How to play Chicken Road: the rules, step by step

Goal

Cross as many lanes as you like without being hit; cash out at any lane

Controls

Stake box with quick buttons, MIN and MAX, difficulty selector, Play, cash out

Difficulties

Easy 24 lanes · Medium 22 · Hard 20 · Hardcore 15

Space bar

Optional setting: press Space to step forward

Bet limits (demo)

0.01 to 150, max win 10,000 (USD)

Malfunction rule

"Malfunction voids all pays and plays", per the rules panel

The rules, as the game states them

The demo's How to play panel is six lines long. Paraphrased, with the studio's own wording where it matters:

1. Specify the amount of your bet.
2. Choose a difficulty level. "The number of lines covers and the chance to be fried hard varies depending on the level of difficulty." Easy has 24 lines, Medium 22, Hard 20, Hardcore 15.
3. Press Play.
4. "Your goal is to get through as many lines covers as possible without getting fried. You can withdraw your winnings at any stage of the game."
5. In the menu there's an option to enable Space to "spin & go": press the Space key to move forward.
6. "Malfunction voids all pays and plays."

That last line is standard casino-game text and worth knowing: if the game errors mid-round, the round is void, win or lose.

The controls

• Stake box. Type an amount, or use MIN, MAX and the quick buttons (2, 3, 8, 20 in the demo). Limits in the demo are 0.01 to 150, max win 10,000, all USD; a casino shows its own in the Game rules panel.
• Difficulty. Easy, Medium, Hard, Hardcore. It locks once a round starts.
• Play. Starts the round and, on each further press, moves the hen one lane.
• Cash out. Appears once the hen is on a lane. Pays stake times that lane's multiplier and ends the round.
• Menu. How to play, Game rules, Provably fair settings, My bet history, sound, music, the Space setting and avatar.

A round, lane by lane

Take Medium at a $2 stake. Press Play: the hen steps to lane one, the cover reads 1.12×, your position is worth $2.24 and the cash-out button is live. Press again: lane two, 1.28×, $2.56. Again: lane three, 1.47×, $2.94. Each press is the same bet, "will she survive the next lane", and the road shows exactly what the next survival is worth. Cash out on lane three and $2.94 goes to your balance. Press once more and get hit, and the $2 is gone with nothing kept from the lanes already crossed.

That last point is the one beginners miss: crossing lanes banks nothing. Only cash out does. Nothing moves until you press, either, which is the main way this game differs from Aviator and the other crash games, where the multiplier runs on its own.

Two settings that quietly matter

Space to spin & go. With it on, a round on Medium can be over in four taps of the Space bar. It's convenient and it removes the half-second in which you'd have reconsidered. Leave it off until you've decided, in advance, at which lane you stop.

Auto cash-out. The game's code supports stopping automatically at a chosen lane, and some lobbies expose it. If yours does, it's the most useful setting in the game: pick the lane before the round, and the thumb can't overrule you. The cash-out page is about picking that lane.