Beginner strategy for Orb Arena

Everything in Orb Arena comes back to one number: 25%. You can eat any orb that is at least 25% smaller than you, and anything at least 25% bigger than you can eat you. Two orbs of nearly the same size simply bump into each other and nothing happens. Before you chase or flee, ask yourself which side of that line you are on.

Size is shown by how big an orb is drawn, and the leaderboard in the corner tells you the mass of the top ten. If a rival's name is above yours on the leaderboard, assume it can eat you until you can see otherwise.

The second thing to know is that size costs speed. A small orb darts around quickly; a large one drifts. That means small orbs can usually escape large ones in open space, and large orbs need to corner their prey or split to catch it.

The opening of a round is the safest time you will ever have. The game deliberately spawns you away from any rival large enough to eat you, and for three seconds after spawning a pulsing shield makes you impossible to eat. More importantly, for the first 45 seconds rivals treat small players (under mass 40) as a low priority — they mostly leave you alone unless you drift right next to them.

Spend this window eating food orbs as fast as you can. Don't chase rivals yet; the food is free mass with no risk. Sweep in long smooth lines through dense patches of orbs instead of zig-zagging, because turning sharply wastes time. If you have the mass boost active from the lobby, every food orb counts double, which makes this phase even more valuable.

Your goal is to leave the protected window comfortably above mass 40, so that when rivals start taking you seriously you are not the smallest thing on the map.

The ten rivals are computer-controlled and each one has the same basic instincts: chase things it can eat, run from things that can eat it, collect food when nothing interesting is nearby, keep away from walls and, later, head for the safe zone. Knowing this lets you predict them.

• A rival that suddenly turns away from you has decided you are dangerous. That is a good sign you can chase it.
• A rival that turns towards you thinks it can eat you. Move away at an angle rather than straight back, so you are not running into the wall.
• Rivals avoid crowding each other. Gaps between two large rivals are often safer than they look, but never sit between them.

Pressing Space (or tapping Split on mobile) halves every piece that has at least mass 36 and fires the new halves towards your pointer. The flying half moves fast for a short moment, which lets you hit a target that thinks it is out of reach.

The golden rule: only split when your half will still be 25% bigger than the target. If you have 100 mass, each half is 50, so you can only eat targets of about 40 or less. Splitting at a target that is almost your full size just gives a rival two smaller snacks.

After splitting, your pieces push apart and then merge back together on their own. The merge timer starts at roughly ten seconds and gets a little longer as you grow, so plan on being vulnerable for a while. Avoid splitting when a bigger rival is nearby. Splitting can also save you: firing a half away from a chaser sometimes lets that half escape while the chaser eats the other.

You stay in the round as long as at least one piece survives, so a risky split is rarely the end — but it often turns a first place into a fifth.

From the 30-second mark the safe ring starts shrinking every 30 seconds. Each time, the next safe zone appears as a dashed outline about ten seconds before the ring finishes moving. Beginners lose a lot of mass simply by being on the wrong side of the map when this happens.

A good habit is to glance at the minimap every time the timer passes a half-minute. If the dashed circle appears far from you, start moving immediately while eating on the way. Our Storm survival guide covers this in much more detail.

Between one and two minutes in, the arena gets crowded as everyone moves into the shrinking safe zone. This is where most mass changes hands. Some practical advice:

• Stay near the centre of the safe zone rather than at its edge. The edge is where rivals get pushed into you.
• Keep eating food while you wait for an opportunity; it is never wasted.
• Rivals that wander into the Storm lose mass quickly. Wait for them to shrink, then eat them on their way back in.
• Remember that once the Storm starts closing, eaten rivals do not respawn. Every rival removed makes your placement better.

The death screen shows who ate you, your final mass, how long you survived and your placement. If you had at least mass 40, you can choose a one-time second chance that brings you back with half of your previous mass. Use it if there is still plenty of time on the clock; late in the round it may drop you straight into the closing Storm. Otherwise, respawn normally after three seconds or start a fresh round.

Placement matters for XP: you earn more for every rival you outlast, and a win (being the biggest orb when the timer ends, or the last one standing) adds a large bonus. In the final minute, survival is worth more than aggression. Stay inside the ring, avoid fair fights, and only take risks you are sure of.

Play a few rounds with these ideas in mind and you will quickly see your placements improve. When you are ready, check out how skins, trails and XP levels work to see what your new results unlock.

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