Beginner's Guide to Overdrives

Hello Tankers! In this quick guide we will answer all the basic questions about Overdrive, this powerful “Hull’s Ability” that offers you a significant advantage on the battlefield.

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The Overdrive feature is the most prevailing mechanic associated with the Hulls equipment and it provides distinctive abilities for every single one of them. Each ability greatly impacts multiple aspects of the gameplay and is available only a few times per game. Strategically deployed they could influence the outcome of the battle in your favour, consequently, mastering the Overdrive in and out is vital for any competitive player.

We will explain below its mode of operation - so you could get more of them per game - and will present their different effects - so you will be more effective when using and more prepared when facing them.

★ How Does Overdrive Operate?

The Overdrive has three distinct phases of operation: Charging, Ready for action and Power-up.

Charging 0% -> 100%

In the PC version, the charging indicator is located on the left-hand bottom corner and is depicted as a large white square with rounded corners. In the middle of it, is pictured the Hull’s ability with a different icon for each hull. A number expressed in percent (%) sitting above it indicates the current percentage of the charge. On the mobile version, the indicator is located on the right-hand side standing by the turret commands and is depicted in the same way for every hull: a small white circle which is progressively filled with a yellow donuts-like shape gauge, and the charging value is nested in the middle of it.

Overdrive charge indicator for Dictator’s hull: Mobile (top) & PC (bottom).

The charge phase starts from 0% upon entering the battlefield, and onward the value increases steadily at a slow rate that varies from hull to hull. The slowest to charge is the Viking's Overdrive with only +15% per 30 seconds and the fastest one is Juggernaut with an impressive 100% within the same time! Among the standard hulls, Hornet and Hunter are the one that charges the fastest: +27% per 30 seconds (nearly twice as fast as Viking). See the table below with charging rate values which are for guidance only as they have been collected from experiments on the MM battlefield, and not from official sources.

Overdrive basic % charge per 30 seconds and relative charge speed versus Viking hull.

However, players can boost the charge when actively participating in the battle: destroying enemy tanks, healing teammates, capturing flags and control points or scoring rugby goals. See the table below with boost values which are for guidance only as they have been collected from experiments on the MM battlefield, and not from official sources.

Percentage boost values per battle actions.

Additionally, the charge can be accelerated thanks to the Driver Drone, which is available at Warrant Officer 5. When equipped and operating, it reduces the recharge time each time you kill an enemy tank: with no micro upgrade = 10 seconds (equivalent to +3~4%) and 30 seconds (+11%) when fully upgraded. Last, but not least, by picking up the orangy Nuclear Energy supply box available on the map, you will instantly complete the charge of the Overdrive up to 100%. In the traditional combat modes (CTF, CP, TDM & DM) most maps sport one of them (Parma is one of the exceptions with two), however, its location could vary from one battle mode to another. In the special battle modes, you could find two drop zones (Assault mode mainly) or not at all like in the Juggernaut mode (except for Rio's map).

Note: Within the special Juggernaut battle mode, the mighty Hull is an overpowered war machine with an enhanced charging system: an unfair increase of +30% per 9 seconds and a monstrous +45% per kill. Needless to say, this enraged beast feeds on Overdrives to survive.

Percentage boost values for Juggernaut's hull.

To summarise, the more you participate in the battle, the faster you charge, therefore, the more often the Overdrive is available.

Ready for action

Once the progress indicator reaches 100 (%), your Overdrive is ready for use, and a special icon in the shape of a white star ★appears above your tank. In the same manner, you will be able to see the Overdrive readiness of your allies too, but not of your enemies.

However, with the Hornet’s hull ability the readiness of your enemy Overdrive will be revealed. No star appears above your hull in the mobile version, instead, the charge indicator will be glowing with a light-orange colour and display the Tanki Online logo instead of numbers.

Once the Overdrive’s charging phase is completed, it will not reset until it is powered by the player, therefore if you keep it too long you would not have time to make a new full charge.

Power-up

To activate your fully charged Overdrive, you must press the [Shift] key, which is the activation key set per default on the PC version. If needed, you can customise it to a more appropriate key in the setting panel. In the mobile version, tap on the glowing yellow charge indicator to power up the Overdrive. The activation of the ability is accompanied by visual and sound effects, which is unique to each Hull. Once triggered, the white star disappears, and the charge percentage decreases as it powers the Overdrive mechanics. Once the overdrive is fully spent the indicator will indicate 0% unless you died before the complete discharge, and in this case, it will start to increase again from the last level. To obtain another Overdrive, a new full charge is required. In the meanwhile, you can benefit from the Overdrive effect of an ally who shared it to the players present in its vicinity.

