Review [Halloween Special] Halloween in Tanki Online

[Yisroel.Rabin 16,224]

 

As Halloween approaches, we take a look back at the long history of Halloween in Tanki Online, and try and speculate what will it be like this year. 

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History of Halloween in Tanki Online

 

2010

Although the game had been launched two years back, 2010 was the first year Tanki officially celebrated Halloween. Nonetheless, there wasn't anything really happening. There was no special map, like there is nowadays, and there were no discounts! The flags were changed to match the event. They had pumpkins on them, and the objective of the event was to get your enemies pumpkin (flag) and bring it back to your pumpkin (flag).

 

Fortunately though, there was a special holiday paint, which was actually the first ever holiday paint to enter the game. Like it would be for years to come, the holiday paint had a black background with faced pumpkins on it. 

 

The 2010 Halloween celebration Holiday paint.

 

2011

The Hallowe'en celebrations in 2011 started October 28th, and lasted until November 1st. There was still no Hallowe'en map, but things did get hyped up since the previous year. There was once again a special holiday paint, which had the same basic design as the last year's paint.

 

The 2011 Halloween celebration Holiday paint.

 

Of course, there were themed decorations again, but only on the maps Atra II (a removed map), Island, Polygon, and Madness, which also played cool sound effects as the music background.
 

The creepy skybox on the Space Madness map.

The coolest bit of event, which we don't have now-days, was "The Hunt for the Pumpkin-Tanks." There were self-driving tanks with pumpkins as turrets, which players had to hunt down.

 

Appearance of the Flags and “Pumpkinheads” during Halloween in 2011.

 

2012

This year, the celebrations were shortened, only lasting from October 30th until November 1st. However, a huge upgrade came from the previous years, and that was the addition of a special Halloween map. The map had similar gameplay tactics to that of Fort Knox, and also used the same props; two bases on either side of the central castle.

 

The 2012 Halloween celebration map.

 

Another new thing was Gold Boxes. Special Gold Boxes with the value of 305 crystals (which was a lot at the time, as everything was cheaper) occasionally dropped in the center of the Halloween map.

 

Special Gold Box which dropped in the 2012 Halloween map.

 

There were, as every year, spectacular decorations and a paint to match the festive theme. This time there were discounts too, however they were quite shall: Only 13% off on M3 turrets and hulls alone.

 

2013

The 2013 Halloween celebration was the first which I myself experienced. I remember it well. The discounts didn't boost since the previous year, it was still 13% off, only this time around it was on all garage items, as appose to just M3 equipment, like it was the year before. I don't exactly remember what I bought that sale, but it could've been Shaft M0 and Firebird M1.

 

This was just a nine or so months after the release of the Update 123, which boosted everything pertaining to crystals by ten times the amount, so gold boxes went from their new-1000 crystal standard (old standard was 100 crystals), to a tripled 3000 crystal box for the celebrations.

 

Special Gold Box which dropped in the 2013 Halloween map.

 

There was also a special map, which was basically the (old) Highland, just with night mode and a few additional changes. They added pumpkins and grave stones around the map to make things more spooky, and obviously stuck a few ghosts around the map as well. Besides that, there was the famous graffiti on one of the house walls, stating "Beware of Godmode_ON" in red.

 

The 2013 Halloween celebration map.

 

Besides the cool props around the Halloween map, map contained cool themed decorations to match the festive mood. Billboards were lit up with the Halloween banner, flags got redone as well, and there was another addition to the holiday paint!

 

    

 

Of course, this was the year that the legend known as @Godmode_ON was born. He was found around the game wearing his signature 'Devil' paint, which was red at the time. Ever since then, intrigued players have been trying to dig out Godmode's secret identity, however haven't succeeded yet.

 

First ever picture of Godmode_ON released from the developers.

