Do I lose mass faster as one big cell, or multiple small ones

From observing my mass count I've seen that the bigger a cell is, the faster that cell loses its mass. However, when you have multiple cells, each of the cells loses mass concurrently.

My question is, given the total amount of mass between all cells is the same, do you passively lose mass faster as one large cell or multiple smaller ones?

For example, if I were to split into two 50 mass cells then later rejoin, would I have lost the same, less or more mass than if I were to have stayed as an 100 mass cell?

Best Answer

After reading the source code here, the formula for decay is:

mass = mass * (1 - playerRate * gameRateModifier)

By default, playerRate is .002, and gameRateModifier is 1.

Because of the distributive property of multiplication, the decay rate is the same. Using your example, the first total mass post decay for the single hundred mass cell is:

100 (1 - (.002 * 1)) = 99.8

And the total for two cells of mass fifty:

2 * 50 (1 - (.002 * 1)) = 99.8

As you can see, the masses are the same. So to answer your question: No, there is no difference in the rate of decay based on distribution of mass across cells.