Players begin by choosing the color of their Serpent, taking the cards and tokens of that color. Players place their Serpent Head token next to the space on the board where they will enter the field of play. Players then shuffle their cards and set aside four of them, leaving 11 cards in their hand. All player simultaneously pick a card to play, which indicates how their Serpent will move. Players then reveal their cards and the cards are resolved from the highest to the lowest. Once all 11 remaining cards have been played, the player with the greatest number of exposed Serpent pieces is the winner.

Play variants included: King of the Hill, High Scoring, and 1-Player.