The biggest health bar in the game, spent buying the shortest reach in the game
The 50 is the ceiling — all five pellets have to hit the same body. Reach is the ground one pellet covers before it dies, and Tanko's is the shortest of the ten fighters.
Tanko carries the biggest health pool in the game — 165 against a ten-fighter mean of 107.5, a full 35 clear of Rocco behind him, and more than double what Zippy walks around with. It is the stat everyone quotes, and not the one that decides his games.
Health is the currency he spends to buy distance, and distance is the one thing he cannot generate. His pellets die out sooner than anyone's — barely half as far as Rocco's travel, under a third of Nia's — and 185 speed makes him the slowest fighter on the roster. The pool refills slowly too: 14 HP a second, and only after four untouched seconds, so filling him from near-death costs twelve quiet seconds.
Five pellets at 10 damage, 0.6 seconds between pulls, 50 on paper. The fan opens fast, and what you collect steps down with distance. Standing inside your target, all five arrive. One fighter-width back — one character's width on screen — it is four, for 40. Under two widths, three. At three widths, two. At the limit of his range only the middle pellet lands, for a useless 10.
That spread is coverage, not single-target burst: the outer pellets are there to catch the second enemy beside the first — what a doorway or a Horde wave hands you.
Each cube adds 2 damage to every projectile. With five pellets that is +10 per trigger pull, the biggest per-cube gain on the roster — Frost's four take +8, Nia and Rocco +2 — and ten Super pellets turn one cube into +20. Health orbs favour him too: 35% of maximum is 58 HP against Bolt's 35.
At contact range nine or ten of those pellets land on one body: 180 to 200 damage from a single press, more than the full health bar of every fighter in the game, Tanko's own included. At mid range it is three or four pellets for 60 to 80, and it reaches a third further than his shotgun, so it also answers anyone chipping him from outside it.
Two things to plan around. The 40 HP is capped at your maximum, so pressing it above 125 health throws half the Super away. And the bar charges only from damage you deal — about 222 points, plus 15% per knockout — so a Tanko held at arm's length never gets one at all.
Enemies cannot see you inside a bush until they are about three fighter-widths away: inside your reach, right at the breakpoint where three pellets land. Otherwise use walls, since a corridor denies a faster fighter the room to kite you. And never brawl on hazards — the fence burns 25 HP a second, toxic pools 20, spike traps 80.
King of the Hill is his mode. The ring reaches about three fighter-widths from its centre, so anyone contesting is already in your range and you never have to chase. Six uncontested seconds wins it, and Tanko is the likeliest fighter to still be standing after six. Gem Rush is the same argument with no storm to outrun.
In 3v3 walk in first: deaths respawn, so your health buys your sniper position. Deathmatch suits him because the targets come to him. Horde is a coin flip, since Lead Wall covers a forward arc only. Royale is his worst — huge map, one life, slowest legs.
He is the first fighter the Reward Road hands you, at player level 2, so most players own him free within a few matches; the shop sells him for 150 coins otherwise. Four looks in all: the classic plus coin skins at 60, 120 and 150.
More fighters: ⚡ Bolt · 💨 Zippy · full roster · tier list