Defend the Center is a game mode conceptualized by Onett4smash and Raspbelle. It is a PvE (Player versus Environment) mode with one team of players facing a horde of AI-controlled enemies in the form of Polygons, Fallen Tanks and Bosses, which all have their own behaviors and abilities. This mode's difficulty ramps up consistently in the form of waves, with stronger enemies being sent out, until the center is reached and destroyed by the enemies, which ends the game mode. There is no win condition; the goal is to last as long as possible.
Lumped into this mode are four new branches of tank classes, being the Incendiary, Airblast, Grappler and Charge Shot, as well as their accompanying Fallen Tank versions, alongside every other tank in vanilla Diep.io. More new tanks are in the works.
Mechanics[]
The Center[]
The center is the main target of the enemies, and also serves as a spawnpoint for players when they join or die. The center consists of a core with health that dynamically increases based on the wave count and heals back to full health at the end of every wave, though if at any point this health reaches 0, the game ends and all players are kicked from the server.
Overheal[]
Located at the center is also a healing spot that, uniquely, can overheal tanks to 150% of their maximum HP. This overheal, however, will decay after a few minutes and will need to be replenished again. This encourages players to return back to the center often to top up on health, even if they have not taken any damage, and ensures that there are enough players guarding the center to not let anything leak through.
Overlevels[]
In this mode, due to the sheer abundance of EXP that the player will necessarily gain, levels are now capped at 60 rather than 45. This does not allow the player to upgrade to a Tier 5 tank, but it does give them extra upgrade points to use to buff up their tank further. Reaching level 45 also increases the cap of all stats by 3 each (5 each for the Smasher branch). Points past level 45 are given at a rate of one every two levels, identical to the rate between level 15 and level 30.
Health Bars[]
Most standard enemies with have the regular health bars, though bosses will have a separate, always-visible health bar at the top of the screen. What constitutes a boss depends on the wave; Fallen Tanks of varying tiers stop being considered 'bosses' after a certain number of waves have passed, while the 'major' bosses will always have this boss health bar when they are active.
Assists[]
This mode will include a few support tanks. If a support tank is supporting another tank that kills something, some of the EXP will also go to them as an assist kill.
Enemy Properties[]
Some enemies in this mode have unique properties, which change the gameplay up and encourage differing strategy. These attributes will be displayed alongside a boss' health bar if it has any of these properties.
- Some enemies will be Cloaked by default, or be hit with a Cloak polygon to become cloaked temporarily. Only certain classes of tanks can detect and damage cloaked enemies; those that cannot will not be able to see them and firing at them will just cause the bullet to pass through; this also goes for drones, missiles and traps. They can still, however, collide into them. Cloaked enemies that are set on fire will be visible to every player regardless of class.
- Enemies with Burn Immunity are not able to be afflicted with the burn status effect, though regular bullet damage by Incendiary-branch tanks will still be dealt.
- Enemies with Chill Immunity are not able to be afflicted with the chill status effect, though regular bullet damage by Freezer-branch tanks will still be dealt.
- Enemies with Stun Resistance are not able to be held in place as easily by the Grappler branch or knocked away by the Airblast branch.
Tank List[]
- This list only refers to original fanon tanks. The list is also incomplete.
Tier 2: Level 15[]
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Incendiary The Incendiary fires bullets that deal less damage, but ignite the enemy for burn. Burn deals damage over time and can stack up to a limit. |
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Airblast The Airblast fires bullets that deal minimal damage, but knock the enemy backwards. Knockback from behind the enemy, aimed towards the center, is only a quarter as effective to prevent major griefing. Knocking the same enemy back repeatedly has diminishing returns until it stops affecting it entirely. |
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Grappler The Grappler fires a grappling hook with low damage, but drags whatever is attached towards the Grappler. While something is grabbed, the Grappler cannot move. Clicking again with something grabbed will release it. |
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Charge Shot The Charge Shot can charge up bullets that have an increasing amount of damage and speed based on the charge duration; this is done by holding the fire button down, then releasing. Reload, however, is lengthened with a longer charge. Auto-Fire will have two modes: no charge and full charge. |
Enemy List[]
- Note that this list does not state enemy behavior. Links to pages are also temporary. Oh, also, heavily incomplete.
| Enemy | Wave Debut | HP | EXP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square | 1 | 10 | 10 |
| Triangle | 1 | 30 | 25 |
History[]
- 2 August 2024
- Defend the Center made into a fanon page.
- Later the same day, added Assists.
- 4 August 2024
- Incendiary and Grappler images added to the Tank List.
- 6 August 2024
- Grappler image updated.
- 7 August 2024
- Charge Shot image added to the Tank List.
- Later the same day, Airblast image added to the Tank List.
- Even later the same day, Incendiary image updated.
- 23 August 2024
- Grappler image updated.
- 13 September 2024
- Incendiary and Charge Shot images updated.