The Lightning is a light tank available to all factions. It is primarily used to destroy enemy armored vehicles and Sandras. In some cases, the Lightning can be used against infantry and as an anti-aircraft weapon, provided the appropriate weapon is installed. When you don't have nanites for a Vanguard, Pravler, or Magrider, the light tank is called upon to provide backup.
Tank loadouts
1. Anti-tank - an anti-tank turret is installed as a weapon, with repair and fire suppression modules in the protective slots. With this setup, you can be killed by heavy tanks, heavy raiders, aircraft, and light infantry with explosives. If you're firing from a stationary position for an extended period, I recommend installing an auto turret next to the tank to provide a warning signal against paratroopers.
2. Anti-air - an anti-aircraft gun is installed as the primary weapon, preferably with a 3x sight. At long range, you'll have to target enemy fighters and fire ahead of them, as the lightning projectiles will travel slowly. It's best to install auto repair or camouflage modules in the additional slots if you're operating in enemy territory, and an enemy aircraft tracking module for quick target acquisition.
Skyguards are usually killed by tanks or harassers, especially if they're killing Chamo fighters and staying in the same spot. In these cases, the enemy will switch to tanks and head towards you. Therefore, you should always try to move and stay close to allied tanks.
3. Anti-infantry: a weapon with increased explosive damage is installed, for farming infantry, such as those that repair Thunder, but at the expense of reduced damage to armored vehicles.
Anti-harasser: a weapon with an increased rate of fire is installed on the Lightning to fire as often as possible at fast-moving targets. Of the additional modules, it's worth noting the acceleration, which helps the Lightning reach speeds of up to 80 kilometers at maximum upgrades.
Possible combat tactics
If we're talking about standard use, it's certainly to destroy armored vehicles and support infantry, especially if it's an anti-tank weapon with a large blast radius.
When you've deployed an anti-aircraft gun, avoid rushing into the front lines of combat, but rather stay behind your friends' tanks and clear out anything flying that isn't your faction's color. This prevents anyone from firing on your armored vehicles from the air and destroying your friends' aircraft. Here, it's crucial to be alert and move around to avoid being spotted by enemy tanks and harassers.
On top of that, you should already have an engineer's outfit with ammo printer modules and an anti-mine harvester module, and preferably also an auto turret and nanite grenade in your inventory. I was often blown up by mines without a harvester module, and I shot down pilots when they were transferring to harassers and tanks.
Lightning weapon
A single-man, multi-role tank. It can be adapted for various roles, but is primarily used against enemy armored vehicles, such as Sandra, Harrasers, and other tanks.
1) Ground:
High damage to armor, but low splinter damage to infantry. Its speed allows it to catch a Sandra or almost a Harraser, and outrun a heavy tank. Its camouflage allows it to remain undetected on the minimap.
2) Air:
The Skyguard anti-aircraft gun is mounted on the turret. The optics offer a 3x zoom. It has an excellent traverse angle and a good view of the sky. It deals significant damage to aerial targets, including Liberators and Helixes. But that's not all: the Skyguard is equipped with an aircraft detector with a 300-meter radius. You see everything flying around you. You'll become a best friend to your allied fighter pilots, and enemy number one to your enemy. The latter, if you start to unwind them in the air, will most often switch to a Harrasser or Lightning and specifically focus you. Therefore, you need to move from time to time or hang out near friendly tanks. It's no wonder that the loadout also includes camouflage.
3) Infantry:
This is basically the same thing, except a cannon with fragmentation damage is mounted on the turret to fire at windows and doorways, thereby killing infantry. A motion detector with a 50-meter radius around the tank is also added to the loadout.