PAPER.IO 2

Paper.io 2 is a territory-capture .io game in which you steer a small coloured block around a shared map and paint as much of it as you can. Every loop you close around empty ground becomes yours, so your score is simply how much of the board carries your colour.

The game keeps the idea of the original Paper.io but adds opponents that actively hunt for your trail, plus skins that unlock through objectives and eliminations. The tension comes from one rule: whenever you leave your own territory you drag a vulnerable tail behind you, and anyone who touches it knocks you out. Wandering far from home earns big gains, but only if you get back alive.

How to play Paper.io 2

You start inside a small patch of your own colour. Everything beyond it is open ground, and the moment you step outside, a tail begins to trail behind you.

• Move with the mouse by holding the left button and dragging, or use WASD or the arrow keys.
• Glide out over white space or over rivals' paint, then steer back into your own territory to fill the enclosed area.
• Hit another player's exposed tail to eliminate them.
• Avoid running into your own tail, which ends your run instantly.

Tips for Paper.io 2

• Take small, quick loops near your base while the map is crowded; they are cheap to complete and leave little tail exposed.
• Watch the heads of nearby opponents, not just their territory. A rival who is about to cross your tail is often visible a second earlier.
• Before cutting across a large opponent zone, check that your route back home is not blocked by someone else's trail.
• Hunting is a good way to grow: crossing the tail of a distant rival can erase them and open their area.
• Make wide turns instead of tight U-turns outside your territory, since a sharp turn can put your head into your own tail.

Paper.io 2 was developed by Voodoo; the browser release is listed from March 2019, after the iOS and Android versions in 2018.