1. Install Phantom
The arena client currently supports Phantom only. It talks to Phantom’s injected provider directly; multi-wallet discovery through the wallet-standard registry is not wired into the game yet. The portal at nimboplay.dev is more permissive and works with any wallet-standard wallet, but the portal is not where you stake. If you want to play, you need Phantom.2. Switch Phantom to devnet
In Phantom: Settings → Developer Settings → Testnet Mode, then select Solana Devnet.3. Get devnet SOL
Devnet SOL is free and handed out by a faucet.- Web faucet
- Solana CLI
Go to faucet.solana.com, paste your Phantom
address, and request an airdrop on devnet.
4. Learn in the demo first
The free demo is a separate, fully off-chain arena. It needs no wallet, holds no value, and you will never meet a staking player in it — it is populated by bots only. Nothing you eat there can be extracted, because there is nothing real to extract. Use it to get the controls and the feel of the map into your hands. The one thing it cannot teach you is what it feels like to hold an extraction for 12 seconds with something to lose.5. Your first staked run
Go to arena.nimboplay.dev.1
Sign in with your wallet
You will be asked to sign a Sign In With Solana message. This is a
signature, not a transaction: it costs nothing, moves nothing, and never
touches the chain. Phantom will refuse to sign it if the domain in the
message does not match the page you are on — that check is the point.
2
Pick a stake
The tiers are 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 and 1 SOL. Your stake sets your spawn size:
stake more and you start bigger, which means more presence on the map and
more to lose. It is not a difficulty setting, it is a risk setting.
3
Wait for a partner
A run needs at least two players to start. You are placed in a queue
first, and queuing is free — no money moves while you wait. When a match is
found you get a short window to accept, then a window to sign and confirm
your deposit. Both players spawn together.
4
Approve the deposit
This one is a real transaction. It sends your stake to the round’s Vault
on devnet. Phantom may warn that it cannot simulate the transaction reliably
— that is a known devnet quirk, not a sign that something is wrong.
5
Play, then get out
Eat, grow, avoid heads. When an extraction point appears, decide whether you
can hold it for 12 seconds. Everything you are carrying is only yours once
that channel completes.
If you accept a match and then never deposit, you leave the other player
hanging after they have already paid their entry fee. The first time is free —
a dropped connection and bad faith look identical once. After that, repeated
desertions earn a short cooldown before you can queue again. It is tied to your
wallet, it decays on its own, and playing an actual run clears it.
Where to go next
Game rules
The full mechanics: growth, death, extraction, disconnects, rounds.
Trust model
Read this before you stake anything you would miss.