Before you start
You'll spawn as a bacon hair with $0, almost no speed and an empty pen. The only egg you can steal is from the sleeping Chicken next to spawn, and that's fine. Your first hour in Steal an Egg is about three things: filling your index, getting your first treadmill and trail, and learning to read eggs before you grab them. Do those well and you'll be stealing secrets before most new players figure out the treadmill.
Step 1: The tutorial (2 minutes)
The tutorial walks you through the full loop:
- Walk up to the Chicken's nest and pick up an egg.
- Run back toward your base. The Chicken wakes up and chases you. Early on it's slow.
- Cross into the safe zone near your base, where guardians and players can't touch you.
- Place the egg in your pen.
- Wait a few seconds and hatch it.
Your first pet is often a Golden Chicken making about $2 a second. It's not much, but every second it's in your pen it earns, and that's the whole game in miniature.
Step 2: Claim the index immediately
Open the index. Every pet you hatch for the first time pays a reward of speed and cash. On a fresh account, claiming it right after the tutorial took one player from almost nothing to 430 speed. That's already enough to start on the Lake (the sign says 900).
This is the most important habit in Steal an Egg: after every new hatch, claim the index. A free-to-play creator called it "genuinely the strat", because early treadmills give only 10–24 speed per step while a single index claim can add thousands.
Also look for the "join community" button. Joining the game's group gives +10,000 speed for free. In a 20-minute race, the player who knew about it was at 560 speed while their rival had 50.
Step 3: Steal every Forest egg
Go back to the Chicken and take every different-looking egg: white, purple, red, blue. You want one of each pet for the index. Each new pet is another reward. The Forest's legendary is Brr Brr Patapim, the rarest thing the Chicken guards.
As eggs hatch, put the best ones in your pen and press Equip Best. Sell duplicates you don't need.
Step 4: Unlock the treadmill and buy a trail
As soon as you have $1,000, unlock the treadmill next to your base. Stand on it and run. Then:
- Buy the first trail ($100), then the next one ($5K). Trails multiply your treadmill gain.
- Save for the Cyber treadmill ($15K), the first upgrade, at 10 speed per step.
Upgrade treadmill and trail whenever you can afford them, but keep stealing. Pets are what pay for everything.
Step 5: The Lake and the Desert
With about 900 speed you can rob the Lake, guarded by a Swan. The prize here is the Leviathan, a cosmic-rarity egg worth $220K–770K per second depending on size and mutation. That's thousands of times your Golden Chicken. Big Leviathan eggs take up to 25 minutes to hatch.
At 10,000 speed you can rob the Desert. The Scorpion is fast and hits hard, so take small eggs first. Look for the Royal Sphinx (about $216K) and the legendary Slithering Snake.
By now you should be making tens of thousands per second. Keep claiming the index.
Step 6: Night time is growing time
Every few minutes the sky goes dark. During night you can't steal, but eggs in your pen grow faster. Use night to:
- place every egg you're carrying,
- run on the treadmill,
- claim index rewards and buy upgrades.
At sunrise, every nest resets with fresh eggs. Be standing at the biome you want when it happens.
Step 7: The Jungle and your first secret
The Jungle needs 40,000 speed and is guarded by a fast, very loud Tiger. It's the first biome with a secret: the King Snake, worth $3M+ per second (more with a mutation). When a secret spawns, the whole server sees a message, so be quick.
Other Jungle pets worth keeping early: Tiger ($25K), White Tiger (one free-to-play account's $222K jump) and the mythic Black Spider.
Step 8: Protect yourself
Around the Jungle you'll start meeting other players who want your egg:
- Traps on the path freeze you if you're carrying an egg. Watch the ground and place your own.
- Players can hit you to make you drop your egg. You can hit back while carrying.
- Your starting bat is weak. Completing the Lake index gives you your first better bat.
Your first-hour checklist
- Tutorial done, index claimed
- Joined the community group (+10,000 speed)
- One of every Forest and Lake pet hatched
- Treadmill unlocked, two trails bought, Cyber treadmill
- Leviathan in your pen
- Desert unlocked (10K speed)
- Jungle unlocked (40K speed) and a King Snake attempt
What next?
From here the free-to-play guide takes you through Snow, Volcano and your first eternal, and the speed training guide explains how to get through the Prehistoric wall. Keep the biome table open to see what's coming.