 

And then there was also a cool Twitter contest, where tankers had to create a picture, gif, or video under 30 seconds related to their Halloween in Tanki, and tweet it at the official Tanki Online Twitter. Tanki gave their example of what a good entry looks like.

 

2014

By the 2014 Halloween, a lot had changed since the previous celebrations, which meant a lot of changes happened to the way things were celebrated as well. I was Lieutenant Colonel at that time, and was a lot more experienced than I was the year before, so I noticed more details.

 

The discount jumped from the last two years' 13% slash, to 31% discount on all garage items, which just seemed like a corny way for Tanki to give a low discount, but it was higher than it ever was before, so why not? Again, I don't remember what I bought, but I probably bought something.

 

With every holiday, comes great decorations. This meant another few days of cool billboards and flags, as well as another holiday map. Like the last Halloween map, this one was also based off of an already existing map, this time being Barda. The map was nonetheless loved by the players and got a cool holiday paint to go with it. The paint had a dark blue background, with black bats dotted all over it. The paint was added to the game in later years as 'Night', and remains in the Garage for purchase until this day.

 

Beautiful image taken by @XxSparkShinexX of a tanker wearing the Holiday paint on the Halloween map in 2014.

 

Like every year, there was a special Gold Box. This time however, Tanki redesigned the entire shape of the Gold Box, creating a golden pumpkin shaped Gold Box worth 3000 crystals, which would fall on the Halloween map during the celebrations.

 

Special Gold Box which dropped in the 2014 Halloween map.

 

Tanki also held a cool event, called "Zombie Mammoth." The objective was that there would be one event helper equipped with Wasp, who would run around the Halloween map. All the participants would act as Mammoth Zombies, using Isida and Mammoth, trying to kill the event helper. The zombie who makes the kill wins.

 

 

After the celebrations finished, Tanki released the statistics to show off a bit.

 

 

2015

Lots of new stuff came with the 2015 Halloween celebrations. Firstly, with the introduction of Daily Missions update, thee were special Missions with bigger tasks but even bigger prizes. For example, there was the "Earn 3000 experience points on the Halloween map." A Generalissimo got 16 750 crystals for completing it!

 

This time around, there weren't one, but two unique Halloween paints. One of which was the classic Holiday paint, which had an orange background with dark bats on it, and the second one was a paint called 'Eternity', which was available in the Shop during the event, with the price differing between ranks. The paint has red roses with skulls on it, and looks incredibly cool. You can still find some people in battles using it to this day.

 

'Holiday'                                                                'Eternity'

Top: Halloween 2015 Holiday paint. Bottom: Eternity paint.

 

Thankfully, this time around, Tanki came up with a completely new Halloween map, which was basically a graveyard with surrounding higher ground. The map only supported Deathmatch mode, but had special Gold Boxes falling 10 times as often. The gold siren was changed too, instead of the standard siren, there was an evil laugh every time the gold notification popped up.

 

Special Gold Box which dropped in the 2015 Halloween map.

 

There was a pretty nice side contest, where the top 100 gold hunters would get prizes. The 1st got 100 000 crystals and any dream tank available at his rank, the 2nd to 10th got 50 000 crystals, and the 11th to 100th got 20 000 crystals. Sales were pretty bad that year, with Tanki reverting to their old ways, giving tankers a 13% off discount on everything in the Garage besides product kits and Premium account items. They also added a 13% bonus to all crystal purchases.

 

2016

Last year was a pretty good year for Halloween. The celebrations were longer, which is always a good thing. The Halloween map was available for 8 days, starting from October 24th until November 1st. The map itself was similar to 2015's design, but had a few changes such as the addition of designated buildings for bases to accommodate to all game modes that were now supported on the map.

 

The Gold Box was also the same as in 2014, and had a similar yet slightly edited gold siren as 2015's. The value of the Gold Box stayed at the standard 1000 crystals. There were 109 gold box drop zones, and when all the central ones were lit up, they formed a cool pumpkin design. A neat surprise by the developers.

