Mothership (Tank)

The Mothership is a special tank in Diep.io. It is accessible in Sandbox.
This version of the Mothership is a much smaller variation of the one that appears in the Mothership game mode (corresponds to its Level). In the Mothership game mode, the win condition is to destroy the enemy Mothership, centralizing the players’ tactics around attack or defense of a Mothership. During games in that mode, the Mothership is a playable entity that players took turns controlling every 5 minutes until one of the Motherships was destroyed. 
== Design ==
The Mothership is one of few Tanks that does not have a circular body, along with the Necromancer, Factory, Defender, Summoner, and Guardian. Instead, it has a hexadecagonal body (16 sides) and 16 short Drone Spawners that shoot out small AI-controlled Drones and controllable Drones at a 50/50 ratio. In the Mothership game mode, it is larger than the Alpha Pentagon and even Arena Closers.
== Stats ==
In Sandbox mode, the Mothership retained the same Stats as other Tanks did; in essence, the player upgraded it as they would any other Tank, but it can’t copy the stats it had in the old Mothership mode, as it would take 50 upgrade points, and the player only has 33. In the Mothership game mode, the Mothership spawns as the Tank with all aspects maxed out except for Health Regeneration, with only one point in it. It spawns at Level 140 and can't level up further, which made farming pointless and counterproductive. It has exactly 7,000 health points. Due to its Level and large size, it is one of the slowest Tanks in the game. The Mothership’s FoV is slightly larger than a Ranger’s.
The Mothership’s AI Drones have a bit less Bullet Penetration than the Overlord's maxed Drones, with the same Bullet Damage, Speed (similar to a Battleship's maxed Drones), and the Reload of the Hybrid (For each Drone). The Mothership regenerates the health at twice the speed of regular maxed Regeneration Tanks, and its Reload is about as fast as a non-upgraded Machine Gun.
== Technical ==
The Mothership uses both manual and A.I. controlled Drones as its weapons. The Drones are produced by the Mothership’s spawners. A Mothership can have up to 32 Drones, but only half the Drones are controllable (Similar to the Battleship’s mechanics). The Drones for the Mothership are somewhat slower than those of summoning Tanks (Manager, Overlord, Overseer). The right-click function works like a summoning tank but remains somewhat pointless unless against widespread targets. When a player activates Auto Spin, your Drones spin slowly in a circle around them, much like if they used Auto Spin with the Overseer or other Overseer upgrades. The current Mothership’s Drones are the smallest ones in the game. In the Mothership game mode, pushing a Mothership with the Level 45 Booster, with maximum Speed and Reload, moves it by a fraction of an inch. Players can hide in the center of the giant Mothership, much like in the Dominator, but would constantly get pushed out. It's not a reliable shield method because high Bullet Penetration Bullets would still pass through and damage them.
For the other players, arrows appear on the screen pointing towards both Motherships, showing them the direction of both Motherships. The arrows would fade away if they got close enough to one of them, exactly like Leader Arrows.
Arena Closers always go for the surviving Mothership first. The Mothership lasted for a short time after being attacked (on average 30 seconds after the arena closed, but almost immediately died after the Arena Closers arrived), especially when the Arena Closers rammed into it due to their massive body damage. If both of the Motherships died at the same time, the Arena Closers would attack the players.
== Control ==
In the Sandbox mode, the Mothership handled much the same as a Basic Tank, and without a time limit (not considering Arena Closing). In the Mothership game mode, any player in the arena can control the Mothership on their team. The first two people that join the Mothership server gained control of the Motherships and everybody else that joined served as the “army” (regular players). Each person that was granted the role of the Mothership is allowed a timeframe of 5 minutes. This continued until one of the Motherships was destroyed. This prevented people from having time to stop/stall the game (e.g. hiding in a corner) before a new player was picked who probably would not have the same idea.
When the player’s time was up with the Mothership, the Mothership role became open for anyone who was currently joining a Mothership game, and the player who was previously in control would then respawn as a part of the army. If a player happened to die or enter the server, and they spawned while the Mothership player’s time was up, they would gain control of the Mothership.
