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.
Starting 9 Kings can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
9 Kings is a roguelike game built around Card based building placement and Rival king decks. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Build
| Build | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Knight commander | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Warlock summoner | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Wizard artillery | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Imp swarm | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Mercenary buyer | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with Warlock summoner. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Mercenary buyer as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn 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.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Card based building placement works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to 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.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for Wizards: it's the most accessible early upgrade. Glass cannon casters with heavy output and almost no survivability, so they need a line in front of them.
Step 4: Understand 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.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to The grid perimeter
Where waves arrive and where placement decisions pay off. Coverage gaps on the edge become breaches at the centre.
Essential Mechanics Explained
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.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Placing strong cards in lanes enemies never approach
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
2. Sitting on gold through a wave that then breaks the capital
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
3. Fielding wizards and bombers with no front line to protect them
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
4. Declaring war on the easiest king rather than the one with the cards you need
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
5. Building only for the current wave and having no grid space left later
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Card based building placement and Rival king decks
- Choose Warlock summoner as starting build
- Clear Your capital main content
- Acquire Wizards or equivalent upgrade
- Reach The grid perimeter
- 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.
Tips for New Players
- 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.
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 9 Kings Overview
- 9 Kings Best Builds
- 9 Kings Tier List
- 9 Kings Walkthrough
- 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 Beginner's Guide: roguelike game with similar mechanics
- Darkest Dungeon Beginner's Guide: roguelike game with similar mechanics
