How to Get a High Score in Doodle Jump: Six Habits That Take You Past 20,000

A first session of Doodle Jump usually ends between 1,000 and 3,000 points, and nearly all of those runs end the same way: the Doodler drifts toward a platform that was never going to be there, or lands on a brown one. The fixes are habits rather than reflexes, and they work on a Chromebook keyboard as well as on a phone.

1. Steer while rising, not while falling

The Doodler leaves every platform at the same speed and reaches the top of its jump in the same time. Use the rise to move under the platform you want, then hold still and let it fall onto it. Players who start steering on the way down arrive late and clip the edge.

2. Use the edges as a shortcut

The page wraps: leave the left edge and you appear on the right. When the next platform is on the far side of the screen, going through the nearer edge is often shorter than crossing the whole page, and it keeps you away from anything in the middle.

3. Never plan a route through a brown platform

Brown platforms crumble with no bounce. Mentally erase them the moment you see them. The only time to touch one is when you are already falling with nothing else in reach, because it costs nothing on the way down.

4. Shoot on the sound, not on sight

Monsters and UFOs play a warning before they appear. Tap Space when you hear it and the shot will be in the air as the monster scrolls in. If you miss and it is close, steer to land on its head from directly above — that kills it and gives a bounce. Side contact is the only thing that kills you.

5. Take every jetpack, judge every spring

Jetpacks and propeller hats are free height with no risk. Springs need an exact landing on a small target, so only detour for one if the platform it sits on was already your next platform. A spring that pulls you sideways into a gap is the most common self-inflicted death in the game.

6. Stop when your hands get twitchy

Every run is short and the reset is instant, which makes it easy to play ten tilted runs in a row. Your best score on a given day is almost always in the first fifteen minutes. Type your name into the top-ten list when you get one, close the tab, and come back later.

The numbers to aim for

Your first target is 5,000, where the hand-built platform layouts start appearing. The next is 15,000, where those layouts switch to the harder set. The build on this site has an achievement for 100,000 — 'jump to over 100,000' — which is a serious afternoon of work and a real bragging right. Everything is stored in your browser, so keep using the same one.