How to Play

2–6 Players

Protect your King, build formations, and fight for relics. Win by collecting 3 Crowns and escaping through your own Gate, or by becoming the Last King Standing.

You start with:

• 1 King
• 2 Knights

You may control up to 10 Knights.

• King - moves 1 triangle. Only Kings can collect Crowns. If your King is defeated, you're eliminated.
• Knight - moves up to 2 triangles.
• Golden Knight - moves up to 3 triangles and can block one successful attack.

Normally, you make 1 Move. Choose 1–3 pieces on the same triangle and move them together.

• Up to 3 friendly pieces may share a triangle.
• A group moves at the speed of its slowest piece.
• Any group containing a King moves only 1 triangle.
• You may move only part of a group and leave the rest behind.
• Friendly pieces may be passed through.
• Enemy pieces block movement.
• You cannot pass without acting. After moving, the engine permits ending the turn with unused Horse moves; otherwise it ends automatically when your moves run out.

A group's Power is the number of pieces in it.

• 1 piece = Power 1
• 2 pieces = Power 2
• 3 pieces = Power 3

You may attack only when your Power is equal to or greater than theirs. Attackers win ties.

When an attack succeeds, the defenders are removed and the attackers take their triangle. If a King is defeated, that player is eliminated.

Golden Knights act as shields. If a legal attack would defeat a group containing a Golden Knight:

• 1 Golden Knight becomes a Normal Knight
• the entire attack stops
• nobody is defeated
• the attackers stay where they started

Only 1 Golden shield breaks per attack. This works against every type of attacker, including Kings and Golden Knights. Power still determines whether the attack is legal.

Example: 2 Knights attack 2 Golden Knights. One Golden Knight becomes Normal and the attack stops. A second successful attack can break the remaining Golden shield. Once no Golden Knights remain, combat resolves normally.

Only Kings can collect Crowns.

Crown Relic

There is 1 regular Crown in the arena. When collected, it adds 1 Crown to your total and later respawns at another relic location.

Fallen Crowns

When a King is eliminated, it leaves behind a Fallen Crown. Any surviving King may collect it. Fallen Crowns count toward your 3 Crowns and do not respawn.

When your King holds 3 Crowns, it becomes the Crown Bearer. Collecting 3 Crowns does not win the game on its own.

• Walk your King back onto your own Gate to escape and win.
• The Crown Bearer can't pick up more Crowns, and Crown-granting Loot Cards can't be played.
• Every rival can see the Bearer (it's marked with a red target), so expect them to hunt your King and block your Gate.
• Sneak can also win by moving the Bearer's entire King formation onto its own legal, relic-free Gate.
• A Fortune or Snatch that reaches 3 Crowns while your King already stands at its Gate wins immediately.
• Losing a Crown to Snatch removes Bearer status until you reach 3 Crowns again.
• If the Bearer's King is defeated before it escapes, that player is eliminated.

Relics appear on numbered locations around the arena. You may move through a relic without collecting it - a relic is collected only when your group ends its move on that triangle. Relics activate immediately.

Crown

Only a King may collect it. Gain 1 Crown.

Horse

Gain 2 extra Moves this turn.

Shield

Upgrade 1 Normal Knight into a Golden Knight.

Boat

Spawn 1 Normal Knight at your Gate.

Loot Card

Draw 1 Loot Card into your hand from the Arena deck. Each card is a one-of-a-kind character with its own Arena ability. Play up to 1 card per turn - some are free, some use your move. Spent cards go to the discard pile, and the deck reshuffles from the discard when it runs out.

Collecting a Loot Card relic draws 1 card into your hand from the Arena deck (hand cap 3). Each card is a one-of-a-kind character, and its color decides its Arena ability. You may play up to 1 card per turn - most are free, one uses your move. Spent cards go to the discard pile, and the deck reshuffles from the discard when it runs out.

Play cards before your normal move, never after movement or during Horse bonus moves. Free cards preserve the normal move; they do not permit passing instead of moving.

Each player has a Spawn Triangle at their Gate. A triangle may hold no more than 3 friendly pieces. Enemy pieces may occupy your Spawn Triangle and create a blockade.

If you would spawn while blockaded:

• Break 1 Golden shield, if there is one.
• Otherwise remove 1 blocking Knight.
• The strike replaces deployment: no Knight is placed and no reserve is spent, even when the final blocker falls.
• A blocking King is always removed last.

A Boat counts as one spawn attempt against a blockade.

Every triangle in the arena is a numbered relic location. Relics are scattered across these numbered locations at the start of the match.

Only the Gate Spawn Triangles are excluded - every other triangle is numbered and can hold a relic.

• Standard Arena - smaller, faster, and the default.
• Large Arena - larger with more room to maneuver.

Repeated moves are legal. Arena currently has no repetition ban or repetition draw.

Bots discourage unproductive repetition as a strategy; this does not change which moves a player may make.

Some matches use a turn timer. If your timer expires before you act, you miss a turn. You are replaced by a bot after:

• 2 consecutive missed turns, or
• 3 total missed turns.

Making a move or manually ending your turn resets your consecutive missed-turn count. Your total missed turns still remain.

Tapping & clicking

• Single tap a triangle - selects the whole formation standing on it. Legal destinations light up.
• Single tap a unit (with its formation already selected) - isolates just that unit. Tap other units on the tile to add or drop them; you always keep at least one selected.
• Single tap a highlighted triangle - moves your selected group there.
• Double tap / double-click empty space - clears your current selection. (Tapping any non-highlighted triangle also deselects.)
• There is no triple-click action - a double tap is all you need to deselect.

Moving & zooming the board

• Drag - pan around the arena.
• Pinch (touch) or scroll the mouse wheel - zoom in and out.
• The board starts zoomed to fit your screen. Use Recenter board in the menu to snap back to that starting view.

When you have no legal move

• If no legal move exists for you, your only available action is to resign. You are never forced to pass or hold position.