Breath Snake — Rules & Strategy

A snake that dives on a single breath, across a 12×12 sea. Picking up treasure isn't enough — it only counts once you touch the surface. The deeper you push, the bigger the multiplier, but the more cargo you're hauling, the more expensive the trip home gets.

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The one-line version

Grabbing more isn't the strategy here. The strategy is how far you're willing to dive, and how light you can stay on the way back.

Core rules

1. The snake never stops. Arrows, WASD or a swipe only change direction. Hit a wall, your own body, or a reef, and the run ends.
2. Oxygen. It drains continuously the moment you leave the surface (the top two rows). The deeper you are and the more cargo you're carrying, the faster it drains. Hit zero and you drown — every point of unbanked cargo from that dive is lost.
3. At-risk vs. banked. Picking up treasure loads it onto your body as «at-risk» cargo. Only touching the surface converts it into banked points — and refills your air.
4. Multiplier. Your banked score gets multiplied by the deepest point you reached on that dive. It climbs in steps the further down you go (see the table below).
5. Cargo weight. Every treasure you're carrying burns extra oxygen each tick — every pickup raises the price of the trip home. If you're overloaded, press Space (or the jettison button) to drop the most recent item and shed weight.
6. The tank. Surfacing refills your oxygen from the tank, and separately docks a flat 25 from the tank for having dived at all. Run the tank dry and the round ends as «TANK EMPTY» — whatever you'd already banked stays yours.
7. Terrain. Deeper zones carry currents that shove you every few ticks, and reefs that end the run on contact. Swim through an air pocket for a free +30 oxygen that doesn't touch the tank.

Depth multipliers and treasure tiers, exactly

The multiplier is set by the single deepest row you touched that dive: the shallows (down to roughly 15m) pay ×1.0, midwater (to roughly 35m) pays ×1.5, the lower-mid zone (to roughly 45m) pays ×2.0, and the sea floor (roughly 50m) pays ×2.6. A clutch bonus stacks on top if you surface with oxygen critically low — +0.3 under 30%, +0.5 under 15%, up to +0.9 under 7% — except the shallows pay zero clutch bonus no matter how low your air gets, and midwater caps the bonus at +0.5. Reach the sea floor and surface with under 7% oxygen and your total multiplier can hit ×3.5.

Treasure comes in three tiers — 🐚 (20 pts, 1 cargo unit, found in the shallows and midwater), 💎 (40 pts, 2 units, found from midwater down into the abyss), and 👑 (70 pts, 3 units, appearing only briefly in the abyss before it vanishes). Your body length doesn't reset each dive — every 4 treasure units you've ever banked permanently adds one segment, so the longer you play, the harder the snake gets to steer.

Strategy

1. "Just one more" is what kills most runs

Grabbing one extra treasure at half oxygen is the single most common way to die. Every pickup raises your per-tick drain, which means the distance you can still cover on your remaining air gets shorter the instant you grab it — not longer.

2. Farming the shallows is a losing habit

Every surfacing docks a flat 25 from your tank, and the shallows only ever pay a ×1.0 multiplier. Repeated shallow round trips just burn your tank without ever earning a multiplier. One deep dive with a big bank almost always beats several shallow ones.

3. The clutch bonus only matters in deep water

Surfacing with critical oxygen earns a bonus — but the shallows zero it out entirely. Deliberately draining your air near the surface just to trigger it is pure waste; you need to be at midwater or deeper before it's worth chasing.

4. Jettison drops your most recent pickup first

Space doesn't dump your whole load — it drops only the last item you picked up. So when the weight starts to hurt, shed your newest treasures one at a time rather than panicking about the whole haul. Dropped loot lingers on the seabed for about 5 seconds, so you can grab it back if you have air to spare.

5. Plan the way down and the way up separately

Currents only appear from midwater down, and they shift direction every so often. A downcurrent is a free ride deeper — but the same current works exactly against you on the way back up. Don't assume the path that got you down will get you home.

6. Play tighter corners the longer the run goes

Every 4 units of lifetime banked cargo adds a permanent body segment. The later into a session you are, the easier it is to clip your own tail in a narrow passage — so ease off the sharp turns and plan wider routes as your body grows.

FAQ

Does picking up treasure score immediately?

No. It sits as «at-risk» cargo until you touch the surface (the top two rows). Drown or crash before that and every unbanked point disappears.

How is the multiplier decided?

Your banked score gets multiplied by the deepest point you reached that dive — ×1.0 in the shallows, ×1.5 to ×2.0 in midwater, up to ×2.6 in the abyss. A clutch bonus of up to +0.9 stacks on top when you surface with oxygen critically low.

Do I need an account?

No. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for.

Where is my progress stored?

Your best score, best depth and badges live in your browser's local storage only — never sent to a server.

Is it the same sea every day?

No. Breath Snake has no daily seed. Reefs, currents and treasure placement are freshly generated every time you play — it's a free-play arcade game.

Is the tank the same thing as oxygen?

No, they're separate. Oxygen (O2) is the gauge that drains in real time while you're underwater. The tank is the reserve that refills your oxygen at the surface — and a flat amount comes out of the tank every time you surface, so an empty tank ends the run.

Other guides

• EcoFlip — rules and strategy · Reversi where conquest kills you — plant species but let one dominate and famine follows
• Cargo Snake — rules and strategy · a logistics snake where the crates you eat become body segments and only ship out tail-first
• Murder Grid — rules and strategy · solve a 6x6 sudoku for clues, catch two liars, name the culprit
• About playbuns · design principles, how the games are built, our advertising rules

This page is updated whenever the rules change. If you spot an error, tell us through contact.