How to play Squirm.io

Squirm.io controls on desktop

You can steer with the mouse or the keyboard, and swap between them mid-game — whichever you used last is the one in charge. There is no accelerate and no brake, only steering: the worm turns toward where you point it, as fast as its size allows.

• Mouse: the worm follows your cursor.
• Left and right arrows, or A and D: turn. Hold to keep turning, let go to hold your new heading. They steer the worm rather than pointing it at a compass direction, so you can never accidentally ask for a U-turn.
• Boost: hold the left mouse button, Space, Shift, or the up arrow / W.
• Power-up charges: press 1 to 5, or click the charge's button, to use one you are carrying.
• Settings: sound, music, visual quality, your arena floor and food theme, and which server you are on.

Mouse gives finer aim, which matters for tight cuts. The keys are easier to hold a steady curve with, which is what you want when circling someone. Neither is faster — turn rate is set by your size, not by your input.

Squirm.io controls on mobile

There is no joystick. Drag anywhere on the arena and your worm goes where your finger is, exactly as it goes where the cursor is on a desktop — put your thumb where you want to end up rather than pushing a stick in that direction. Lift your finger and the worm holds its last heading.

The boost button sits bottom-right, and if you would rather boost with your left thumb you can move it to the left in Settings. Turn the phone sideways and the arena turns with it, and the view zooms out to match the screen, so a landscape phone sees about as much of the map as a laptop does.

How to boost (and what it costs)

Boosting takes you from 300 to 720 units a second, about 2.4 times your cruising speed, and you turn half as fast again while you do it. You need a length of at least 15, and there is no cooldown.

It costs length while you hold it: barely anything for a small worm, more for a big one, because the cost grows with your size. That length is not destroyed. It drops behind you as food carrying exactly what you burned, and anyone can eat it. Boosting away from a chase feeds the worm behind you, so boost toward something — a cut, a death cloud, an escape route you can actually reach.

How worms die in Squirm.io

• Your head touches another worm's body. You die, they do not. Size is irrelevant.
• Two heads meet. The bigger worm wins. If you are within about a tenth of each other's size, both of you die.
• You touch the red boundary. The arena edge kills on contact; it does not bounce you back.

Your own body is not a hazard. You can coil through yourself as tightly as you like, which is what makes the coiling trap on the tips page possible. Every death, the wall included, leaves food behind for whoever gets there first.

How to grow your worm longer

Ordinary food is worth 5, 6 or 9 length a piece and lies in small clumps, so sweep through a clump rather than picking at single pieces. Food just ahead of your mouth is pulled in, so you do not have to drive over it exactly.

When a worm dies, 85% of its length comes back as a cloud of bigger food, worth 8 to 35 a piece. One good death cloud is worth minutes of grazing, so when something dies nearby, go.

Power-ups in Squirm.io

Power-ups are the big glowing orbs in the arena, the largest pickups on the floor. Swim over one and it switches on at once. There are five:

• Magnet (20 seconds): pulls food in from 2.5 times as far away and drags it to your mouth, however fast you are moving.
• Feast (15 seconds): every piece of food is worth 2 times as much — 1.5 times if you are already in the top 3.
• Telescope (20 seconds): the camera sees 40% further, so you spot fights, food and danger sooner.
• Nimble (15 seconds): you turn 1.5 times as fast, which tightens every cut and every escape.
• Sprint (15 seconds): you move 1.8 times as fast, and boosting costs no length while it lasts.

Different power-ups run at the same time, each on its own clock. Pick up one you already have and it adds its full time again, up to 60 seconds in total.

You can also carry charges: a charge is one power-up held in reserve and switched on when you choose, with a tap on its button or the number keys 1 to 5. Charges come from the daily gift and the prize wheel, or from the Burrow for Nuggets. The Burrow also sells upgrades: 5 levels for each power-up, and every level adds 1 second to how long it lasts, for good.

Gold Nuggets and the Burrow

Gold Nuggets glint on the arena floor. Swim over one to collect it: a small one is worth 1, a big one 5. You keep every Nugget you picked up when your worm dies, and a big worm that dies spills fresh Nuggets along its body for whoever is nearby, so cutting off a giant pays in gold as well as length.

Spend them in the Burrow, the game's wardrobe and shop: worm skins, painted character worms, eyes and mouths, and power-up upgrades and charges. Arena floors and food themes are bought in Settings. Nuggets are earned by playing — achievements, the daily gift and the prize wheel all pay them too — and nothing in Squirm.io is sold for real money.

Levels, achievements and leaderboards

Every run earns XP: 10 for playing, 1 for every 100 length you reached (up to 300), and 40 for every worm you defeat. XP raises your level, and levels unlock new arena floors and food themes and make the prize wheel pay more.

Tap your worm's face in the top left to see your profile and 44 achievements. Most have bronze, silver and gold tiers, and every tier pays Nuggets. During a run the top 10 in your arena is shown live; the leaderboard on the menu ranks everyone's best run for Today, This week and All time.

The daily gift and the prize wheel

Open the game once a day to collect the daily gift: Nuggets and power-up charges on a 14-day track, with bigger gifts on days 7 and 14. Miss a day and you simply pick up where you left off — the track never sends you back to day 1.

The prize wheel gives you 1 free spin every day. It pays Nuggets or power-up charges, and the Nuggets are multiplied by your level: up to 5 times from level 50.

Play with friends in a private arena

Press Play with friends on the menu to start a private arena. You get a 6-character code and a link; friends open the link or type the code and land in the same arena, with nobody else matched in. Up to 20 people can play together, and it costs nothing. Games in a private arena are just for fun, so they do not count towards skins or Nuggets.

Common beginner mistakes

• Chasing from behind. You cannot kill a worm by touching its tail. Only its head hitting your body kills it.
• Boosting to escape. You get shorter and drop food for your pursuer. Turn instead — you almost always out-turn a bigger worm.
• Playing near the edge. The boundary kills, and a bigger worm can pin you against it.
• Going head-on. Against a bigger worm you lose outright, and against one your own size you both die.
• Turning too late when big. Turn rate falls as you grow, so start your turns earlier than feels necessary.
• Saving power-ups for later. An orb in the arena starts the moment you touch it, so grab it when it helps — and keep your charges for the moment you need one.