Beginner’s guide: how to play snake for SOL on Solana
If you’ve never played a crypto game before, ChainPot can look intimidating from the outside — wallets, SOL, on-chain pots. In practice, getting from “curious” to “playing your first match for real SOL” takes about five minutes, and most of that is a one-time wallet setup. This guide walks you through the whole thing, start to finish, with no prior crypto experience assumed.
Step 1: Get a Solana wallet
A wallet is just an app that holds your SOL and lets you approve transactions. On ChainPot it doubles as your account — there’s no separate signup, email, or password.
We recommend Phantom (phantom.com), a free browser extension and mobile app; Solflare works just as well. Install it only from the official site. During setup, the wallet gives you a 12-word recovery phrase — write it on paper and keep it offline. Anyone with those words controls your funds, and ChainPot will never ask you for them.
Step 2: Add a little SOL
SOL is Solana’s currency, and it’s what you use for entry fees. You can add it two ways: buy it directly inside the wallet with a card, or send it from an exchange like Coinbase, Kraken, or Binance to your wallet address.
You don’t need much to start. Entry fees begin at 0.1 SOL, plus a tiny amount for network fees (fractions of a cent). Fund your wallet with enough to cover a few entries at the smallest tier while you’re learning — there’s no reason to load up more than you’re comfortable playing with.
Step 3: Connect and pick a room
On ChainPot, click Connect wallet in the top corner, approve the connection, and sign the free login message. Signing proves you own the wallet; it costs nothing and moves no funds.
Now pick a room. As a beginner, start with a 1v1 duel — head-to-head against one opponent, winner takes the pot. It’s the simplest way to learn the controls without a crowded arena punishing every mistake. When you’re ready for more chaos and a bigger pot, an Arena packs up to 20 players and pays the last snake standing.
Step 4: Learn the controls
Snake is steered with your mouse (or touch-and-drag on mobile): your snake follows your cursor. Hold to boost for a burst of speed at the cost of a little length. That’s it — the whole game is in how you use those two things.
The one rule that matters: you die if your head hits another snake’s body or the arena wall. Other snakes die the same way. So you never win by ramming someone head-on — you win by making them crash into you.
Step 5: How the pot works
Every player’s entry fee is pooled into the room’s pot, held by an on-chain Solana program. Win the match and the whole pot is sent straight to your wallet, usually within seconds — no claim button, no withdrawal queue. Lose, and your entry stays in the pot for the winner. That’s the deal in every room: real stakes, real payout.
Five tips for your first matches
- Survive first, chase kills later. You win by being the last one alive, not by racking up kills. Let reckless players crash into each other early.
- Cut off, don’t chase. Draw your body across a rival’s path so they have nowhere to go. Chasing a tail just wastes your space.
- Respect the walls. The boundary kills more players than anyone else. Fight for the center of the map.
- Boost with a purpose. Save it to close a trap or escape one — never boost blind into traffic.
- Start small. Play the smallest entry tier until the controls feel natural. Skill compounds; there’s no rush.
You’re ready
That’s the entire path: a wallet, a little SOL, a 1v1 room, and a few careful matches. Play within your means, read the risk disclosure so you know what you’re staking, and remember that every opponent is a real person who paid the same entry you did. Now go take a pot.