Paper.io 2 Strategy: Loop Shapes That Grow Your Territory Without Getting You Killed

The strip, not the square

New players draw a big square: out, across, back, in. It claims a lot when it works, but for most of its length you are three or four seconds from home, and that is an eternity in an arena full of cubes. The shape that wins over a whole run is the strip. Step just outside your border, run parallel to it, and turn back in. The gain per loop is smaller, but the trail is never longer than the width of the strip, and you can repeat it a dozen times in the time a square takes once.

How far out is too far

A useful test is whether you can see your own colour on screen. When your patch scrolls off the edge of the view, you are further out than you can defend, because a rival can appear from the side and be across your trail before you have turned. Keep home in view and the worst outcome is losing one loop rather than the whole run.

When to be greedy

There are two moments when a long loop is a good bet. The first is right after a nearby cube has died, because its ground is released and no one is standing on it. The second is when the leaderboard shows the other players a long way off, which you can read from the names on the right: if the leader is not near you, the arena between you and the edge is safe for a few seconds. Take it then, not when a rival is one screen away.

Cutting a rival

Cross the trail near its tail, not its head. Near the head the rival can turn round and cross yours first; near the tail they have no way back. And after a kill, turn for home at once. Everything they held is now empty, and if you are already looping you can claim a big piece of it on the same run.