How to Play Snake
Everything you need in two minutes: controls for keyboard, touch and two players, plus the rules, scoring and how the speed goes up.
Quick answer: Press Space to start. Steer with the arrow keys or WASD, or swipe on a phone. Eat the food to grow and score 10 points. Avoid the walls and your own tail. Every 5 foods you level up and the snake gets faster.
Controls
| Action | Keyboard | Phone / tablet |
|---|---|---|
| Start / restart | Space, Enter or any arrow key | Tap Play |
| Turn | ↑↓←→ or WASD | Swipe on the board, or use the arrow buttons |
| Pause / resume | Space, P or Esc | Tap ⏸ above the board |
| Sound on/off | 🔊 button above the board | |
In 2 player snake, Player 1 steers with WASD and Player 2 with the arrow keys. In the Snake IO arena the snake follows your mouse or finger in any direction, and Space or a click gives a speed boost.
Snake game rules
- The snake moves forward on its own, one cell per step. You can only change its direction.
- Moving onto the food makes the snake one segment longer.
- The game ends if the head hits the snake's own body.
- With walls on, hitting the edge of the board also ends the game. With no walls, the snake comes out of the opposite edge.
- You can't reverse straight into yourself. A 180° key press is ignored.
Scoring and levels
- Each food is worth 10 points.
- Every 5 foods you go up one level.
- Each level makes a step 10 ms shorter. Starting speeds are Slow 190 ms, Normal 140 ms and Fast 100 ms, and the fastest possible is 55 ms.
- Your best score is saved separately for each walls/speed combination, so a no-walls score never competes with a walls score.
- The board has 400 cells, so a perfect game is 397 foods = 3,970 points.
Walls vs. no walls
Walls is the classic, harder rule set. The edge of the board is as deadly as your tail. No walls (wrap-around) is more forgiving and lets you build longer snakes, but the board gets crowded fast. Most players learn on Slow with no walls, then move to Normal with walls.
Common questions
What keys do you use in snake?
Arrow keys or W A S D to turn, and Space or P to pause. Space or Enter starts a new game.
Can the snake turn around?
No. A 180° turn would run into your own neck, so it is ignored. To reverse, press two keys quickly, e.g. ↑ then ← while moving right. Turns are buffered, so both register.
Why did my game pause by itself?
The game pauses automatically when you switch tabs or the window loses focus, so you never lose a run by accident. Press Space or tap Resume.
Next step: snake tips and strategies to push your high score.