TankRat

About this game

In the aftermath of a war that reduced the world’s most fantastic city to ash, the Event Containment Area (ECA) stands as a monument to humanity’s ambition and ruin.

A wasteland of twisted metal husks, the remnants of mankind’s greed spread like mechanical cancer across the world. Only steel remains, humans having to project their consciousness into mechanical “Shells”, powerful drones that can salvage & control armored tanks of a lost age.

You are Whitaker, a Sleepwalker - a digitized consciousness inhabiting a Needle, a hardened drone built to endure the storms and horrors of the ECA. And your survival will be earned, one kill at a time.

Welcome to the end of the world, it’s time to hunt TankRats.



Shift seamlessly between the agile Needle and powerful combat Tanks as you explore the ECA’s Dead Zone. You must traverse what remains of a once advanced society to scavenge all the materials you can to upgrade your machine. Dismantle enemies, strip their wreckage for weapons, armor, and tech, and graft their parts onto your own rig. Every trip through the wasteland is a chance to rebuild, respec, and come back stronger.



Blast through swarms of corrupted drones and mech-monsters in fast-paced, brutal vehicular combat across shifting battlefield conditions. The Dead Zone’s greatest terrors are the TankRats, wandering remnants of lost Sleepwalkers, twisted by the Shroud and time itself. You’ll need to exploit every weakness to bring these metal titans down. The only way out is through, and the only way through, is to destroy everything in your path.



The fabled city in the sky, Highpoint. A whispered truth buried in the ashes of a lost civilization. You don’t know why, but you know with absolute clarity that the only reason you fight is to uncover the truth behind the Shroud, a radioactive storm that warps time, memory, and reality itself. What are you willing to give to make it to the promised land, and what will you do if you don’t like the truth you find there?

Latest news

• Announcements·25 Aug 2026Official

  TankRat | Release Date Trailer

  Sleepwalkers,  Today, during the gamescom Opening Night Live pre-show, we revealed our latest trailer (and our release date!)  We’ll see you in the ECA on January 15th. The trailer is a little different, we know. The poem “The Tyger” by William Blake is all about the question, “How can the same hands that create the innocent lamb also create the savage tiger?” We found that to be an interesting parallel with machines themselves: the dichotomy of war machines as incredible mechanical marvels, as well as tools of destruction. The way that people can craft a machine to save a life just as easily as they can craft a machine to take one. And take a closer little look at our Light and Medium tanks. You've seen our Light Tank quite a few times, but perhaps not it's larger counterpart... The light tank is nimble, quick and able to dodge projectiles and flee from fights at the blink of an eye. The medium tank is a mechanical behemoth capable of soaking up large amounts of damage and dealing even more. As you progress through TankRat, you will be able to choose between these two machines depending on your needs on the battlefield.  You can load your tank up from a selection of over twenty-five weapons, from the 90mm cannon that tears through metal, to the 120mm cannon that can strike enemies with precision from a distance. How you build your tank is up to you.  Scavenge the remains of your enemies.  Rebuild.  Destroy.  Come back stronger.See you in the ECA, Sleepwalkers.  ~ The Tankrat Team  https://www.tankrat.com/linkhub
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• Patch Notes·15 May 2026Official

  Dev Update...

  What's up, Sleepwalkers. We’ve been super busy taking everything TankRat up to the next level and making sure it feels as polished as possible. We're working on more guns. More TANKS. More mechanics. More story, plus an ending that feels more conclusive.Here's a little window into that work. We seriously appreciate all the support so far, and we can’t wait to get the game into your hands. ~ Alpha Channel
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• Patch Notes·8 May 2026Official

  TankRat Release Window Update

  Hey Sleepwalkers, We have made the decision to move the release of TankRat.We need some extra time to conclude the story in a way that’s meaningful and impactful, and to take parts of TankRat from good to great. We aren’t sure yet what our new release window may be, but stay tuned here for updates. We've got a short video coming next week with more insight into what we're up to at the moment! We appreciate your support, and we’re incredibly excited to get the game into your hands as soon as it's ready!~ Alpha Channel
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• Announcements·17 Dec 2025Official

  Tanks for 100,000 wishlists!

  Since we unveiled TankRat at The Game Awards last week, over 100K of you have added us to your Steam wishlists! This is a huge milestone for us, and reached far faster than we had ever imagined. Thank you so much. We are currently working away, and we're excited to show you all more TankRat. From weapons, to mechanics, lore, and art... there is a LOT coming your way. Tank you all for your support! TANKRAT
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• Announcements·12 Dec 2025Official

  TankRat Announcement

  Today our announcement trailer for TankRat debuted during The Game Awards 2025 pre-show, which is a monumental moment for us. And in case you missed it... TankRat is set after a war that reduced the world’s most advanced city to ash. All that remains is a wasteland of twisted metal. You play as Whitaker, a Sleepwalker who inhabits a Needle drone, scavenging the Dead Zone and fighting to uncover the truth behind the Shroud. When we first started this project, we didn’t set out to follow trends. The starting point was much simpler. We love tanks. That was the foundation. Eight years ago, co-founders at Alpha Channel (Branislav “Bane” Grujic and Daniel Ebanks) got together over a small pitch deck at a coffee shop with an early sketch of a tank lifting a block. That idea of assembling and reassembling machines became the core of the game. From Daniel:“I said to bane: You like tanks, I like tanks, we should make a tank game. And then we did.” From there the world grew naturally. The visual identity came from the same place: kitbashing, model making, and combining parts to create something new from a genuine passion. TankRat is about becoming what you break, tearing through corrupted machines, salvaging every part you can and rebuilding yourself after every encounter. It is a fight through a dead world to find and whatever truth is waiting for you. Thank you for watching the trailer! We can't wait to show you more, and bring on Spring 2026!
  Read full article on Community Announcements (Sugar_and_stardust)