How to play & controls Snake Online
GameNow's Snake is a duel: two snakes share one 15 × 20 board and move at the same instant, six cells a second. The edges are solid walls, not wrap-arounds. Both snakes start four cells long in the same column, 13 rows apart and heading straight at each other, so if nobody turns, the heads meet mid-board seven steps (about 1.2 seconds) after Go and both crash.
There is no score race. Food you eat lowers the other snake's 1,000 HP, while a crash costs the crasher 100 HP, cuts it back to four cells and takes it off the board for 1.2 seconds. A plain apple deals only 5 damage, so one crash you force is worth twenty of your apples.
You can practise against an AI at three levels without an account; with a GameNow account you can also play the daily board everyone shares or meet another player online. Matches last three minutes at most, and a Finale changes the food and damage rules once either snake falls to 400 HP.
Modes
Solo — Easy / Normal / Hard
You against the AI snake, no account needed. Only Solo has the pause, Touch settings and Turn aid buttons and the separate Boost button, and its result stars are counted per level.
Today's snake (Today's challenge)
One board a day for everyone: same seed, same Normal AI. Your score is the HP you have left when the AI falls or three minutes of play run out. Give-ups and runs under 20 seconds do not count, and the server replays your inputs before ranking you.
Online 1v1 — Find opponent / invite code
Needs a GameNow account: matchmaking, a challenge to a player in the lobby, or an invite code valid for 10 minutes. Both screens run the same simulation from relayed inputs, and a checksum from the server every second confirms they still match.
Controls
| Action | Mouse & keyboard | Touch | Gamepad |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turn | Arrow keys or WASD (by key position, so a Korean layout works) | Swipe anywhere; keep your finger down to chain turns | D-pad or left stick |
| Boost | Hold Shift, or hold the mouse button still for 0.5 s | Hold still for 0.5 s (adjustable), or the separate Boost button | Hold A with the pad pointer over the game |
| Pause (Solo) | P, Esc or ⏸; Enter resumes | ⏸ button | B pauses, Start resumes |
| Give up | Click Give up, then again within 3 s when it reads 'Sure?' | Tap Give up twice | Pointer on Give up, A twice |
| Touch settings (Solo) | Touch settings button | Swipe distance Short / Default / Long, boost hold time, separate Boost button; saved on the device | Pointer + A |
| Result screen | Enter = Play again (Solo), Esc = leave | Tap a button | Start = Play again, B = leave |
Strategy tips
Count crashes in apples
A crash costs 100 HP, resets the crasher to four cells, clears its combo and benches it for seven steps. Even a fully chained apple deals only 15 damage, so steering the rival into a wall or your body outweighs a long meal, and skipping food on a risky lane is always cheaper.
Keep the chain under three seconds
Eat again within 18 steps (3 s) and the multiplier climbs ×1.5, ×2, ×2.5, then ×3 from the fifth food: an apple goes from 10 to 30 points (5 to 15 damage), a golden apple from 30 to 90. The line at the top left shows the next multiplier and the seconds left.
Gold locks your tail
A golden apple adds three cells, one per step, and your tail stays put while you grow. Chasing your own tail, normally a safe escape, fails for three steps after gold (one after an apple), so skip gold when your only exit runs along your tail.
Boost is sixteen cells
A full bar (five segments of 20) buys eight boosted steps: 16 cells in 1⅓ s. It refills 3 per step only while you are not boosting, so empty to the 20 needed to start takes 7 steps and to full 34. Each food refunds 15; matches start empty, respawns at half.
Plan for the respawn
A crashed snake returns on the free cell farthest from the other snake and the walls, facing its longest lane, and blinks for 1.5 s. While either snake blinks they pass through each other, so time the trap for when it stops. If both crash on the same step, both restart at the start spots.
Finale arithmetic
It starts the step after either snake drops to 400 HP or below, or with 45 seconds left: five foods, 35% of new ones golden, food damage at 70% (a plain apple deals 4) and crashes at 150. At 400 HP three crashes end the match, so the trailing snake gains most from blocking.
Read the AI
The AI heads for the nearest food by grid distance, golden or not, and never tries to block you. It avoids spaces smaller than its length plus two but counts only 10 cells ahead on Easy and 45 on Normal; Easy never boosts. In Today's snake every meal of its Normal AI comes off your score, so finish it early.
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