Booster

For the boss based off of this, see Fallen Booster.

The  was released on June 3, 2016 unnamed and was fully released on June 4, 2016. It is one of the two upgrades that branches off the Tri-Angle. It cannot upgrade further.

Design
It has a total of five Barrels. Four of them are at the back with two pairs close together made for the accelerators which shoot weak Bullets and one Barrel in front of the tank which does moderate damage. The angles between Booster Barrels clockwise from the front cannon are: 135º, 15º, 60º, 15º, & 135º.

The only visible feature that differs from the Tri-Angle is that it has two more Barrels on the back.

Technical
Upon upgrading, this tank adds two Barrels at the back. Also, it slightly increases Movement Speed and Reload. The Barrels at the back shoot weaker and faster Bullets that last only for 1.5 seconds instead of 3 seconds. This tank has recoil that speeds the tank up while going forward when shooting but has a horrendous backwards movement speed.

Strategy

 * Strong Against: Low DPS, Low Fire Rate, Slow Smasher/Melee Tanks
 * Weak Against: High DPS, Decent Drone Tanks with decent players, Sprayer, Fighter, Trappers

As the Booster
Because of this tank’s speed, it is one of the hardest to kill (judging by the attacker’s skill/Stats and the target’s maneuverability/skill/Stats). It is also one of the few tanks that can go up against an Overlord, Overseer, Manager, Necromancer or Battleship due to its speed outmaneuvering the enemy’s Drones.

A commonly used strategy with this tank is to dive in, deal damage, dodge Bullets and retreat before the enemy can kill you. This tank is well known for its ramming capabilites, as it can use its fast speed to crash into enemies easily. Recommended builds for this are 5/7/7/0/0/0/7/7, 7/7/7/0/0/0/6/6, or 7/7/7/0/0/0/5/7. This is particularly useful against tanks with slow Reload and Bullet Speed, as you can circle them and easily avoid the Bullets, such as the Hybrid (although Hybrids can also be a dangerous threat; the two Drones damage you, making you a bit weaker (and the Hybrid can instantly kill you by either ramming in with its full health or shooting you with its massive cannon)). As a note, a direct hit from the Hybrid with max Damage and Penetration with not kill you if you have full Max Heath and a full bar of health). However, this strategy usually doesn’t work against high DPS (Twin classes especially and Machine Gun classes) tanks, as it is difficult to push through their rapid-fire Bullets to actually make contact with them. If you get too close, they can simply push you back and destroy you with their Bullets. However, sneaking up to these tanks vertically and running into them before they can react may work.

Your second option as a Booster is to be what you fear: a bullet spamming Booster. If you max out on Bullet Damage, Bullet Penetration, Bullet Speed, and Reload, you become a threat due to double concentrated fire on the back, with a head cannon to clear the way. However, this makes you very vulnerable, as you have no attributes to a good defense nor a good escape plan (unless you upgrade your Movement Speed). Nevertheless, it makes you easy to kill if the opponent lands hits on you and kill you.

Your third option as a Booster is to get high Bullet Damage, Bullet Penetration (but not Bullet Speed), Movement Speed, and medium/high Max Health and Health Regeneration and attack low-level tanks. You can chase them down and kill them with your Bullets. They will probably assume you are using a Body Damage build and try to avoid your body instead of your ammunition and end up dying by your Bullets. This strategy can work well against level 45 tanks, since your high damage and penetration can easily deal damage and kill them; But it is recommended to attack them by surprise to easily kill them.

One very important reminder: avoid Octo Tanks and Triple Twins. When you see them, avoid them at all costs, because diving in makes you take damage, and touching the Octo Tank/Triple Twin with high Body Damage will certainly kill you. Octo Tanks/Triple Twins without Body Damage usually focus on Bullet Damage, meaning that you would probably die even before reaching them. However, the Octo Tank has 8 small gaps where a Booster can ram them from, so by simply running to those gaps, you can avoid a lot of Bullets, while also giving you a chance to destroy the opposing Octo Tank. A Triple Twin has far larger gaps which mean it’s easier to kill one. Nevertheless, never attempt to do so unless you are skilled.

In TDM, when one side has full control over the Leaderboard, the Booster is commonly the tank that gets a couple of kills and is the only one on their team on the Leaderboard. This seems to happen with a Ramming Booster more commonly. When this occurs, a Ramming Booster can easily kill many medium-level tanks between bases by attacking them from behind, blocking off their escape route to a safe base, then outrunning and ramming them.


 * Note: The Bullets fired from the back Barrels shoot Bullets are five times weaker than the Bullets fired from the front Barrel, but have high recoil in return, so don’t rely on them to damage your enemies.

Against the Booster
The most effective counter against the Booster is by using Traps to lock down an area you want them to stay out of.

Another effective counter(unless they are a bullet build) is to simply bait them as a Necromancer and attack them with all your drones. However, skilled players may not fall for the bait or even kill you if you are not careful.

If you are not going down the Trapper route, then the second best way to deal with Boosters is through raw Bullet damage output. Using the Destroyer, Annihilator’s, and or the Hybrid’s massive Bullet will instantly kill any non-Body Damage based tank, and even these ramming builds lose over three-quarters of their health. However, since most Destroyer bullet builds don’t max out bullet damage, it may only take down half a rammer’s health and a third of a Smasher’s health. Using a high DPS class like the Penta Shot, Triplet, and Sprayer is also a great deterrent.

If you are skilled with it, and the opponent Booster is about to ram you, you can also use the Overseer branch to kill it, moving your drones very close to yourself, then slowly moving your drones towards the Booster to surround it. You will often survive, with minimum losses. Also, this has been tested.

The last, and by far the simplest way to deal with them, is to simply avoid them. Use the Sniper branch’s high field of view to see them before they see you. If you just spawned/respawned next to a hungry Booster, invest as many points as possible into Reload and Movement Speed and get out of there! If you are a low-level Tri-Angle, use your Movement Speed to get out of there as well (or ram the Booster if it has lost at least 1/4 HP).

Trivia

 * The recoil from the back cannons were likely to be an inspiration to its name.
 * Along with the Fighter, it is one of two names submitted by fans to be given to a tank in-game.
 * The Booster, along with the Tri-Angle, and the to be tested Sprayer are the best Classes at avoiding the Arena Closer.
 * The rear barrels of the Booster (alongside the Tri-Angle and the Fighter) have one of the lowest base Bullet Damage in the game. Their Bullet Damage is equal to Streamliner's. It takes them 108 shots to destroy one Pentagon with their non-upgraded rear canons.
 * Contrary to popular belief, its predecessor Tri-Angle is actually faster than the Booster, despite only having two barrels at the back.
 * A Ramming Booster (With full Body Damage and Max Health) has an approximate health near 1/4th of an Alpha Pentagon.

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