Tank (Q2)

"Get in, take your shot, and get out. Repeat as often as necessary. These metallic beasts can endure massive gunfire."

- Quake II manual

In Quake II, the Tank is a large, heavily armed and armored behemoth. Due to its array of armaments and heavy armor plating, it is slow and cumbersome, but no less deadly. Despite its name, it doesn't look like a traditional human-operated tank. However, just like a human tank, it is highly resistant to small arms fire, and carries a powerful arsenal of weapons rivaled only by the Tank Commander.

It is first confronted in Unit 2, towards the end of the level, and is fairly rare throughout the rest of the game, although by Unit 8 it becomes uncommon and in Unit 9 it is completely phased out, being replaced entirely by its big brother, the Tank Commander.

Machinegun
The Tank's right arm is a machinegun, which works differently from the one used by the Enforcers or Gunners. It shoots in a wide arc in the players direction, with barely one or two bullets actually hitting at long range. However, the closer the player is to the Tank, the more times the bullet spray will connect, becoming extremely deadly at point blank. It is thus recommended to either take cover or move as far away from the Tank as possible.

Light Blaster
The Tank's left arm is a Light Blaster that fires three blasts in a row, dealing high damage. Whilst it is possible and easy to dodge this attack, the damage it deals is not worth the risk so it is much safer to take cover, wait for the attack to finish and then continue with your own attack.

Rocket Launcher
The Tank's most powerful attack is a shoulder mounted rocket launcher. The Tank's rocket launcher is among the deadliest attacks in the game and makes fighting the Tank in open ground something to avoid at all costs. The Tank can launch a seemingly unlimited stream of rockets which it can aim where the player is about to move to whilst dodging the one before it. For this reason, it is important to face the Tank where there is cover available. If the player takes cover when the Tank launches this attack, it will only fire three rockets before moving to the next attack.

In Ground Zero and The Reckoning, the Tank's animation for this attack has been reversed in order, similar to the Enforcer's Chaingun attack; in vanilla Quake II, the Tank will stand perfectly still for a second as its Rocket Launcher turret turns around into firing position; the Tank will then kneel down and proceed to fire the readied rocket volley. However, in the aforementioned Mission Packs, the Tank will instead fire its rockets seemingly out of nowhere, giving the player no warning at all before the volley of rockets comes their way. This makes encounters with them even more dangerous than usual, since the Tanks can theoretically launch their rockets whenever they please with literally no warning. Players out in the open can then be caught attempting to dodge an entire volley of rockets while either trying to scramble around to kill the Tank, or take cover and wait for the volley to end. Even worse, on Hard+ difficulty, the Tank will fire its rockets in all directions, seeming to lead its shots to a degree, thereby making dodging nearly impossible to do reliably (short of taking cover). Needless to say, take extreme caution when fighting Tanks in the Mission Packs. If necessary, activate a Quad Damage and take the Tank out before it can cause too much trouble (if you have one on you, of course).

Strategies

 * The Tank possesses incredible power, but it is severely disabled by its slow speed which can easily be used to the player's advantage.
 * Alone, you should use a high-powered weapon, such as the Railgun (5 hits to kill it) either by taking pot shots from behind cover or circle-strafe around it with ease due to it's low speed. One BFG10K shot will severely decrease it's health, coupled with a shot or two from the Railgun will make an easy kill of this powerful enemy.
 * With other enemies, the Tank should be your first priority, unless you plan to provoke infighting between him and other Strogg. If you let a Tank live while you're fighting off other enemies, it can inflict major damage with its attacks, especially with its rockets.
 * The Tank's machinegun attack provides good opportunities to provoke infighting due to its spreading pattern. Treat it the same as one tank, but try to be aware of your surroundings while you're circle-strafing him so that you don't accidentally bump into another enemy.
 * In situations like infighting between a tank and another Strogg, the BFG is the best option for an easy getaway. If possible, aim the BFG at the Tank to deal the maximum damage to it and it will also deal damage to surrounding enemies if not kill them. Then clean up what's left with a weaker gun.

Death Messages

 * Player was blasted by a tank (Blaster)
 * Player was pumped full of lead by a Tank (Machinegun)
 * Player almost dodged a Tank's rocket (Rocket Launcher)
 * Player ate a Tank's rocket (Rocket Launcher)

Trivia

 * When Tank is destroyed, player can see, that Tank's face actually looks like that of Tank Commander. The human face's skin which tank wears when not damaged seems to have just a decorative purpose.
 * When Tank is gibbed player can see a part of human torso, which explains why tanks drop blood.
 * Sometimes when player dies, tank will walk to the player's corpse, and looking directly on the screen, he will crouch, swing its blaster arm to the air and slam it on the ground, looking like a victory pose. After that he will stand up and continue its idle behavior.
 * While Tanks appear to have some sort of blue liquid leaking out of their stomach area, it is more likely to be piping or wiring lit up by blue lighting on the side of the Tank's chest plate.
 * Tank's machinegun sweep attack seems to be more powerful than Makron's blaster sweep attack: Tank's shots are hitscan and do 20 damage, while Makron's shots are not hitscan and only do 15 damage.