TANK FU Guide: Making a Tank Do Martial Arts

Overview

TANK FU is an experimental character action fighting game from Knight Owl Games, a small studio that asked a question nobody else asked: what if tanks fought like martial artists? The answer is a pre-alpha playtest where a tank dashes, flies, punches, and kicks its way through arenas with over 16 moves, air and ground combos, cinematic finishers, and a score system built for leaderboard chasing.

The developers name Bayonetta and Hi-Fi RUSH as the inspiration. Those games are rhythm-forward, style-heavy action titles, and Tank Fu borrows the style-first philosophy: how you fight matters more than what you fight. The playtest keeps the scope tight, a 4-arena tutorial and a 5-minute endless arena, which is exactly the right shape for an early build that wants player feedback, not a full campaign.

The game is unreleased with a to-be-announced date. The pre-alpha playtest is live on Steam right now, and the Steam page marks everything as open to change. That means every tip in this guide is written against the current playtest build, and the meta will move.

Who it's for: character action fans between Bayonetta releases, people who like stylish combo games, score attack players, and anyone who wants to say "my tank does a flying kick."

Who it's not for: players who want a full campaign, deep story, or a finished product. This is a fighting proof of concept with a leaderboard.

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Getting Started: The Playtest

The playtest is deliberately small, and that is good news for learning. Two modes: the tutorial and the arena. The tutorial teaches most of the moves across four arenas. The arena throws endless enemies at you for five minutes and ranks your score against other players.

First session plan

1. Do the tutorial twice. The first pass teaches you that moves exist. The second pass teaches you how they chain into each other. Character action games hide their depth in move interactions, not move lists.
2. Learn the dash before the punch. Movement is the combo glue. If you cannot reposition between hits, your combos die against anything that moves.
3. Take the air seriously. Air and ground combos are separate systems. The game gives you a jump for a reason. Most high score routes live in the transitions between ground and air.
4. Watch the score meter, not the enemies. The score is the feedback. If the multiplier is falling, you are repeating moves. Variety is the scoring mechanic.

Beginner mistakes to avoid

• Spamming one strong move. The scoring system explicitly rewards variety. The Steam page warns against relying on a few combos. Repeating moves kills your multiplier and your score.
• Ignoring the finishers. Cinematic finisher moves are part of the kit, not decoration. They look flashy and score well, but they need setup. Learn what primes them.
• Playing it safe. In a 5-minute arena, caution is a score tax. You want to be mid-combo as much as possible, because downtime drops the streak.
• Forgetting the timer. Five minutes is short. You are racing the clock and the enemies at the same time. Aggression is the correct default.

First Run Priorities

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Core Mechanics Under the Hood

The Score Chain System

Tank Fu's scoring works on accumulation: keep your streak going and the score grows. Break the streak and you reset the chain. This is classic character action scoring, but with a twist that matters for strategy: the accumulation rewards variety. Use a variety of moves and the score climbs faster than repeating your best hit.

The practical implications:

• Every move is a tool, not a toy. The 16+ moves exist because the score system wants them used.
• Downtime is damage. Between-kill gaps, running across the arena, waiting for enemies, all of it bleeds the chain.
• The end of the arena matters most. A 5-minute run is scored by the whole run, but the final stretch decides leaderboard tiers. Do not save your best material for a big finish that never comes.

Tank Movement: Dash, Fly, Punch

The gimmick is that this is a tank with martial arts mobility. Dashing and flying are not flavor. They are the movement verbs that build combos. The tank can get airborne, which is absurd and also the source of the best score routes.

Movement-focused strategy:

• Use dash as an attack extender. Dash into a hit to close distance without breaking the chain.
• Fly to reset. Air mobility lets you escape ground clutter and reposition for the next combo.
• Mix states. Ground combo, launch, air combo, finisher, land, repeat. State mixing is the whole game.

The 5-Minute Arena

The arena is the entire endgame of the playtest. Endless enemies, five minutes, one score. It tests three things: your move knowledge, your chain discipline, and your ability to stay aggressive under pressure.

The arena meta comes down to enemy flow. If enemies spawn in predictable waves, the optimal route is one that keeps you moving between spawn points with a live chain. If they spawn randomly, the meta shifts to fast area clear and repositioning.

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Advanced Tips & Strategy

Building a high score route

1. Open with a long ground combo. The chain starts from zero. Build it high early, then protect it.
2. Transition to air at the peak. Air combos score more per hit and reset your positioning.
3. Save finishers for crowd moments. A finisher on a single enemy is style spent. A finisher in a group multiplies its value.
4. Never let the chain drop in the last 60 seconds. End-of-run scoring punishes streaks that die late. If you must take a hit, take it early.

Competition reads

The leaderboard turns the arena into a social game. Watch the top scores to read the meta: the best routes are visible in what the leaders do, not in what the devs document. If the top of the board is all air combos, the ground game is leaving points on the table.

Playtest feedback is content

Knight Owl is building this with the community. The Steam page states everything is open to change. That means your bug reports and balance complaints can shape the actual game. For early adopters this is a feature: you are not just playing the meta, you are voting on it.

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Controls and Settings

The playtest is a character action game, which means inputs are explicit. Twin-stick style movement on WASD or the left stick, dedicated dash, separate light and heavy attack inputs, jump for air work, and a finisher input.

The exact bindings may shift between playtest builds. Check the in-game options menu each time you update, because the devs are actively moving things.

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FAQ

Is Tank Fu out? No. The full game has no release date. The pre-alpha playtest is available on Steam now.

Is it a fighting game like Street Fighter? No. It is character action in the Bayonetta style: fighting enemies in arenas with stylish combos, not dueling another player.

How long is the playtest? The tutorial spans four arenas. The main mode is a 5-minute endless arena, with leaderboard scoring.

How many moves are there? Over 16 moves in the current build, including air and ground combos and cinematic finishers. The count will change as the game develops.

Does it have multiplayer? No PvP confirmed. The leaderboard is the multiplayer layer for now.

Will my playtest progress carry over? Never assume. Playtest builds are wiped constantly. Treat everything as practice.

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Bottom Line

Tank Fu is a weird, fun, and sharply focused experiment. The premise is ridiculous, the execution is a legitimately solid character action core, and the score system gives it real depth beyond the meme. For the price of a wishlist and a playtest download, fans of stylish action games get to watch a genre take a strange new form.

The best tip for the current build: learn the dash, respect the variety mechanic, and treat every arena run as a practice lap for the leaderboard. The full game, when it lands, will be built from exactly the feedback this playtest is collecting.