Visual effects of the overdrives on power-up.

Note: Be aware that only the basic time charge, will be applied until the current Overdrive bonuses are worn off! In other words, the system will not add any of the charge boost points from your actions in combat: for example, capping a flag or killing an enemy will add +0%.

★ What Are The Hull’s Abilities?

Each Hull has its own unique ability, which is different from the others. They differ in many aspects, such as the possibility to share its effect or not, the distance of action and the overall way they work. Some are based on basic game mechanics such as supplies activation/deactivation (Dictator, Hunter) and Health point recovery (Dictator, Titan), or turret fire rates and damage/shot rate increases (Viking), but others are altogether new features: a timed bomb (Wasp), a generator dome shield (Titan), invincibility (Mammoth), … Some of the abilities can be fully shared (Dictator) or partially (Hornet) or not at all: the effect remains to the tanker who activated it (Wasp, Hunter, …). Furthermore, the distance of action and effect varies from local (Hunter, Titan, Wasp) to the full map (Hornet).

Hereunder are listed the Hull’s Overdrives from the lightest hull (Wasp) to the heaviest (Juggernaut) with a short description of the ability, the visual effect when activated and if the ability is shared with allies.

★ Overdrives’ Interaction

The Overdrives not only influence the standard mechanics but also the Hull ability of enemies, consequently their interaction add more complexity to the game-play and you must know them if you don’t want to waste yours.

For example,if a Wasp switches on its Overdrive and lays a Bomb with the 3 seconds countdown. Within that time frame a Hunter comes along and uses its ability over the Wasp, consequently defusing the bomb, no explosion happens and voila! Hunter’s ability will be the one to watch out in battle as it annihilates the ability of many hulls: It defuses Wasp’s bomb, jams Viking’s firepower, removes Dictator’s supplies, switches off Titan’s dome generator and stalls Mammoth.

The other ability that renders useless other Overdrives’ effect is the Mammoth’s God mode, when in this state nothing can damage it, not even the ability of another Mammoth. It remains unaffected by the abilities from Wasp (bomb damage), Hornet (protection module), Viking, Dictator, Mammoth and Juggernaut. However if the second Mammoth activates the Overdrive several seconds after the enemy and stay in contact it will last longer thus destructing the enemy as soon has it runs out. The third Overdrive of concern is the Titan’s, both his protective and generative shield is powerful enough to reduce the effect of others overdrive: Wasp, Viking, Mammoth. On the other hand, it remains ineffective against Hornet’s overdrive.

See below a summary overview of the known interactions when the green hull power-up Overdrive first and second apart a red hull power-up its own.

Conclusion, it is better to activate yours after the enemy did it.

★ Technical Details Summary

► Overdrive is available to all players, from Recruit to Legend .

► The first charge starts at zero percent, from when you spawn for the first time and gradually increases as you play up to 100%.

► Self-destruction does not affect the charge percentage.

► Charging continues while re-spawning and changing equipment in the garage.

► Charging is reset to zero when changing hull.

► The Assault Driver Drone increases the charge per kill.

► Picking up the Nuclear Energy supply on the battlefield will fully charge the Overdrive.

► Juggernaut charging mechanics is faster than other hulls. The slowest is Viking's Overdrive.

► The Overdrive can only be activated when fully charged at 100%.

► When fully charge a white star ★ will appears above your tanks.

► You cannot see the star of your enemy unless you have activated the Hornet Hull’s abilities.

► Overdrive is activated by pressing [Shift] key on the keyboard or by tapping on the icon in the mobile version.

► The turret’s alteration, with increased damaged power and rates, will be deactivated during the power-up of the Viking’s Overdrive, therefore the ability will operate with the standard turret’s parameters.

► Each ability is linked to a specific hull, and differs for each hull.

► Some abilities can disable or moderate the effect of other opponent’s activated ability.

► When creating a PRO-battle, you can enable or disable the Overdrive.

► Overdrive is disabled by default in battles of special formats (except Parkour).

★ Further Reading and Videos

Forum launch announcement: Overdrives tomorrow!

Visual effect video: Overdrives presentation

TankiWiki: https://en.tankiwiki.com/Overdrive. (not up to date)

Special Newspaper article: Scrutinized: The All-New Overdrives!

Video 1: V-LOG 205 is live! (Video)

Video 2: V-LOG 197 is live! (Video)

Video 3: V-LOG 194 is live! (Video)

More Beginners' Guide available here: Welcome!

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Now that you know all the technical basics of the Overdrives, it is time to put this knowledge to good use and good luck!

Credits to Viking4s