How to play Fortress Fight Kingdom: the complete rules

Goal of the game and the three ways to win

A match ends the moment one of three conditions is true at the end of an action. You do not choose a victory path at the start; you can switch between them as the game develops, and good players keep two of them open at once.

1. Building victory: your castle reaches a height of 100.
2. Destruction: the enemy castle falls to 0. The wall does not matter for this condition, only the castle.
3. Resource victory: one of your three core stockpiles (bricks, weapons or crystals) is completely full at 100. Gold never counts. It buys cards, but it does not win.

The resource victory can be switched off in the match settings. If it is off, the round display shows it in orange and only building or destruction can end the game. Online quick matches use the settings of the player who created the room.

Starting position

Both players start from the same position. The castle begins at 60, so the building victory is 40 points away, and the wall begins at 22, which cushions early attacks. Each core stockpile holds 6 units and each of the three producers (builders, soldiers, mages) yields 2 units per round. Gold starts at 5 with no production of its own.

A leader, chosen before the match, changes this starting position slightly. See the section on leaders below.

Resources and production

There are four resources. Bricks pay for building cards, weapons for attack cards, crystals for magic cards and gold for gold cards. A few cards mix costs, for example the Ballista costs bricks and weapons, and the Infernal Machine costs bricks and crystals.

At the start of each of your rounds, every stockpile grows by its production. Producer cards raise production permanently: Builders' School adds a builder, Barracks a soldier, Mage Training a mage and the Market adds 2 gold per round. Every producer you already own makes the next producer card 3 units more expensive, so the first one is cheap and the fourth is a luxury.

Gold has no production until you build a Market. The Market is paid with bricks, so it is always within reach. Gold unlocks the utility cards: shields, guards, scouting, theft and the Double Move.

Turn order

A round is one turn for each player. Your turn runs in a fixed order:

1. Production. Your stockpiles grow by your production, plus the war chest bonus in the late game.
2. Effects over time. Poison on you deals its damage, active healing repairs your wall.
3. One action. Play one card you can afford, or discard up to three cards from your hand. Both count as your action for the turn.
4. Draw up. You draw from the shared deck until you hold nine cards again, then your opponent takes their turn.

Some cards do not end your turn. Wall, Swift Messenger, Storm Runner, Healing Arts, Scout and Informant let you act again immediately after they resolve. The Double Move grants two extra actions in the same round, so you can play three cards, or play two and discard, in one turn. Cards you cannot afford are shown darker; hovering or long-pressing a card shows what it would do right now, including your bonuses.

Damage, wall and castle

Attack cards and damage spells hit the enemy wall first. Only the surplus that exceeds the wall reaches the castle. Three additional rules make attacks matter even against a standing wall:

• Tremor. 35 percent of the damage absorbed by the wall also hits the castle behind it. A 9-damage Catapult against a 22-point wall still shakes the castle for 3.
• Rubble loot. Half of the enemy wall you destroy is added to your own wall. Attacking is also defending.
• Wall-ignoring damage. The Dragon, the Infernal Machine, the Trojan Horse and poison damage skip the wall entirely and hit the castle directly.

A Shield, bought with gold and played face down, blocks the next enemy damage card completely, no matter how strong, and is consumed. Your opponent cannot see whether you hold a shield. Scouting Strike shatters a shield and still deals damage, and Dispel removes shields together with every other bonus. Guards protect your stockpiles against theft cards such as Plunder, Saboteur or Pixie until they have blocked one attempt.

The deck and the card types

Both players draw from one shared deck of 72 cards. The deck contains several copies of common cards (six Attack cards, four Walls) and a single copy of the strongest ones (Siege, Dragon, Fortress). When the deck runs out, the discard pile is shuffled to form a new one.

• Building cards raise the castle or wall, add producers, or convert wall into castle height.
• Attack cards deal damage, steal resources, lock card types or discard enemy cards.
• Magic cards poison, heal over time, double your next card, dispel bonuses or deal damage that ignores the wall.
• Gold cards buy shields, guards, scouting, theft, instant resources and the Double Move.

Every card with its exact numbers is listed in the card library.

The war chest: escalation from round 16

To keep matches from turning into endless attrition, the war chest opens from round 16. Every stockpile receives one extra unit per round, and the bonus grows by another unit every two rounds. Core stockpiles only receive this free supply up to 40 units; the rest of the way to a resource victory you have to earn yourself. Gold has no such cap. The active bonus is shown in orange next to your production. Most matches end between round 15 and 40.

Leaders

Before a match you may pick a leader. Leaders only change your starting position; they do not change the rules or the deck.

In quick matches you can also let the game pick a random leader.

Solo, online and time limits

Against the AI you choose one of three difficulty levels and play at your own pace. The first match offers a short guided tour of the interface.

Online, the same rules engine that runs your solo games validates every move on the server. Each turn has a 45-second timer; when it runs out, the turn passes. If your connection drops, you have two minutes to reconnect before the match counts as abandoned. Quick match pairs you with another player within seconds and rates the result with Elo; if nobody is available, a bot with human timing steps in. Private rooms use a five-letter code and are not rated.

Emotes, a rematch button, friends and challenges are available in every online match.

Quick reference