Game Modes

There are currently seven game modes in Diep.io.The current game modes in order are: FFA (Free For All), 2 Teams, 4 Teams, Domination, Tag Mode, Mothership, and Sandbox. You can change game modes, while not already in a battle, by clicking one of the respective colored buttons.

In team battles, the color of your tank will represent what team you're on. This also includes the color of the drones you spawn, and the bullets you shoot.

FFA (Free For All):
You spawn into the arena at Level 1, a basic tank ready to explore and work your way to the top. You are blue and your bullets are blue. All enemy tanks are shown as red with red bullets. There are no teams in FFA, but you can side and betray with anyone you want. Just remember they can do the same to you.

The only goal in a Free-For-All is to work your way to the top of the scoreboard by any means necessary. To get experience, kill any enemy tanks or Polygons. This was the first and only game mode in Diep.io for a while, before TDM was announced.

2 Teams:


As the title states, players are split into 2 separate teams. Your level one tank spawns as either a red or blue tank in a designated area of the map. You gain points the same way as in FFA, but you can't destroy tanks of your same color. Only red tanks can destroy blue, and vice versa. Wandering too close to the enemy's spawn area will alert the base Protectors who will swarm and kill any nearby enemy on sight. Any bullets that travel into the opponent's base will disappear. These two factors prevent spawn killing, unlike in FFA.

Also unlike FFA, the scoreboard displays what team color each player is. The main goal of 2 Teams is to have everyone on the scoreboard be on your team. After a team has filled the scoreboard for a certain amount of time, the arena will be closed. On September 18th, the now-defunct Team DM was split into two separate game modes: 2 Teams and 4 Teams.

4 Teams:


A game mode similar to 2 Teams, except all players are split into 4 separate teams now. Your tank will spawn either in the red, blue, purple, or green team. Other than that fact, gameplay is exactly the same as 2 Teams, with the added complexity of two additional teams bearing onto yours. The end goal is the same - have everyone on the scoreboard belong on your team. This game mode was split from Team DM on September 18th, 2016.

Domination:
A game mode very similar to Team DM, as you work together with teammates and each team has their own assigned spawn areas, but with some catches. Two teams compete for control of four Dominators located on the map. They are very powerful, and can destroy any tank in 2 hits or less. They will attack you and your teammates if it has been captured by the enemy team, or if it is neutral. Neutral Dominators are colored yellow, enemy Dominators colored the enemy's team color, and allied Dominators are colored as your team's color. To capture the Dominators, players have to deal damage to them until their health bars are depleted. Neutral Dominators need to be killed only once to be captured, but enemy Dominators must be destroyed twice to capture it for your team. Dominators will only change to the color of the tank that deals the last blow. Once a Dominator is captured for your team, you can control it by pressing H, but only if there is not already a player controlling it.

Once a team claims all four Dominators, the game ends and Arena Closers spawn to shut down the server. Leveling up in this game mode is quicker, as XP gain has been doubled to speed up the game. This is the first game with a win condition. Domination was added on June 2nd, 2016.

Tag Mode:
A game mode similar to Team Deathmatch. Your level one tank spawns at a random place as either a red, blue, purple or green tank, and you try to destroy other players to capture, or "tag" them into your team. Unlike other team modes, there are no established bases. If you die, you will respawn on the team that killed you. The leaderboard shows the number of players each team has. As time elapses, the arena itself shrinks, at around a rate with 12-13 seconds, in order to speed up the game.

The aim of the game is to capture every single player into your team. Once a team has "tagged" every player in the map, the game ends and Arena Closers come in to restart the match.

Mothership:
''' Notice: Mothership will be removed in the future to make room for another game mode. '''

A game mode similar to Team DM and Domination, but both teams pilot Motherships, and there are no more than 2 teams. Motherships are massive hexadecagons, with 1 spawner per side, controlled by players and switch off the person in control every 5 minutes. The aim of the game is to destroy the enemy Mothership, while defending your own. Leveling up in this game mode is very quick, as XP gain has been tripled to speed up the game.

Just like Domination, if one of the teams win, the Arena Closers come in and get rid of the players and start a new server. Mothership was added on June 15th, 2016.

Sandbox:
A game mode that almost completely copies FFA, but has a much smaller map. Like FFA, it has a scoreboard and sometimes have Crashers. An Alpha Pentagon in the Sandbox Map is rare, but possible.

Controls:
K - level up once. Maximum level is 45, even for special classes. Holding K will level you up quickly.

\ (Or other keys, possibly defending on what keyboard you have) - Switch between all available classes (including all types of Dominators, the Mothership, and the Arena Closer)

O - Suicide

; - Enable/Disable God Mode (may not work on some keyboards)

All tanks start out small, even Tier 4 classes and special tanks (Dominators, Mothership, etc) but, as normal, grow in size as you gain levels. Dominators are much more mobile in Sandbox than in their respective game mode.

Bosses still spawn in Sandbox, given 10 minutes have passed.

Trivia

 * Before September 18th 2016, 2 Teams and 4 Teams existed as a single game mode, the now-removed Team DM. Whether you were placed into 2 Team or 4 Team battles was random. Team DM existed since May 29th, 2016.
 * Also on September 18, it has been confirmed in the Changelog that Mothership mode will be removed soon, so those servers can be used for a new game mode.
 * Before September 3rd 2016, you had to press the tab key to switch Game Modes. Now they are located in convenient buttons.
 * In older updates, you would be taken to an entirely new server at the end of a game of Domination or Mothership, but as of an update in late June-early July the server is just reset by Arena Closers, and the map is renewed.
 * After Tag Mode was removed due to lag issues, the developer decided to bring it back 15th of August.
 * Unlike modern Tag Mode, you kept all your upgrades.
 * As of July 20th, you are blue and everyone else is red in FFA.
 * The locations of bases in Domination change within each server.
 * Domination, Tag Mode and Mothership do not have true scoreboards.
 * Sandbox was added on September 3, 2016.