Get ready: everybody fights at once!
💬 Everything said in this game
LickOfFire:~$
Round1/5
Map—
Wind—
Walls—
Turn—
Sudden death
Time—
On small screens the camera follows the action by itself. Double-tap the battlefield to see the whole map.
See-through buttons for driving, jumping and firing, and dragging on the battlefield to aim.
Private games only. Own only shows just your own camera, Off shows none. This changes what you see here; your camera still goes to the others while it is on.
Angle
Power
Play without the browser bars?
How to play
Lick of Fire is tanks, hills and bad ideas. Take turns aiming and firing; the last tank standing wins the round. Mind the wind, it has opinions. New here? Quick play on the start screen drops you into a game against three Medium LikkAI players with one click. The small line at the bottom of the start screen shows how many games and players are online. If it says all the tables are full, you can still join a game that has a free seat; a new game has to wait a few minutes.
The bar under the battlefield goes: danger | aim | move | arsenal | FIRE. Everything on it also has a key.
| Hold Space, let go | Charge up and fire. The longer you hold, the harder it flies. |
| Tap Space | Fire at the power you already have |
| ↑ ↓ | Raise / lower the cannon (Shift = faster) |
| ← → | Drive. You get 250 fuel a turn, and hills cost extra. You can drive while your own shell is in the air, so get out of the way! |
| J | Jump: a short hop forward. Costs 50 fuel. |
| PgUp PgDn | Fine-tune the power |
| W S / Tab | Next / previous weapon |
| Click the battlefield | Point the cannon there |
| A D, wheel, drag | Look around when zoomed in |
| R | Repair kit |
| E | Switch on your best shield |
| N | Skip your turn. Nothing fired, nobody harmed, a little shame. (Not in the Final Showdown.) |
| Hold K | Self-destruct. Hold for 1 second while a ring fills up; let go early and you change your mind. Takes nearby tanks with you. |
| 1–6 | Quick reactions: laughing, shocked, angry, clapping, crying, fire |
| Enter | Chat line. Enter sends, Esc closes. |
| M | Mute everything (the ♪ button has the volumes) |
| P | Pause / resume |
| F | Fullscreen |
| Esc | Close this guide |
A faint dashed line shows where your cannon points. Only you see it. Everyone else just sees the barrel move.
What are all those weapons? That's the Weapon guide.
Phone or tablet? Your fingers will do. Phones are played on their side (hold one upright and you get a "Rotate your phone" hint). The game is best on a tablet or a computer; a note on the start screen says so, and phone support is coming.
| Drag from your tank | Aim. The direction is the angle, the length of the drag is the power. |
| Tap the battlefield | Point the cannon there |
| Hold FIRE, let go | Charge and fire. A quick tap fires at the power shown. |
| Swipe / pinch | Look around / zoom |
| Weapon button | On a phone it opens a picker with everything you own. Tap to use. |
| ☠ Self-destruct | Press and hold for 1 second. On a phone it hides at the bottom of the weapon picker, far from the buttons you mash. |
| 💬 Chat | Under the player cards. A number shows what you haven't read. |
| ◀ Fold | Hides the player tiles for a bigger battlefield |
| ⛶ Fullscreen | On an iPhone it shows how to add the game to your home screen |
💰
Rounds & money
Every round, every tank starts with 100 health on fresh hills. Hit tanks to earn money, spend it in the shop between rounds. Bought the wrong thing? Undo refunds it.
Not sure what to buy? Open the Weapon guide.
Round 1 is gentle
In round 1 your very first shot has to be a Wee Rocket, a Missile or a Tracer. After that, anything goes. The bots obey too.
Wildcat (you)
72 hp$1,200
Raven
destroyed$300
Reading the screen
Player windows live on the right: avatar, name, health and money, framed in the tank's colour. Whoever is aiming glows amber and pulses; the others fade. A destroyed player turns grey.
On your turn a big YOUR TURN pops up. Each round starts with ROUND 1 OF 3 — FIGHT!. Health bars are green above 60 %, amber from 30 to 60 %, red below 30 %. The turn timer goes amber in the last 10 seconds and red and twitchy in the last 5.
The battle log under the reaction faces says what just happened (hits, wrecks, skipped turns). Newest on top, fresh every round. Small windows hide it.
Repair & shields
R patches you up (40 health). E switches on a shield. Neither ends your turn. Shields are gone at the end of the round.
