The Tinkrell you encounter in the campaign are not very threatening. Fairly easy to kill, and not much to worry about. However, in the hands of a player, the Tinkrell modular guns are extremely powerful. Tinkrell Agents will be a danger to your existence in the campaign. Tinkrell ships are also a common sight in tournaments where their damage potential will be on full display.
Once a player has killed 1000P worth of Tinkrell ships, the faction will be unlocked and they can start a new game as Tinkrell.
Blocks
Tinkrell Modular Cannons are unique, and provide better damage output than anything else in the game. Their armor is weak, but their shields are good. They have good lasers for point-defense and effective thrusters. Overall, they are a kiting faction that will use their speed and firepower to be extremely effective.
Armor/Shields
Tinkrell hull blocks can’t really be called armor. They are more structure to support the other modules. For the most part, the shields protect your ship, not the hull.
If you are going to try armor, the big resource blocks can be extra padding, but also add mass.
Thrusters
Tinkrell thrusters are ok. On any other faction they might be sub-par, but Tinkrell are so light that they end up being very effective at keeping Tinkrell ships mobile.
Lasers
Defense Lasers: Both sizes of Defense Laser are very good. The smaller ones are more efficient, but the larger ones have more range. Because Tinkrell have no armor, these are your main defense against missiles and other projectiles.
Drones
Drones: The regular drones provide consistent harrasing damage at range. They can be quite effective in swarms.
Rocket Drones: Unfortunately, the Rocket Drones are a waste of resources. They are massively expensive and don’t do nearly enough damage.
Modular Cannons
The Tinkrell are unique in that you can build their guns out of multiple blocks. By starting with the cannon base, and then adding amplifier blocks onto it, you can create very flexible, high dps weapons.
You can choose to make one giant gun with lots of range, or multiple guns to spray an area. Keep in mind that strong cannons also create recoil, which can be harnessed as reverse thrust. The only thing limiting Tinkrell guns is how much energy is available.
Cannon Base: The base block for the gun. Very weak by itself, the amplifier blocks stack onto it.
Damage Amplifier: As it says, increases the damage and energy usage. The larger ones are more efficient than the small ones.
Velocity Amplifier: Makes the shots travel faster, increases the rate of fire and energy usage. Stack lots of Velocity Amplifiers to make a burst-fire weapon, or none to have a slow-firing cannon.
Range Amplifier: Makes the shots travel farther and increases energy usage. Stack lots of Range Amplifiers to make a long-range sniper weapon.
Rate Amplifier: End piece for the cannon that doubles the rate-of-fire and increases energy usage.
Solar Panels
Tinkrell Solar Panels can provide consistent resource generation with no effort. It takes a lot of them to have a significant impact, but you can make solar panel arrays that generate tons of resources.
Tinkrell Solar Panels are more compact and have better generation than the Farmer ones. In many ways the Solar Panels make Tinkrell completely over-powered.
Be aware however, that the game will chose to build your cheapest ships most often. It’s a good idea to keep your solar panel arrays expensive so the game doesn’t just fill your regions up with worthless ships.
Tinkrell Tricks
Use Solar Panels to generate vast quantities of resources, and thus large fleets. You can have giant Solar Panel bases that churn-out a continuous stream of ships.
Modular Cannons: Experiment with different cannon builds. You can use the guns to propel your ship in reverse. You can also have a gun facing backwards with a different weapon binding to use as your primary thrust.