Afterburner is the fastest class there is at crossing a map: one gun forward, four thrusters firing backwards in pairs, and the highest movement multiplier of any class. It's built to be where the fight isn't, then suddenly where it is.
| Tier | 4 |
| Unlock level | 45 |
| Upgrades from | Vector |
| Barrels | 1 forward gun, 4 rear thrusters (at 135°/225° and 150°/210°) |
| Reload (0 points) | 0.58 s per barrel (the 30 Hz tick makes it 0.6 s) |
| Fire pattern | front gun every cycle; thrusters fire outer pair, then inner pair, every 0.3 s |
| Bullet speed | 368 px/s |
| Bullet range | about 331 px |
| Bullet damage | 8.17 per bullet (×1.02) |
| Penetration | 2 |
| Recoil | 2× a Recruit's kick per barrel; the thrusters' push outweighs the front gun's |
| Health / movement | ×1.037 / ×1.6 |
| Body damage | 20 (×1) |
Every number here is at 0 stat points, before the per-level health bonus and the per-level speed penalty that every tank gets. The automatic balancer can nudge a class's damage and health over time, so treat these as the roster's base values.
Afterburner has one gun pointing forward and four thrusters pointing backwards. The front gun fires once a cycle, every 0.6 seconds. The thrusters fire two at a time, the outer pair then the inner pair, a pair every 0.3 seconds, so each thruster fires once a cycle too. Every barrel kicks at twice a Recruit's recoil, and the kick pushes you the opposite way to the barrel. Four thrusters angled backwards push you forward much harder than one front gun pushes you back, so holding fire drives you forward.
On top of that you have 1.6× movement speed, the highest of any class. Put together, a firing Afterburner covers ground faster than anything else. The thrusters are real guns too: their bullets fly backwards and hit whatever is chasing you or whatever you just passed.
The front gun is the only one aimed at your target, and it's modest: 8.17 damage every 0.6 seconds, about 14 damage per second. Despite the reputation, Afterburner has no body damage bonus, ×1 like a Recruit. You win with position and persistence, not with a single big hit.
Afterburner beats slow classes that can't escape or turn to face it: snipers like Horizon and Nightveil once you've closed the gap, slow cannons like Cataclysm, and missile classes whose projectiles are slow near the launcher. It's the best class in the game at escaping a bad fight, and in team modes it's a strong flanker and harasser.
It loses a straight damage race to almost any focused gun. Trebler, Twinbore and the fan classes out-damage one forward gun comfortably. Trap fields are a real problem at your speed, because traps are solid and you'll run straight into them: Trisnare and Megasnare can box you in. Drone swarms chase well and your one forward gun can't clear them fast.
A 33-point build: Bullet Damage 7, Reload 7, Movement Speed 5, Bullet Penetration 5, Max Health 5, Health Regen 4.
Vector leads to Afterburner and Interceptor. Both add two barrels to Vector's three.
Afterburner puts both new barrels at the back as extra thrusters. It gets about three times the net forward push per cycle that Interceptor does, plus a higher movement multiplier (1.6 against 1.4). It's the pure mobility pick.
Interceptor puts its new barrels on the sides, at 90° and 270°. They cancel each other's recoil, so it gets less thrust, but they cover your flanks, which makes it better at fighting when things come at you from several directions. Take Afterburner to run, chase and flank. Take Interceptor to hold your ground a little better.