanic, take the air seriously, and treat every arena run as a practice lap for the leaderboard. The full game, when it lands, will be built from exactly the feedback this playtest is collecting. For the price of a wishlist and a playtest download, fans of stylish action games get to watch a genre take a strange, hilarious new form.

Who should try it: character action fans, score chasers, and anyone who has ever wanted a tank to do a spinning backfist.

Who should wait: players who want a campaign, multiplayer, or a finished product. This playtest is a promise, not the payoff.

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Last reviewed by Game How To Editorial. We play each game, verify controls against official sources, and update guides when game mechanics change.