Plane Crazy shredder tutorial: Building Guide and Core Mechanics

A Plane Crazy shredder tutorial explaining the four core designs, ANO cursor-tracking cores, blade layouts, and essential PvP building mechanics.

A shredder in Plane Crazy is a combat vehicle built around high-speed spinning motors equipped with cutters to slice through opposing creations. While early community designs were known as "shredder bugs" that attacked in swarms, modern shredder engineering centers on four primary architectures: OG (Classic), Omni, ANO (Aerial Nuisance Objects), and Tank variants. Understanding how to align Motor2 hinge joints, ball joints, and cutter configurations allows you to assemble an effective combat build in the game's physics sandbox.

The Four Shredder Archetypes

According to Plane Crazy community documentation, shredder builds branch from four primary frameworks. Each framework uses a distinct propulsion and articulation method to bring cutters into contact with enemy hulls.

Type	Core Structure	Propulsion & Steering	Primary Combat Role
OG / Classic (Fork)	3-part segmented layout (Tail, Neck, Head)	Motor2 joints connecting the neck; tail creates aerodynamic drag	Fast linear pursuit and head-on ramming
Omni (Omnidirectional)	Central core with 1 to 6 radiating arms	Thruster-driven hands; multi-axis vectoring	Multi-directional engagements and sphere coverage
ANO (Aerial Nuisance Object)	Compact core using gyro or ball joint systems	Complete vehicle points directly at the player cursor	High-precision cursor aiming and evasive dogfighting
Tank	Two-part structure consisting of a hull and turret	Thrust and ground downforce; motor-driven cutter turret	Heavy ground assault and anti-surface defense

Building an OG (Classic) Shredder

The OG or Classic shredder operates on a trailer-and-tow mechanic split into three continuous segments:

The Tail: Positioned at the rear, the tail uses wing panels or aerodynamic angle locks to generate drag. This drag stabilizes the build in flight, preventing erratic tumbling.
The Neck: Built using Motor2 blocks set to pitch and yaw controls. This section acts as a flexible trailer hitch, allowing the vehicle to pivot up, down, left, and right relative to the tail.
The Head: Houses the forward thrust, pilot seat, main cutter blades, and auxiliary weaponry. The head pulls the rest of the craft forward.

Designs that incorporate more than three segments behind the head are known as the Worm Variant. Advanced classic builds also employ angle locks to tuck Motor2 joints inside armored boxes, protecting the turning mechanism from incoming projectile fire.

Assembling an Omni Shredder

Omnidirectional shredders feature a centralized core that radiates outward into symmetrical limbs. The structure requires three coordinated sections:

The Core: Houses the pilot seat, camera mount, and initial Motor2 joints. The core requires heavy reinforcement, often incorporating explosive blocks (TNT) as resilient armor against standard bullet fire.
The Arms: Structural bridges connecting the core joints to the outer assemblies. Arms are constructed using wing panels to enhance maneuverability or text blocks and angle locks to maximize structural integrity.
The Hands: Located at the tips of the arms. The hands house the forward rocket thrusters, secondary weapons, and the spinning motors that drive the cutter blades.

Blade Layouts and Variations

Standard Omni designs arrange cutters in a "+" shape at the end of each arm to ensure 360-degree defensive and offensive contact. Community builders have created specific sub-variants:

Tesseract Variant: Mounts fork-style cutter blades directly onto the hands. The rotational force applied by the engines allows the blades to clip through terrain and enemy armor more efficiently.
Tree Variant: Popularized by builder Xhunter, this design relies on a single vertical stem with a single rotational axis. Engine branches attach perpendicular to the stem with independent rotation, using thrust vectoring for lift and steering. Rotating the entire assembly by 90 degrees creates what the community classifies as a Bush Variant.

Designing ANO (Cursor-Tracking) Cores

ANO shredders use automated aiming mechanisms that force the entire craft to align with the player's crosshair. Builders implement this via two distinct systems: Motor2 Gyro cores or Ball Joint modules.

Motor2 and Gyro Cores

Motor2 cores combine axis locks (such as a gyro, piston axis lock, or void tech lock) with Motor2 components. This assembly forces the craft to follow the cursor without requiring manual flight controls.

Layout Rule: Do not weld structural blocks to active rotating joints on the core module.
Core Activation: Motor2 cores do not always track immediately upon spawning. They must be activated by allowing the craft to drop from a height, tapping the ground, or temporarily welding the build to the Motor2 assembly using TNT and detonating it upon spawn.
Torque Differences: Builders assemble cores as 1x1 rigid or 1x1 non-rigid configurations. Rigid cores produce higher, balanced torque; non-rigid cores yield lower torque and operate with less rotational balance.

Ball Joint Modules

Ball joints leverage the built-in "Mouse Control" toggle within the block's configuration menu.

Characteristics: Ball joints turn more slowly than Motor2 gyro cores, but they are significantly more compact, boast higher durability, and rotate the entire vehicle rather than just the forward assembly.
Activation Routine: To prevent the module from reversing direction, builders use massless mechanics combined with rapid flip toggles before detaching from the build plot.
Desync Prevention: When using massless techniques on a ball joint build, always place at least one Motor2 block anywhere on the vehicle to prevent network desync issues.
Roll Stabilization: Because standard ball joints allow free rotational drift, install an upright Gyro block with the blue and red axes disabled to keep the craft level.

Cutters, Armor, and Speed Limits

When assembling combat blades and hulls, specific game mechanics dictate how damage and defenses register:

Cutters Speed Ceiling: Cutter blocks only deal impact damage at flight velocities below roughly 500 to 700 SPS (studs per second). If a vehicle exceeds this speed threshold, cutters clip through target blocks without triggering destruction.
Blade Naming Conventions: Community schematics identify custom spinning assemblies using acronyms. For example, a numeric prefix indicates the dilation diameter in blocks, C denotes Carbon-fiber material, and Sinusoid identifies spiral-shaped rotational arrays.
TNT Armor: Standard bullet weapons cannot break Explosive Blocks (TNT). Modern shredders take advantage of this by layering unprimed TNT around vulnerable cores. Only secondary explosives, direct collision damage, or lava spitters can destroy these armored segments.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do Plane Crazy players build shredders?

Shredders originated from reusable missile prototypes created by community member Stormingscar452 and tutorial builder Exilir8. Players use them in PvP servers because motorized spinning cutters deal continuous block damage, overwhelming standard structural designs upon impact.

How do you counter an enemy shredder in combat?

Aircraft flying faster than 2,000 SPS or remaining above the 700 SPS cutter damage threshold are largely immune to melee shredder attacks. Effective counters include custom guided TNT missiles, carpet bombs, and lava spitters, which bypass external TNT armor plating.

What is the purpose of placing a random Motor2 on a ball joint shredder?

In Plane Crazy's physics engine, applying massless properties to a ball joint assembly can trigger model desync errors. Placing a standalone Motor2 anywhere on the structure resolves this quirk and stabilizes physics synchronization.