Goal of the game
Two sides, Red and Blue, each have six pieces. You must get them across the board and out through the opposite edge. A piece that exits scores as many points as its strength.
As soon as two pieces have exited, whichever side they belong to, the game ends and the higher score wins. Red starts.
The board
A grid of 10 × 10 squares, each with a height. Two neighboring squares never differ by more than two levels. A new terrain is generated for every game, then checked so that both sides have paths of the same difficulty.
The pieces start on their side's row, in the middle, in this order: Guardian, Lancer, Runner, Runner, Lancer, Guardian.
The pieces
Each side has two pieces of each kind. Their movement and strength always add up to 6: the faster a piece, the more fragile it is.
| Piece | Movement | Strength | Special |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runner | 5 | 1 | Diagonal step or two-square jump, ignoring height. |
| Lancer | 4 | 2 | Charge: +1 when attacking if the path to the target costs exactly 4. |
| Guardian | 3 | 3 | Instant victory if it is the first piece of the game to exit. |
In the app, in 3D, the Runner is a cylinder, the Lancer a truncated pyramid and the Guardian a pyramid; in 2D, a pentagon, a diamond and a triangle.
Moving
On your turn, you move a single piece. It goes forward, backward or sideways, square by square, never diagonally (except the Runner). Each step costs movement points:
- 1 point for a square at the same height;
- the height difference + 1 to go up or down: from 2 to 4 costs 3, and coming back down from 4 to 2 also costs 3.
The path can turn, but it cannot pass through any piece, and the piece cannot end on its starting square.
Try it
Pick a piece: the squares it can reach light up, with their cost. The stars show the Runner's special moves.
The Runner
Instead of its normal move, the Runner can:
- take one diagonal step;
- or jump two squares straight over an empty square.
These two moves ignore height: they are the best way to get past a cliff or slip through.
Attacking
Instead of moving to an empty square, a piece can attack an enemy piece it can reach. If the attack succeeds, the enemy piece is removed and the attacker takes its square. A losing attack is not allowed: strengths are compared before playing.
| Attacker's strength | Defender's strength |
|---|---|
| its strength +1 if it starts from a square higher than the target, −1 if it starts lower + the strength of each of your other pieces next to the target |
its strength +1 per friendly neighboring piece |
The attack succeeds if the attacker is at least as strong as the defender.
The Lancer's charge
When the Lancer's shortest path to its target costs exactly its 4 movement points, it gets +1 when attacking. Building momentum takes calculation.
Exiting the board
A piece exits when it reaches the last row (the enemy's starting row) with at least 1 movement point left, or if it starts its turn on that row. Red exits at the top, Blue at the bottom. In the app, the possible exits light up beyond the edge.
A piece that exits scores its strength: 1 for a Runner, 2 for a Lancer, 3 for a Guardian.
End of the game
👑 Guardian first
If the very first piece to exit is a Guardian, its side wins at once.
🏁 Second exit
Otherwise, the game ends when the second piece exits: the higher score wins, a tie is a draw.
⚔️ No pieces left
If one side has no pieces left, the other scores its strongest remaining piece and the game ends.
⏳ 200 moves
After 200 moves: higher score, then the piece closest to the finish, then the strongest one.
🔁 Repetition
The same position three times: draw.
🚫 Blocked
A side that cannot move any piece passes its turn.
Online, you can also lose on time, resign or agree to a draw.
Tips for beginners
- Read the terrain before rushing. The shortest path on the map is almost never the cheapest.
- Protect your Guardians. An enemy Guardian approaching the edge is a threat of instant victory.
- Move as a group. Each piece next to the target strengthens the attack, and each friendly neighbor strengthens the defense.
- Attack from above. One extra point is often the difference between a forbidden attack and a capture.
- Count the exits. The game ends at the second one: getting a Runner out too early can hand the win to your opponent.
To go further, the app's Training has 65 puzzles taken from real games.