Classic
The original daily run: eat as much food as you can in 45 seconds while the snake speeds up.
- Goal
- Eat the most food before the clock runs out
- Run length
- 45 seconds
- Speed
- 4.5 → 7 moves a second
- Ranked by
- food eaten
Classic is the mode every other mode is measured against. You have 45 seconds, the snake starts at a calm pace and gets steadily quicker, and your score is simply the food you eat. Classic is always in the pool, so it comes up on plenty of days even as more modes join.
Play the board, not just the snake
Everyone plays the same board: the same shape, the same inner walls and the same food spots in the same order. That means the warm-up before your run that counts is real information. Use it to notice where food tends to land and which parts of the shape are tight. On the run itself, you are not reacting to a random board, you are replaying one you have already seen.
The fastest scores come from short, direct paths. Head for the nearest food, but glance at where the next ones sit so you don't finish a bite facing a wall or a dead end.
What actually kills you
Early on, almost nothing. You get about a second of grace after Go, and the opening pace is gentle. The crashes come in the last third, when the speed has climbed and your body is long. The usual killer is your own tail in a narrow part of the shape, not the outer wall.
Scoring and the tie-break
Food is the score. If two players finish level, the one who stayed alive longer is ahead, and after that the one who ate their last food first. So a run that survives to the final second beats an equal run that crashed at 40 seconds. When you are ahead of your target late on, play safe.
Faster and fewer food rounds
In a faster round everything moves 12% quicker, so plan turns a beat earlier. In a fewer food round there is one item less on the board at a time, which means longer trips between bites and fewer choices; take the nearest food rather than chasing a cluster. The final has both.
A mistake to avoid
Circling in open space to "stay safe" while food sits nearby. It feels calm, but every lap is food you didn't eat. Keep moving towards something.