How to Play Tanks 1990: Controls, Base Defense and Power-Ups

Tanks 1990 — better known to a generation as Battle City — looks simple, and it is easy to pick up: drive a tank, shoot in the direction you are facing, and stop the enemy from reaching your base. But there is real depth under the surface, from breakable walls you can turn into shortcuts to a tank you can upgrade four times over. This guide covers everything a new player needs to start winning.

The goal of the game

Every battle is about two things at once: destroying the enemy tanks and protecting your eagle base, which sits at the bottom-centre of the screen behind a small brick wall. In Level mode you win a stage by wiping out all of its enemy tanks; in Infinite mode you simply survive endless waves and rack up as many kills as you can. Crucially, if a single enemy shell ever reaches the eagle, the run is over instantly — even if you were one kill from clearing the stage. Offence and defence are equally important.

Moving and firing

On a keyboard, drive with the Arrow keys or WASD and fire with the Space bar. On a phone or tablet, an on-screen D-pad appears at the bottom-left of the battlefield and a round FIRE button at the bottom-right. Your tank always faces the last direction you moved, and shells travel in exactly that direction, so the basic rhythm of the game is: line up a lane, then shoot. You can only have a limited number of your own shells on screen at once, so every shot counts until you upgrade.

The battlefield: bricks, steel, water and bushes

The maze around you is part wall, part weapon. Brick walls are breakable — one shell destroys a brick tile, so you can blast tunnels to reach enemies or open a firing line. Steel walls are unbreakable by a basic tank and stop your shells dead; only a fully upgraded tank can punch through steel. Water blocks tanks from driving across it, but shells fly right over, so water is a barrier you can still shoot across. Bushes (the green foliage) let tanks drive straight through and hide inside them — useful cover for you, but also for the enemy.

Lives, respawning and the eagle

You start each run with three lives. If an enemy shell hits your tank, you lose a life and respawn back at your start position with a brief protective shield — but losing a life also resets any weapon upgrades you had collected. Run out of lives, or let the eagle be destroyed, and the run ends. In Level mode a failed stage costs you nothing: you simply retry it. In Infinite mode the run is banked and your tanks-defeated total is submitted to the leaderboard.

Power-ups

Every so often an enemy tank will flash on and off. Destroy that flashing tank and it drops a power-up onto the battlefield; drive over it to collect it. Power-ups range from a Star that permanently upgrades your firepower to a Grenade that clears the whole screen, a Helmet shield, a Clock that freezes the enemy, an extra-life Tank and a Shovel that armours your base. They can completely turn a battle around, so grabbing them quickly — before an enemy drives over them — is one of the most valuable habits to build. Our strategy guide breaks down exactly what each one does.

The two modes

Level mode is a campaign: every level number is the same battlefield for everyone, and the maps grow steadily — bigger arenas, more enemy tanks and more unbreakable steel as you climb. Clearing a level pays 200 XP and 2 coins and records your highest level. Infinite mode uses one big battlefield where only the wall layout changes, and tanks pour in from all four borders in waves of five to ten, forever. Each tank you destroy is worth 50 XP, and you earn a coin for every 15 tanks. Beginners often find Level mode the friendlier place to learn the ropes.

Five tips to start winning

First, keep moving — a stationary tank is an easy target. Second, protect the brick bunker around your eagle; if it gets blasted open, plug the gap or lead attackers away. Third, shoot through brick to make shortcuts instead of driving the long way around. Fourth, grab every power-up the moment a flashing tank drops one. And fifth, in Infinite mode, watch your back — because enemies spawn from every edge, the biggest threat is often the tank you cannot see behind you.