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How to play BYTE

You are a snake of numbered blocks. Eat what you outrank, shove what you cannot eat, and fuse matching blocks to grow.

Basics

Steer by pointing at the screen: your head turns toward your finger or pointer. Boost with the boost button or space. Your first block's number is your lead. Everything is decided by comparing numbers: a bigger lead eats a smaller block, and equal numbers bounce.

Food (the small numbered tiles) is eaten by touching it, as long as its number is not above your lead. Your own blocks fuse in rounds on a timer; stay out of rivers when a round is due or it is put off.

Shove and fuse

Some blocks lie loose in the world. They have a kind and a number, just like you.

4 4 you shove 8 equal blocks that touch fuse
Walk into a loose block bigger than your lead and it slides ahead of you. Push it into an equal block and the pair becomes the next number up.
8 4 your lead is 8: you eat the 4 8 16 a 16 is above your lead: you push it
The rule is the same for everything: you may eat what is at or below your lead. Anything above it is furniture you push.

Things in the world

Ore

plain block

Dark blocks with bright flecks, lying at the foot of the mountain. Eat them or fuse them into something bigger. Fusing or eating ore counts toward the Miner badge.

Crate

plain block

A stash left lying about. Crates come in pairs near where you start: push one into the other.

Boulder

plain block, starts big

A block that starts big. Anyone can shove it, but you need a lead at or above its number to eat it. Parked in a river it becomes a dam and lets you cross without the fusion delay.

Bones

plain block

Old bones lying about the worlds. Plain and edible like any other block.

Barrel

furniture

Hit it while boosting and it bursts: bodies nearby are thrown back and it scatters blocks. Set one off beside someone else for the Demolisher badge.

Beam

furniture

A log that slides only along its length. Push it across a brook until it rests on both banks: it locks into place as a grey stone bridge, anyone can cross it without losing a fusion round, and building one earns the Bridge badge. After ten minutes it collapses and a fresh beam turns up for someone else to lay.

Lantern

furniture

Push a lantern onto a mountain peak and it is planted: the peak is yours, with your name over it. See Peaks and lanterns.

Places

Forge

station

Leave a plain block resting on the forge pad and, after a moment, it comes out one number bigger. Earns the Forger badge.

Anvil

station

A block of 2 or more that rests on the anvil splits in two, each one number smaller. The way to turn one big block into two you can fuse elsewhere.

Campfire

station

Camping out (to leave a world safely) only works beside a fire. There is one beside every door's arrival point and a few more in the big world. Walk up to one, then use Camp out; away from a fire the button says so.

Conveyor

terrain

Rails and river currents carry whatever stands on them, you and loose blocks alike, in the direction of the arrows. Ride one to reach a station. A block that rode a belt to a station counts for the Hauler badge; fusing two blocks that both arrived by current counts for Tide Rider.

Speed lane

terrain

A painted trail between doors. Walk along it and you move faster than on open ground.

Peaks and lanterns

YOUR NAME
Push a lantern up the road and onto the summit. Your name floats over the peak for everyone to see.

A peak can hold one lantern. If another player plants theirs, the peak becomes theirs and yours comes down. How long you held it is saved on your badge. Lanterns do not survive a server restart; the time you earned does.

Peaks hold the best prize in the world, and a lantern marks who has it right now.

Badges

Badges are pride, nothing more: they change nothing about how the game plays. They are filed on the global leaderboard under the email you set in Settings, so set one to keep yours. Bots never earn them.

Bridge

Push a beam across a river so it rests on both banks.

Peak Keeper

Plant a lantern on a summit. The longer you hold it, the better the mark.

Forger

Have a block you pushed promoted at a forge.

Hauler

Ride a block along a conveyor to a station.

Miner

Eat or fuse a block of ore.

Demolisher

Set off a barrel that throws another player back.

Dam Builder

Park a boulder in a river until it holds.

Tide Rider

Fuse two blocks that both arrived by current.

Climber

Reach a summit on a single life.

Pathfinder

Visit every world through its doors.

Tips

Two crates near the start make a good first fuse. A block you cannot eat can still be pushed into a corner to hide behind. Cross rivers on a beam, not on foot, when a fusion round is due. Boost into a barrel only when someone else is near it.