Death Tank

Edit 1: Please read the entire solution as there are no official "rules" to getting Tank Commander this is just how I was able to do it with a bunch of other people. While you can still do Small Teams it has been found that Free For All is the best and fastest way to go. (explanation found for this is found at the end at the rest of the edit)

Edit 2: GUARANTEED to get at "Senior Gunner" rank as long as you are playing the matches online.

Edit 3: This information comes from Bahaumat and is EXTREMELY crucial in obtaining this!!

"There's a post by Ezra Dreisbach on the official forums that explains how the Rank is determined, complete with the C/++ function from the code. The URL is: http://flatgames.com/forums/index.php?topic=13.msg24#msg24

Basically, rank points are earned by finishing in the top 50% of the scores. One point per minute played. These appear to be cumulative. This is then multiplied by a factor based on your highest TrueSkill rank, the max being 50. Per the posting, TrueSkill rank 50 is 10x faster than a rank of 0. If you get to rank 25, then drop down to rank 1, it still calculates your game rank at the 25 value.

Given the other posts, the goal is to get a somewhat high TrueSkill, to lock in that value, as well as a decent amount of time played while still being on the winning side (above 50% on the endgame scoreboard). This could explain why several have earned the 5K kill leaderboard but not much rank; they blow through the 7 computers rapidly, getting the kills, but the rank is actually based on time spent. 20 rounds that ends in 30 seconds means only 10 minutes (and 10 points), even if you manage 100 kills in that time frame. A two player game that has a few rounds boosting your scores, then idling for a while should help gain those extra ranks. Or idling for a good bit, then later boosting for the TrueRank score."

Original Post:

At time of this writing it is not known to me whether it is games played or xp by score. Ranked Matches seem the best way to level.

Best is 6 people for Free-For-All but you can do 4 for Small Teams! Ranks can be found at http://www.flatgames.com/node/4 but it does not give any info for requirements!

Everyone but the Killer will shoot themselves twice as it only takes 3 direct hits to kill a tank and your cannon starts in the straight up position (90 degrees) so every tank will end up being a 1 hit besides the Killer(s). Now just take turns being the Killer (or Winning Team) and this should only take around 4 or 5 hours.

Note: I have seen a boosting partner get this 1 rank early at Senior Gunner..cross your fingers and overall this isn't hard just boring and easier compared to doing this in Arcade single player!

Note 2: You may not see rank update for 2 matches afterward.

Edit 1: Free For All with 6 people is WAY better than Small Teams. After playing various matches of ST and FFA I have noticed a huge difference in "xp gain" or at least ranking up. With FFA you get all the kills against differently ranked people so if you have a fewer higher ranking people this will go by a lot smoother.

Your best strategy is to have the lower ranking people go FIRST so that they level up and then when the higher ranking people go they get more xp than they would have if the lowers had not leveled up yet. That being said be sure that if you want this to go by as fast as possible that everyone who is getting killed shoot themselves twice so that they are a 1 Shot (if hit directly).

Have the killer go all 15 rounds and you should notice substantial Rank up (at least 1 to 3 ranks if your really low) and make sure everyone exits the shop ASAP so you are not waiting those extra 30 seconds in between rounds. Games should take roughly 20 minutes if you are not waiting at shop.

This guide is for the current state of the game. Right now TrueSkill does not update, so if you're just starting the game, you'll be stuck at TrueSkill 0 regardless of how many online games you play or who you play against. The game also does not like to credit you with the correct amount of time played, I'll tell you why this is important soon.

Each level up requires a certain number of rank points. You get 1 rank point for every minute played in a match as long as you finish in the top 50% of the scores. If you don't finish in the top 50% then you don't get any rank points for that match. A higher TrueSkill means more rank points per minute played (up to 10 if you are TrueSkill 50) but as of right now you can't increase your TrueSkill.

The ONLY thing that matters for rank is time played in matches that you finished in the top 50%, and trueskill if you're lucky enough to already have that. As of right now the game does not track your time properly online. You might play a 20–30-minute match and it only gives you 2 minutes of playtime, most of the time it seems to give you no playtime. That means if you stay online this achievement could take you a very long time since most of your matches are not counting towards your rank. I played for several hours a day and was only at 2 hours playtime after 5 days. I found a work around though.


How to rank up easily, almost purely idle
Go to your hard drive and "clear cache" this will delete the patch and let you play offline. When you boot the game select no you don't want to download the update. Now start a 1v1 custom match against another controller (I used 20 round matches). You want to kill the dummy controller on the first round right before the orbital storm hits and then idle the rest of the game, letting the orbital storm kill you both to end the next rounds. If your dummy gets within 25 points of your score you want to kill it again (it can get 25 points a round if it survives the storm and you don't). The only time you really have to do anything is press A at the end of the round and B on both controllers to end shopping.

You'll get full credit for all the time played (I was getting 35-45 minutes per 20 rounder) and it will all count towards ranking up. You can always go back online and download the update to check how much playtime you are currently at.

The ranking system (all this time has to have been spent in the top 50%)
Rank 2 - 7 minutes
Rank 3 - 38 minutes
Rank 4 - 104 minutes
Rank 5 - 213 minutes
Rank 6 - 371 minutes
Rank 7 - 585 minutes
Rank 8 - 859 minutes [It can glitch and give you the achievement at this rank]
Rank 9 [tank commander] - 1200 minutes (20 hours)

A picture of each rank
https://web.archive.org/web/20150426053109/http://www.flatga...

That's all you have to do! Pretty simple and don't even have to go through the hassle of finding a boosting group or dealing with playtime not counting correctly online.

**Note single player modes do not seem to award rank points, so it's a waste of time to play them.