Tunnels

Tunnels are a method of gameplay that links two zones that are more than 50mi (80km) away from each other. They are used as a method of attacking zones that are far away from you, without spending Qredits or waiting for Missile Monday. Tunnels were initially described in a 2016 blog post, with substantial changes described in a 2020 forum post.

Creating a Tunnel
To create a tunnel, go to the Portal and select "Tunnels". There you will see all of the tunnels that are forming, the tunnels that are currently open, and several recently closed tunnels. Next, click the button that says "Create New Tunnel". This will show you a list of all of your zones that you are able to form a tunnel from. The only criteria for these zones is that they are controlled by your faction, you must be the bot leader in the zone, and the zones have at least 100,000 of your faction's bots. Once you select the zone for your end of the tunnel, you enter the opposing zone for the other end of the tunnel. The criteria for this zone are that it must be larger than your end of the zone, it must have more than 1,000,000 bots that are not your own faction's, and it must be more than 50mi (80km) away from your end of the zone.

Zone Formation
Now that you have initiated a tunnel between your zone and an opposing zone, the tunnel enters the formation phase. This lasts for 24 hours, and launching between the two ends of the tunnel is not yet active. During this time, players in the opposing zone will have the opportunity to vote down the tunnel and prevent it from happening. In order to vote down the tunnel, at least 50% of the bots in the zone must vote no. This means if one player has 60% of the bots in the opposing zone, they can shut the tunnel down on their own. This also means tunnels with large amounts of retired and inactive players are less likely to be voted down. If 24 hours passes and the tunnel has not been voted down, the tunnel is opened. You are able to build up your own zone at this time without affecting the tunnel. The player who opened the tunnel is able to cancel the tunnel during this time.

Tunnel Mechanics
Once the tunnel has opened, players on opposite sides of the zone are able to attack each other. Now that the two zones have been linked, attacking is treated as if the two zones were combined into one large zone. Because of this, the priorities for which bots are attacked are: 1. Bots of the opposing faction with the most bots in the zone, 2. Retired bots, and 3. Bots with the highest threat level. Additionally, support bots of your own faction will benefit you no matter which side of the tunnel they are on.

Closing the Tunnel
The tunnel closes under two circumstances: either one of the zones are cleared of all of their bots, or 24 hours has passed since the tunnel opened.

Tunnel Strategy

 * Invite your local and missile-range allies to join the fight! Tunnels are much more exciting with lots of players involved.
 * Be careful when tunneling to zones near active players. Tunnels go both ways, they can attack your side of the tunnel just like you can attack theirs.
 * Consider sending some reconnaissance launches before initiating a tunnel so you know what bots the opposing zone has. A zone full of active players and 1 million absorbers will be much harder to attack than a pile of 1 million shockwave bots.
 * If you are not close enough to your ally's tunneled zone to launch local attack bots but want to help, you can send missiles. If you are in missile range of both your ally's zone and the opposing zone, it is recommended to launch into your ally's zone to attack since you will benefit from their support bots.
 * When attacking a zone through a tunnel, your attack bots remain in your zone. This has the potential to make your zone weak if there are large amounts of soft attack bots sitting in your zone.