Helldivers 2 Annihilator Tanks explained: How to find and kill them

Destroying an Annihilator Tank can appear as a Daily/Personal Order task, meaning you might want to go looking for one to kill to earn some sweet rewards.

These powerful Automaton enemies do not appear unless you’re playing a higher difficulty mission, and pack a one-shot kill cannon attack (along with a nasty machine gun) with a full 360 degree field of view that can kill you at a distance.

Is the risk worth the reward? That’s up to you.

Keep reading to find out how to find Annihilator Tanks in Helldivers 2 and how to kill them.

How to find Annihilator Tanks in Helldivers 2

Annilihator Tanks in Helldivers 2 come from the Automaton faction. This means they can only be found during an Automaton/Bot mission – you won’t find one with the Terminids.

It’s worth noting, too, that Annihilator Tanks should only turn up in Automaton/Bot missions with a difficulty level of Hard and higher.

They are rather rare in Hard missions, however, and are far more likely to make an appearance once you climb up to Extreme missions and above.

It has been claimed that they are more likely to spawn if you’re playing with others in a co-op mission – although this is unconfirmed.

Hop into an Extreme Eradication mission and you’ll come up against a fearsome Annihilator Tank soon enough. Whether you want to, though, is your choice. These things are lethal.

How to kill Annihilator Tanks in Helldivers 2

To kill a Helldivers 2 Annihilator Tank, you need to use heavy explosive strategems, such as the Expendable Anti-Tank strategem. Normal weapons won’t deal any damage.

Use any strategem which allows you to use heavy weapons, such as Orbital Lasers, Railguns, a Railcannon strike, 500KG Bomb - anything that is anti-armour and/or fires explosive rounds should work, but you might have to keep plugging away at the Tank to destroy it.

Fortunately, the Annihilator Tank does have a weak point: the glowing vents on its back.

The turret of the Annihilator Tank is said to be a little weaker, too, so definitely aim your rockets, grenades and other powerful heavy explosives at the top of the Tank – don’t bother shooting its body.

Climb on top of the Tank to shoot at its vents; it can no longer hit you with its cannon or machine gun if you’re on top of it. Dropping a Sentry on its head should confuse it, too.

Once you deal enough damage to the Annihilator Tank, smoke and fire will start coming out of its vents. Keep at it just a little bit longer and it will be downed soon. It explodes upon its death, too, so watch out for that as well.

The trouble with everything above is that it assumes you can get close to an Annihilator Tank. You will struggle to get close.

It has a long-distance firing range and 360-degree line of sight. You need to use cover to get close enough to hop on top. Oh yeah, other Automaton enemies will be shooting at you the entire time, too, so maybe clear a few of them out first.

You can also land your pod on top of an Annihilator Tank, which won’t kill it (as one Redditor unfortunately discovered) but should do some damage and get you back on top of the thing.

So yeah, use cover to get closer to an Annihilator Tank, use heavy explosive weapons on it, and focus your attacks on the glowing vents on its back and/or turret.

Fingers crossed you can kill an Annihilator Tank in Helldivers 2 with these quick tips.

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