Tank Asset Reference

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The tank asset is the data definition for every liquid storage container in Unturned™ that can hold water or fuel. In-game, tanks are localized as "liquid storages" and function as placeable barricade-type objects that players interact with using a fuel canister or water canister item. A fuel tank stores gasoline that players can siphon into vehicles or generators; a water tank stores fresh water that players can siphon into canteens or cooking stations. Tanks are a specialized barricade subtype that combines the placement and durability behavior of barricades with the resource-storage behavior of a dedicated liquid container.

This article is the 57 Studios™ canonical reference for the tank asset type. It covers every .dat field specific to the tank asset subclass, the Resource capacity field and its units, the Source enum that controls which liquid type the tank accepts, the barricade inheritance that gives tanks their placement and health behavior, the canister interaction system, and blueprint crafting configuration for custom tank items. The shared fields that appear on every item asset (ID, GUID, Rarity, Slot, Size) are documented in Item Asset Anatomy; the barricade-specific fields are documented in Objects and Structures Assets.

A fuel tank barricade placed next to a generator in an Unturned base, showing the interaction prompt for canister siphoning

Documentation source: This article references the official Smartly Dressed Games modding documentation for field definitions and game behavior. Shipped game file examples are drawn from the vanilla Unturned™ Bundles/Items/Barricades/ directory. Community-validated notes are marked where the official documentation is silent on a detail.

Who this article is for

This article is written for Unturned™ mod authors and server operators who are authoring a custom fuel tank, water tank, or other liquid storage barricade for their mod or server. The article assumes familiarity with the barricade asset system and the master bundle pipeline. If you have not yet worked through the project folder structure, GUID workflow, or barricade authoring basics, complete Project Folder Structure and GUIDs, Item Asset Anatomy, and Objects and Structures Assets before continuing.

How the tank system works

The tank asset is a barricade with liquid storage. It inherits from ItemBarricadeAsset, which gives it placement behavior (world-space interaction, health, vulnerability, explosion effects) and adds two tank-specific fields: Resource (capacity) and Source (liquid type). When a player approaches a placed tank and interacts with it while holding a compatible canister item (a fuel can for fuel tanks, a water can for water tanks), the game opens a transfer UI that allows the player to deposit liquid into the tank or siphon liquid out of it.

The sequence above shows the standard deposit-siphon interaction loop. The tank stores a quantity of liquid (measured in units of Resource); the canister carries a smaller quantity that the player transfers. The tank does not generate liquid - it stores what players deposit into it.

Tank interaction is canister-limited

The fuel canister and water canister are dedicated item types that the player must have in their inventory to interact with a tank. A fuel canister holds a limited amount of fuel (typically 4 units in vanilla). A water canister holds water (typically 4 units in vanilla). The player must transfer fuel or water from the canister into the tank to fill it, or from the tank into the canister to siphon it. The tank cannot be filled directly by pouring fuel into it from the environment - the canister is the required intermediary.

Inheritance from BarricadeAsset

The tank asset inherits from ItemBarricadeAsset, which means it shares the following barricade behaviors and configuration options:

Inherited property	Effect on tank
`Useable Barricade`	Tank is placed in the world as a barricade object.
`Build Tank`	The build menu category is set to Tank.
`Health`	Tank has hit points and can be damaged and destroyed.
`Range`	Interaction range in meters for the canister transfer UI.
`Explosion`	Visual effect asset played when the tank is destroyed.
`PlacementAudioClip`	Audio clip played when the tank is placed.
Blueprints	The tank can have crafting recipes for its construction.

The Build Tank value is specific to tank assets - it tells the build menu to categorize the item under the Tank tab. Other barricade types use different Build values (e.g., Build Barricade, Build Structure).

Complete .dat field reference

Identity and shared fields

The following shared fields are required on every item asset, including tanks. See Item Asset Anatomy for full documentation of these fields.