== Strategy ==
*Strong Against: Every playable Tank individually.
*Weak Against: Teams of Level 45 Tanks, Hybrid, Manager (if played correctly).
=== As the Mothership ===
*In the Mothership game mode, the Mothership is the strongest Tank in the game (besides the Arena Closer and some bosses), and can defeat any Tank in a 1v1 scenario even if the opponent had maxed out Movement Speed and Reload.
*Running into the rival Mothership does pulses of high damage (1/6 of max HP on average) to both Motherships, so whichever Mothership that starts with more health will always win. This is a fast, efficient way of ending the game, especially if the discrepancy in health between the two Motherships is relatively large.
*It is a good idea for the player-controlled Mothership to try and stay near its teammates because without them it could easily be overwhelmed. Many times, players would use crowd control Tanks like the Triple Twin to keep the Mothership’s teammates far away, and then use Tanks with high DPS like the Triplet to take it down. To counteract this, Motherships could've protected their teammates early in the game and let them attack the enemy once they had reached a higher level.
=== Against the Mothership ===
*Before joining their Mothership, it's recommended for players to farm until they are about Level 30. The rest of their levels can be farmed while being close to their Mothership. High Bullet Penetration was also recommended as there will also be a lot of enemy Bullets firing in their direction.
*Classes like the Triplet, Penta Shot, Hybrid, Sprayer, and Gunner could’ve simply attacked the rival Mothership with their Bullets whilst staying very close to their Mothership.
*Classes like the Stalker, Ranger, and Predator can stay slightly behind their Mothership, killing nearby Tanks that aren't aided by the rival Mothership.
*Classes with high area denial like the Octo Tank and the Triple Twin can guard their Mothership against enemy Drones and Tanks that are unaided by the rival Mothership.
*Classes that use Drones like the Overlord or Necromancer can kill the Tanks that were aiding and being aided by the rival Mothership.
*The Booster and Fighter can distract enemy Tanks, with its fast speed, therefore stopping enemy Tanks shooting the Mothership.
*No player by themselves can really achieve anything more than a tiny impact against the enemy Mothership, so teamwork is encouraged. Getting the Mothership to join the fight helps as well.
*Because the Mothership’s Drones can't target every player at the same time, it's possible to take it down using many Tanks. The Tri-Angle/Booster can be useful here because they can distract the enemy’s Mothership Drones as well as enemies that were targeting their Mothership’s ones.
== History ==
* Few hours before the tank was added alongside the gamemode, the creator/former developer m28 made a Reddit post showing its beta design as well as a hint for the update. The tank was an Octagon with 8 spawners, one on each side. It had 32 drones and was called "Battleship".
*In early versions of the game mode, a yellow Mothership arrow would sometimes appear.
** Following the yellow Mothership arrow would lead to the arrow disappearing or moving, leading to it being dubbed “Ghost Ship” by some fans.
** However, it has since been patched.
* On September 3rd, a smaller version of the Mothership was made playable, but only in Sandbox.
* As of September 18th, the developer announced that the Mothership game mode will be recycled soon to use those servers to add a new game mode.
* The Maze game mode was added on September 22nd, taking the place of the Mothership game mode.
* The game mode was re-added, alongside with the Mothership tank.
== Trivia ==
*On September 22nd, the Mothership joined the Arena Closer as the only Sandbox-exclusive playable Tanks.
**This meant that it was the only removed Tank that was still playable in Sandbox. It was removed later, however.
**On January 3rd, 2023, the Mothership was re-added to Sandbox.
*In Sandbox, the Mothership's health bar is smaller than other Tanks’ health bars.
*It is the only Level 140 (Tier 9) Tank in the game.
== Gallery ==
2Motherships.png|Marker Arrows showing Mothership’s Location
Mothership and drones.png|Mothership in Sandbox, surrounded by its Drones
10 seconds.png|When the player had only 10 seconds left, a warning would appear
== References ==
Category:Diep.io