Escape

Tunnels can be real lifesavers in a variety of situations. Tunnels exist because a Moth cannot fly over the crater walls without stalling. You can find a tunnel easily by observing the compass at the top of your HUD. When you're lined up with a tunnel, the name of the crater it leads to is displayed in your compass. Fly toward it and you'll be at the entrance to the tunnel.

It's important to learn how to find tunnels with your compass. Tunnels are your escape hatch to safety when dogfights go bad. The AI pilots pause before entering and upon exiting tunnels. This gives you an invaluable head start when fleeing from them. Don't ever hesitate to use a tunnel when you're under fire.

A common situation where tunnels are lifesavers is when you're picking up valuable cargo. If there are pirates around, they are apt to open fire on you as soon as your drone docks. There may be more than one. Now's the time to line up with a tunnel and run. Make sure you know where you can sell various types of cargo in the different craters. You can even use this as a preventitive measure if pirates are lurking around and haven't noticed you yet.

Make tunnels a intergal part of your evasion strategies.

Traps

Tunnels are great places to trap a superior foe. This is an important tactic if you're in a Silver-Y and all of the Moths are superior to yours. It also comes in handy in fighting online human opponents.

The cramped space of a tunnel prevents a faster Moth from using its speed. Manuverability and throttle-control are everything in tunnel fighting. AI pilots have a hard time targeting you in a tunnel and will not use missiles in one. Human pilots will often beat themselves half to death saving you a lot of effort. The only way to be a good tunnel fighter is practice. Pay particular attention to making tight turns in a tunnel. You'll find that the Silver-Y and Moon Moth have great advantages here.

You can also set up a trap where your enemy will exit. Fly through the tunnel and hover over the exit. Now you'll be behind your foe when he exits the tunnel. You can also wait right outside the tunnel's exit and get several hits while your enemy is still in the cramped confines of the tunnel and can't manuver out of your gunsights.

Storage

AI pilots won't pick up items inside a tunnel unless the cargo is very near an entrance. This means that you can jettison your cargo in an emergency in the middle of a tunnel and it will be there when you get back. This is very handy when you've taken a lot of damage. You can dump your cargo to get pirates off your back, get repaired, and then come back to retreive your cargo.

Some Cautions

You suffer the same disadvantages in a tunnel that other Moths do. You can't manuver well so keep your turns to a minimum and don't beat yourself to death. If you're damaged, you may want to clear the tunnel and just run.

AI pilots can hit you with missiles if you're inside a tunnel and they are not. Remember this when recovering booty near a tunnel entrance. You may want to move deeper in the tunnel while your drone is picking up cargo.

Be watchful for misfires. It's very easy to hit an innocent Moth passing by. Check your radar to make sure there's no one ahead of your target before opening fire.

The Alpha tunnels are the hardest to navigate. They have curves, bows, a tricky monorail layout and often have heavy traffic. This is especially true of the Alpha/Downtown tunnel. When you practice tunnel manuvers, these are great tunnels to practice in.