Field	Type	Example	Notes
`ID`	uint16	`1229`	Unique item ID. Vanilla tanks use IDs in the 1200 range.
`GUID`	uint128 hex	`f767d92f00cc4938981431eeb9286312`	128-bit globally unique identifier.
`Type`	enum	`Tank`	Must be `Tank` for this asset type.
`Rarity`	enum	`Epic`	Vanilla tanks are `Epic` rarity.
`Useable`	enum	`Barricade`	Must be `Barricade` for placeable tank behavior.
`Build`	enum	`Tank`	Must be `Tank` to appear in the correct build menu tab.
`Size_X`	uint8	`3`	Inventory grid width. Vanilla tanks are `3`.
`Size_Y`	uint8	`3`	Inventory grid height. Vanilla tanks are `3`.
`Size_Z`	float	`0.4`	World-space collision depth.

Tank-specific fields

The tank asset contributes exactly two fields that are unique to its subclass - Resource and Source. All other behavior is inherited from ItemBarricadeAsset.

Field	Type	Required	Example	Purpose
`Resource`	uint16	No (defaults to 0)	`10000`	Maximum units of liquid that the tank can store. One unit of water or fuel is the equivalent of one usage of a canister item. A tank with `Resource 10000` can hold up to 10000 canister-fills worth of liquid.
`Source`	enum	No (defaults to `None`)	`Fuel`	The type of liquid that the tank can store. Valid values: `Fuel`, `Water`, `None`. Controls which canister type can interact with the tank and which liquid type is stored internally.

Barricade fields (inherited)

The following barricade fields are relevant to tank behavior. See Objects and Structures Assets for the full barricade field reference.

Field	Type	Example	Purpose
`Health`	uint16	`500`	Hit points of the tank barricade. Destroyed when health reaches zero.
`Range`	float	`4`	Interaction range in meters. Player must be within this range to initiate canister transfer.
`Radius`	float	`0.75`	The radius of the interaction collider for the tank.
`Offset`	float	`1`	Vertical offset of the interaction point from the tank's base.
`Explosion`	uint16	`36`	The effect asset GUID or ID played when the tank is destroyed.

Blueprint crafting fields

Tank assets can include blueprint entries for crafting. The vanilla fuel tank and water tank both have crafting recipes defined in their .dat files using the blueprint array syntax.

Field	Type	Purpose
`Blueprints`	array	An array of crafting recipe objects. Each recipe defines input items and output items for one crafting operation.

Vanilla tank blueprints follow the standard blueprint array format:

Blueprints
[
  {
    CategoryTag "bfac6026305f4737a95fd275ebff65a6" // Utilities
    InputItems
    [
      {
        ID "7f06b16642724683bd61584a52fde981" // Metal Sheet
        Amount 4
      }
      {
        ID "c0b0f4a9f46c49a59f4558210bf36da5" // Metal Can
        Amount 3
      }
      {
        ID "8c25cf28c76a4634855f404c8972c0ae" // Tape
        Amount 2
      }
      {
        ID "7aee55ea2abf4f3fb70c4b2677da0e14" // Chemicals
      }
      {
        ID "5830b84bf8074caa91cf3f4dde0dd19e" // Blowtorch
        Delete false
      }
    ]
    OutputItems this
    Skill Craft
    Skill_Level 2
    RequiresNearbyCraftingTags
    [
      "7b82c125a5a54984b8bb26576b59e977" // Workbench
    ]
    Effect "84347b13028340b8976033c08675d458" // Wrench
  }
]

Field type reference

Field	Data type	Valid values	Default	Invalid input behavior
`Resource`	uint16	0-65535	`0`	Asset loads with zero capacity; no liquid can be stored
`Source`	enum string	`Fuel`, `Water`, `None`	`None`	Falls back to `None`; no canister type can interact
`Health`	uint16	0-65535	N/A (barricade default)	Tank becomes instant-destroy if set to 0
`Range`	float	> 0	N/A (barricade default)	Canister interaction unreachable if set too low
`Radius`	float	> 0	N/A (barricade default)	Interaction collider may be too small
`Explosion`	uint16	Valid effect ID	`0` (no effect)	No destruction animation plays

Shipped tank examples from game files

The vanilla Unturned™ game ships two tank assets - one for fuel and one for water. Both are documented here as reference for custom tank authoring.

