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Need some help dealing with these armored vehicles? This article explains how to find and kill an Annihilator Tank in Helldivers 2.
Helldivers 2 is a sci-fi co-op shooter where you fight against space bugs called Terminids and robots called The Automaton Collective, to defend Humanity, Liberty, and Democracy. You’ll face a wide variety of enemies, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Naturally, the largest enemies are also the toughest and require a different approach, compared to the “chaff”. One such enemy is the Automaton Annihilator Tank, so read on to see how to find and kill it in Helldivers 2.
How to Find Annihilator Tanks in Helldivers 2
Annihilator Tanks are the “massive” units of The Automaton Collective. That means you can only find them on Automaton planets. They are on the western (left-hand) side of the Galaxy map, the ones in the red-colored sectors.
Being massive enemies, you’ll only start encountering Anihillator Tanks on Hard difficulty. But, if you need more than a few Tanks (for a Personal Order, for example), consider playing on Extreme difficulty and higher. The higher the difficulty, the more Tanks you’ll encounter.
What Is an Annihilator Tank
The Annihilator Tank is the largest Automaton unit (at least for now). Unsurprisingly, it is a huge tank, with a turret-mounted heavy cannon and a hull-mounted machine gun. The official description is: “Shamelessly copied from Super Earth tank designs, the Automaton Tank is clearly inferior in such a multitude of aspects that it would be impractical to list them here. Variants: Heavy Cannon, Quad HMG”. Annihilator Tank is the one with the heavy cannon. The variant with the quad heavy machine guns is called Shredder Tank.
Where to Find an Annihilator Tank
As already mentioned, Annihilator Tanks can be found on Hard difficulty, but appear more often on Extreme and higher. Unlike their Terminid counterpart, there are no missions where the objective is to eliminate a Tank. So, you can only find them either in large Automaton outposts or similar objectives, or they may be brought to the field by a Dropship.
How to Kill Annihilator Tank in Helldivers 2
The Annihilator Tank is arguably the toughest enemy in the game. Unlike the Bile Titan, you cannot open up its armor and shoot the exposed parts inside. But, against experienced Helldivers, it is not that deadly. As with most tough units in Helldivers 2, you have two options: look for weak spots and armor-piercing weapons.
The Tank has a weak spot, located behind the turret. You can easily find it, as it looks like a large, glowing, exhaust vent. Unfortunately, Annihilator Tanks are so durable that even their weak spots are armored, so you’ll need a bit more powerful weapons to be able to deal some damage. Circle around the Tank’s turret and unload everything you got on the glowing exhaust. Bear in mind that grenades, other than Impact, will usually bounce off. But a couple of Impact Grenades to the vent will make short work of the Tank. Unfortunately, the Tank’s turret can rotate 360 degrees and a bunch of smaller bots usually accompany it, so this is easier said than done.
If you do not want to bother with weak spots, brute force is the way to go. The usual batch of armor-piercing weapons works perfectly against the Annihilator. It is the second-toughest Automaton out there so don’t hold back. Stratagems like the Orbital Railcannon, Orbital Laser, Eagle Airstrike, and Eagle 500kg Bomb are great for destroying a Tank quickly. As for weapons, Quasar, Expendable Anti-Tank, Recoilless Rifle, and Spear are all great against it.
The Annihilator is deadly at a distance and its cannon can easily one-shot a group of Helldivers. In those situations, the Spear is the safest option (as it locks on the target, no need to aim much), as is the Orbital Railcannon. If you can, try aiming for its turret, rather than the hull, since many experienced Helldivers claim that it is a softer target.
You can damage it by dropping a Hellpod on it, and standing on top of the Tank can be one of the safest spots to be in, unless the Tank has some backup. One ridiculous but effective method that players suggest is to drop a Sentry on it. The Sentry will deploy on top of the Tank, and the Tank will try to aim at it. Since that is impossible, its turret will just spin in circles, giving you time to eliminate it properly. Be warned that the Annihilator Tank will explode once you deal enough damage to it, so keep your distance.
Helldivers 2: Shredder Tank
A Shredder Tank is, unsurprisingly, a variant of the Automaton Tank. It behaves in the same way as the Annihilator Tank, ie, it is a tough enemy with a glowing weak spot behind the turret. The only difference between Shredder and Annihilator Tanks is the main weapon. In place of the heavy cannon, the Shredder tank has a quad heavy machine gun turret.
Instead of dealing explosive damage from afar, the Shredder will keep a constant barrage of shots. It deals less damage directly and does not have AoE, but a Shredder does not have a “cooldown” between shots as the Annihilator does, making it a different type of threat. It is harder to approach it, so we recommend that you use long-range anti-tank weapons. And don’t forget your orbitals.