Destroyer

The  is a Tier 3 Tank and can be upgraded from Machine Gun, and previously, the Machine Gun II. It can upgrade further to the Hybrid the Annihilator, or the Skimmer.

Design
The Destroyer features a circular body, with a large rectangular Cannon which fires a huge and very strong Bullet.

Technical
Changes to Base Stats upon upgrading from the Machine Gun:
 * Bullet Penetration is multiplied by 2 and Damage is multiplied by 30/7
 * Bullet Size is doubled
 * Reload is divided by 8
 * Bullet Speed is 1.5x slower
 * Recoil is multiplied by 15

Strategy

 * Strong Against: Melee Classes, slow moving tanks, most unsuspecting tanks within a short range.
 * Weak Against: Snipers, Skilled Drone users.

As the Destroyer

 * Putting some points into Reload will let players take advantage of the recoil, allowing quick movement around the map. This can be an advantage for ramming Destroyers. Ramming is a great technique for a Destroyer, the boost ability allows the Destroyer to kill an opponent very fast, and if it fails, it can recoil away. If a Destroyer also has points in Bullet Damage and/or Bullet Penetration, when the Ramming Destroyer goes to escape, it may also shoot the bullet at its opponent, if the bullet hits, it could seriously injure or even kill the opponent.
 * Players can put your cursor in the exact center of your tank. This way, the tank will shoot in the opposite direction that they're moving, which uses recoil to make the player move faster. This can be used to chase victims but only with high Body Damage and Max Health. This may not work on Boosters or other fast tanks which can easily storm off.
 * A skilled Destroyer will know when their next ‘dash’ will occur and, the seconds before that can be used to trick the target into thinking that they are going a different direction than they actually intend. You can make it very hard for your enemy to predict your next move by placing your cursor to a random direction and then firing it towards the enemy’s area a split second later. Another strategy would be to put the cursor in the opposite direction, as if the Destroyer was going to boost toward the enemy, then suddenly turn around and shoot. Also, using a "flicking" technique is usually only for High RoF tanks, but utilizing this as a Destroyer makes it extremely hard to predict where the bullet will be going, or the bullet may be shot randomly, making it much harder to dodge a Destroyer bullet.
 * With its distinctively large Bullets and the significant damage increase, the Destroyer can also deal heavy damage with its Bullets.
 * By maxing Bullet Damage and Bullet Penetration, the Destroyer’s Bullets can deal massive damage to tanks and stop huge amounts of returning fire (one of its maxed out Bullets can kill a tank with Max Health, though not with maxed Body Damage).
 * The Destroyer can kill slow tanks with ease, despite its low Reload.
 * The Destroyer can easily knock out a Triple Twin and/or an Octo Tank due to its extremely focused power.
 * It is great to use against Alpha Pentagons due to its massive Bullet Penetration and Bullet Damage. Be warned though: the Destroyer is vulnerable to Crashers, because of its low rate of fire.
 * Generally, the Destroyer tank is extremely deadly up close but helpless from far away.
 * Because of this, move mostly vertically, and try to attack from above/below, where the victim's FOV is the least, giving less reaction time. Using this strategy, this tank is able to one-shot tanks with great success.

Against the Destroyer

 * Killing a Destroyer can be difficult in many cases, as most Destroyers can either build Bullet Damage or Body Damage. Destroyers are often easily picked off at range due to their slow projectile and limited FoV, so using Sniper and its upgrades are effective. It is also recommended to swarm projectiles at the Destroyer from all angles, as the lack of defense other than the recoil can completely annihilate the Destroyer. But due to the recoil of its Bullets, it can jump back and kite Drones as well as being able to clear a group of smaller Bullets or projectiles going in a straight line with one of its own Bullets.
 * Players should use the Overseer and its branches to kill the Destroyer. Since a Destroyer’s bullet is extremely powerful, the player will need to hit them from multiple angles. One way is to repel the Drones toward them until the drones are around the enemy, then collapse the drones into Destroyer's hull; the player will need to predict when they will recoil to get a successful kill. In many cases, the player will need to make multiple attempts before success. A Necromancer is a more powerful counter, as it can swarm its massive amount of drones around the Destroyer.
 * Avoid fighting near a Destroyer in close-quarters or ramming them whenever possible. Their huge projectile can easily wound the player, doing a huge amount of damage and virtually guaranteed to wipe out most tanks. They can also use the recoil from their projectile to become a rammer themselves and bump into other tanks, creating a similar effect if they have high Body Damage.
 * Smasher classes should avoid bullet-build Destroyers at all costs. Not only can they kill Smashers in 3 shots or less, but they can chase them by using their recoil.
 * Countering the Destroyer is easy with Bullet spamming tanks due to its slow fire rate.
 * The Ranger and other Sniper classes are the best counter to Destroyers due to their long range and greater field of view. A damage focused build is great for gaining a fire-rate advantage against the Destroyer, as well as being able to take it by surprise due to the Destroyer having a smaller field of view.

History

 * Back in the early days of Diep.io, this was an upgraded form of the Machine Gun at Level 30, and the Machine Gun II at Level 45. This made it one of the tanks to be a Tier 3 and Tier 4 tank simultaneously at the time. The Level 45 version was coined the Mega Destroyer but it was removed as the Gunner was released.

Trivia

 * The Destroyer has the second most recoil and the second largest Bullet out of any playable tank in Diep.io (excluding Sandbox mode).
 * The Tank with the largest Bullet is the Annihilator, which is an upgraded form of the Destroyer.