Falling
Falling hurts. A parachute opens by itself and makes it not hurt. The ground slides out from under tanks that stand on peaks or blasted edges (sliding is free, the drop is not).
⏱
After you fire
When the last explosion fades you get 1.5 more seconds to drive or jump away (a thin bar at the top counts down). You can't aim or fire again, just run.
⏭
Skip turn
Press N (or the button, which shows the key) to pass without firing. Counts as a turn, so a round can never get stuck.
☠
Self-destruct
Hold the button or K for one second and a ring fills up. Let go early and nothing happens. When it blows, nearby tanks get hurt too, and any kill is yours.
💥
Shockwaves
Every explosion shoves tanks sideways, away from the blast. The push itself does no damage; the cliff you get shoved off does. Bigger blast, bigger shove (a thin ring shows it).
🌳
Breakable scenery
Trees snap, houses crumble, fences splinter, fire spreads. Barrels, powder boxes and gas bottles explode, and set off their neighbours. A row of barrels is a chain reaction waiting for a teenager.
🎁
Supply crates
Now and then a crate floats down on a parachute. Shoot it or drive over it for a random weapon bundle, or sometimes a pile of money. About 1 in 8 is a booby trap that looks identical and goes bang. Good luck.
☄️
Random events
Earthquakes and meteor showers drop in unannounced (well, with a banner). Nobody gets the credit, nobody gets the blame.
🌬
Wind & walls
Wind (top bar) pushes shells sideways and drifts every turn. Indoors (the Kitchen and the Toy Workshop) there is no wind. The top bar also shows which map you are on. Walls are Open (shells vanish), Concrete (they explode), Rubber (they bounce, roof too) or Wrap-around (they come back the other side).
🔧
Damage weakens your cannon
A lobby setting. Original: max power is 10 × your health. Mild: gentler. Off: always full. The power bar shows your current limit.
⏰
Sudden death
If a round drags on, a banner announces it. Hits do double, every tank bleeds a little more each turn, and everyone gets unlimited weapons for the rest of the round.
🚨
Final Showdown
On by default. When sudden death hits, the game switches from turns to real time. Everyone who is still alive presses READY (or Space), a countdown runs, and then everybody aims, drives and fires at once. Weapons reload after a few seconds (the FIRE button shows a bar). The Nuke, the Pocket Sun and The Big Yin sit this one out. Games with players sharing a computer stay turn-based.
⚡
Real-time mode
The host can pick Mode: Real-time in the lobby (a small Real-time tag shows in the games list). Every round is played like the Final Showdown: a countdown, then everybody aims, drives and fires at once, with weapons reloading after a few seconds. The round ends when one tank (or one team) is left, or after 3 minutes: then the tank with the most health wins (with teams, the team with the most health in total). Equal health is a draw. Supply boxes keep falling every few seconds and disappear after 20 seconds if nobody grabs them. The shop between rounds works as always. There is no sudden death, no Final Showdown and no random events. Real time needs one player per computer: if two people share a computer, the rounds are played with turns.
🏆
Awards & score
Every round ends with two or three funny awards. Score = damage dealt + 50 per kill + 100 per round won.
🔁
Several games in a row
Stay in the same room and play again: the host presses New game, same room on the results screen and can change the settings first. A little trophy with a number shows how many games each player has won since the room opened. It is forgotten when the room closes, or when you leave.
🔑
✕
Removing a player
The host sees a small ✕ Remove button on every other player's card (in the lobby and in a game). It asks first. The player is sent back to the start screen, can't come back to that game, and in a running game a LikkAI takes over their tank.
⏸
Pause
P or the Pause button. Everything freezes. The pauser or the host can resume. Everybody else can press Vote to resume (or P): when more than half of the other players have voted, the game goes on, even if the host paused it. Each computer gets 3 pauses per game, and a pause ends by itself after 3 minutes. A game with only local players has no limits.
😂
Chat & reactions
In a game, new chat appears over the top-left of the battlefield and fades. Enter opens the line, the 💬 button in the top bar shows everything. Reactions 1–6 pop up over your tank. Every other player's card has a 🔇 Mute button (in every kind of game): it hides their chat and reactions on your computer only, until you close the game. If somebody is nasty, press ⚑ Report: the last chat lines of the game go to the owner, who can look at them. Rude words (English and Dutch) turn into stars **** before anyone sees them, and a name with a rude word in it is not accepted: pick another one.
