Ant Zigzag beginner guide: levels 1 to 10
The first land in Ant Zigzag is the Sand Garden: ten levels on the face of a pocket watch, where Kim learns the tail hit. Every level here has the same goal, defeat all the ants, and the only control is steering. It's the place to get the rule into your fingers before the game adds Brake at level 11.
Below is what each level puts in front of you, how each enemy ant behaves, and what the two special levels, 4 and 8, do. We're JoyBit Team, the team that makes the game, and every number in this guide was checked against the game's code on October 22, 2026.
The rule: hit the tail, avoid the head
Kim never stops crawling. Touch anywhere on the screen and drag to steer. In the browser version on a computer, the arrow keys or A and D do the same.
- Ram the back half of an enemy with Kim's head and it's out.
- Meet an enemy head-on, the two of you coming from roughly opposite directions, and you lose the round.
- Let an enemy's head reach your back half and your tail is bitten. You lose that way too.
- Touch heads at an angle and you both bounce off. The enemy is stunned for a moment, which is your chance to swing around behind it.
Two details help from the very first level. About a second before each ant comes out, a small hole with a warning ring shows where it will appear. And a newly arrived ant can't touch you or be hit for 0.8 seconds, so there's no point waiting right on top of the hole.
When you lose, you retry right away. There are no lives and no waiting, and a lost round still pays 2 sugar plus 1 for each ant you took down.
The enemies in the Sand Garden
Speeds are compared to Kim before any upgrades.
- Pink ants (levels 1 to 4 and 6) move at a little over half Kim's speed and wander. They don't come after you, but they can still bite your tail if you cut across in front of one.
- Red ants (levels 4 to 8) move at about 80% of Kim's speed, wander and change direction often. Mother Leaf's advice in the game is the right one: don't chase them, wait for them to turn their backs.
- Yellow ants (levels 8 to 10) move at about 92% of Kim's speed and hunt your tail. If you point straight at one from close range for more than about a third of a second, it turns to face you, so a straight chase ends head-on. Come in from the side.
- Purple ants (levels 9 and 10) move at about three quarters of Kim's speed. They hunt your tail for 2 to 3 seconds, then give up and wander for a second or so before trying again. Hit them when they break off.
In this land no more than two ants hunt you at the same time. Armored ants and queens come in later lands.
Level by level
| Level | Ants | What's new | 3 stars within |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 pink | 5 s | |
| 2 | 2 pink | 7 s | |
| 3 | 3 pink | 10 s | |
| 4 | 1 pink, 2 red | Special: Spinning hand | 10 s |
| 5 | 3 red | Hard. First armor drop | 10 s |
| 6 | 2 pink, 2 red | First spider web, one armor drop | 13 s |
| 7 | 4 red | One web, one armor drop | 13 s |
| 8 | 2 red, 2 yellow | Special: Tilted clock. Two webs, two armor drops | 13 s |
| 9 | 2 purple, 2 yellow | Two webs, two armor drops | 13 s |
| 10 | 2 purple, 3 yellow | Very hard. Three webs, two armor drops | 16 s |
The card before each level shows its 3-star time. Win within 1.6 times that for 2 stars; any slower win gives 1 star. The clock starts after the 3, 2, 1 countdown.
Level 4: the spinning hand
The watch hand that sat still in levels 1 to 3 starts to turn. It reaches almost to the edge of the clock, starts at 12 o'clock and goes clockwise, about 11 seconds for a full turn. Anything it sweeps, Kim or enemy, is stunned for half a second and pushed sideways.
- Kim is much faster than the hand. Check where it is before you set up an attack, and come in from the side it has just passed, so it's moving away from you.
- An enemy hit by the hand is stunned too and slows right down. If you're close, that's an easy tail hit.
- There's no armor on this level.
Level 5: armor
Level 5 is the first one marked Hard: three red ants, and the first blue armor, which drops 4.5 seconds into the round. Crawl over it to pick it up.
Each armor blocks one hit, whether head-on or a bitten tail, and you can carry two. When one breaks you can't be hit for 1.6 seconds, which is enough to get clear. Armor left on the floor disappears after 10 seconds and blinks just before it does.
Every armor you still have when you win adds 250 points. On the card before a level you can also bring one armor into the match for 20 sugar. You start the game with 30.
Levels 6 and 7: spider webs
From level 6 there are spider webs on the clock face. Anything inside a web slows to 40% of its speed, Kim included. Lead a red ant into a web, then circle round behind it while it's slowed. Keep Kim out of the webs yourself, especially from level 8, when ants start chasing you.
Level 8: the tilted clock
The clock tips to one side and every ant slides toward the low edge, at about a third of Kim's speed. The low side slowly moves around the clock, about once every 25 seconds. Ants heading downhill speed up and ants heading uphill slow down, Kim too, so attack along the slope, not against it.
This is also where yellow ants first appear: two of them, with two red ants, two webs, and armor drops at 3.5 and 11 seconds.
Levels 9 and 10
Level 9 has two purple and two yellow ants, so every ant on the clock can hunt you, though never more than two at once. The first armor drops at 3.5 seconds, just before the last ant arrives. Pick it up early and you have a spare hit for the rest of the round.
Level 10 is marked Very hard: three yellow ants, two purple ants and three webs, with the same two armor drops. Webs are your best tool here. A yellow ant stuck in one is the easiest yellow ant you'll get. Let the purple ants break off before you go for them.
If level 10 won't give, replay earlier levels for more stars and sugar, then buy an upgrade. Quick legs (+6% move speed per level) and Sharp turns (+8% turn speed per level) cost 30 sugar for their first level, and Sharp jaws (tail hit zone 10% wider per level) costs 40.
How sugar works in the first land
A win pays 8 sugar, plus 6 for each star, plus 1 for every 400 points. Replaying a level you've already cleared pays half. The first time you clear level 4, 5 or 8 you get 25 bonus sugar, and clearing level 10 for the first time adds 60 and opens the Leaf Forest.
What changes at level 11
The Leaf Forest moves the fight onto an oval leaf, and Brake unlocks. While steering, tap with a second finger (or press S on a keyboard) and Kim stops short for half a second, so an ant chasing your tail shoots past and leaves its own tail in front of you. The brake needs a moment to recharge, so timing it is the new skill. Gold Rush follows at level 21. For an overview of all 50 levels, the bosses and the other special levels, see ant games that aren't colony sims.
Play it
Ant Zigzag is free on Google Play for Android, with no ads and no in-app purchases, and it plays offline. On iPhone, play the same game in Safari at joybit.one/play/. The iPhone guide shows how to add it to your Home Screen so it opens like an app and keeps working offline.