How to Build your Unstoppable Snake in SNKRX

How to Play: The Basics

The gameplay loop in SNKRX is simple to learn, but difficult to master.

1. You Control the Snake: Though the snake moves forward automatically, you must control the movement of your head unit using left and right turns. Your heroes attack on their own when enemies are in range.
2. Your Goal: Your primary objective is survival, so you must dodge enemies and their projectiles. If any hero (any segment of your snake) takes too much damage and its HP hits zero, it dies. If your head unit dies, your run is over.
3. The Arena: You clear levels, called arenas, by defeating all waves of enemies. Every few arenas, you will face a boss.
4. Progression: After clearing an arena, you enter the Shop. Here, you spend gold earned from defeating enemies to buy new heroes, upgrade your snake, and purchase powerful passive items.

Heads-Up: The NG+ modes significantly increase the game’s difficulty. Enemies gain new abilities and spawn in more dangerous combinations, requiring you to optimize your builds far beyond what works in a standard run

Understanding Your Heroes

Your snake is composed of individual heroes. Each hero has unique stats and abilities.

1. Abilities: Every hero has a unique attack. The Scout, for example, throws a knife that chains to other enemies. The Magician creates a damaging area-of-effect field. You must read each hero’s description in the shop to understand what they do.
2. Classes: Every hero belongs to one or more classes (e.g., Rogue, Warrior, Mage). Collecting multiple heroes of the same class unlocks powerful passive bonuses, which are the key to winning.
3. Leveling Up: You can level up your heroes to make them much stronger.
   • Level 2: Collect three total copies of the same hero. This doubles their HP and damage.
   • Level 3: Collect six additional copies of that hero (for a total of nine). This doubles their HP and damage again and unlocks a powerful new passive ability unique to that hero.

Practical Tip: Prioritize getting your Tier 1 heroes (like Scout or Magician) to Level 3. Since they appear more frequently and cost less, you can unlock their powerful unique abilities much faster than expensive Tier 4 or 5 heroes.

The Shop and Economy

The Shop is where you make your most important strategic decisions.

1. Buying Heroes: You are offered a random selection of heroes to purchase, though you can buy as many as you can afford.
2. Rerolling: For 2 gold, you can reroll the shop to get a new selection of heroes. This is essential for finding specific heroes to complete your class synergies or to level up your key units.
3. Interest: For every 5 gold you have saved (up to a maximum of 25 gold), you gain 1 bonus gold in interest at the start of the next shop. Saving 25 gold will grant the maximum 5 bonus gold per round.
4. Locking: You can lock the shop for free to save the current hero selection for after the next arena. This is useful if you see a hero you need but cannot afford.

Resource Note: The Mercenary class synergizes with the Dividends item, which grants them bonus damage based on your total gold. This creates a high-risk, high-reward gold hoarding strategy for late-game scaling.

All Classes and Synergies Explained

Synergies are the most important mechanic in SNKRX. You activate them by having a certain number of unique heroes from the same class in your snake.

Red Classes (Offense)

1. Ranger (3/6): 8%/16% chance for Rangers to fire an additional barrage of arrows.
2. Rogue (3/6): 15%/30% chance for Rogues to critically strike, dealing 4x damage.
3. Warrior (3/6): +25/+50 defense to Warriors.
4. Nuker (3/6): +15%/+25% area of effect size and damage.

Green Classes (Utility/Summon)

1. Healer (2/4): 20%/40% chance to create an extra healing orb.
2. Swarmer (2/4): +1/+3 hits (HP) to all allied critters.
3. Curser (2/4): +1/+3 max curse targets.
4. Builder (2/4): +25%/+50% construct damage and duration.

Blue Classes (Magic/Support)

1. Mage (3/6): -15/-30 enemy defense.
2. Sorcerer (2/4/6): Sorcerers repeat their attacks once every 4/3/2 attacks.
3. Enchanter (2/4): +15%/+25% damage for all allies.
4. Forcer (2/4): +25%/+50% knockback force.

Other Classes

1. Voider (2/4): +20%/+40% damage over time to Voiders.
2. Psyker (2/4): +2/+4 total Psyker orbs and +1 orb for each Psyker.
3. Mercenary (2/4): 8%/16% chance for enemies to drop 1 gold on death.
4. Explorer (1): +15% attack speed and damage per active Class to allied Explorers.

