Marathon
Ninety seconds with a slow start and a long ramp: the most food wins, if your long snake survives.
- Goal
- Eat the most food before the clock runs out
- Run length
- 90 seconds
- Speed
- 4 → 8 moves a second
- Ranked by
- food eaten
Marathon doubles the clock. You have 90 seconds, the opening is the slowest of any mode, and the speed climbs all the way to the end. Your score is the food you eat, so a long run means a long snake.
The real opponent is your own body
In Classic you rarely grow long enough for your tail to matter. In Marathon you will. By the second half your body covers a real share of the arena, and narrow parts of the shape become traps. Our own testing shows the pattern clearly: the best Marathon scores are far higher than the best Classic ones, but a typical score is no higher, because so many runs end in a crash with a long snake.
How to play it
Use the slow start. The first stretch is the easiest food you will get all run, so eat steadily and learn the board's food order while the pace is gentle.
From the middle on, think about space as much as food. Keep the open part of the arena open: sweep around its edges, let your tail clear space behind you, and avoid going into a pocket you can only leave the way you came. When food sits in a tight spot late in the run, ask whether you can get out again before you go in.
Scoring
Food is the score. Level players are split by time alive, then by who ate their last food first, so finishing all 90 seconds matters.
Faster and fewer food rounds
A faster round moves everything 12% quicker, which hurts most at the end when the snake is longest. With fewer food there is one item less on the board at a time, so trips between bites are longer and your body has more time to box you in. In the final you get both: protect space early.
A mistake to avoid
Playing the first minute like Classic and the last thirty seconds like a panic. Pace yourself. A safe 90 seconds beats a brilliant 70.