Fuel tank (Resource_Fuel)

GUID f767d92f00cc4938981431eeb9286312
Type Tank
Rarity Epic
Useable Barricade
Build Tank
ID 1229

Size_X 3
Size_Y 3
Size_Z 0.4

Health 500
Range 4
Radius 0.75
Offset 1

Source Fuel
Resource 10000

Explosion 36

Blueprints
[
  // Crafting recipe: 4 Metal Sheet + 3 Metal Can + 2 Tape + Chemicals + Blowtorch
  // Skill: Craft Level 2, requires Workbench
]

The fuel tank holds 10000 units of fuel, requires a fuel canister to interact, and uses an explosion effect (ID 36) when destroyed. It is crafted at a Workbench with Craft skill level 2.

Water tank (Resource_Water)

GUID 8bd5f403d2b14f3ab77f7ccfce0ee9a2
Type Tank
Rarity Epic
Useable Barricade
Build Tank
ID 1228

Size_X 3
Size_Y 3
Size_Z 0.4

Health 500
Range 4
Radius 0.75
Offset 1

Source Water
Resource 5

Explosion 36

Blueprints
[
  // Crafting recipe: 4 Metal Sheet + 3 Metal Can + 2 Tape
  // Skill: Craft Level 2, requires Workbench
]

The water tank holds only 5 units of water - a significantly smaller capacity than the fuel tank. The water tank uses Source Water, which restricts interaction to water canisters only. The crafting recipe is identical to the fuel tank minus the Chemicals and Blowtorch requirements.

Resource value discrepancy

The fuel tank has Resource 10000 while the water tank has Resource 5. This is an enormous difference that reflects the gameplay role of each tank. Fuel is consumed continuously by generators and vehicles, requiring a large buffer. Water is consumed more slowly and a large water tank would reduce the challenge of resource management. The cohort recommendation is to match custom tank capacity to the intended gameplay role - fuel tanks should store hundreds or thousands of units; water tanks should store single-digit or low-double-digit units; empty Resource 0 tanks serve as decorative or quest props.

Worked example: large fuel tank

The following .dat example represents a large custom fuel tank with 25000 units of capacity, suitable for a military base or industrial server scenario.

ID 51100
GUID a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d
Type Tank
Rarity Epic
Useable Barricade
Build Tank

Size_X 3
Size_Y 3
Size_Z 0.4

Health 800
Range 4
Radius 1.0
Offset 1

Source Fuel
Resource 25000

Explosion 36

Bypass_ID_Limit True

Companion English.dat:

Name Industrial Fuel Tank
Description A large-capacity fuel tank designed for military and industrial installations. Holds 25000 units of fuel. Requires a fuel canister to interact.

Worked example: small water tank

The following .dat example represents a small custom water tank with 3 units of capacity, intended as a compact base-camp water source.

ID 51101
GUID b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6e
Type Tank
Rarity Rare
Useable Barricade
Build Tank

Size_X 2
Size_Y 2
Size_Z 0.35

Health 300
Range 3
Radius 0.6
Offset 0.8

Source Water
Resource 3

Bypass_ID_Limit True

Companion English.dat:

Name Compact Water Tank
Description A small water tank for base camps and outposts. Holds 3 units of fresh water. Requires a water canister to interact.

Worked example: decorative tank (no liquid storage)

The following .dat example represents a decorative tank that appears as a barricade but cannot store any liquid. This is useful for set dressing on custom maps or for quest props.

ID 51102
GUID 1c2d3e4f5a6b7c8d9e0f1a2b3c4d5e6f
Type Tank
Rarity Common
Useable Barricade
Build Tank

Size_X 2
Size_Y 2
Size_Z 0.4

Health 200
Range 2
Radius 0.5
Offset 0.5

Source None
Resource 0

Bypass_ID_Limit True

Companion English.dat:

Name Decorative Fuel Barrel
Description An empty fuel barrel that cannot store liquid. Purely decorative. Can be used for set dressing on custom maps.