 

     

Left: Special Gold Box which dropped in the 2016 Halloween map. Right: The pumpkin design formed by Gold Boxes.

 

There was a special Gift which you could buy for your friends in the Garage for 2000 crystals. The Gift was called 'Candies', and was, well, a pumpkin with candy. There was also the same special "Earn 3000 experience points on the Halloween map" Daily Mission.

 

For the duration of the celebration, there were once again two paints available. One being the standard Holiday paint, which was decorative paint with pumpkins and bats, and was available in the Garage as the 'Halloween' paint for 120 000 crystals, while the 'Zombie' paint, a spooky grey and red paint, was available for €5.99 in its Shop bundle.

 

'Halloween'                                                          'Zombie'

Tankers wearing the Holiday paint and the Zombie paint on the Halloween map in 2016.

 

But by far, one of the most interesting things that happened during the 2016 Halloween celebrations was the return of Godmode_ON! There was a special Event called "Running King", where Godmode_ON was the "king" wearing Wasp and Firebird and an unknown module. He'd be running around the map while trying to avoid the participants, who were using Freeze and Hornet. I personally attended the event and had lots of fun.

 

 

Sales were odd that year. On the first two days it was 31% off on Modules, then it was Paints for one day, then Hulls for two days, and finally, on the sixth and seventh day there was 50% off on Turrets.

 

 

Expectations For This Year

 

Now that we've gone over the history, let's start speculating about this year. So put your Alex Jones caps on, because we're going full-on conspiracy theory mode!

 

 

Themed Decorations and Special Map

Let's get the simple stuff out of the way first. There's obviously going to be themed decorations; it's not a holiday without them. I'm obviously expecting the same-old grave stones and ghosts, but the question is... Where? Will Tanki make an entirely new map, or will they use the same one from last year, or make slight edits to it? Well, I hope they make a new one, and I think they will, but if they bring back the old one, I'm fine with it.

 

Discounts and Sales

I'm actually expecting 50% discounts, it just seems likely for Tanki Online's current state. Also, Cedric is gone, and we have Nives, which is great because Cedric was an evil robot sent by aliens to stop us from having sales! I got the documents right here, I swear to God it's crazy!

 

...

 

Too much Alex Jones? Okay. But anyways, that's what I'm expecting. It'll probably also be split up among the days, like it was last year.

 

Gold Boxes

Well, there's definitely going to be a cool Gold Box design, but there's no way of knowing how that'll look. The value will most probably be 1 000 crystals. Tanki Online hasn't raised the value of Gold Boxes in the past couple of event, with the exception of New Years, where the value is the year (progressing one crystal every year), April Fools, where the value is... Random, and a few other events. Instead, Tanki started raising the chances of Gold Boxes dropping, which is most probably what they'll do again. If it's not that, it might be increased battle funds, which would also increase the rate of Golds.

 

The special Gold Boxes along with their unique properties will most probably only apply on the Halloween map, and on top of that, only when they drop naturally. Gold Box supplies will remain normal.

 

Special Offer

There will obviously be a Holiday paint, which will be available in the Garage (most probably for 120 000 crystals), as well as an exclusive Shop paint, which will only be available for real money in some bundle.

 

Other Exclusive Features

• I'm assuming there will be the same special Mission as the last two years, maybe with the addition of another special Mission.
• I'm in no contact with the Event Helpers, but there may be some cool Event like last year. With or without Godmode_ON is a separate question.

 

 

Players' Opinions

 

Now that I'm done rambling, let's here the thoughts of some of the community's well known players!

 

Question 1

Based on passed years experiences, what do you think this year's Halloween celebration will be like?

 

Question 2

Was there anything you had in previous years that you particularly liked, and would like to see in this year's celebrations?

