Video Game / Deeeep.io

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Deeeep.io is a MMO game made by Federico Mouse on November 9, 2016. It is an Endless Game where you start off as one out of 5 tiny fish (or an aquatic worm, if that's what you would rather be) and begin to consume food, while trying to avoid getting eaten by the other players. Once you have eaten enough, you'll be able to evolve into a stronger animal, and you can do so up to 9 times, with multiple choices available at each tier.

While the game is centered around the watery environments, including the titular deeeep, not all of the animals are fish or fully aquatic. You can also choose watergoing land-dwellers like frogs or beavers, or even the aquatic birds like Ducks and Pelicans. Each is fitted to survive in either one or two specific biomes, or at most several different ones: very few are able to comfortably survive in all biomes, and some will outright die if you evolve into them while being in a wrong location.

Thus, there's the Ocean itself, where players start off in, the Ocean Deeeep, Ocean surface for the air breathers, the Arctic + Arctic surface and swamp + swamp surface. Being in a wrong area will immediately weigh on one of the relevant meters: most fish that are literally out of water will start losing oxygen, but so will birds and beavers when they dive underwater. Creatures not suited for the Arctic will see their temperature gauge go down; this also happens to Arctic dwellers leaving their area, as they slowly overheat. Arctic or Oceanic water dwellers going into the swamp experience salinity loss, and swamp swimmers likewise find ocean water too salty. Lastly, any dweller of the deeep swimming upwards elsewhere will soon suffer from the pressure drop; equally, every other creature feels overpressured if it ever ventures down there.See Mope.io for a top-down spiritual predecessor to this game, and FlyOrDie.io for a bird-centered equivalent to this.

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Deeeep.io contains examples of...

• Abnormal Ammo: Polar bears can shoot snowballs at other animals, Goblin sharks shoot a jaw at the target, Beaked Whales shoot out bubbles that bizarrely function as remotely detonated sticky bombs, Bowheads can shoot bombs made of ice or indestructible walls of ice, and so on.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Shelled animals possess Armor values - i.e. Crabs and Sea Turtles have 50% Armor, while Tier 10 Sunfish has 60%. Hence, some animals also possess Armor Penetration. For squids, it's 50% (normal) or 75% (giant); Narwhals and Marlins completely ignore it due to their powerful "tusks".
• Artistic License – Biology: When compared to Mope.io and FlyOrDie.io, Deeeep.io is by far the most realistic of the three; it doesn't feature any dragons or star-eating space creatures, for one thing. Literally any animal in it actually exists in real life, no matter if it's Blobfish, Icefish, Barreleye or Mahi-mahi. This is in part due to the community of the game (of which the singular developer adds ideas and artwork from) being quite adamant about not delving too deeeep into fantasy. Nevertheless, this is likely the trope the game goes craziest with, and there are some notable ways where even abstract biological facts take a back seat to Rule of Fun.
  • The diet of every animal is extremely varied, which means carnivores like Axolotls will be able to eat algae, and filter feeders like Vampire Squid will be able to tear into flesh.
  • The game allows all Tier 9 and 10 animals to attack and kill the human swimmers available in certain maps and get experience points for it. This obviously makes sense for bull sharks, crocodiles or even giant squid, and while whales/dolphins/orcas intentionally killing humans for score points is a stretch, one can let it slide. However, other examples include marlins and oarfish, or even seals, ducks, and Manatees, which are far better known for being hunted then even theoretically harming humans. At least the stonefish and sunfish were excluded due to the ridiculousness of them hunting down and consuming a human (although stonefish do have lethal venom), but it only raises the question why the other animals no more likely to kill one retain this power.
    • Whale sharks are also shown as being able to eat humans, which may appear plausible. In reality, they have been known to let swimmers catch a ride on their backs.
  • Dragonfish sound cool, so the game gives them the ability to slow down prey by emitting red glare. This is cool, but greatly exaggerated from reality. In Real Life, Dragonfish do have powers that can be gamified; namely, many species are able to perceive red light and emit it from beneath their eyes, while most animals in the abyss cannot see red. However, dragonfish do not use their lights to hinder other animals' movement, rather using it to better coordinate their own.
