Fighter

Frighter

Power Tank

The **Fighter** is a tank class that was released unnamed on June 3, 2016, and was fully released on June 4, 2016. It's an upgraded form of the Tri-Angle. This class was buffed on 6/13/2016 (although exact changes are unknown).

## Design

It has five barrels; two of them are on the back of the tank; one is on the each side of the tank, and one of them is on the front of the tank.

## Technical

This tank recoils that speeds you up when you are going forward. The anterior gun deals the most the damage and has above-average penetration, followed by the slightly weaker lateral guns and the much weaker posterior guns. Upon upgrade it adds two barrels.

## Strategy

* **Strong Against: Distracted tanks whose turrets are not facing the fighter and smasher classes**
* **Weak Against: Tanks with good bullet penetration or are shooting at all sides**

### As the Fighter

While most would associate the tri-angle class of tanks to be rammers, the fighter is highly recommended to be played as a glass cannon (0/0/0/5-7/7/7/7/5-7) due to its above-average front and side cannons. With its strong front and side guns and its natural forward recoil, upgrading the tank's gun stats and mobility can make it akin to an Octotank with a Booster's speed. The natural strategy for this is hit-and-run, with the following as cases the fighter can be used effectively:

* Approach the enemy from its side or its back and dash in and deal damage while maintaining at least 1/3 to 1/2 of the screen's distance. The fast bullet speed should make up for the distance and do large damage, and hopefully finish the enemy before they can react. Should the enemy be responsive and immediately turns its gun towards you, you can either (1) dodge it using your high mobility ex. the bullets of snipers, destroyers or (2) take advantage of the target distance you established escape while avoiding the bullets coming in your direction (ex. twin and machine gun upgrades).
* It should be noted that the forward gun has naturally high penetration, and adding points to penetration, damage, and reload can actually allow you to finish off Overlord and Necromancer drones (even at maximum drone health) before they can reach you (provided you weren't ambushed with no time to react). Without the disadvantage of a backwards recoil like in most high-reload tanks (Sprayer, Pentashot), this makes it plausible to destroy these tanks while simultaneously destroying minions as they are regenerated.
* Use your powerful side-guns to strafe the enemy. Combined with your mobility, this is useful in attacking tanks camping around the mothership or the dominators while still maintaining your net forward recoil to avoid bullet streams. Circle around the mother-ship and dominators and achieve random kills. In addition, the side-guns are also a powerful deterrent against weaker tanks who distract you from chasing your main target, allowing you to force a one-on-one battle against it
* The forward recoil of the tank means that the rear guns leave a very long stream of bullets in your flank. Use this bullet stream as a shield when escaping enemies when you are at low health. With the addition of swerving around to dodge strong, low-reload bullets (sniper, destroyer), aiming your rear bullet stream to fast high-reload bullets (twins, machine guns) can neutralize or decrease the damage caused. This allows you to easily escape losing battles alive and return again once regenerated.
* While the natural high speed of the Fighter means that you can outrun any tanks chasing you, some tanks such as the Triangle, Booster, Fighter, Destroyer, Hybrid can reach you, which is lethal should they be outfitted with a ramming build. In these situations, the rear cannons can also be used as an effective deterrent. By aiming your rear bullet stream to the charging tank, you can slow their advance or even ruin their aim. Take advantage of the naturally weak guns of the ramming build Booster (or the gun not aiming at you for the Destroyer) and out-penetrate them with your respectable rear guns. The average damage and the high reload should force the chasing tank to retreat once they see that they won't get anywhere by chasing you and that you are slowly draining their health.
* For smasher branches, if they approach you, just shoot them while backing up. The knockback of the bullets actually keep them behind. But if they retreat, then chase them with your forward recoil. But this procedure will require max penetration and damage. Don't forget the reload.

The low health and regeneration in this tank makes it a very attractive target for people aware of a glass-cannon Fighter. For this reason, crucial skills involve maintaining a fair target distance (1/3 to 1/2 your monitor's screen length) at all times and to know when to escape. It is almost always suicide to deal with high-reload tanks head on, and two high-reload tanks shooting at two different directions can easily cut off your escape route and finish you. A tip to have better control of your battles is to travel horizontally, as it allows more reaction time than suddenly meeting a powerful tank/ramming tank if travelling vertically.

### Against the Fighter

The biggest weakness of the glass-cannon build fighter is its low health and regeneration. For this reason, several classes of tanks can effectively take the Fighter on and come out victorious:

* High-reload tanks outfitted with a high reload build can make any Fighter make second thoughts before engaging you. Multiple-gun tanks with focus fire (Twin upgrades except Octotank, Machine Gun, Gunner and the Sprayer) should ideally be able to neutralize the single front gun of the Fighter while escaping from any of its attempts to flank you using the natural backwards recoil. This is more effective when teaming up with each other and shooting at the Fighter from 2 different directions, making it near impossible for the Fighter to dodge all your combined bullet storms.
* Destroyers and Hybrids can easily make short work of the Fighter should you be able to ambush it or should the Fighter make careless moves. The absence of any focus fire (many guns facing the same direction) on the Fighter means that its bullet stream can easily be neutralized in one shot of your large bullet. Be careful not to bite more than you can chew though, as the Fighter can take advantage of your slow bullet speed and low reload by dodging your bullet while charging at you.
* If you play it right, an Overlord should serve as some of the most effective deterrents against a Fighter. An Overlord with maxed-out bullet speed can take advantage of its range to attack the Fighter in its blind spots (gaps between its guns). This involves knowledge on knowing the proper time to strike, as attacking too early can allow the Fighter to wipe off your drones (see above), take advantage of your temporary vulnerability by making a sharp turn and charging at you, or simply escaping your drones. Should you play it right, ambushing a Fighter that came too close for its own comfort will allow you to easily dispatch of it. This technique can also work using the Necromancer, but is more risky owing to the slower drone speed and lack of natural drone regeneration.
* Ramming build tanks can also work and take out the Fighter in one shot, but requires ambush techniques and high mobility to surprise it.

## Trivia

* The Fighter its name created by the fanbase.
	+ The Fighter's body design bears some resemblance to a fighter jet, so it was likely to be an inspiration to its name.
* The Fighter, despite looking like it should be slower than the Booster, is actually so close to equal in speed to the Booster that the difference is almost unnoticeable.