Clunkers

Build a clunker. Wreck the rest.

Clunkers is a free multiplayer battle game you play in your browser, on a computer, phone or tablet. Everyone in the arena starts as a tiny scrap machine. You smash junk and other players for scrap, level up, and bolt new parts onto your clunker until it's a rolling fortress of guns, saws, magnets and mines. There's nothing to install and no account to make: type a name and press Play.

How to play

On a computer

On a phone or tablet

Turn your phone sideways. The left thumb stick moves your clunker; the right one aims and fires. AUTO keeps firing for you, and the ABILITY button uses your special ability.

Game modes

• Free-for-all: everyone against everyone. Climb the leaderboard and become the Mega Clunker, the top machine in the arena (everyone will be coming for you).
• 2 Teams: blue against red. Your team's base and its turrets protect you, and there's no friendly fire.
• 4 Teams: four teams, four bases, more chaos.

Each arena holds up to 60 players. When it isn't full, computer-driven clunkers fill the empty spots, and they make room as real players arrive.

Levels and upgrades

Scrap is experience. Crates, barrels and junk piles give a little; other players give a lot. There are 45 levels. Every level gives you an upgrade point to spend on one of eight stats:

Parts can be shot off in a fight. They weld themselves back on after a while, so watch your enemy's clunker fall apart, and finish it before it rebuilds.

The Scrap Wheel: 39 classes

At levels 5, 15, 30 and 45 you choose a new class from the Scrap Wheel, the upgrade tree. The wheel has four directions: Fast, Long-range, Heavy and Rapid fire, and every pick moves you further out. You start as the Clunker, pick one of 4 Tier 1 classes, then 8 at Tier 2, 13 at Tier 3, and finally one of 13 Legends. Some Legends to aim for:

• machines that send out RC cars or swarms of drones to fight for them;
• minelayers that cover the ground in mines;
• Tesla classes that charge up and zap everything nearby;
• saw launchers, flamethrowers, harpoon guns, and a spring glove that punches everything in reach.

Between class picks, the workshop offers parts that fit your class: side guns, armor, gadgets and upgrades. Press T in the game to see the whole wheel.

Abilities

From your Tier 2 class you get a special ability with its own cooldown: Overdrive (a sudden dash), Junk Shield, Scrap Bomb, Magnet Pulse (pull everything in, then shove it away), Patch Burst (instant repair) and more. It grows stronger with your Tier 3 class and again as a Legend.

Bosses and Scrap Vaults

A few minutes into every match, a junkyard boss crash-lands somewhere in the arena. It's far too big to take on alone, so rivals team up for a while, and the players who hit it hardest get the most scrap. Watch out for Scrap Vaults too: golden safes in the middle of the junkyard, full of scrap for whoever cracks them first.

Playing with friends

Press Play with friends on the menu. You get a short code and an invite link. Friends who open the link, or type the code into the "Friend's code" box, play in your arena: on your team in team modes, and starting right next to you in free-for-all. If the arena fills up, the whole group moves to another one together.

Tips for your first games

• Early on, shoot crates and barrels: it's the fastest way to your first class pick at level 5.
• Turn on auto-fire (E) and focus on moving: a clunker that keeps moving is hard to hit.
• Watch your heat bar. If your guns overheat, they lock until they cool down.
• After you're wrecked, you come back at half your level, so a good run is never wasted.

Questions

Is it free? Yes. Clunkers is free to play; ads keep it that way, and they never play during a match.

Do I need an account? No. Your best scores are saved in your browser.

Who makes it? Clunkers is an independent game. Ideas, bug reports and feedback are very welcome at [email protected].