About Tank Stars

Tank Stars belongs to one of the oldest genres in computer gaming: the artillery duel. Two vehicles sit on opposite sides of uneven terrain, and each turn you choose an angle, choose a power level, and fire. Gravity does the rest. The lineage runs back through Worms to Scorched Earth and ultimately to a BASIC program called Artillery that circulated in the 1970s, and the core loop has survived intact because it is close to perfect.

The two variables are what make it a game rather than a coin flip. Angle determines the shape of the arc, power determines its length, and the terrain between you determines what you can and cannot clear. A shot that falls short tells you to add power; one that sails over tells you to reduce it. Good players bracket a target in two shots and land the third, and the tension is that your opponent is doing exactly the same arithmetic while you do yours.

Weapon selection adds the second layer. Different shells behave differently — some fly flat and fast, some arc high, some split or scatter on the way down — so the same angle and power produce different results depending on what you loaded. Choosing the right weapon for a given distance and terrain profile is often more decisive than fine-tuning the angle.

Terrain deformation is the mechanic that keeps a duel from stalling. Every impact digs into the ground, which means the battlefield after ten shots is not the battlefield you started on. Cover disappears, angles that were blocked open up, and a tank that had been safely tucked behind a ridge can find that ridge has been shot away. Some of the best shots in the genre are the ones that reshape the terrain rather than hitting the target.

The version here supports online play, matches against the computer, and local two-player on the same keyboard. That last mode is worth noting — passing a keyboard back and forth is how a lot of people first met this genre, and it remains the most enjoyable way to play it.

This build is by Big Game Freaks and is distributed through Playhop, the Yandex games platform, so it runs in a browser tab with no install. Playhop plays a short advertisement before the game starts, which is how the platform pays the developer. Turn-based play means it works comfortably on desktop, phone or tablet.

Tips for Tank Stars

• Bracket rather than guess. Fire once deliberately long and once deliberately short, then split the difference — two sighting shots and a hit beats five hopeful ones.
• Adjust power before angle. Power maps to distance almost linearly, which makes it the easier variable to correct; angle changes the whole shape of the arc and is harder to reason about mid-duel.
• Match the weapon to the terrain, not to its damage number. A flat fast shell is useless against a tall ridge, and a high-arcing one wastes its advantage on open ground.
• Watch where your misses land. Every shot is information about wind, gravity and the terrain profile, and players who ignore their own near-misses take twice as long to range in.
• Use shots to reshape terrain when you cannot reach your opponent. Digging away the ridge protecting them opens the angle for next turn — a miss that changes the map is not wasted.
• Remember the battlefield is changing under you too. Impacts near your own position can remove your cover or drop your tank into a hole with a worse firing angle.
• Play the local two-player mode with someone in the room. Artillery games are far better with an opponent you can hear reacting than against a silent online one.

Did you know?

• The artillery duel genre traces back to a BASIC program simply called Artillery from the 1970s, and runs through Scorched Earth and the Worms series to games like this one.
• Angle and power are the only two variables in a classic artillery shot, which is why the genre is easy to learn and difficult to master.
• Terrain in Tank Stars deforms with every impact, so the battlefield after several turns is materially different from the one the duel started on.
• Different shell types follow different trajectories, meaning weapon choice frequently matters more than fine-tuning the firing angle.
• This build is developed by Big Game Freaks and distributed through Playhop, Yandex's browser games platform.
• Because play is turn-based, the game loses nothing on a touchscreen — unlike real-time titles, slower input costs you nothing.