Diagnostic table

Symptom	Most likely cause	Resolution
Tank placed but cannot interact with it	`Source None` or canister type does not match	Set `Source Fuel` or `Source Water`; equip the matching canister type
Canister interaction prompt appears but transfer does nothing	`Resource 0` or missing field	Set `Resource` to a positive value
Tank shows empty even after depositing fuel	`Source` mismatch (deposited via wrong canister type)	Transfer only works when canister type matches `Source`
Tank can be placed but has no health bar	`Health` field missing or set to 0	Set `Health` to a positive value (vanilla tanks use 500)
Tank destroyed on first interaction	`Health` too low	Increase `Health` to at least 200
Tank does not appear in build menu	`Build` field missing or set to wrong value	Set `Build Tank` in the `.dat`
Tank has no crafting recipe when expected	`Blueprints` array absent or malformed	Add blueprint recipe following vanilla syntax
Tank interaction range feels too short	`Range` too low	Increase `Range` to at least 3
Tank placement sound is wrong	`PlacementAudioClip` field absent or incorrect	Add or correct the placement audio reference
Tank siphons fuel but generator does not run	Generator connected to wrong fuel pipe in map geometry	Generator fuel connection is a map-side concern; verify fuel pipe routing
Water tank cannot be emptied by player	Player does not have a water canister	Water canisters are the required intermediary; add water canister to inventory
Tank sinks into ground when placed	`Size_Z` too small or collider mismatch	Adjust `Size_Z` or the prefab collider dimensions

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a tank and a storage container?

A tank stores liquid (fuel or water) measured in abstract units that are transferred through canister items. A storage container stores physical items (the item grid system). They serve entirely different purposes and use different .dat types - Type Tank for liquid storage, Type Storage or Type Backpack for item grid storage. A tank cannot store items; a storage container cannot store liquid.

Can a tank store both fuel and water?

No. The Source field accepts a single enum value (Fuel, Water, or None). A tank can store only one liquid type. To provide both fuel and water at a base, players need two separate tanks with different Source values.

What does Resource 0 mean?

Resource 0 produces a tank that exists as a placeable barricade but cannot store any liquid. This is the default value when the field is omitted. A tank with Resource 0 is effectively a decorative barricade that resembles a tank but provides no storage functionality.

Can I change a tank's resource capacity after it has been placed?

No. The Resource field is read at load time. A tank that has already been placed uses the Resource value from its .dat at the time it was loaded. To change a tank's capacity, update the .dat and reload the server.

How do players know how much liquid a tank contains?

The interaction prompt shows the current stored amount and the maximum capacity when a player approaches the tank with a compatible canister. There is no external gauge or UI indicator on the tank model itself.

What happens when a tank is destroyed while holding liquid?

All stored liquid is lost. The tank does not spill its contents on destruction. Players who store liquid in tanks are responsible for defending those tanks, because destruction results in total loss of the stored resource.

Are tanks saved on server restart?

Yes. Tank liquid levels are saved as part of the world-state save data. On server restart, the tank's stored liquid quantity is restored to its pre-restart value. This is the same save mechanism used for other barricade state data.

Can a tank be locked?

Tanks inherit barricade ownership from the barricade placement system. The owner and their group members can access the tank's liquid. Non-owner players cannot interact with the tank unless Accessible is set to true in the .dat (inherited from the barricade field set).

What is the maximum Resource value I can set?

The Resource field is uint16, allowing values from 0 to 65535. The vanilla fuel tank uses 10000. A value of 65535 is technically valid but produces a tank that essentially never needs refilling. Consider balance carefully before authoring extremely high capacity tanks.

Do tanks need a Unity prefab?

Yes. Tanks are placeable barricades and require a Unity prefab with a mesh, collider, and the appropriate barricade script components. The prefab is packaged into a master bundle following the standard barricade bundling workflow.

Can a tank be picked up after placement?

Tanks follow the barricade salvage rules. If Salvageable is set to true in the .dat (inherited from the barricade system), players can salvage the tank with a blowtorch or similar tool and recover a partial refund of the crafting materials.

How do I make a tank that accepts fuel but is crafted with different materials?

Override the Blueprints array in the .dat. The vanilla blueprints show the pattern. Replace the input item GUIDs and amounts with the materials appropriate for your mod. The Skill and Skill_Level fields control the crafting skill requirement.