  • The octopus can kill other animals to disguise itself as them. While the real animals do have camouflaging powers, this is usually just for blending in with terrain. Only the aptly-named Mimic Octopus is known to take the form of other animals, which is much different in coloration to the octopus in-game.
• Bears Are Bad News: Polar Bears. While their stats are pretty standard for their tier, the ability to throw stun-inducing snowballs makes them quite dangerous, especially considering they make stunned animals bleed if the bear hits them.
• The Beastmaster: Whale sharks can summon remora fish, which will follow them and fight for them.
• Bird-Poop Gag: Playing as a Seagull will cause you to spawn Bird Poop every 10 seconds of in-game time. Moreover, other creatures can then eat it.
• Combat Medic: Oarfish cannot attack Tier 1 to 5 animals, and will heal them instead. Those of higher tiers are fair game.
  • Manatees will heal all other animals around them, although at a much slower rate than the Oarfish. However, they can still attack all other animals.
• Deadly Force Field: The Leatherback turtle's charged boost makes a shield that can ram into opponents and deal damage. It's a good attack, since it gives further range and prevents being hit back.
• Deflector Shields: Leatherback turtles can generate circular shields around themselves that block attacks and can even deal damage to opponents.
• Doppelgänger Attack: Tier 9 Humboldt squid can create up to 2 clones of themselves once they eat enough.
• Disability Superpower: A real biological example: Tier 1 Blind Cavefish and Tier 3 Olm only see within a very narrow radius, but they detect bodily vibrations within a much greater range.
• Enemy-Detecting Radar: See Disability Superpower above for Blind Cavefish and Olm.
  • Sharks can also smell blood, though this is more of a prey-detecting radar.
  • Bald Eagles and Barreleyes will have icons for the offscreen animals show up, to represent just how good their eyesight is. Those icons will even appear faint for the distant animals and large and opaque for ones just-offscreen.
• Evolutionary Levels: Here, there are 10 tiers of the evolutionary ladder, which also diverge and spread out multiple times, so that the total number of playable animals is 107.
• Fiendish Fish: One of the Tier 7 choices in an anglerfish. Just standing still causes their body to become invisible, while their lure suddenly resembles a generic piece of food any player has eaten by the hundreds to get anywhere. As the type of food the anglerfish's lure is will be dictated by what it last ate, the anglerfish can hide immediately after eating the meat dropped by killed players to have a much more alluring lure.
• Fragile Speedster: With "only" 750 HP, Marlins are the most fragile Tier 10 animal, as most other top-tier animals have 900, with sperm whale at 1200 and fin whale at 1500; Coconut Crab and Stonefish may also have 700 HP, but their armor absorbs at least half the damage, often effectively doubling their health. However, Marlin is both 10% faster than any other creature of its tier - and capable of doubling its speed by breaching the water's surface - and has 100% Armor Penetration due to its rostrum.
• Friendly Fireproof: The game's definition of "friendly fire" is any player-controlled animal attacking any other player-controlled animal. It's safe to say that it is turned on by default for the vast majority of cases, and most of the exceptions are to do with the top tiers being completely immune to anything the bottom tier does: a clownfish obviously has no chance of even breaching the skin of a whale.
  • However, tiers 10 usually cannot damage tier 1 either, since they are too small for them. An exception is if tier 10 is a swarm of piranhas.
  • There are straightforward examples, though: giant isopods cannot damage each other, and neither can snakes, Narwhals, Humboldt Squids, etc.
• Friendly, Playful Dolphin: Averted. Tier 9 and 10 animals were the only ones who got to eat human swimmers when they were still in the game. Dolphins are Tier 9. They are also among the more likely to attack, due to them being high on the evolutionary ladder.
• Giant Squid: A Tier 10 animal, most notable for its grapple move (see below), and 75% Armor Penetration.
  • The Giant Squid is not the only squid that is giant, as the Colossal Squid is also present. Rather than a grapple move, it rakes the spikes on its tentacles into other creatures, bleeding and slowing them down.
