Godmode_ON - Decoding the Mystery

[Iron_Man 2,376]

"Godmode_ON": You might have come across this name at least once in your journey with Tanki Online. Cited as the most mysterious tanker in the game, Godmode_ON somehow always remains a mystery. Well, in this article, I'll try to decode the mystery of Godmode_ON. Let's begin!

First Appearance of Godmode_ON

On 25th October 2013, forumers visit the forum hoping for the then Community Manager, Semyon Kirov, to post an Announcement topic regarding Halloween celebrations. As expected, Semyon Kirov posts the Announcement, and the players are happy with the increased gold box value, a special map but slightly disappointed with the 13% discounts(13% discounts! Seriously?). The topic also hints at the sightings of a mysterious tank with unknown paint, with a picture.

 

First picture of Godmode_ON

Most of the players presume it to be a hunting contest and are interested in the Halloween celebrations. Hence it gets little attention.
But, in the Special Mode of the celebrations, they find this queer sentence "BEWARE OF Godmode_ON", written in what is thought to be blood, on the wall of a house.

And thus begins the real fun.
People begin encountering a tank called Godmode_ON. The tank is found wearing the paint shown in the picture posted earlier, in the announcement. It is extremely difficult to destroy it and all the others in the battle team up to destroy it. If they succeed in doing so, three golds miraculously drop from the sky.

This made the players play more and find more about this mysterious tanker, but only a few were lucky enough to come across him, and even fewer were lucky(or skilled enough, rather) to kill him.

Godmode_ON appeared to be of different rank each time: Generalissimo, Marshal, or  Lieutenant Colonel. He was always seen with M3 Mammoth as hull and M3 Thunder or M3 Twins as a turret. Back then, this was very odd, as Lieutenant Colonel was too low to have any M3 equipment. He joined only Death Matches. Maybe he wasn't that big fan of CTF.

The Demon

His most valuable belonging, the unique paint, is called Demon.

Old Version of the paint

Before the paint separation update, his Paint was his greatest weapon, allowing him to withstand heavy firing effortlessly. After a while, his paint was improvised into a new one. He mentioned about this change in "Godmode's appeal."

Godmode's appeal

"Hello Tankers! I am Godmode_ON. If you've never heard of me, you don't know what a lot of gold is. I remained silent for a long time, but the time has come to talk. I've been using my paint for months and got tired of it. Today, any of you can try it out and see its beauty but not its unique properties (typical bad guy laugh) AHA HA HA HA. I moved its protection to an all-new, improved paint! Many people ask: Godmode! Why do you drop 3 golds after your tank is destroyed? The answer is simple: because I CAN! By the way, developers promised 1 Million crystals for getting on the top of Rio's skyscraper. I did it long ago. How? From above! I don't need the award, so continue to suffer trying. And now, the last thing I wanted to say, you already know me from other games. Yes, that's right! I drop I-Pieces in Tetris, I put mushrooms inside bricks in Mario, I plant all the mines in Minesweeper. I am everywhere! I am close! Remember me! "

New Version of the paint

Some started to guess the protection that paint offered. Early guesses were 98%, 88%, 66%, 77% and so on. Godmode_ON had once made an appearance in Question of the Week of VLOG 43. The question was to find out how many shots of smoky it would take to kill Godmode_ON. It was told in the answer to this question, that it would take 59 shots of smoky to kill Godmode_ON. From this number people could estimate that the percentage offered by the Demon paint was around 88%. Since the developers never officially declared it, it remains a mystery. After the paint separation update, a special module named Demon came into existence. If you visit the Tanki Online Wiki page of modules, you will find that the module Demon offers protection of 100%, which is just how HTML5 depicts the percentage value. If you encounter a person with the Demon module from the flash version of the game, "??" appears to be the percentage offered, whereas from the HTML5 version it appears as "100%."

 

Identity of Godmode_ON
At first, many considered Godmode_ON to be a hacker. It was obviously false due to official references about this player in many instances. When he appeared in a video(Godmode's Appeal), many assumed the man behind the Godmode_ON tank to be Nikolai Kolotov. But, In VLOG-55, when all the staff was introduced, Nikolai Kolotov stated in his introduction card that he was not the person owning the Godmode_ON account. Godmode_ON has made frequent appearances in the VLOGs.

