How a Snakoff day works

Snakoff is a daily knockout. Everyone plays the same arena on the same day, and in every round the better half goes through, until the final decides the champion.

One arena for everyone

At 00:00 UTC a new day starts. Its arena is built from the date: the shape of the board, the walls, where the food appears and the day's mode all come from a seed made from that day's date. That means every player in the world gets exactly the same arena, and nobody can get a lucky one. The eight possible modes are explained on the modes page.

The rounds

A normal day has four rounds: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3 and the final. The times below are fixed in UTC and shown in a few time zones:

The number of rounds adapts to how many people play. When the field is small (fewer than 40 players), the day has three rounds; when it is very large (5,000 or more), it has five, so the final stays a manageable size. The number is chosen from the previous day's field, so it is fixed and known to everyone from 00:00.

A warm-up, then one run that counts

In each round you first get one warm-up. It is the same arena as your ranked run and it doesn't count, so use it to learn where the food falls and where the walls are. Then you play one run that counts. If you leave that run partway, it counts as zero.

Your own time for later rounds

Round 1 is open to everyone for its whole window. For every round after that, each qualified player gets a personal window to play: 4 hours, or 8 hours for the final. Your window starts when the round opens for you, or when you first open the app after that, whichever is later. It never runs past the round's hard end, 6 hours after the round starts (12 hours for the final). So a player who is asleep when the final opens still gets to play it, and the final's windows can run into the next UTC morning, up to 08:00.

A round is cut only when every qualified player has played or run out of time.

The median cut

When a round closes, the cut is made at the median: the score of the player in the middle of the round. Everyone who scored at least as much as that player goes through. In short, the better half goes through, and anyone level with the line goes through too, so at least half the field always survives.

If you made the cut but don't play the next round within your time, you are out. Nobody comes back into the day after being knocked out.

Joining late

You don't have to start at Round 1. If you haven't played a run that counts yet today, you can join whichever round is open and be cut like everyone else in it.

Later rounds get harder

Each round is played on the day's arena, with a twist that grows as the day goes on. On a four-round day, Round 2 is faster, Round 3 has one food fewer on the board, and the final has both.

Ties

Players with exactly the same score share a place. For a score in food, two runs with the same food are split by who stayed alive longer, and then by who ate their last food first. At the cut line, anyone level with the median goes through.

The final and the champion

The final has no cut. Every finalist plays one run that counts, and whoever does best wins the day. The champion is announced once the final has closed for everyone, and yesterday's champion is shown on everyone's Home the next day. Winning a day also earns coins and a look that can't be bought.

Second chance

Once a day, in each round, you can ask for a second chance at the run that counts: watch a short ad (where ads are shown) or pay 100 coins. The better of your two runs counts. It doesn't add anything to your score: you still have to play a better run yourself. Bots never use it.

Practice and Endless

Practice is open all day and costs nothing. It plays yesterday's map with today's mode, so you can try the mode without spending your warm-up. Your Practice best of the day earns a few coins.

Endless has no clock. The arena is wide open, the speed builds slowly, and you play until you crash. When you crash, you can Continue once per run, right where the snake died. It has its own leaderboard and earns coins for the food you eat, up to a daily limit.

Bots in a small field

While there aren't many real players, practice bots fill each round so it always has a field. They play the same arena by the same rules and are cut by the same median. They only top the field up: as more real players arrive, fewer bots are needed, and once real players fill the field there are none. Leaderboards that include bots say so.

Every score is checked

Every run is stored as a short list of your turns. When you send a run that counts, our server replays that list with the same game code on the same arena. If it doesn't replay to the same score, it doesn't count. That is why scores on Snakoff are real.

Everything else

Each day you play a run that counts keeps your streak going and earns points for your tier and weekly league. Short answers to common questions are in the FAQ.