When you become REALLY huge, you’re going to need to change the strategy again to maintain first place. Don’t focus too hard on huge buildings unless you have over 1,000 points. Instead, swallow massive amounts of small and medium objects at as high of a speed as possible. Look for areas of the city that haven’t been picked over too thoroughly as by this late in the game, it will be hard to find objects that haven’t been eaten.
Rank is based on how high of a score you get compared to other players, and is measured in stars. You start off at a rank of one stars. From there you can upgrade to two, three, and four stars, and so on and so forth. Right now, there is no practical use for rank, but your rank will appear above your name when you play, showing other players how experienced you are.
You earn stars based not on how many points you have, but based on what place you finish. If you finish in first place, you earn twenty points. Second place earns you ten points. Third place earns you five. Fourth and fifth place earn you two points apiece, and sixth and seventh place earn you one point each. There are only seven players in every round, so it’s not possible to earn less than seventh place.
A little bit of strategy is required to consistently maintain first place, and to execute that strategy, you need to get good at blocking other players from earning points, not just from getting high scores yourself. A good way to do that is to find the spawn points for cars, babysit the spawn points, and chow down on cars before other players get a chance to eat them.
Additionally, to keep other players from eating points, eat them. Chase them down, don’t let them escape; they tend to give up and move slower than you do more often than not, as they are computer-controlled and not controlled by real players. Eat them and they’ll be out of the game for ten seconds, which is ten seconds of ample point-earning time.
Avoid getting eaten, because YOU are going to be the one who is out of the game for ten seconds if you die. If you’re out of the game though, you’ll come back in ten seconds. Hunt down some good stuff to eat while you’re a ghost, so that when you come back, you can pick up where you left off and start earning points rapidly.