Godmode_ON's appearance in VLOG-13

"Hello tankers! You think I like breaking rules. That's not true. I just make my own rules and no one can stop me from doing that (again typical bad guy laugh) HA HA HA. I like the Silence Map, but I hate those stupid minefields around it. So I've disabled all the mines for Tanker's day. How you ask? It was easy. I picked them all up! Now the way is free for you to enjoy new Silence! But hurry before the devs find out about my trick. Don't worry, they are not very smart, so they won't find out before Monday, (once again typical bad guy laugh) HA HA HA HA"

In the Statistics page, you would not find any profile with the nickname Godmode_ON. It would show that such a nickname does not exist. But the funnier part is that there always existed an account in the forum with that nickname. It belongs to Godmode_ON and it states that he joined the forum on 14th December 1901, when the game itself did not exist. So Godmode is technically over 100 years old. It seems that he has the power to alter stuff in the forum too. The page on Demon paint in the Wiki is also hidden.

Tanki Online Wiki states that Sidor Lobachev, owner of the sidlob account, knows Godmode_ON in person. It also says that they are friends, and are both involved in the framework of the project.

Ex-reporter Fen-Harel in his article [Issue 29] 1 Year of Godmode_ON stated that when he had asked the then Community Manager, Semyon Kirov who Godmode_ON was, he told him that he couldn't reveal anything and that Godmode_ON was holding Semyon's family hostage (what a chap!).

Considering all the facts, we can conclude that he is one of the Developers or staff of the company.

Over the years, his appearances have decreased. Some rumors exist that during the 2020 Christmas celebrations, he returned as Santamode_ON. Many YouTubers have also posted videos supporting this. Despite all this, the nickname Godmode_ON will always have a special place in the hearts of the older generation of tankers and Santamode_ON can never replace that.

Below is the proof of the existence of Godmode_ON even today. It is a picture taken during a recent mishap in the lobby chat, a few months ago.

Many feel that he is one of the scariest players to encounter in battles. In reality, not many fear him for his module, but rather the story surrounding him. The spooky way people came to know of his existence.
Even today, many YouTubers hold Godmode_ON events. Such is the legacy of Godmode_ON.

Spoiler

@Godmode_ONpssst dude, who are you?

[Venerable 2,967]

Hello, readers!

Another brief break from publishing, another exciting article for your eyes only. Our newest (and youngest) Reporter, Iron_Man, has attempted to decode the mystery of Godmode_ON - from his origins to his antics. This highly classified article has now been released to only those who are certified citizens of Earth. So, get a cup of steaming coffee or tea or just hot water (if that's your thing) and enjoy this read!

[Incorp 2,084]

Love it the announcements GodMode_On wrote are hilarious. Good job @Iron_Man. Must have took up a lot of research time. Btw why publish on Tuesday?

[Venerable 2,967]

8 hours ago, Incorp said:

Love it the announcements GodMode_On wrote are hilarious. Good job @Iron_Man. Must have took up a lot of research time. Btw why publish on Tuesday?

It's a mystery. Ask no questions and you'll live you'll get no lies...

Spoiler

For starters, check out one of the last few announcements in Newspaper Announcements. You'll know the rest in due course.

 

[Cleric 1,385]

Godmode_ON is nothing but an account the Devs intentionally leave as more or less an Easter egg so that players can waste their time chasing it and keep the hype of this grandpa game. It sometimes also used for testing, teasing new stuff and hosting events.

Nothing special at all.

 

Case closed. 

[artc 1,119]

psst @Godmode_ON if you exis,t like this post.

[frezeandvik 71]

I thought it would be face reveal

[FrozenRailgun 1,771]

On 7/2/2021 at 5:41 AM, Iron_Man said:

"??" appears to be the percentage offered, whereas from the HTML5 version it appears as "100%."

He's not completely immune to damage. With that protection he owns, only taking 1% of damage from other tanks.

[Iron_Man 2,376]

4 hours ago, FrozenRailgun said:

He's not completely immune to damage. With that protection he owns, only taking 1% of damage from other tanks.

Did I say that he was?

I was just trying to clear up a confusion on why  you see his module's protection as 100%. That's just HTML5's way of depicting that the module he has isn't anything normal lol.

