Phones on Budget

Because of the COVID-19 virus outbreak, most people are mandated to stay at home including me. One of the games that kept me entertained is Worms Zone .io. If you haven’t played this game yet, you need to try it now!

It has over 50 million downloads on Android and it will only take you a minute to understand the simple mechanics of this game. It is also available on iOS.

In this game, there is only one simple rule: Do not hit the other worms with your head or you will die. In line with this rule, you will not die if your head touched your tail.

If you are new to the game, you can go to the Basics of The Game section first.

Below is my gameplay before I reached a score of 4 million+. I have to deliberately kill my worm because I realized that I was already playing for hours! 😀

Now, let’s take a look at the 7 tips on how not to die in Worms Zone .io. 😀

How Not to Die #1

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While you are still small, the best location to grow is near the Top or Bottom of the mini-map.

You can see below what it looks like near the bottom. There is a red line that you cannot hit or you will die.

I am not saying that you should stay this close to the red line. You should only be a little more above it where you cannot see the red line but you are still close to it as shown below.

You can also see your position in the mini-map when you’re near the bottom.

The space between you and the bottom red line should still be enough for you to make a sudden turn as shown below just in case a worm suddenly blocked your way.

It is safer to do a sudden downward turn than a sudden upward turn because there is a very little chance that there is another worm below you because of the red line.

With this strategy, you will only worry about the worms that will suddenly appear (1) above or (2) in front of you.

How Not to Die #2

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Another way to increase your survival while you are growing is to move in a horizontal direction to the left or right side of the screen. Do not move vertically.

You can twist your head a little bit to get the food, but there should be no significant vertical movement.

As you can see below, I am only moving in a straight direction to the right. The reason is that the game is in landscape mode which means you have more visibility on the left or right side of the screen compared to the top or bottom.

Do this until you are near the end of the mini-map and then do a sudden downward turn and move again to the left side of the screen.

Again, you don’t have to wait to see the red line before you make a turn. You can use the mini-map to check if you are already getting close to the right red line.

How Not to Die #3

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The gold potion is very important to your survival. Always try to get one because it gives you a wider vision of the arena.

Below is your normal vision before eating the gold potion.

And below is your new wider vision after eating the gold potion.

How Not to Die #4

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Don’t be greedy or be hostile to other worms. I know it adds more fun if you try to race with other worms to get the food or try to harass them, but you should learn how to survive longer first.

We will get there once we have reached our largest possible size. Yes, there is a size limit to your worm once you reached a certain score which we will discuss later.

So the more you try to harass other worms, the more chances of you colliding and killing yourself. Just look at the smaller worm below who is trying to get close.

Do not block his way, don’t race with him, just move forward.

How Not to Die #5

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As you become larger, the harder it is to maneuver the worm’s movements. Below is the worm at full size. Look at that size!

However, this is a photo preceding an unfortunate event. It’s harder to turn when you are at your largest size so make sure that you don’t get your head too close to other worms or near the red line.

How Not to Die #6

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A worm will reach his size limit after reaching a certain score. You will notice this when you already have a score of 1 million+.

So how do you control a worm so big and continue to live?

Now that you are the biggest worm in the arena, you also have the biggest defense which is your tail. Use your tail to protect you from colliding with smaller worms.

To do this, form a circular or elliptical loop using your tail as shown below.

The two or three layers of your tail and most of the space inside the loop will be your SAFE space. You can do a counter-clockwise or clockwise direction.

While you are moving UPWARD or DOWNWARD on your loop, make sure that your head is very very close to your tail as shown below.

You can easily turn your head to your tail for protection if another worm suddenly appears to avoid a collision as shown below.

These very small worms are your worst enemy because sometimes they move fast and may collide with your head before you know it.

When you are moving from the LEFT or RIGHT direction at the bottom or at the top of your loop, you can relax a little bit as shown below but still keep your head near your tail.

You can move a little far away from your tail as shown below ONLY IF (1) you ate a gold potion, thus you have a wider view of the arena AND (2) there are no small worms in your direction that may move very fast.

Imagine the other poor online worms players like the one below who spawned inside your loop. There will be lots of them. <Evil Twisted Laugh>

How Not to Die #7

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Now that you have been in your loop for a long time and you have already reached a score of 3 million+. You want to move around the arena and harass the other worms.

Do this with caution. Move only away from your loop when you have eaten a gold potion as shown below.

Before the gold potion’s effect runs out, make sure that you go back to your tail. Doing so creates a new loop that is a little far away from your original position.

The new loop is created once you are back at your tail as shown below.

Repeat the above procedures for creating a new loop. Again, do this only when you ate a gold potion. You can create this new loop horizontally or vertically.

Basics of the Game

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There is only one simple rule: Do not hit the other worms with your head or you will die.

This is my worm one second before dying when I first played the game. 😆

This is the home screen.

After clicking <To battle!>, the game will immediately take you to the arena as a cute little worm as shown below.

You (the worm) will be moving constantly in the arena and there’s no point in time that you will stop moving. There is no <Pause> so if you need to go to the toilet, you need to take this game with you. 😆

You can change the direction of the movement using the analog button at the bottom-left corner of the screen as shown below. It’s the orange circle.

The upper-left corner shows the Top 10 high scores of the other online players in the arena that you will beat later. (evil twisted laugh)

As you can see, I started at Rank 135.

The upper-right corner shows the mini-map and you are represented by the green dot in that mini-map. It is important to look at the mini-map from time to time so that you know if you are getting closer at the edge of the map.

You cannot hit the edge of the map or you will die.

There are plenty of food for you to eat. It does not run out so just relax and eat those cakes and apples. Each type of food you eat gives a certain score increase.

But we really don’t care which food gives the highest score, just eat all you can bump into. 😀

Coins and Power-ups Explained – Which is the most important?

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Coins drop when a worm died from colliding with another worm. If you collected enough coins, you can use it to buy Worm colors and designs so that your worm is not as plain as the one I have below.

The gold potion below is the most important power-up for me because it Zooms Out the display and allows you to see farther than usual.

Below is the Zoom Out view after eating the gold potion. It’s easier to avoid collisions when you can see farther.

The blue-red potion below increases the capture radius of the food and coins in the arena. It’s like having a magnet and the food gets pulled to your mouth.

The violet potion below shows the area in the mini-map where other worms collided. Those areas will be marked with red dots.

When worms die, they drop a bunch of food that you can eat and a coin.

The green donut-shape potion below increases the maneuverability of the worm so you can avoid collisions. This is important because when your worm is already big, it’s hard to suddenly turn directions.

The blue potion below increases the score from each food you eat by 5 times so you will grow faster. If a carrot has a +6 score increase, it will become +30.

The green potion below increases the speed of your worm.

Customize your Worm

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Change the Worm Color

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Your plain worm can change colors. You can select and buy a color using coins.

You can add two or more colors to your worm for 50 coins per color.

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Change the Skin

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You can also select from different kinds of skins and buy the one that you like using coins.

Note that you can also change the color of these skins. Just keep playing to earn more coins and increase your level.

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Change the Eyes and Mouth of the Worm

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This option might sound horrendous but it’s actually funny. Look at my new eyes and mouth below. 😆

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