Tank! Tank! Tank!
Written by Jason Venter
Published Apr. 28, 2024
In Sand Land, your little band of adventurers has big dreams that are most likely to come true if you acquire more advanced weaponry and vehicles. The first example of this reality in action comes in the early mission: A Tank? Sign Me Up!
In the A Tank? Sign Me Up! mission, you'll try to make your way across the desert, only to find that a checkpoint blocks your path. As you go around it, you'll discover a base with a tank to steal. To clear the mission, you must infiltrate a base, find a tank, and then escape with it.
From where you first appear, Napps Base is around 360m in the distance. The yellow marker clearly identifies it. Head in that general direction, but check around the rocks just to your right for a water refill if you need it. Along the road, you also meet a Peddler. He sells restorative items, but I don't recommend buying anything, at least not for this particular quest.
Beyond the peddler, you can battle some scorpions off to the right. There aren't many of them. Take them out one at a time for easy XP. You can also check for ore veins on nearby rock formations. They are rich with Iron Ore and, less frequently, Niter.
When you get close enough to your initial destination, you see a blockade. Then the game wants you to head through the nearby hill cave, which isn't a cave so much as a series of rock ledges. Follow the marker and hop your way along the ledges. There are ore veins to mine along the way. As you reach the highest point, you will see soldiers drive a tank into a warehouse.
Check a nearby chest for B-Grade Steel x3. Before you descend, head along some ledges to the right to find a second chest, which contains B-Grade Spring x2 and B-Grade Steel x2. Finally, descend to the lowest level and start across the sand. When you approach a series of boulders near one corner of the base, a scene follows. Once it concludes, you need to get stealthy.
Infiltrating a base works much the same as Thief's prior mission that required him to secure water and provisions from Talbo. This time, you're controlling Beelzebub. You can sneak up behind enemies and then use an attack to disable them. However, you still need to make sure you're not seen while they remain conscious.
Start creeping forward and keep to the left of the crates so the guards to the right don't see you. Continue forward to learn about your stealth attacks. Use one to take out the guard who stands with his back to you. Then check the nearby chest for B-Grade Sensor x2 and B-Grade Steel x2. Finally, call through the low opening the man had been guarding.
To your right, you'll see a ladder. Climb it to the top of the building. Cross along the rooftops to your right. Then hp along the drum-shaped water tower to more rooftops and follow those back around to the left. Near the wire, open the chest for B-Grade Gear x3 and a B-Grade Spring. Now, jump toward the wire and you'll find you can shimmy along it. Use that wire to reach a lookout platform.
Descend the ladder to the lower level and open the chest for B-Grade Steel x2 and Vegetable Oil x2. Look at the nearby opening but don't start through it until a patrolling guard has passed. If you took long enough, that may have already happened. Just be ready to duck out of sight if he gets near. Then follow him and use a stealth attack to take him out of the picture.
Past that spot, you can head around some crates. Be careful of the guard here, and check the chest. It contains B-Grade Steel x2 and a B-Grade Spring. Sneak up behind the guard and eliminate him. Then pass through the nearby two tents and eliminate the guard at the end of that alleyway. Cross to the chest he was monitoring, which holds B-Grade Steel x2 and B-Grade Spring x2. Once you have that loot, check the nearby tent for a low opening and crawl through it to find some sleeping quarters.
Cross through the dormitory tent and exit through the door on the far side. Lots of troops patrol this area, but head between the two yellow cones ahead of you to enter a maze of crates. Just follow the maze to reach the far side and witness a scene, wherein two soldiers discuss an uproar at the gate. Continue to the right, along the side of the building, where ou will see stairs and a ladder. Quickly climb the stairs and open the chest for B-Grade Bolt x2 and Shock-Absorbing Rubber. Then return to the ladder and climb it to the rooftop.
Jump across the gap between rooftops and open the chest to acquire B-Grade Steel x2 and B-Grade Cable x2. Past that loot, check the box to ride a zipline down to the lower level. There, head left to a building with glowing windows. Near the corner, check the chest for B-Grade Steel and a B-Grade Meter. Then run a short distance to the right and crawl through a low opening. You will overhear some guards talking about some suspicious lady their cohorts captured.
Keep crawling to reach a ladder. Climb it to the top of a container and double jump from that container to a high platform with a ladder. Here, you need to follow another wire. As you advance, there are blue sparks. I didn't touch any, but I assume that if you do, they harm you. Simply hop over them to avoid making contact.
On the far side of that wire, pass through an opening to enter the first warehouse. This is not your actual destination, but you're getting close.
Your goal is to cross to the far side of this first warehouse so you can enter the second one. First, drop to the ground level behind some tarped machinery. There is a guard just to the right. Use a stealth attack to eliminate him, but watch for a second guard. He is likely patrolling to the left. Keep objects between you and him, until you can follow him around and use a stealth attack to incapacitate him. Remember to crouch as you run after him. You want to stay directly behind him, rather than off to one side, where he might notice your approach.
Check the chest the men were guarding for a B-Grade Meter and a B-Grade Sensor. From there, climb the nearby stairs to reach the overhead walkway. There is an open window. Pass through it to access a metal eave, which extends toward the next building's eave. Hop the gap between them and jump up to reach the air conditioning unit. Then jump from it and pass through another open window.
You're now in the warehouse you needed to reach. Watch a scene with two guards, who quickly leave the vicinity so that you can freely explore.
This objective is easy to meet. Just approach the tank on the ground floor. Then press and hold the inticated button to Check it. Doing so triggers an extended scene and your next objective.
Your tank comes with 8 armor-piercing shells. You can aim it with the right analog stick and press the button indicated on-screen to fire. Start by aiming at the door with a ‘K’ emblem on it, directly ahead of you. Then drive out into the yard area and blast a second gate.
Simply drive through the opening your second blast created to emerge from the base.
Now you need to drive away, toward the point indicated by the yellow marker. As you do, enemy vehicles follow. You can drive in one direction and aim in another to blast them out of your way. Make sure to reload if needed. A single shot is typically enough to destroy each vehicle, and not a lot of vehicles follow.
Keep driving to each new checkpoint indicated. When you get to your goal, a new enemy appears.
To clear the quest's final challenge, you must eliminate the Royal Army tank. It is capable of taking quite a few direct hits before it goes down for the count.
As you battle the tank, you also deal with a few smaller vehicles. I suggest you ignore them. Focus your attacks on your main target, and remember to reload when you run out of shells. The trick I found worked best was to keep driving in a clockwise circle around my enemy, firing shells as possible. My enemy's turret followed me but all of its shots missed me because I kept moving.
When you hit the tank with enough shots, it will go down in flames and the other vehicles disappear.
Press the usual button to exit your tank. Head toward the scrap heap that remains where once your foe existed. Check the glowing weapon to acquire the 75mm Tank Gun+ and then return to your tank.
A scene follows, and then a very brief tutorial that allows you to equip your SL Army Tank 104 with the new weapon. After you tend to that task, another short scene follows and the quest concludes.
