Sneak Route
Hold the thief, drag a straight run of up to five tiles, and let go — the line locks the moment you release it, and there is no eraser. Every segment is a path, a timetable and a wall all at once, so the order you draw the gems in decides whether the exit is still reachable four moves later. Sweep past a searchlight one tile early and you are seen; carry one gem too many and the alarm burns out before the door.
Controls
- Hold the thief and drag
- Aims the next segment — up to five tiles in a straight run, with a ghost line showing where you land and on which beat
- Let go
- Locks that segment in and starts the thief walking it. It cannot be erased, shortened or reversed
- Hold the glowing tip of your line
- Starts the next segment from where the line currently ends
- Tap a tile beside the line's tip
- Takes a single careful step onto that tile instead of drawing a whole run
- Arrow keys or W A S D
- Immediately commits one tile in the direction you press
- Escape, or the pause button by the board
- Freezes the alarm where it is; resuming picks up from exactly that point
How to play
ObjectiveGet the thief through all eight rooms and out the far door before the red alarm bar empties, picking up whichever gems are worth the detour on the way.
Getting started
- Look at the room before you touch anything: find the lit door at the top, note where the gems sit, and see which floor tiles are already glowing under a guard.
- Hold the thief at the bottom of the board and drag towards the door. The translucent ghost line follows your finger and the number at its tip tells you which beat you arrive on.
- Let go when the ghost line looks right. It snaps solid and the thief walks it — from here that segment is a wall you can never step on again.
- Hold the tip of the new line and draw the next segment. Any gem the line crosses is collected on the way past; you never tap a gem directly.
- Watch the dots circling under each guard. Two beats before a cone can catch you it appears as a faint dashed shape, then hardens with an orange rim, then lights.
- Walk into the door to bank the room: one hundred for the exit, seventy per gem carried out, and three points for every point of alarm you had left.
- Keep going through the eighth room for a five hundred point finish. Being seen, walling yourself in, or emptying the alarm ends the run there, and the result screen gets you into another run within two seconds.
Tips
- Draw to the furthest gem first and collect the rest on the way back. Your own trail is a wall, so grabbing the nearest gem first is what fences the far gem and the door onto the wrong side of your line.
- Treat a very bright gem sitting in a three-walled pocket as bait. Stepping in turns the tile behind you into a wall, the thief runs out of legal moves, and the run ends on that beat.
- Let a gem go once it is more than about five tiles off your path. Those extra tiles burn alarm at the heavier carrying rate, and each alarm point you still hold is three score points at the door.
- Count the dots under a guard rather than watching for the glow. They are a metronome, and if you wait until the beam is bright before deciding, you are already one beat behind it.
- Pull segments out to the full five tiles across empty floor, then shorten to one or two before you enter a guard's reach. The preview only warns two beats ahead, so a long segment near a cone is a bet.
- Adjust direction and length before you release, because the route is not committed until then. The alarm still drains while you aim, so use the ghost line to check the next segment without lingering.
- Take the tight line along a beam edge when it is on your way. Brushing past a lit beam pays twelve points and usually shortens the route, which saves alarm you get paid for again at the exit.
FAQ
How do I start playing Sneak Route?
Press Start the heist and you are in — the first route, The Alley, is open from the very first run. Room one has no guards and no walls, so you can practise holding the thief, dragging a line and letting go without any risk to the run.
Do I need to download or install anything?
No. Sneak Route plays straight in your browser tab with nothing to install and no store page to visit. There is also no account on this site, so there is nothing to sign up for and no email to hand over before you play.
Can I play Sneak Route on a phone?
Yes — the phone is the screen it was built for. The board fills a portrait display with the thief and your drawing hand in the lower half, and every button is thumb-sized. Landscape and tablets work as well, with identical rules and identical timing.
Can I undo a segment after I let go?
No. Releasing locks the segment for good: there is no undo, no eraser, and no way to retrace your own trail. You can change the ghost line without committing it, but the alarm keeps draining while you aim, so check the route and release promptly.
Why did my run end when the alarm still had time left?
You walled yourself in. The thief cannot re-enter a tile his line already covers, so a segment that ends in a pocket with walls on three sides leaves no legal move and finishes the run instantly. Those pockets show all three walls, and the tile is outlined in red once your preview reaches inside.
Why does the alarm bar drain faster in some rooms?
It drains faster because of what you are carrying. An empty bag costs seven points a second and each gem adds two more, so four gems burn fifteen a second. It also doubles while your own trail is cutting the exit off, which is what the door turning red means.
How do I get a higher score in Sneak Route?
Keep alarm on the bar instead of collecting everything. Leftover alarm pays three points a point at the exit, so a fast room often beats a greedy one, and a gem more than five tiles off your route usually costs more than its seventy points. Brushing past a lit beam adds twelve each time.
How do I unlock The Long Hall, The Rooftop and Overtime?
By clearing rooms, and failed runs count too. The Long Hall opens after twenty rooms cleared in total, The Rooftop after sixty, and Overtime — which keeps making new rooms past the eighth until you slip — opens once you have finished any route three times.
Is my progress saved, and can I see other players' scores?
Your progress is stored in this browser on this device only, and there are no other players' scores to see — the game has no leaderboard and sends nothing anywhere. If browser storage is unavailable, every route still plays and one line tells you the run will not be recorded.
Can I turn off the screen shake, sound or vibration?
Yes, each has its own switch in Settings. Reduced motion removes the shake, freeze frames and particles but keeps the beams, the two-beat warning and your ghost line with its beat numbers, because those tell you what is about to happen. Vibration also stays off on devices that cannot buzz.
About the game
Free browser stealth puzzle, no download. Draw a heist route one segment at a time, read the searchlight beat, grab the gems that are worth the detour and slip out before the alarm burns down.