DANKSNAKE

Eat to grow. Loop your body around anything to crush it.

Daily Run: today's seed, the same for everyone. One scored try, then practice.

How a coil pays

Loop your body round enemies and touch your own side: everything inside is crushed. The more you crush in one loop, the more each one is worth.

Enemies in one loop	Points
1	10
2	30
3	60
4	100
5	150

Each extra enemy adds 10 more than the last, so three in one loop pay 60 where three separate loops pay 30.

Combo: crush again within 3 seconds and that loop is multiplied: x2, then x3, and on. The ring by your head drains as the 3 seconds run out. Later arenas multiply everything again (arena 3 is x3).

The price: the loop's own segments are shed. After each coil the trade flashes at the top of the arena, for example -8 length, +120: shorter is easier to steer, but it takes length to ring a crowd.

How to play Daily puzzle About

What DANKSNAKE is

Snake, rebuilt as a fast neon arcade game that runs in this browser tab: nothing to install, no account. You eat to grow, and your body is the weapon. Steer your head back into your own side so the loop closes around enemies and everything inside it is crushed. The loop's segments are the price: you come out shorter.

How a run works

Each arena has one goal (eat a number of food, crush a number of enemies, or survive for a set time), and clearing it warps you to the next, five arenas to a sector. The first sector is the slowest, 6 cells a second, then 6.7 and 7.5. Steer at a wall or into your own side and the head holds for one move, flashing pink, so a late turn still counts; enemies and shots kill at once. The fifth arena of the first sector is a boss, the Laser Eye: close a loop of your body round its core three times, and keep out of the red wash, which shows every cell its beam is about to sweep at least two thirds of a second before it fires. Arena 3 multiplies your points by 3, arena 4 by 4. Hunters chase your head, Spitters show their aim before they fire, Swarms crowd. Every 8 food or kills fills the meter and offers three mutations; the one you pick stays for the run. There are 25 in nine families: a family's tier-2 and tier-3 cards only turn up once you hold the card a tier below, and a card that completes one of six combos with a card you hold says so on a pink badge. A wall, an enemy, a shot to the head, or biting your side without enclosing anything ends it.

The Daily Run

Daily Run plays today's seed: the date in UTC picks it, so everyone on Earth gets the same arenas, spawns and offers until 00:00 UTC. Your first Daily Run of the day is the scored one (it counts from the moment it starts, so quitting a bad opening is not a re-roll); every run after it is practice on the same seed. Post the scored run under a three-letter tag and the server replays your inputs with the same engine before it goes on the board, so a score there is a score someone really played. Share sends the score, how far you got and your best coil, never the arenas themselves.

Controls

Phone: three ways to steer, picked in Settings, Controls. Hold and point (the default on a touch screen): keep a thumb down anywhere and point it; once it is 16 px from where it landed the snake heads that way, and pointing straight back makes the U-turn for you. Tap a side: the left half of the screen turns the snake to its left, the right half to its right. Swipe: flick to turn, and bend the stroke to chain a second turn. Tap a card to pick a mutation. Keyboard: arrow keys or WASD; 1, 2, 3 pick a card; Esc returns to the title. A gamepad's d-pad or left stick works too.

Want something slower? The daily puzzle is one board a day, the same for everyone, with nothing timed. Full rules and the score table: how to play. About danksnake.