How to play Squid Game: what each of the six rounds actually wants from you
Squid Game is a six-round survival game built around the playground contests from the series. You are one of 456 numbered players, the piggy bank fills with every elimination, and each round is a different small game with its own control: Red Light, Green Light is about when to let go of the mouse, Dalgona Candy is a steady hand, Tug of War is click speed, the Marble Game is an odd-or-even guess, the Glass Bridge is memory and nerve, and the final round is a two-turn knife duel with health bars. Fail once and the run is over — the game shows YOU ARE DEAD and sends you back to the piggy bank.
Every round runs on a timer you can see at the top of the screen: 30 seconds for the first three, 60 for marbles and the bridge, and 15-second turns in the final. There are no keys to learn. Everything is the mouse or the trackpad, which is why it plays fine on a school Chromebook. The menu lets you pick your player number and, with the arrows under the PLAY button, start from any round you want to practise, so you do not have to replay Red Light, Green Light every time the bridge beats you.
Controls & mechanics
| Action | Control | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Start | PLAY, then CHOOSE | The number screen picks your player number (001–999) with the left and right arrows; CHOOSE drops you into the round |
| Pick a round | Arrows under PLAY | Steps from Round 1 to the Final Round so you can practise the one that keeps killing you |
| Round 1 — run | Hold the mouse button | Your player runs while held and slows when released; the light above the timer shows green or red |
| Round 2 — cut | Hold and drag on the candy | Drags the needle along the printed outline; letting go or leaving the line clears your cut |
| Round 3 — pull | Click repeatedly | Each click adds a pull of 20–35; the other team pulls 10–20 every tenth of a second on its own |
| Round 4 — guess | Click ODD or EVEN | Bets on the marbles hidden in the opponent's hand; the winner takes one marble from the loser |
| Round 5 — jump | Click the left or right half of the screen | Sends the front player to the left or right panel of the next pair |
| Final — move | Hold the round pad at the bottom | Moves your player toward the pointer while held; get within reach on an ATTACK turn to land a hit |
| Menu / quit | Gear button, then the door | The gear opens sound and fullscreen; the door asks you to confirm before it ends the run |
Tips for each round
- Let go before the light turns red: Your runner keeps some speed after you release, and the doll counts anyone still moving above a low threshold. Release the button the instant the green phase ends, not when the doll turns, and lean on the pattern: green and red phases start at three seconds and each one gets 0.2 s shorter, down to one second, so the last stretch is a series of short bursts.
- Trace the candy through every corner: Each shape has a set of hidden checkpoints at its corners (three on the triangle and circle, four on the umbrella, five on the star) and the cut only counts when you have passed all of them and returned to where you started. Move slowly, keep the needle on the grey line — the crack sound and a cleared line mean you drifted — and do not lift the button halfway.
- Click in bursts for the rope: The rope position is capped at ±100, and the other team adds 10–20 every tenth of a second. Fast, even clicking beats hammering: about eight clicks a second holds the line and anything more just hits the cap. A trackpad tap-to-click works but a real mouse button is faster.
- Marbles is a race to six: You and the opponent start with three marbles each and you take turns guessing. A right call takes one marble, a wrong call gives one away, and the round ends when someone holds all six. There is no pattern to read, so play quickly and keep an eye on the 60-second clock.
- Remember which panels broke: The bridge has fifteen pairs of panels and ten players. Whoever is at the front jumps first, and when a panel breaks, that player falls and the next one takes the lead. If you are near the back you get to watch several panels get tested; count the pairs so you know which ones are already proven when it is your turn. If everyone ahead of you is gone, every jump is a coin flip.
- Chase on ATTACK, run on SURVIVE: The final alternates 15-second turns. Your label says ATTACK or SURVIVE next to your health bar; each hit takes 15 of 100. On ATTACK, hold the pad and steer straight at the opponent — a hit lands when you are close and lined up. On SURVIVE, keep moving to the far end of the lane and never stop, because the opponent moves faster on their ATTACK turn than on yours.
Key features
- All six rounds, in order or on their own: Red Light Green Light, Dalgona Candy, Tug of War, the Marble Game, the Glass Bridge and the final duel; the arrows on the menu start any round directly.
- Mouse-only, Chromebook-friendly: There is no keyboard input at all — hold, drag and click cover everything, and a trackpad works for every round except the rope, where a mouse is faster.
- Fifty players in Round 1: The field of runners thins in front of you every phase, five to fifteen at a time, so the run looks and sounds like the show instead of a solo obstacle course.
- Your own player number: Pick any number from 001 to 999 before the first round and it stays on your back through every game.
- Built in HTML5 (CreateJS): A 6 MB build served from this domain: it loads in a few seconds, runs on integrated graphics and remembers nothing, so every run is a fresh field.
Game info
- Title: Squid Game
- Developer: demonisblack
- Category: Survival & Elimination
- Platform: Web browser (HTML5)
- Released: 2021 HTML5 build (Survival Game v3.2), served here since 2023
Pro tip: The menu's round selector is the best training tool in the game. Set it to Round 5 and play the bridge ten times in a row: the panel layout is random each time, but you will learn to keep count of the pairs and to react to the split second the front player lands. Then go back to Round 1 and run the whole thing.