 

@Adriel.RB

 

Question 1

I have been celebrating Halloween in TO since 2012. I'm hoping for a new map to celebrate the event, rather than adding Halloween props into an already existing map or modifying the past Halloween map. A discount on all the items in the garage, special Gold Boxes as golden pumpkins, a special paint, probably themed with clowns designs or ghosts, special Missions on the Halloween map and of course we don't want to forget the special Event! I hope this Halloween will be spookier and spectacular than the other years! ^_^

 

Question 2

I liked the Easter egg in the 2013 Halloween map, where there was small writing on a house that read "BEWARE OF GODMODE_ON" in red. Players were curious about that player, including myself. I also liked the little secret from the Halloween map from 2016, where the drop zone of the Gold Boxes formed a pumpkin. I would also like to hear a special background sound on the Halloween map; just a terrifying theme that would fit into the celebrations, kinda like a mix of the Banshee Boardwalk from Super Mario Kart 64 and The World of Drawcia from Kirby: Canvas Curse. :D

 

@lukey0

 

Question 1

Well there will be a special Halloween map. Hopefully they create something new or at least change some things on last years map. (Although last years map was pretty spot-on) Of course there will be Gold Boxes and lots of them at that! I presume it will be a x5 drop rate over 2-3 days but they will most likely contain 1000 crystals. Then there will be the cool decorations, discounts (probably 31%), paints and hopefully a special Halloween Gold Box alarm sound.   :ph34r:

What would be cool if they introduced something cool like Godmode_ON again, or add some sort of quest like feature during the celebrations. It could all start with a sentence written in blood red paint.   :rolleyes:

 

Question 2

One of my favorite features about Halloween would be the Gold Boxes so I hope they will keep that. It will also be very interesting this year regarding them, now that medic stops healing once you take damage. With all that open space it will feel a lot like Stadium Golds back in 2013 if they reuse the same map. Like I said above, adding some sort of quest or giving more hits about Godmode_ON would be nice, seems it feels like he's vanished lately. 

Maybe Godmode_ON can hack Tanki and bring back crystal boxes during the celebrations only on the Halloween map.   :ph34r:

 

@The.L-E-G-E-N-D

 

Question 1

Well honestly, I guess it would be like the past years, with the same celebrations such as the Halloween map with the increased gold boxes rate, either x10 or x5, discounts,double funds, special gifts and missions and decorations of course and maybe some crazy event with GodMode_On.

 

Question 2

This is what I would like to see in the Halloween 2017, Special turrets like before, when there was a Pumpkin turret or the scary background theme skybox in the maps and a really totally new different Halloween map which shouldn't be that huge also, keeping the increased golds drop rate in the Halloween map only and not all the maps, and maybe, just maybe, a Ghost which appears out of no where and hunts you down while you are in the map, or when you are alone by yourself.

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That concludes this review. What do you think will happen this year? Will it be good or bad? Let us know anything pertaining to this article in the comments below. Have a good one!

 

 

[Viking4s 10,791]

Nice review. for More details about the 2016 map see here: The Halloween Map 2016

It would be nice to have special event like the "Running king" or the "Zombie Mammoth".

The gold box would be the 3D pumpkin, no need to change that, it's cool enough.

A new map plz...

Edited October 23, 2017 by Viking4s

[Zak 2,532]

Can't wait elebrate halloween in tanki this year :D

Will Godmode_ON appear ? :ph34r: :ph34r:

[marc.jp_44 20,837]

You’re welcome. :D

[iMoneyMaker 4,500]

Amazing!

[maryam98 1,171]

Didn’t the V-log say something about a very special tanker this Halloween? If I’m not mistaken, they probably want us to think it’s GMO, but it might be someone else, and all the GodMode_On hints were just red herrings.

[Tequile 276]

Wow,I enjoyed every second of reading it!

​Epic review!

 

[Yisroel.Rabin 16,224]

You’re welcome. :D

:ph34r:

[marc.jp_44 20,837]

Didn’t the V-log say something about a very special tanker this Halloween? If I’m not mistaken, they probably want us to think it’s GMO, but it might be someone else, and all the GodMode_On hints were just red herrings.

