Paper.io 2 — Play Free Online

Paper.io 2 is a land-grab game played on a big flat arena. You start as a small coloured square surrounded by a patch of your own territory, and the aim is to own as much of the board as you can before someone cuts you down. Every rival is another coloured square doing exactly the same thing, so a round is a constant mix of expanding, dodging and looking for a chance to strike.

The twist is that you are only safe on your own colour. Step off it and you start laying a trail behind you. Loop that trail back to your territory and everything inside the loop becomes yours. But while the trail is out, it is a weak point: if another player touches it, you are eliminated on the spot. That tension between greed and safety is the whole game.

Rounds are short and restart instantly, which makes it a good fit next to the quick one-more-try pacing of Doodle Jump. There is nothing to install; it runs in the browser on desktop or phone.

How to play

Steer with the arrow keys or WASD. On a phone, swipe in the direction you want to turn. Your square always keeps moving, so you are choosing turns rather than speed. You cannot reverse straight back onto your own trail, and running into your own trail ends the run too.

A typical round goes like this: leave your territory, sweep out in a wide arc, and return to your base to close the shape. Bigger loops claim more land but keep you exposed for longer. As your territory grows, so does your score, shown as a percentage of the map, and the leaderboard shows how you compare with the rivals.

Tips

• Take small bites early. Short loops that return quickly are safer than one giant loop while you are still small.
• Watch the rivals' trails as well as their squares. A long trail is a target: cut across it and you eliminate them.
• Hug your own border when you can. Running along the edge of your territory lets you retreat to safety with a single turn.
• Do not turn tightly near an opponent's territory unless you can see a clear way home; trapped corners are where most runs end.

Similar games on Doodle Jump

Doodle Jump itself is a vertical climb where you dodge and bounce upward, with no opponents at all. Helix Jump is also about reading danger as you go, but you rotate a tower rather than steer across a map. Bird Jumper is closer in pacing, with short rounds and quick restarts. Paper.io 2 stands apart in that the other players are the challenge, not the level.

It suits short sessions on a keyboard or a touch screen, and a good round only takes a few minutes.