# One board. One piece. Three ways to win.

> The whole ruleset in plain language — you'll be dangerous in about a minute, and still discovering the board months later.

The hexodic rules, in plain language: a 37-cell hex board, stones with three tiers, Project/Shape/Echo turns, encirclement capture, and three ways to win — Network, Takeover, Strangle.

Canonical HTML: https://hexodic.com/how-it-works
Site index for agents: https://hexodic.com/llms.txt

## How do you play hexodic?

Two players alternate turns on a 37-cell hexagonal board (radius 3). A turn is a short sequence of three sub-actions, in order: **Project** (place or move a stone), then **Shape** (raise or lower a cell's tier), then optionally an **Echo** (spend one of your three charges). First to complete any one of three win conditions takes the game. That's the whole skeleton — everything else is consequences.

## The pieces: stones and tiers

There is one kind of piece: the **stone** — no rank, no orientation, nothing hidden. Height lives in the board instead: every **cell** has a tier (0, 1, or 2), and a stone is exactly as strong as the ground it stands on. Tier-2 cells are the high ground: harder to capture on, and the building blocks of the Network win. A stone's strength is where it stands and what stands with it, not what it's named.

## The turn: Project, then Shape, then Echo

- **Project** — place a stone from your reserve onto an empty cell (mandatory while you have reserve). Once your reserve is empty, you move a stone instead — and moving onto an adjacent enemy stone from higher ground captures it.
- **Shape** — raise or lower one cell's tier by one step (0↔1↔2). You're not just placing pieces; you're terraforming the board they fight on.
- **Echo** — the scarce resource, and optional. You get **three charges for the whole game**. An Echo either flags one extra capture check this turn, or permanently locks one of your tier-2 cells (once per game). Charges never come back — when to spend them *is* the mid-game.

## Capture: encirclement and high ground

Stones are captured two ways. By **encirclement**: ring an enemy stone (the board edge can help) so the surrounding tiers outweigh its own, and it returns to its owner's reserve. Or by **displacement**: move onto an adjacent enemy stone from a higher-tier cell, and you take its place. Either way, height decides — control the tiers and you control the captures.

## The three win conditions

1. **Network** — connect **five of your tier-2 stones** into one linked group. The builder's win.
2. **Takeover** — capture **six** of your opponent's stones. The aggressor's win.
3. **Strangle** — leave your opponent with **no legal move**. The python's win.

Three simultaneous threats on 37 cells is the engine of the game: defending against one usually means conceding tempo toward another.

## The measured numbers

| Metric | Measured value |
|---|---|
| Board | 37 cells (radius-3 hexagon) |
| Branching factor (half-moves 5 / 10 / 20) | 911 / 1,009 / 665 (design target: ≥35) |
| Draw rate | 0.25% |
| First-player win rate | 46.38% |
| Mean session length | 5.92 minutes |
| Design iterations before shipping | 9 |

These come from the game's own simulator, run at scale during the nine-iteration design process. The ruleset is maintained as one canonical document with CI checks that fail if any client drifts from it — the game you learn here is the game everyone plays.

## Questions this page answers

- How do you play hexodic?
- What are the rules of hexodic?
- What is echo capture in hexodic?