9 Kings is a roguelike city builder where you place buildings, troops and spells on a grid and defend your capital against eight rival kings. Each king starts with a different deck, and you take their cards by declaring war on them, so a run gradually becomes a collage of everything you have conquered.
This guide covers everything you need: core mechanics, the best builds, equipment worth investing in, location progression, and the tips that actually make a difference.
Core Mechanics
Card based building placement
Buildings, units and spells all arrive as cards you place on the grid. Position matters as much as the card itself, because adjacency and coverage decide what your capital can actually defend.
Rival king decks
Each of the nine kings owns a distinct starting deck of buildings, troops and spells. Which kings you face determines which cards can enter your run at all.
Gold economy
Gold accumulates between waves and buys mercenaries and expansion. Sitting on an unspent pile through a wave you then lose is the most common newcomer error.
Escalating enemy waves
Attacks grow across decades of in game time. Defences that cleared the early waves comfortably stop mattering unless they scale with what is coming.
Declaring war
Choosing to fight a specific king gives access to the tools that king uses. It is the main way to acquire powers your own starting deck cannot offer.
For a deeper dive into how these systems interact, see our 9 Kings combat guide.
Builds Overview
| Build | Tier | Playstyle | Key Stats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knight commander | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Warlock summoner | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Wizard artillery | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Imp swarm | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Mercenary buyer | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
For full build breakdowns with gear and stat priorities, see our 9 Kings builds guide. For rankings, check the tier list.
Equipment Guide
| Equipment | Why It Matters | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Knights | Sturdy front line troops that hold a lane long enough for ranged units behind them to work. | Early waves and any formation that needs a durable anchor. |
| Wizards | Glass cannon casters with heavy output and almost no survivability, so they need a line in front of them. | Killing dense waves quickly when you have screening troops to spare. |
| Warlocks | Summoners that generate additional bodies over time rather than dealing damage directly. | Attrition builds that win by never running out of defenders. |
| Bombers | Area damage specialists that clear grouped enemies far more efficiently than single target units. | Waves that arrive in tight clusters rather than spread across lanes. |
| Mercenaries | Bought with stockpiled gold rather than drafted, turning a healthy economy into immediate defenders. | Emergency reinforcement when a wave outscales your placed troops. |
Knights: Sturdy front line troops that hold a lane long enough for ranged units behind them to work.
Wizards: Glass cannon casters with heavy output and almost no survivability, so they need a line in front of them.
Warlocks: Summoners that generate additional bodies over time rather than dealing damage directly.
Bombers: Area damage specialists that clear grouped enemies far more efficiently than single target units.
Mercenaries: Bought with stockpiled gold rather than drafted, turning a healthy economy into immediate defenders.
Full breakdowns in our 9 Kings weapons guide.
Location Progression
| Location | Level Range | Key Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Your capital | Whole run | Unit recruitment, power growth |
| The grid perimeter | Whole run | Defensive positioning |
| Rival kingdoms | Mid run onward | New buildings, troops and spells |
| Quest Mode | Main progression | Crowns, unlocks |
| Endless Mode | Post unlock | Score, build validation |
Your capital: The centre of the grid that recruits units and grows their power. Losing it ends the run, so everything else exists to keep it standing.
The grid perimeter: Where waves arrive and where placement decisions pay off. Coverage gaps on the edge become breaches at the centre.
Rival kingdoms: The eight other kings, each holding a deck of cards you can take by declaring war on them.
Quest Mode: The structured run where you face the kings in order and collect their crowns.
Endless Mode: Survival against waves that never stop escalating, used to test whether a build actually scales.
See our maps & locations guide for detailed area breakdowns and our walkthrough for the optimal progression path.
Tips That Actually Matter
- Placement decides more runs than card quality does. A mediocre building covering the lane enemies actually use outperforms a strong one sitting where nothing walks, so read the approach before you commit a card.
- Convert gold into defence before each wave rather than after it. Mercenaries bought at the last moment still fight; gold in the treasury when your capital falls does nothing at all.
- Declare war deliberately on kings whose decks fill a hole in yours. If your run has no area damage, the king who fields bombers is worth fighting even when he is not the easiest target.
- Glass cannon units need a body in front of them. Wizards and bombers put out enormous damage and die to the first enemy that reaches them, so a knight line is not optional.
- Think two waves ahead when placing permanent buildings. What clears the current attack comfortably is frequently obsolete by the time the following wave arrives, and the grid space is already spent.
- Adjacency and coverage compound. Clustering complementary buildings usually beats spreading them evenly, because overlapping effects turn a defended lane into an impassable one.
- Warlock summons scale differently from direct damage. They are weak in a single burst wave and excellent across long attritional fights, so match them to the mode you are playing.
- Endless Mode is the honest test of a build. A formation that clears Quest Mode on raw statistics often falls apart once escalation outpaces the numbers you were relying on.
- Do not leave grid edges uncovered because nothing has attacked there yet. Wave composition changes across decades and an unwatched approach becomes the one that breaks your capital.
- Keep a small reserve of flexible cards rather than committing every slot to a fixed plan. Runs shift when you acquire an enemy king's deck, and rigid formations cannot take advantage of it.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Placing strong cards in lanes enemies never approach.
- Sitting on gold through a wave that then breaks the capital.
- Fielding wizards and bombers with no front line to protect them.
- Declaring war on the easiest king rather than the one with the cards you need.
- Building only for the current wave and having no grid space left later.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many kings are there in 9 Kings?
Nine, including you. The other eight each hold a distinct starting deck of buildings, troops and spells, and you acquire their tools by declaring war on them.
How do you get new cards?
Mainly by declaring war on rival kings and taking the powers they use. That makes target selection a deckbuilding decision rather than only a difficulty one.
What is gold used for?
Hiring mercenaries and expanding your kingdom. It is best converted into defence before a wave lands, since an unspent treasury provides nothing if the capital falls.
What is the difference between Quest Mode and Endless Mode?
Quest Mode is the structured run where you face the kings and collect their crowns. Endless Mode drops you into waves that escalate indefinitely, which is the better test of whether a build scales.
Does building position actually matter?
Considerably. Coverage of the lanes enemies use, and adjacency between complementary buildings, decides most runs well before card quality does.
More 9 Kings Guides
- 9 Kings Best Builds
- 9 Kings Tier List
- 9 Kings Walkthrough
- 9 Kings Beginner's Guide
- 9 Kings Tips & Tricks
- 9 Kings Weapons Guide
- 9 Kings Combat Guide
- 9 Kings Boss Guide
- 9 Kings Maps & Locations
- 9 Kings Crafting Guide
- 9 Kings Classes & Characters
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- Hades Guide: roguelike game with similar mechanics
- Darkest Dungeon Guide: roguelike game with similar mechanics