Best practices

Set Source Fuel for fuel tanks and Source Water for water tanks explicitly. The default None produces a tank that cannot be interacted with.
Set Resource to at least 100 for functional fuel tanks. A fuel tank that holds fewer than 100 units is functionally trivial for most generator use cases. Water tanks can use smaller values (3-10) without issue.
Use Build Tank to ensure the tank appears in the correct build menu category. A tank without Build Tank may appear under the generic Barricade tab, confusing players.
Match the Size_X and Size_Y to the visual footprint of the tank model. A large industrial tank model should have a larger inventory footprint than a small water barrel.
Provide a crafting recipe via the Blueprints array so players can construct the tank rather than relying only on loot spawns.
Test tank interaction with both fuel and water canisters in single-player before deploying to a server. The canister item must match the Source value for the interaction to work.
Document the tank's capacity and whether it requires a fuel or water canister in the English.dat description. Players need to know what type of canister to bring.

Appendix A: Tank .dat field quick reference

Field	Type	Required	Default	Purpose
`ID`	uint16	Yes	-	Unique item ID
`GUID`	uint128	Yes	-	Globally unique identifier
`Type`	enum	Yes	-	Must be `Tank`
`Useable`	enum	Yes	-	Must be `Barricade`
`Build`	enum	Yes	-	Must be `Tank`
`Resource`	uint16	No	`0`	Liquid capacity in canister units
`Source`	enum	No	`None`	Liquid type; `Fuel`, `Water`, or `None`
`Health`	uint16	No	Barricade default	Tank hit points
`Range`	float	No	Barricade default	Canister interaction range
`Radius`	float	No	Barricade default	Interaction collider radius
`Explosion`	uint16	No	`0`	Destruction effect ID

Appendix B: Vanilla tank configuration comparison

Property	Fuel Tank (ID 1229)	Water Tank (ID 1228)
GUID	`f767d92f00cc4938981431eeb9286312`	`8bd5f403d2b14f3ab77f7ccfce0ee9a2`
Rarity	Epic	Epic
Build	Tank	Tank
Source	Fuel	Water
Resource	10000	5
Health	500	500
Range	4	4
Radius	0.75	0.75
Offset	1	1
Explosion	36	36
Blueprint	Metal Sheet x4 + Metal Can x3 + Tape x2 + Chemicals + Blowtorch	Metal Sheet x4 + Metal Can x3 + Tape x2

Appendix C: External references

Smartly Dressed Games official modding documentation - Barricade assets - official field reference for barricade and tank assets.
Unturned on Steam - the Unturned™ store page and community hub.
Objects and Structures Assets - the barricade asset field reference that tanks inherit from.
Item Asset Anatomy - the shared field reference for ID, GUID, Type, Rarity, Slot, and Size fields.
Box Asset Reference - the previous article; covers Steam Economy box assets.
Project Folder Structure and GUIDs - folder layout and GUID generation.
Master Bundle Export - Unity prefab packaging for barricade items.

Advanced considerations

Tank liquid persistence across server restarts

Liquid stored in a tank is persisted as part of the world-state save data. The server writes the tank's current liquid level to the save file during regular save intervals and restores it on restart. This means a tank with 5000 units of fuel before a restart will still have 5000 units after the restart. The save data is stored per-tank by the tank's world position and GUID, not by the Resource field value, so changing the Resource field in the .dat does not retroactively affect already-placed tanks.

Multiple tanks and liquid management strategy

On survival and RP servers, the liquid management strategy revolves around tank placement and capacity. A base with multiple fuel tanks provides redundancy if one tank is destroyed. A water tank placed near a cooking station reduces travel time for the chef role. Tank placement strategy is a server-design concern rather than a .dat authoring concern, but mod authors who design tanks for specific server contexts should consider the optimal Resource and Health values for their target gameplay.

Tank interaction with the vehicle fuel system

Vehicles in Unturned™ have their own fuel storage defined through the vehicle asset's fuel capacity fields. Players siphon fuel from a tank into a fuel canister and then use the canister to refuel the vehicle. There is no direct vehicle-to-tank fuel transfer; the canister is the required intermediary in both directions.

Tank interaction with the generator system

Generators consume fuel from their internal fuel buffer. Players refill a generator by using a fuel canister on the generator, not by connecting the generator to a tank through pipes or hoses. The generator consumes fuel directly from the canister; the tank serves as a bulk storage intermediate. A server design that includes fuel logistics requires players to manage the multi-step pipeline: tank stores fuel, canister carries fuel to generator, generator consumes fuel.

