I got killed by it while driving in my car at 48km/h. I wasnt expecting it and it hit me with a 120mm shot while it was still offscreen. The car just exploded and I died.
Huh. Tank drones have VIS_50 so you should see them first if there’s no blockage in the sightline. (After that, freak occurrences can happen where one party sees the other but not vice versa…)
Hmmm so this is the thing that killed me in my last game.
Was just about to head into a house and see a trail of smoke head towards me then DEATH :(./
I get that the game needs more challenging enemies for high level characters, but having tank drones just waiting around randomly on the roads kind of sucks. They feel like an extremely cheap death in that they can easily one shot newer characters, have crazy range, and even splash damage. If they were in the bottom of some military tank hangar they’d feel balanced but randomly wandering into one isn’t fun at all.
I said the same thing about zoose, minus putting them into a military hangar, until I figured tactics and strategy.
When I first started play CCDA it was all I could not to die in the firs day with a cheat character, now I can get a regular survivor with regular good/bad traits and no starting skills and clear a whole town in a couple of days unless a tank drone shows up. It’s all a learning process.
You can still die to bad luck even if you are experienced. I discovered a chickenwalker around a house corner which killed me within 2 rounds in which i could not react. Life ain t always fair 
Seeing how this thread is linked to from the Tank Drone Wiki page I felt it was OK to necro post to update some information.
As of 0.C 6399 experimental a stick of dynamite only does moderate damage taking a tank drone to about half health. This was from a radio dynamite bomb on a RC car detonated while directly beside the drone. So dynamite no longer one shots these guys.
[quote=“SBombay, post:27, topic:7567”]Seeing how this thread is linked to from the Tank Drone Wiki page I felt it was OK to necro post to update some information.
As of 0.C 6399 experimental a stick of dynamite only does moderate damage taking a tank drone to about half health. This was from a radio dynamite bomb on a RC car detonated while directly beside the drone. So dynamite no longer one shots these guys.[/quote]
I think M72 LAW still does decent damage though I’m not sure. I prefer to leave them alone when possible instead of (possibly) destroying my truck by ramming them down.
And feel free to add some useful tips on the wiki page (http://cddawiki.chezzo.com/cdda_wiki/index.php?title=Tank_drone). The wiki could use a little help though, it has been left out-of-sync for far too long.
I know I one-shotted a tank drone with an M72 LAW about a month ago with a then current experimental. You don’t have to be completely accurate with the LAW either.
they use tier cannon agaist cars, infantry is attacked with other tank weapons so they are not that big threat too
for weapons i still suggest car ramming, there is a reason why my cars got thier vital components in back not front
My scooter’s Mark 19 grenade launcher took one out with about 5/7 frag 40mms (may have been concussive), while I stayed out of its range.
Some random silliness I’ve done on the tank drone, re-tested on the semi-current version:
-Killing them with loose caltrops: works. You pretty much need to set a large area with caltrops if you want a good chance of destroying them, but it works. A single caltrop does surprisingly good damage against them.
-Goo pits. Turns them into a blob. The chances of having a tank drone spawn near a lab is pretty dang low, so having this happen without any debug is unlikely, but the goo pits work on them.
Also tried a few more silly things:
-Chainsaw Lajatang. Kills them in two to three hits. 13 strength, decent melee skills, but somewhat encumbered by clothing. The tank drone will get some hits in with the flamethrower and tazer, especially since the chainsaw lajatang has a horrid hit chance.
-Barrett and .50 ammo. Two critical shots. Can be done in broad daylight. Can shoot them down before they get in range to shoot the rifle, but they can shoot the grenade launcher.
-100 manhacks. All manhacks die. They can’t damage the tank drone.
-Shoggoth. Tank drone doesn’t seem to use the tank gun. Grenade launcher, rifle, flamethrower and tazer not enough to kill shoggoth. Shoggoth gets near and wrecks the drone.
I remember in an older version creeping up to a tank drone with the artificial darkness cbm and frying it with the EMP CBM…
I assume they can see through that now, but would either the invisibility cloak or an artifact with said power allow one to do the same?
Side note: What about chain lightning? Is that more effective on bots?
- Holy necro batman!
- Hey, cool, I’m on the wiki.
- If I ever get back into Cataclysm I’ll redo these tests.
try with a vorpal dildo, for shits and giggles. 