Trail Shield (Barrier)
The trail shield (barrier) lets you survive once when an opponent steps on your trail. It is currently available only in the LINE mini app version. This page explains how to get one, what it does and does not protect against, and how web players should deal with shielded opponents.
Getting a shield (LINE mini app)
- On the home screen, press the shielded play button to the right of the normal play button.
- A video ad plays. Watch it to the end and you enter the game with a shield.
- If you close the ad early, or no ad is available, you do not enter and a message says so. The normal play button always lets you join without a shield.
- A shield lasts for that one run. After being taken down, watch another video to shield your next run.
- There is no limit on how many times you can do this.
What the shield does
- A shielded hamster is covered by a translucent dome and its trail is wrapped in a cover, so other players can see that it is shielded.
- If an opponent steps on your shielded trail, you survive once. The shield breaks and comes off.
- For a very short moment after the shield breaks, being stepped on again in the same instant does not take you down. This keeps a diagonal trail crossed in one motion from looking like a one-hit kill.
What the shield does not do
- It does not protect you from being enclosed. If an opponent's loop swallows your turf, you lose it, shield or not.
- The second hit takes you down. The shield cancels one mistake; it does not make you invincible.
- It does not change your speed or the size of your enclosures.
For web players
The web version has no video ad system, so the shield is not available here for now (undecided). It is planned for the upcoming app version.
However, web players share the same stages as the LINE mini app. When you see a hamster under a dome, keep these points in mind.
- A shielded hamster takes two hits to bring down. The first breaks the shield, the second eliminates.
- Right after the first hit, the opponent will be on guard. Before chasing, check that your own trail has not grown too long.
- Once the dome is gone, the normal one-hit rule applies.
For the rest of the rules see Rules (Trails and Enclosures). For how to start the LINE mini app version see the FAQ.