How to Beat the Snake Game: Tips for a High Score
You beat Snake by growing longer and scoring more before you crash, and a perfect game fills the whole board. Keep to the edges and leave the middle open, turn early rather than at the last square, never steer into a pocket smaller than your body, and when you're long, follow your tail. On GameLake, eating quickly builds a combo up to ×5.
What counts as beating Snake?
Snake has no last level. Every run ends when the snake crashes, so beating it means beating a target: your best score, a length goal, or the ultimate one, filling every square of the board.
On GameLake the snake starts 3 squares long on a 15×15 board. Reach a length of 10 and the run counts as a win (one star); 18 earns two stars and 30 earns three. A perfect game would fill all 225 squares.
How scoring works on GameLake
| Food | Points | Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Apple or berry | 10 | +1 square |
| Golden lotus | 50 | +3 squares (it fades after about 7 seconds) |
Points are then multiplied twice. The speed multiplies them by ×1 on Easy, ×2 on Medium and ×3 on Hard. And if you eat again within 3.5 seconds of your last bite, your combo goes up by one, to a maximum of ×5. A golden lotus on Hard at a ×5 combo is worth 50 × 3 × 5 = 750 points, as much as 75 plain apples on Easy.
| Speed | Moves per second at the start | Edges |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | about 7 | Wrap around |
| Medium | about 9 | Wrap around |
| Hard | about 12 | Solid walls |
Tip 1: Hug the edges and keep the middle open
Most crashes happen when the snake's own body chops the board into small spaces. If you travel along the edges and come back to them after each bite, your body lies along the outside and the middle stays one big open area. Food always appears on an empty square, so dart in for it and head back out.
Tip 2: Turn early, not at the food
At speed, the last square before a wall or your body is the worst place to decide where to go. Pick your route while you're still a few squares away: which row or column you'll turn into, and which way you'll go after the bite.
For a quick U-turn, press the two turns one right after the other (for example up, then left). GameLake remembers up to three turns in order, so a fast double tap becomes a clean U-turn instead of a crash. A turn straight back into your own neck is ignored.
Tip 3: Never enter a pocket smaller than your body
This is the rule that decides long runs. Before you turn into an enclosed space, roughly count its squares. If the space is smaller than your snake, you'll run out of room before your tail moves out of the way to open an exit. Turn the other way, even if the food is in the pocket.
Tip 4: Follow your tail when you're long
Your tail is the one part of the snake that always moves away. On GameLake you can even move into the square your tail is leaving, because it's free by the time your head arrives (unless you've just eaten, when the tail stays put for a step while you grow). When you're boxed in, chasing your tail buys time until the space opens up again.
Tip 5: Use the edges on Easy and Medium
On Easy and Medium there are no walls: leave one side and you come back in on the opposite side. That turns the board into a loop and gives you shortcuts. Food near the right edge may be closer by going left through the wall. Remember your body wraps too, so check the far side before you go through.
Tip 6: Chase the lotus only on a clear path
A golden lotus sometimes appears after you eat. It's worth five apples, grows you by three and keeps your combo going, but it fades after about seven seconds. Go for it when the route is open. Squeezing through a gap to reach it is the classic way to throw away a long run, especially since it makes you three squares longer at once.
The zigzag route for a near-perfect game
Very long snakes need a fixed route. The safest one sweeps the board in rows, back and forth like mowing a lawn, so the body always lies in neat parallel lines and there's never a pocket to fall into. It's slow, so you'll lose combos, but it's how the longest runs are played.
One catch on Hard: the 15×15 board has an odd number of squares, and a closed loop on a grid always visits an even number. So no loop can cover all 225 squares, and the very end of a perfect game always needs a step off the pattern.
Controls and other small edges
- Steer by swiping on the board, with the arrow keys or W, A, S, D, or with the on-screen pad.
- Pause with the pause button or the Space bar. The game also pauses by itself if you switch tabs.
- Start on Easy. Slower steps and wrap-around edges are the best place to learn the edge and tail habits before Hard's walls.
- Your best score is saved for each speed, so compare like with like.
Curious where the game came from? Read the history of the Snake game.
Frequently asked questions
Can you actually beat the Snake game?
Only by filling the whole board, which is extremely hard. Most players aim to beat their own high score or a length goal instead. On GameLake, length 10 counts as a win.
What is the best strategy in Snake?
Keep to the edges, leave the middle open, plan turns early, never enter a space smaller than your body, and follow your tail when you're long.
How do you get a high score in Snake on GameLake?
Play Medium or Hard for the ×2 or ×3 multiplier, eat food within 3.5 seconds of each other to build a combo up to ×5, and grab golden lotus flowers when the path is clear.
Can the snake go through walls?
On Easy and Medium, yes: it wraps around to the other side. On Hard the edges are solid walls and hitting one ends the run.
Can the snake turn back on itself?
No. A turn straight back the way you came is ignored, so you can't crash into your neck by pressing the wrong way.