🛡️ Tank Upgrade Arena

A top-down tank shooter with upgrades

Tank Upgrade Arena is a top-down tank shooter in which you start with a small green tank and a plain cannon and finish with a machine that fires rockets, beams a laser and zaps three robots at once. In between are thirty missions, three zones and a garage full of upgrades. Every mission is an arena full of Scrap Bots, the cheeky robot tanks, turrets and drones that have taken over the training grounds, the desert ruins and finally their own robot factory. Knock them all out, collect the coins they drop and drive through the exit gate to win.

The hook is the upgrade loop. Each mission pays out coins, the garage turns those coins into new weapons and stronger armour, and the stronger tank takes on the next, harder mission. A mission that felt impossible at first becomes easy a few upgrades later, and a mission you breezed through can be replayed for three stars.

How to play

You drive with W, A, S and D (or the arrow keys), and the tank's body turns to face the way you are going. The turret on top is separate: it always points at the mouse pointer, so you can drive in one direction while you shoot in another, which is the secret to staying alive. Hold down the mouse button or the Space bar to fire. Number keys 1 to 6, or Q and E, switch between the weapons you own, and the buttons along the bottom of the screen show which one is selected.

Every mission starts quietly. The Scrap Bots wake up when they see you or hear you fighting nearby, so you can often pick them off one at a time instead of facing the whole arena at once. A red arrow at the edge of the screen points to the nearest robot, so you never have to hunt for the last one. When the arena is clear, the exit gate turns green and the arrow points to it.

Six weapons

The Cannon is your starting weapon: steady, reliable shots that hit hard enough to deal with anything early on. The Machine Gun sprays fast little bullets and is great against quick scouts and drones. The Foam Blaster is a short-range spray of thick foam that does not hit very hard but slows any robot it covers right down, perfect for heavy tanks rolling towards you. Rockets are slow to reload but explode with splash damage that hits a whole group, and they smash crates too. The Laser is a steady beam that hurts anything it touches every moment you hold the trigger, and the Shock Coil zaps the nearest robot and then jumps to two more, even over walls for the flying drones.

Every weapon has five upgrade levels that raise its damage and its rate of fire, and a fully upgraded cannon is still a great choice in the last zone. Try them all: different robots and different arenas suit different weapons, and switching at the right moment is part of the skill.

Meet the Scrap Bots

Scouts are small red robot tanks that dart around and strafe from side to side while they shoot. Turrets are fixed gun posts that cover a corridor. Heavy tanks are big, purple, slow and very tough, and their shells hurt. Rocket tanks hang back and fire rockets that curve towards you, so keep moving and use walls as cover. Drones fly straight over walls, circle around you and fire little zaps. At the end of each zone, mission 10, 20 and 30, waits a boss: a huge crowned tank with three guns, curving rockets and a habit of calling in scouts to help. All the enemies are robots, and when they are beaten they simply fall apart into a pile of scrap.

The garage

Between missions, open the Garage to spend your coins. New weapons are bought once and then upgraded level by level. The hull has four upgrades of its own: Armour adds 40 points of protection per level, Engine makes the tank faster, the Repair Bot slowly mends damage during a mission, and the Coin Magnet pulls coins towards you from further away. There is no wrong way to upgrade, but a good plan is to add some armour early, buy one strong weapon, and then build up from there.

If you fail a mission, you keep every coin you collected before your tank was knocked out. Spend them in the garage and try again: the next attempt will be easier.

Stars and zones

A mission is complete when every robot is gone and you have driven through the exit gate. You earn one star for finishing, two stars if you finish with at least 30 percent of your armour left and three stars if you keep 65 percent or more. Stars also add bonus coins. The first ten missions take place on the grassy Training Grounds with sandbag walls. Clear ten missions to open the Desert Ruins, full of broken stone blocks and many more hiding places, and clear twenty to open the Robot Factory, a maze of long metal walls where the toughest Scrap Bots are made.

Tips

Use cover. Robots cannot shoot you through walls (except the drones' zaps over the top), so peek out, fire, and pull back. Keep moving when rocket tanks are around: their rockets turn to follow you, but not very sharply. Smash crates whenever you pass them, because they are full of coins. Fight bosses from a distance and keep a wall nearby to hide behind when the scouts arrive. And remember the Foam Blaster when a heavy tank gets close: slowed down, it is an easy target.

Play on any device

Tank Upgrade Arena runs in the browser on computers, Chromebooks, tablets and phones, with no download and no account. On a touch screen, two sticks appear under the arena: the left one drives and the right one aims and fires automatically while you hold it; tap the weapon buttons to switch. Your coins, upgrades and stars are saved only on your own device. Grown-ups can read more on the Parents & Safety page.

More tank games

Want to battle friends instead of robots? Try Tank Maze Duel, where shells bounce off the walls of a maze. Every tank game on the site is on the Tank Games page, and for more blasting from above take the controls in Gunship Strike 3D.

Frequently asked questions