NEW GAME
Choose the computer strength, then choose your colour. Red always makes the opening move.
AI DIFFICULTY
You control either Red or Blue. The computer controls the opposing colour, while Green tiles are neutral. Red always begins.
Select one of your unlocked tiles, then choose a glowing target. Normal symbols reach the eight surrounding squares; a Star reaches every square within a radius of two.
A symbol may capture any enemy or neutral tile except a visible matching symbol. Enemy Stars, Omicrons and Deltas are completely blank while cloaked. A cloaked tile remains capturable even when its hidden symbol matches the attacker.
Successive capture: after capturing a visible symbol, an orthogonally adjacent enemy or neutral tile showing that same symbol may also be captured. The chain may continue through further orthogonally connected copies. Diagonals do not count. You may use End Chain rather than take another available capture. Cloaked blank tiles do not reveal themselves as chain targets.
After the first capture, the attacking symbol becomes the tile's main symbol and the displaced symbol appears in the lower-left box. A later recapture restores the displaced symbol.
Turn protection: every tile captured during the turn is protected from capture during the opponent's immediately following turn. After the capture chain, you must nominate one other tile you own for the same protection. Protection expires when that opponent's turn ends.
Capturing a cloaked Delta succeeds, but triggers a Delta bomb: surrounding unlocked tiles change to the colour that lost the Delta. Mixed locked groups in the blast are shattered; uniform-symbol locked groups survive and remain protected.
Star cap: each player may control no more than three active Stars. A capture or restoration that would create a fourth active Star is illegal. Buried Stars do not count until restored.
Delta cap: each player may control no more than three active Delta symbols. A capture that would create or restore a fourth Delta is illegal. A Delta blast also leaves a Delta tile unchanged if transferring it would take the defending colour above three.
No-man's-land: every square records how often its ownership changes. Every square shows its ownership-change counter in the top-right corner. At five changes it begins to crack, at six it shows a severe warning, and on the seventh change it becomes permanent grey no-man's-land marked with ☠. Dead ground belongs to neither player, scores no points, cannot attack or be captured, cannot join or pressure locks, ignores Delta blasts, and breaks any lock containing it.
A complete 2×2 or 3×3 block may be locked before capturing. If the tapped tile belongs to several possible blocks, double-tap the same tile again to cycle through every valid combination; the highlighted hard border shows the current choice. Moving on to another action settles that lock. Locked tiles cannot attack or be captured. A mixed-symbol lock breaks when two full outside edges are controlled by the opponent. A uniform-symbol lock requires three full outside edges.
Point values: neutral-origin tiles are worth 7; Triangle, Square and Circle 5; 3, 7 and 9 are worth 4; Omega, Lambda and Pi 3; G, J and K 2; Star, Omicron and Delta 1. A tile keeps its underlying point value when its displayed symbol changes.
Territory, not points, decides conquest, majority, yielding and zero-sum victory. A player who yields while behind in tiles loses even when ahead on points. If the territory winner wins by yield or by reaching 51 tiles while the defeated player leads on points, the result is recorded as a Split Victory.
When either side first reaches 41 tiles, the trailing side may yield or continue. After continuing, a trailing human may yield later using the footer button.
Automatic victory: the game ends immediately when Red or Blue reaches 51 controlled tiles. This takes priority over majority and yielding.
AI difficulty: Easy makes varied short-term choices; Medium uses measured tactical search; Hard uses deeper adversarial search and ruthless protection. Mike Mode searches further, never yields and—by design—knows what lies beneath cloaked tiles. It is an intentionally unfair ultimate challenge.
If the same complete position—including every temporarily protected tile—with the same player to move repeats three times, the game is declared zero-sum. It also ends immediately when temporary protection blocks every remaining exchange and neither side has another capture. Territory decides the winner.
MAJORITY REACHED
Will you yield or continue the struggle?
GAME OVER
The board has been conquered.