Quick Reminder: Unlike the classic Snake, your own tail is not an obstacle. You can pass through your other hero segments without penalty, so you should focus only on dodging enemies and projectiles

Key Items and Upgrades

After boss levels, you will be offered a choice of one passive item. These items provide powerful global bonuses to your entire snake. You can also spend gold in the shop (10 gold for Level 2, 15 for Level 3) to upgrade them.

Here are some of the most impactful items to look for:

1. Amplify: +20%/+35%/+50% AoE damage. Essential for Nuker and Mage builds.
2. Ballista: +20%/+35%/+50% projectile damage. A must-have for Ranger builds.
3. Assassination: Crits from Rogues deal 8x/10x/12x damage, but their non-crits deal half damage. This is the core item for any Rogue build.
4. Call of the Void: +30%/+60%/+90% DoT damage. Transforms Voider and Curser builds into powerhouses.
5. Ceremonial Dagger: Killing an enemy fires a homing dagger. Provides a massive boost to your overall damage and scales with projectile bonuses.
6. Divine Machine Arrow: 10%/20%/30% chance for Rangers to fire a piercing, ricocheting arrow. Another core item for Ranger builds.
7. Magnetism: Gold coins and healing orbs are attracted to the snake. This is a huge quality-of-life and survivability upgrade.
8. Vulnerability: Enemies take +10%/+20%/+30% increased damage from all sources. A universally strong pick.

Quest Tip: To earn the full class achievements, use heroes with multiple classes (like the Spellblade, who is both Rogue and Mage) to act as glue units. They let you complete one class set while still activating other crucial synergies.

Know Your Enemy

You will face many types of enemies, so knowing their behavior is key to avoiding damage.

1. Red: Basic melee enemies that run at you.
2. Green: When they die, they increase the movement speed of all nearby enemies for a short time.
3. Blue: Drop an orb on death that explodes into projectiles.
4. Orange: After taking damage or getting close to your snake, they charge up and launch at you at high speed, dealing high damage.
5. White: Stop moving and shoot 3 projectiles at a time.
6. Purple: Explode into smaller, low-HP enemies upon death.
7. Yellow: Launches a nearby enemy at your snake at high speed. They also have a lot of HP.
8. Bosses: These are large, high-HP enemies that appear every few levels. They have their own attack patterns (like massive projectile waves) and will continuously spawn basic enemies until they are defeated. Focus on dodging first and let your heroes wear the boss down.

Pro Tip: After you defeat the final boss on level 25, you can choose to Loop. This allows you to restart the game at level 1 while keeping your entire snake, items, and gold, letting you test your build’s power against infinitely scaling enemies.

Beginner Tips and Winning Strategies

1. Focus on Synergies: Your first priority should always be activating class synergies. A snake with two or three active synergies is far stronger than one with a random assortment of good heroes.
2. Don’t Get Hit: This is your main job. Your damage is automatic. Your survival is manual. Play defensively and focus on dodging. Weaving your snake in tight “S” patterns can help dodge projectile-heavy waves.
3. Read Everything: Take your time in the shop. Read what each hero does. Read what each item does. Knowledge is the most powerful weapon in SNKRX.
4. Respect Your Economy: Try to save up to 25 gold as early as you can without dying. The +5 gold per round from interest adds up incredibly fast and lets you afford more rerolls and hero upgrades in the late game.
5. Commit to a Build: By level 10, you should have a good idea of what your final build will be. If you have the Assassination item, start hunting for every Rogue you can find. If you have Amplify, focus on Nukers and Mages.
6. A Powerful Starter Build (Rogue/Enchanter): A very common and effective build that includes:
   1. Core: 6 Rogues. This gives you a 30% chance to crit for 4x damage.
   2. Item: Assassination. This makes your crits deal 12x damage (at L3).
   3. Support: 2 or 4 Enchanters. This provides a +15% or +25% damage buff to all allies, which makes your massive crits even stronger.
   4. Heroes to find: Look for heroes that have both classes, like the Jester or Spellblade, to help you activate other powerful synergies.

Boss Tip: Bosses spawn infinite waves of smaller enemies during the fight. Builds that lack strong AoE or high single-target burst damage may struggle, as they can be overwhelmed by the endless adds.

Conclusion

SNKRX is a game of exponential growth. A run that feels weak and hopeless can suddenly become an unstoppable death machine with one or two key items and a completed class synergy. The key is to stay flexible, understand the systems, and always prioritize your survival. Experiment with different class combinations, learn which items empower them, and soon you will be weaving your way to victory.