Tank
When a getaway car won't cut it, the Saints bring the whole armored battalion.
The Tank is a heavy armored vehicle in the Saints Row franchise, representing the upper echelon of the series' absurdly broad vehicle roster. Where most entries in the garage are sports cars, muscle cars, or hovercraft, the Tank is a slow, broad, and brutally effective option that prioritizes raw survivability over speed. It slots into the Saints' philosophy that every problem—rival gang, police convoy, or, in later titles, an alien invasion—can be solved by driving a very large, very metal object directly into it.
Across the series, the Tank sits alongside the franchise's signature customization systems, allowing the player to paint, wrap, and accessorize even the most utilitarian military hardware to match the Saints' loud, irreverent aesthetic. It is less a tactical asset and more a statement: the Saints don't need stealth; they need a turret and a paint job.
Quick Facts
- Type
- Armored vehicle; Tank
- Category
- Vehicles
- Appears in
- Saints Row: The Third; Saints Row IV (and Re-Elected)
- Primary role
- Heavy assault; high-durability transport
- Customization
- Paint, wrap, and accessory options consistent with the franchise's vehicle editor
Lore & Background
In the Saints Row universe, the Tank is less a military surplus acquisition and more a testament to the franchise's core joke: the Saints are criminals, but they are criminals with a garage that rivals a national defense depot. The vehicle's presence in the roster underscores a running gag across the series—Saints Row City (and later, the broader world) is a sandbox where the line between a street gang and a small army is just a purchase menu away.
In Saints Row: The Third, the Tank fits into a roster that already includes everything from a lawnmower to a rocket-powered car, and its inclusion is played for both practicality and spectacle. The player can sit in the driver's seat of a multi-ton armored vehicle, peel out of a dealership lot, and mow through a police blockade while a pop-punk track plays over the radio. The vehicle's slow handling is a deliberate design choice that trades the thrill of high-speed chases for the satisfaction of watching enemy vehicles crumple around the Tank's hull.
In Saints Row IV, the sci-fi framing elevates the Tank from a grounded military asset to a piece of alien-era hardware, consistent with the game's blend of intergalactic spectacle and street-level mayhem. The vehicle's role remains the same—be the thing that does not stop moving when everything else is exploding—but the surrounding context shifts from urban crime to interdimensional warfare, and the Tank's boxy silhouette reads as equally at home in a St. Mark's alley or a UES base corridor.
Reader's Guide
Saints Row: The Third: The Tank is available as a purchasable vehicle in the game's expansive garage roster. It is one of the larger, slower options, trading top speed for a high durability pool that shrugs off sustained gunfire and collisions. It can be obtained through the in-game vehicle purchase system and, in some cases, through mission rewards or challenges. Its stats favor survivability: it takes a significant amount of damage before being destroyed, making it a popular choice for players who prefer to drive through police roadblocks rather than dodge them. The full customization suite applies—paint colors, wraps, and accessory slots—so a military tank can wear a polka-dot wrap and a spoiler if the player insists.
Saints Row IV / Re-Elected: Armored and tank-class vehicles remain in the roster, now framed within the game's sci-fi setting. The Tank's role is similar—high armor, low speed, high intimidation—but the surrounding vehicle lineup shifts toward alien-tech and experimental designs. The Tank reads as a grounded, human-made counterpoint to the more fantastical options, and its customization options stay consistent with the series' over-the-top aesthetic.
Aesthetic role: Across both entries, the Tank is the franchise's answer to the question 'what if the Saints just… didn't care about being quiet?' It is the vehicle you pick when the mission is less about elegance and more about making a very loud, very metal statement. Pair it with a loud paint job and a ridiculous accessory, and it becomes the Saints in a single, rolling silhouette.
More in Arsenal, Vehicles & Customization
Elsewhere in Saints Row
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