Panzer

The Panzer is a heavily armored Nazi railcar used for advanced combat. In the game, it appears in the levels "Front Line" and "Trolley Combat". Feared even by the Rangers, it's among the deadliest weapons used in the Metro.

Overview
The Panzer is an armored trolley with a fully-rotating turret, effectively making it a metro-made tank on rails. Unlike the Red Line Tank, its crew compartment is fully enclosed, so the crew is protected by Panzer's armor at all times, even when firing the main gun and reloading. On the other hand, the visibility might be fairly limited, as there aren't any apparent optical devices on the vehicle. So the crew probably has to rely on simple periscopes and thin slits in its armor, similar to real-life WWII tanks this vehicle was clearly inspired by.

Metro 2033
"Oh my god, it's a Panzer!"

- Pavel During the game, Artyom comes across two different Panzer tanks. The first is found in the middle of the Front Line bridge, but it has been destroyed by Communist soldiers and has the dead crew around it. Unfortunately, the second one he comes across is fully functional and is after Artyom, along with his companion Pavel. It appears in the level "Trolley Combat", halfway through after shooting through the wooden roadblock. It appears out of an opposite tunnel and chases the pair until reaching an abandoned tunnel where it's destroyed by Artyom.

There are actually two different variants of the Panzer. The first is the variant seen in game mounted with an anti-tank cannon. There is also a second variant that has the cannon replaced with a heavy machine gun which can only be seen in the launch trailer for Metro 2033 as well as in the PC Benchmark for Metro 2033.

Tactics
Although it cannot be destroyed by machine gun fire directly, Artyom has to shoot the second set of bridge supports to collapse the bridge and bring an end to the tank by allowing it to plunge into the waste below the rails, in turn getting the Tank Buster achievement. The Panzer is easy to defeat as for most of the confrontation is it preoccupied by trying to clear its path on the rail, the only way it can kill Artyom is if the player takes too long to shoot the support pillars - this can be avoided by not shooting until the tank is either over the weakened supports or coming up to them as firing before. This is a waste of time and can overheat the gun, which takes a while to cool down.

Trivia

 * This is the only vehicle in game that uses a cannon as its main weapon instead of a machine gun, also meaning it's the only vehicle in the game to be able to fire explosive shells rather than just bullets.
 * The vehicle appears to be a crude imitation of Panzer IV, a medium tank mass produced and extensively used by Nazi Germany throughout World War II that has since become an iconic symbol of Nazi weaponry.
 * In the Metro: Last Light level "Seperation", on the elevated tracks, an armoured train has a Panzer turret on its roof.
 * Due to the size of the Panzers maingun, it's possible that it was stripped from a destroyed BMP-1, which is 73mm 2A28 "Grom" smoothbore cannon. However, it seems to have a muzzle brake not present on the original BMP cannon. The muzzle brake is similar to the one used on the early variant of Panzer IV F2, a German WWII tank. This is probably intentional, as the Panzer was heavily inspired by real-life Panzer IV.
 * Aside from the main gun, the Panzer has no more armament, while the Red version of the Panzer in Metro: Last Light has been upgraded with a DShK heavy machine gun.
 * In the launch trailer for Metro 2033, a quick clip showed the destroyed Panzer on the Front Line was partly operational.
 * In Metro 2033 Redux, Artyom doesn't get to destroy the Panzer while on the the railcar.
 * It also fires rockets similar to the Red Line's tank.
 * OSKOM tanks seen in Novosibirsk look incredibly similar to this vehicle, the only notable difference being that instead of a cannon, they are armed with a DShK machine gun. The real reason is probably the fact that the developers didn't want to invest time into creating a completely new model of an armored railcar, given how briefly they are seen. In-universe, it makes no sense for OSKOM to make their tanks look so similar to Panzer IVs, especially the turret would probably be very different (for example, they might just use a turret from one of the destroyed BTRs or BMPs seen on the surface).

Gallery
PanzerТанк Четвёртого Рейха