On 8/23/2021 at 7:56 PM, frezeandvik said:

I thought it would be face reveal

Well sir, I wanted to be a famous reporter, with a tuft of hair, traveling around the world with a white dog. Sadly, I couldn't.

World of ours isn't the same as that of Tintin's.

[Hugoslav 162]

Ok wow, this is a very good article! I really liked the part where you came to the conclusion, that he could be a part of the Staff or Devs. 

[Akshat.Pr 67]

Awesome article @Iron_Man,
enjoyed reading it

[Insurge 74]

Nice article <3

 

Edited August 28, 2021 by Captain_Asad

[fghjkl54 1,517]

@Iron_Man was the forum created in 1901?! 

[Iron_Man 2,376]

12 hours ago, fghjkl54 said:

@Iron_Man was the forum created in 1901?! 

No. I think I did say that the game itself didn't exist back then.

Spoiler

On 8/28/2021 at 11:59 PM, Captain_Asad said:

Nice article <3

 

 

On 8/28/2021 at 8:02 PM, Akshat.Pr said:

Awesome article @Iron_Man,
enjoyed reading it

 

On 8/26/2021 at 9:49 PM, Hugoslav said:

Ok wow, this is a very good article! I really liked the part where you came to the conclusion, that he could be a part of the Staff or Devs. 

 

Thank you very much, you guys.

[Venerable 2,967]

Apparently @Godmode_ON returned today... How many of you managed to get into those battle(s)?

[Iron_Man 2,376]

2 minutes ago, Venerable said:

Apparently @Godmode_ON returned today... How many of you managed to get into those battle(s)?

How? When? Where?

[Incorp 2,084]

13 minutes ago, Venerable said:

Apparently @Godmode_ON returned today... How many of you managed to get into those battle(s)?

Impossible... @Godmode_ON doesn't have a profile!

[chinufire1 119]

55 minutes ago, Venerable said:

Apparently @Godmode_ON returned today... How many of you managed to get into those battle(s)?

It was very interesting to see him, new and improved paint as well! I took some screenshots for people who didn't manage to make their way into his battles, the elusive story of Godmode_ON continues

https://imgur.com/u4AsFQc
https://imgur.com/BVJiFzR 
 

[brainhoo 735]

21 minutes ago, chinufire1 said:

It was very interesting to see him, new and improved paint as well! I took some screenshots for people who didn't manage to make their way into his battles, the elusive story of Godmode_ON continues

https://imgur.com/u4AsFQc
https://imgur.com/BVJiFzR 
 

its almost like the mysterious Yeti

[NikmanGT 4,362]

Interesting , how did u guys  found it ? Was the battle created at random ?

[king-at-gold 31]

4 hours ago, Venerable said:

Apparently @Godmode_ON returned today... How many of you managed to get into those battle(s)?

it was really funny trying to kill him while 20+ people shooting him. And I manage to join in every battle. I even manage to kill him.

Edited September 12, 2021 by king-at-gold

[king-at-gold 31]

Just now, king-at-gold said:

it was really funny trying to kill him while 20+ people shooting him. And I manage to join in every battle. I even manage to kill him.

plus when Godmode_ON told us to take a screenshot with him 

[Venerable 2,967]

1 hour ago, nikunj04 said:

Interesting , how did u guys  found it ? Was the battle created at random ?

Some people who usually visit the PRO Battle List saw Godmode_ON and probably started sharing the battle link in lobby chat. This obviously reached Discord which is when I found out about Godmode_ON's return. As far I know, multiple battles were created for the ranks of Warrant Officer 1 to Legend.

 

50 minutes ago, king-at-gold said:

plus when Godmode_ON told us to take a screenshot with him 

I saw that image on Discord too!

[DragonKnight 414]

i never knew such a figure existed, ive never seen him/her in person 
he/she was always a myth for me. 

[Incorp 2,084]

On 11/10/2021 at 5:39 PM, DragonKnight_Fighter said:

i never knew such a figure existed, ive never seen him/her in person 
he/she was always a myth for me. 

Yeah kinda the same for me, but the many stories and articles on him made me think of him as more of an exotic person, rarely seen.

P.s. glad we can post in these newspaper articles