• Grapple Move: Tier 6 Pelicans can "grab" anything from Tier 1 to tier 4 inside their pouch, where they'll continue to receive damage. It is possible to outlast this grab, but it is still very difficult, and the Pelican can just drop its aquatic on some island afterwards, and repeat.
  • Tier 7 Snakes can wrap themselves around other creatures, and will automatically poison them. However, this approach mainly works on land, since they cannot breathe underwater, and so won't usually be able to stay attached until their target's death.
  • At Tier 10, Orcas, Crocodiles, Giant Squids and Anacondas possess one. Orcas' move is extremely effective against fellow tier 10 great white Sharks, which are instantly deprived of all oxygen through this move, and so will receive both normal damage and suffocation one until they break free. On the contrary, Giant Squid's grab is rebuffed by the Cachalot, and even trying it will only cost you health. Crocodiles' grab deals more damage if you also shake around in different directions while doing so. Anacondas can only constrict their targets from the back.
• Master of Disguise: Basic, Tier 4 Squid disguise with their surroundings if they stand still. Octopi outright assume the appearance of the last animal they have killed. Tiger Sharks become invisible near the seabed.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: One of the Tier 10 choices. Its health and damage output are both lower than the Tier 10 average, but this is compensated for by its grab attack, 30% armor afforded by its scales, and limited armor piercing capability.
• Non-Indicative Name: The so-called King Crab actually has exactly the same stats as a normal crab. Its real advantage lies in its spikes, which will automatically damage any attacker.
• No-Sell: An animal with a grabbing ability trying to grab a "heavy" animal such as the Humpback Whale will not be able to do so, as these animals are far too large to be grabbed.
  • Sunfish, Oarfish, Parrotfish, and Sea Turtles are completely immune to poison.
• Not Quite Flight: The flying fish cannot truly fly, rather being able to glide above the surface.
• Oxygen Meter: Present for nearly all animals. Given the game's theme, it'll start draining on the surface for many of playable animals, with air-breathers like seagulls being the other way around. Some animals, like Crabs, feel fine both underwater and above the surface.
  • Whales have the ability to suck in water and any nearby creatures that are not too large with it. If they are tier 6 or below, they cannot be damaged, and will instead simply travel inside the whale until it surfaces and exhales them out.
• Piranha Problem: Piranhas are the strongest Tier 1 creature, but that's nothing. What makes them really unique is the ability to stick with it through the entire game, opting to simply add another piranha to a growing swarm every time it ascends a tier, instead of evolving into a higher-tier animal.
• Psycho Electric Eel: Downplayed; they are a Tier 9 animal, and their electricity works well... but it is mainly a defensive measure, since the electricity cannot be projected outside their body.
• Regenerating Health: Present by default, unless you are suffering from not being in your element.
  • Icefish and Axolotl have a key advantage over the other creatures due to regenerating health 3x faster when they are completely still.
  • The Sunfish heals 2x faster when near the surface, and 4x faster when breaching it.
  • Manatees can instantly heal themselves for 400 HP.
• Rising Up The Food Chain Game: Subverted. Unlike both Mope.io and FlyOrDie.io, where the player-controlled animals of lower tiers are nearly always strictly prevented from harming those of the upper tiers, while upper tiers can prey on nearly anything below it (leading to hedgehogs chasing deer and hornets stalking bats), here, any animal can harm nearly any other animal (with several exceptions for each: see Friendly Fireproof above), and will get XP through Meat drops if they succeed. Thus, there's no Ultimate Life Form like Mope.io's Black Dragon or Fly Or Die's Grim Reaper either; just forty-one Tier 10 animals instead, to punctuate that while gaining tiers is obviously beneficial as it still raises stats, the focus is on the ecosystem and how your playstyle fits into it.
• Shout-Out: Players can find an "Abandoned House" on the map, which looks quite a lot like the pineapple a certain sponge lived in, now missing its top and in obvious disarray.
  • One of the buyable skins for the duck resembles the titular domestic goose from a certain other game without a title.