Surprise, it’s just Semyon Kirov returning! Buzzkill, right?

[maryam98 1,171]

I don’t remember, how many players could fit on the Hallowe’en map last year?

[GeekSHizzle 522]

so the old halloween map  is  in this 2017 Halloween?! :huh: 

[The.L-E-G-E-N-D 5,093]

Keep it up Yis  :wub:

[a7x_Pedro48 13,999]

Nice review. But you made a little mistake :D
 
"Tanki Online stopped raising the value of Gold Boxes, with the exception of New Years, where the value is the year (progressing one crystal every year) and April Fools, where the value is... Random."
 
That's not very true :D Tanki B'day, VD and Women's day give high value Golds.

[marius-79 5]

 

 

 

 

 

 

LMAO

[hotmaster356 0]

I HOPE THAT IT WILL BE 50 PERCENT SALE COZ I REALLY NEED XPBP M3

[maryam98 1,171]

I think 12 or 16?

Per team or total? As far as I remember there were quite a number of people, so I assume you mean per team.

[maryam98 1,171]

In total, but I think it was 10v10? Not sure, but probably true

Something like that, I think

[maryam98 1,171]

Can somebody tell me what Godmode’s paint is called?

[Kyoyama 423]

Woah, good job Yis! :D 

[RIDDLER_8 5,553]

Can we have gold boxes worth 10,000 crystals for this Halloween?

[Crip 4,735]

Woah, good job Yis! :D

Waw, Yis has a new fangirl.

 

 

Can we have gold boxes worth 10,000 crystals for this Halloween?

That sounds like a recipe for ruining the Tanki economy.

[RIDDLER_8 5,553]

No. Gold boxes can be worth 10,000 crystals but drop twice as less than usual.

 

What I mean is that gold boxes can be rarer for Halloween 2017, but worth 10,000 crystals.

Edited October 23, 2017 by RIDDLER_8

[qnobody 24]

Very satisfying topic to read! I learnt some things i didnt know from the  halloween celebrations from 2010-2013 while i didnt knew the game yet. 

 

"What i hope they will do to celebrate halloween in TO this year":

 

First of all i really hope that they will come up with a new desined Halloween map, This has a very spooky effect because no one is used to the map and it's in the dark combined with spooky decorations.(Will be fun for sure)

It would be nice if the add some secret things to the map, like a secret room or a hidden message from Godmode_on.

 

Increased battle funds are really nice, im looking forward to them. it might will be an increasing fund every 2 days till the end as we saw in previous celebrations. Next to that i hope that they will increase the gold drop rate for extra much fun and maybe even do something with the reward of the gold boxes.

 

An element that i really liked was the gold box competition in 2015 where the top 100 Most gold boxes taken in 24 Hours were rewarded with crystals and a dream tank. It would be awesome if they would bring something like that to the game this year, because it's suchs a tempting challenge for Halloween Gold hunters. Maybe it would be cool to design a paint for the top 100 gold box hunters in TO 2017, that will remain in their garage's forever as a reminder from an awesome halloween celebration.

 

All with all i hope that tanki will be a bit creative this year, because in my opinion Halloween is the coolest celebration in Tanki online.

 

Let me know what you would like to see this year,

 

~Q

[a7x_Pedro48 13,999]

No. Gold boxes can be worth 10,000 crystals but drop twice as less than usual.

 

What I mean is that gold boxes can be rarer for Halloween 2017, but worth 10,000 crystals.

Bad idea. 10k golds, x2 less than usual = no fun with noobs hackers and laggers taking it. x5 or x10 1k golds is way better.

In total, but I think it was 10v10? Not sure, but probably true

8v8

[RIDDLER_8 5,553]

OK. How about 1000 crystals gold boxes which drop 10 times often like 2 years ago, in Halloween 2015.