Most City Hole losses are threshold losses. Your hole sits at radius 34 while a car sits untouched in front of you, because the engine only lets a hole swallow an object once its radius passes that object's entry in SIZE_THRESHOLDS. Knowing the table turns a round of wandering into a route.
The absorb rule
Two conditions gate every swallow in updateObjects.
1. Your radius must reach the object's size category. Person needs 15, hydrant 20, trashcan 22, lamppost 28, bench 28, car 35, tree 40, small building 60, large building 90, skyscraper 140.
2. The object center must fall inside your radius shrunk by 20 percent of the object's own size factor. Big objects need their center well inside your rim, so edge grazing does nothing.
The pull obeys the same gate. Attraction applies only to objects you can already swallow, across a range of 2.5 times your radius, with a force of 120 that falls off linearly with distance, and no pull at all inside 0.3 times your radius. The magnet power-up multiplies the range by 3, to 7.5 times your radius, for 6 seconds.
Growth and the end bonus
Each swallow adds the object's mass to your target radius, and your radius animates toward the target at 40 units per second, capped at 220. You start at 25.
Mass values per object: person 0.15, hydrant 0.3, trashcan 0.3, lamppost 0.5, bench 0.5, car 1.0, tree 1.2, small building 3.0, large building 5.0, skyscraper 10.0.
Score values per object: person 1, hydrant 2, trashcan 2, lamppost 3, bench 3, car 5, tree 6, small building 15, large building 30, skyscraper 60.
The final ranking score in endGame is your object score plus the floor of radius minus 25. Every radius unit you bank is one ranking point, so eating for growth and eating for score are the same activity in the endgame math.
Route plan for the 120 second round
The round runs 120 seconds on a 2400 by 2400 map. Work the thresholds in order.
1. Radius 25 to 35: sweep people, hydrants, trashcans, benches, and lampposts. That is 10 mass, or 67 people, or a street mix. This unlocks cars.
2. Radius 35 to 60: eat cars and trees. This stretch is 25 mass, roughly 21 cars with street filler. Small buildings unlock at 60.
3. Radius 60 to 90: small buildings pay 3 mass and 15 score each. Ten of them plus filler covers the 30 mass to large buildings.
4. Radius 90 to 140: large buildings pay 5 mass each, and the final 50 mass to skyscraper tier is 10 of them.
5. Take the growth power-up late. It adds 30 percent of your current radius, which is 7.5 units at the start and 30 units at radius 100. The same pickup pays four times more after the mid game.
6. Park beside clusters instead of crossing them. Your pull reaches 2.5 times your radius, so at 60 you draw from 150 units away and a slow pass harvests a whole block face.
7. Lean on your speed edge. You move at 180 plus 0.5 times your radius, bots at 150 plus 0.4 times theirs. At equal size you are faster, and bots smaller than you by more than 10 keep 250 units of distance unless they rush.
Events and power-ups
Three power-ups sit on the map, and each respawns 15 seconds after collection. Speed doubles your movement for 5 seconds. Magnet widens pull to 7.5 times radius for 6 seconds. Growth adds 30 percent of current radius instantly.
Every 30 seconds an event fires. Earthquake shakes objects for 2 seconds and changes no rules. Rush hour adds 10 cars for 15 seconds, which is 10 mass and 50 score on a plate once you pass the 35 threshold. Construction adds 3 buildings. Bots also contest power-ups within 200 units, so late pickups are races.
Where this implementation hurts you
Holes never swallow each other in this build. A giant bot cannot eat you, and you cannot eat bots, so the ranking is a pure scoring race with no elimination play.
The pull dead zone inside 0.3 times your radius means objects sitting on your center stop being drawn. An object claimed by a swallow animation belongs to the hole that touched it first, with no steal.
The radius cap of 220 stops endgame bonus growth, and the map edge clamps your center at your radius, so usable space shrinks as you grow. Rush hour cars vanish with the event, so farming them requires you to be in position during their 15 second window.
City Hole round checklist
- [ ] Current radius checked against the next threshold before choosing a block.
- [ ] Street items swept first until radius 35.
- [ ] Cars and trees until 60, small buildings until 90.
- [ ] Growth power-up skipped early and taken after radius 60.
- [ ] Rush hour cars harvested inside their 15 second window.
Play the [City Hole game](/en/hole-io) and time your threshold crossings against the 120 second clock. If your fastest route to radius 140 beats the mass arithmetic above, send the object sequence. Faster routes are the most useful data you can contribute.