Custom canister items and tank compatibility

Fuel and water canisters are dedicated item types in the Unturned™ item system. A custom canister item that a mod author creates must have the correct Type and Useable fields to function as a fuel or water canister. If a custom canister item uses a different type, it will not trigger the tank interaction prompt even if the tank's Source matches. The canister items are outside the scope of this article; see the fuel and water canister item documentation for canister authoring details.

Cross-references

Box Asset Reference - the previous article; covers Steam Economy box assets for cosmetic crates.
Objects and Structures Assets - the barricade field reference that tank assets inherit placement and durability behavior from.
Item Asset Anatomy - the shared field reference for ID, GUID, Type, Rarity, Slot, and Size fields.
Project Folder Structure and GUIDs - folder layout and GUID workflow.
Master Bundle Export - Unity prefab packaging for barricade items.
Smartly Dressed Games modding documentation - official field reference for barricade and tank assets.
Unturned on Steam - game page and community hub.

Document history

Version	Date	Author	Notes
1.0	2026-07-26	57 Studios	Initial publication. Full tank asset .dat field reference, canister interaction system, shipped file examples from vanilla game, blueprint crafting, liquid persistence mechanics.

Tank Asset Reference ​

Who this article is for ​

How the tank system works ​

Tank interaction is canister-limited ​

Inheritance from BarricadeAsset ​

Complete .dat field reference ​

Identity and shared fields ​

Tank-specific fields ​

Barricade fields (inherited) ​

Blueprint crafting fields ​

Field type reference ​

Shipped tank examples from game files ​

Fuel tank (Resource_Fuel) ​

Water tank (Resource_Water) ​

Worked example: large fuel tank ​

Worked example: small water tank ​

Worked example: decorative tank (no liquid storage) ​

Diagnostic table ​

Frequently asked questions ​

What is the difference between a tank and a storage container? ​

Can a tank store both fuel and water? ​

What does Resource 0 mean? ​

Can I change a tank's resource capacity after it has been placed? ​

How do players know how much liquid a tank contains? ​

What happens when a tank is destroyed while holding liquid? ​

Are tanks saved on server restart? ​

Can a tank be locked? ​

What is the maximum Resource value I can set? ​

Do tanks need a Unity prefab? ​

Can a tank be picked up after placement? ​

How do I make a tank that accepts fuel but is crafted with different materials? ​

Best practices ​

Appendix A: Tank .dat field quick reference ​

Appendix B: Vanilla tank configuration comparison ​

Appendix C: External references ​

Advanced considerations ​

Tank liquid persistence across server restarts ​

Multiple tanks and liquid management strategy ​

Tank interaction with the vehicle fuel system ​

Tank interaction with the generator system ​

Custom canister items and tank compatibility ​

Cross-references ​

Document history ​

Tank Asset Reference

Who this article is for

How the tank system works

Tank interaction is canister-limited

Inheritance from BarricadeAsset

Complete .dat field reference

Identity and shared fields

Tank-specific fields

Barricade fields (inherited)

Blueprint crafting fields

Field type reference

Shipped tank examples from game files

Fuel tank (Resource_Fuel)

Water tank (Resource_Water)

Worked example: large fuel tank

Worked example: small water tank

Worked example: decorative tank (no liquid storage)

Diagnostic table

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a tank and a storage container?

Can a tank store both fuel and water?

What does Resource 0 mean?

Can I change a tank's resource capacity after it has been placed?

How do players know how much liquid a tank contains?

What happens when a tank is destroyed while holding liquid?

Are tanks saved on server restart?

Can a tank be locked?

What is the maximum Resource value I can set?

Do tanks need a Unity prefab?

Can a tank be picked up after placement?

How do I make a tank that accepts fuel but is crafted with different materials?

Best practices

Appendix A: Tank .dat field quick reference

Appendix B: Vanilla tank configuration comparison

Appendix C: External references

Advanced considerations

Tank liquid persistence across server restarts

Multiple tanks and liquid management strategy

Tank interaction with the vehicle fuel system

Tank interaction with the generator system

Custom canister items and tank compatibility

Cross-references

Document history