• Small Taxonomy Pools: Notably averted. Unlike other animal centric ".io" style webgames, Deeeep.io is notorious for featuring only real aquatic (or semi-aquatic) species, many of which are rarely seen in media, such as Cuvier's beaked whales, sarcastic fringeheads, giant salamanders, icefish, cavefish, goblin sharks, gar, spider crabs, thresher sharks, olms, horseshoe crabs, auks, bobbit worms, cookiecutter sharks, mahi mahi, wolf eels, halibut, giant isopods, lampreys, barreleye fish and many, many more.
  • The realistic skins you can buy for animals add even more variety to the species collection. This is probably the only game in existence where you can play as a Deraniyagala beaked whale, a louvar, an ossa knifefish or a Patagonian lobster, for example.
  • Among the pets you can buy as companions you have quite a large variety of obscure animals, that go from seldom-seen or named fish like alfonsinos, blanquillos, pineapplefish and killifish to very rare animals like stubby squids, Cystisoma isopods, amphipods and even a comb jelly.
• Sonic Stunner: The archerfish and sea otter can throw projectiles at other animals to briefly stun them, stopping them in their tracks. Being stunned is also possible when one is punched by a Mantis Shrimp, electrocuted by a Torpedo Ray or Electric Eel, caught in the maw of a raging Hippopotamus, Hit by an Alligator Snapping Turtle using its ability, released from the grab of a Sleeper Shark, blasted from the song of a Humpback Whale, hit by the snowball thrown by a polar bear, or smashed with a Coconut Crab's claw.
  • The special ability of the Cachalot (better known in English as a sperm whale, and a notable predator.) It doesn't completely stun its targets, but a 35% speed reduction is still nothing to sneeze at.
• Smoke Out: Octopi can do a similar trick with their clouds of ink.
• Spell My Name With An S: The titular deeeep. There's even a small note near the corner of the main page, clarifying "with four e's". Equally, the depths of both the ocean and the swamp are to be described as ocean deeeep and swamp deeeep.
• The Spiny: Pufferfish are an archetypal example once they inflate: everything approaching them will take damage, be knocked back, and also get poisoned.
  • Electric Eels are this when they electrify themselves.
  • Tier 2 King Crabs are covered in small spikes and will automatically damage anyone trying to attack them.
• Status Buff: Tier 10 Manta Rays have Auras that buff smaller animals travelling near them; notably, the exact nature of a buff is different for each animal.
• Swallowed Whole: Many kinds of animals can swallow weaker ones, most notably Gulper Eels. Moray eels, Whales, Catfish, Goliath Bullfrogs, Pelicans, Wobbegong Sharks, and Frogfish can also do this.
• Tree Cover: There are islands in the game, and they'll often have trees. Seagulls can literally hide in the canopy, and so can snakes (which is entirely possible in real life.)
  • In a broader sense, several other, mostly underwater objects can also be used as static cover. Beavers and Ducks can hide in beaver dams. and all but the Tier 10 animals can hide inside a certain Shipwreck and the Abandoned House.
• Ultimate Life Form: Averted. The evolutionary tree of the game only broadens, and there are forty-one animals in the Tier 10; more than in Tier 1, 2, 3 and 4 combined. This is so that the players who endure through the entire game would always have something to best fit their playstyle. Thus, while Tier 10 obviously includes the cool, massive creatures like whales, giant squid, and great white sharks, it also features rather less iconic Marlins for the players who really like fighting with tusks, and the armored stonefish and sunfish. (The latter is a defence-focused Stone Wall with complete immunity to poison; the former is more of a Mighty Glacier, as it does substantially more damage while retaining respectable defence.) Notably, Piranha enthusiasts can just ascend to that ultimate stage with a swarm of 10 piranhas.
• Vacuum Mouth: At the expense of a boost, Whales can inhale food and suck in opponents. If the opponent can't escape, they will be repeatedly damaged, and smaller prey even get swallowed.
• Zerg Rush: The tactics of the piranha players. As a piranha, you can evolve into first the parasitic lamprey, and then the other animals of corresponding tiers...or you can choose to keep adding on an extra piranha per tier, until you become a fearsome swarm of 10, a competitor to even crocodiles and a force easily capable of devouring humans.

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