Controls
- Turn
- Arrows or W A S D
- Start / restart
- Enter
- Pause
- P or Esc
On touch, swipe to steer and tap to start or restart.
How a run works
You start as a four-segment serpent on a 21×21 grid, heading right. Eating an orb makes you one segment longer. Running into a wall or into your own body ends the run. The board does not wrap around, so the walls are as dangerous as your tail.
How scoring works
| Source | Points | Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Orb | 10 | +1 segment |
| Golden orb | 50 | +2 segments |
A golden orb appears after every fifth orb you eat and disappears after six seconds if you don't reach it. Only one can be on the board at a time.
Speed
The serpent speeds up as it grows, from about six and a half moves per second at the start to its top speed of about fourteen once it is 34 segments long. Speed only updates when you eat a normal orb, so a golden orb makes you longer without making you faster until the next ordinary meal.
Surge gates
Once your score reaches 100, pairs of surge gates start to appear. Enter one and you come out of the other, still travelling in the same direction. Each pair lasts fourteen seconds, and a new pair appears seven seconds after the last one closes. Gates are shortcuts across a crowded board, and occasionally traps.
Strategy
Your tail is a safe square
On any move where you are not growing, the square your tail is leaving counts as empty. You can follow your own tail around the board as closely as you like, which makes tight coils possible once the serpent is long.
Queue your turns
The game remembers up to three turns in advance. At high speed you can press two directions within a single move — for example, up then left while travelling right — to make an instant U-turn along a wall. It ignores a key that would reverse you straight into yourself, so a panicked double-press won't kill you.
Prioritise golden orbs
A golden orb is worth five normal orbs, and because it doesn't raise your speed, it is the cheapest length on the board. Six seconds is enough to reach it from most positions if you commit early.
Check the exit before taking a gate
You leave a gate moving in the direction you entered. If the exit sits against a wall and you are heading toward it, you get one move to turn. Glance at the other gate before you dive in.
Keep the middle open
Long runs die when the body cuts the board into pockets. Sweep along the edges in wide loops and keep the centre clear, so there is always somewhere to go when a new orb appears.
Good to know
- On touch screens, swipe to turn. Swipes can be chained quickly for tight turns.
- Switching tabs pauses the game. Turns can't be queued while paused.
- Your best score is saved in this browser.
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