The Tank is a large four-legged robot with red armor. It had a visor on the front that commonly displays a red hollow triangle facing down.
History
Sonic Frontiers
The Tank was one of many Guardian robots constructed by the Ancients as a protector of their home, the Starfall Islands. It is unknown how many were originally created or if they participated in the battle against The End, but a few models survived to the present day, long after their creators' civilization collapsed.
The Tank is able to create a strong whirlwind that is enough to put Sonic to a halt and send him flying within its whirlwind. It can also float freely in its created whirlwind.
It can spit fire through flame throwers which serves as its main offensive move. Furthermore, using specialized openings, it can fire energy projectiles (in the form of balls or bullets) and also suck objects.
The Tank+ variation instead remains on the ground, and launches torrents of said energy balls to attack. It can also fire a powerful laser beam.
Weaknesses
The Tank's body is not protected and is vulnerable to all attacks, and you can Cyloop or Quick Cyloop it to extend it's time on the ground.
Battle
The Tank is a boss that can be fought in the open-zone areas of the Ares Island, while a harder version of Tank called Tank+ is fought in the open-zone areas of the Ouranos Island.
Boss Guide
The battle begins when the Tank creates a huge whirlwind around itself that sucks Sonic. There, Sonic will float and is able to reach the airborne Tank located at the center of the whirlwind by moving with the left joystick. In order to defeat the Tank, the player must float towards it and attack any part of it where the target cursor appears using the Homing Attack. Once the player performs attacks over all of its body for some time, the Tank will be paralyzed, causing the whirlwind to disperse and it to fall onto the ground. This allows the player to land on the ground and use any type of attack on it.
On the first time it creates the whirlwind, the Tank's attacks consist of spinning and using its flame throwers while heading towards the player in order to damage them. It will also try to suck the player, but the player can use this attack to their advantage by launching a series of attacks around its body instead, causing it to be paralyzed and lose its control of the storm, thus falling onto the ground.
If the player does not manage to finish the Tank before it regains control, it will create a second whirlwind. This time, it will either fire a barrage of energy balls or a series of energy bullets into the player as well as use its previously mentioned attacks. Again, the best strategy here is to attack it once it begins its sucking attack as it will be in the most vulnerable state. Once hit enough times, it will fall onto the ground, paralyzed again, and the player will be free to attack it there.
Once the Tank is destroyed, it leaves a Portal Gear behind.
Alternatively, the player can utilize Quick Cycloop to stun-lock the Tank. If Sonic runs up to Tank right after the opening screen and Quick Cycloops it, it will fly discombobulated into the air for a few moments, and then land back on all fours (albeit slightly dizzy) before going back to normal. If the player has enough combo-based high-damage attacks, Sonic can defeat the Tank extremely quickly, or at least severely reduce its health.
Tank+
Tank+ uses much the same attacks as the regular Ares Island variants, with several exceptions: it will not throw Sonic into the air to do battle (allowing for Sonic to hit it whenever he wants), and it also has a new homing laser attack that can only be outrun using a max-speed-level Spin Dash. If the laser connects, it will stun-lock Sonic. Using Cycloop or Quick Cycloop will, like regular Tank, send the Tank+ flying discombobulated in the air for a moment before landing paralyzed.
Attack patterns for both variants are as follows:
Machine gun fireballs (Tank+ fires faster)
Slow waves of 5 energy spheres that fire in an intermittent pattern (3 waves with two gaps, then 2 waves where gaps were for Tank+)
Quick onslaught of energy spheres that flies everywhere (it rotates while doing this)
Six simultaneous onslaughts which fire in sixth-divided directions (also rotates while doing this)
Stun-lock laser (rotates while doing this, only Tank+)