🐾
Avatars
Everyone is a gritty animal in a tank helmet (27 to choose from). Click your avatar on your lobby seat to swap; one per game, taken ones are greyed out. We remember your pick.
👥
Sharing a computer
Click an empty lobby seat and choose Add local player. You share the keyboard and take turns; each gets their own shop tab.
🤖
LikkAI bots
The host adds them from an empty seat: Easy, Medium or Hard, each with a funny Scottish name. They drive, jump, grab crates and (Hard ones) know the wind. They never drive into the sea.
👥
Up to 6 players
A game has 6 seats: up to 4 of them can be people, the rest are LikkAI. With 5 or 6 players the battlefield is a bit wider (so everything looks a little smaller) and more boxes fall in Real-time and the Final Showdown. Webcams are for the people only.
📱
Phones and the see-through buttons
On a phone on its side the whole screen is the battlefield: players are small chips along the top (tap one for their card), everything else is in the ☰ menu, and one small 💬 button holds chat and reactions. On your turn see-through buttons appear: ◀ ▶ and Jump on one side, FIRE and the weapon button on the other (Settings can swap them and change how see-through they are). Drag on the battlefield to aim: the direction is the angle and the length is the power; small − + buttons help with the last bit. On a computer the buttons are an option in Settings. The camera follows your tank when tanks would be too small; double-tap to see the whole map. A faint dashed line shows where your last shot went (the host can turn it off in the lobby).
🚩
Teams
Set Team A or B on each seat (or Shuffle teams). A team has up to 3 players: 3 against 3 with 6 players, 3 against 2 with 5. Turns alternate between teams and the last team standing wins. Friendly fire decides whether your shells hurt your mates.
⚙
Lobby presets
Classic is calm and close to the original. Chaos is crates, wild wind and random levels. Quick is short rounds. Custom shows every setting.
The levels
Pick one in the lobby, or let Random surprise you each round. All of them have destructible ground and breakable scenery.
Classic
Plain old hills. Good for learning.
Islands
Tanks on islands in a sea. Fall in and you sink, parachute or not.
Scottish Highlands
Drizzle, castle ruins, sheep, and a distillery full of exploding whisky barrels.
Loch Mist
A misty loch at night with a shore on each side. Nessie lives here, and she swats down shells that skim low over the water (the lower, the likelier). Arc your shots high. A tank that ends up under the water sinks.
Old town
Stone houses and a church. Blast a wall and what's above falls down.
Volcano
A big mountain that erupts every few turns. A banner warns you.
Storm
Rain and lightning. High ground gets struck most.
Tornado
A twister wanders about, flinging shells and tanks. It's slow, so just walk away.
Haunted night
Fog. You only see tanks that are close. Bats, owls, one polite ghost.
Fireworks
Pretty rockets. The odd one falls and goes off for real.
Metal festival
The speakers shove passing shells on every beat. Stage flames too.
Scrapyard Showdown
A junkyard full of barrels and boxes that blow up in chains. A crane swings overhead: knock its load loose and it crashes down.
Kitchen
Tiny tanks on a giant counter. Mind the boiling pot and the flying toast.
Moon
Low gravity and no wind. Use less power than you think.
Christmas
Snow, lights, snowmen and presents that explode. Four festive levels in all.
Random
A new level every round.
Every thing in the shop, in the shop's order, and what it is for. No numbers, just the point of it.
📷
Cameras
When you join a private game you can share camera and microphone, just the microphone, or neither. The buttons on your own card switch them on and off; the gear picks another device. Nobody sees anybody else's internet address: everything goes through the game's own server, and nothing connects until someone turns a camera or microphone on.
🏷
🔇
Other people's cards
Mute them (the same 🔇 as on the card), hide their video or change their volume. It only changes what you see and hear. A soft glow shows who's talking.
🎵
🖥
The cat
The cat in the tank helmet is our mascot. He watches the whole battle from a little screen under the player windows (on a phone, under the tiles or in the corner of the battlefield) and reacts to everybody, not only you: grins at hits, gasps at Nukes, looks bored when nothing happens.
His screen shows how the fight is going: cracks as tanks die, flickers when only two are left, static when the round is over. Every hit shakes it. Each round starts with a clean screen. He's off during the Final Showdown.
