THE SEARCH FOR THE PERFECT GAME

Learn the rules.Challenge the theory.

Hexodic turns a few elegant rules into a rapidly expanding world of strategy. Learn it in minutes—then join the players testing whether its limits can be found.

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THE WHOLE RULESET

One board. One piece. Three ways to win.

Two players alternate on a 37-cell hex board. There is one kind of piece and nothing hidden — a stone is exactly as strong as the ground it stands on. A turn is three sub-actions, in order.

  1. 01 — Project

    Place a stone from your reserve. Once the reserve is empty you move instead — and moving onto an adjacent enemy stone from higher ground captures it.

  2. 02 — Shape

    Raise or lower one cell by a single tier. You are not only placing pieces; you are terraforming the board they fight on.

  3. 03 — Echo

    Optional, and scarce: three charges for the whole game. An Echo flags one extra capture check, or permanently locks one of your tier-2 cells. They never come back.

Three ways to win

  • Network Connect five of your tier-2 stones into one linked group.
  • Takeover Capture six of your opponent’s stones.
  • Strangle Leave your opponent with no legal move.

Three simultaneous threats on 37 cells is the engine of the game — defending one usually concedes tempo toward another. Read the full rules →

WHY IT KEEPS OPENING UP

A small ruleset. A rapidly expanding game.

The rules fit on one screen. What grows is the number of things a single move has to answer for — the same three sub-actions start producing decisions that take real thought.

  • Positioning

    Every cell carries a tier. Where you stand is most of what you are worth, so the board itself is the contested resource.

  • Control

    Shape lets you raise and lower ground a step at a time. Control the tiers and you control which captures are even possible.

  • Connection

    The Network win rewards linked tier-2 stones, so building is never passive — a connected shape is a live threat.

  • Capture

    Encirclement and displacement are different problems. One is about surrounding weight, the other about arriving from above.

  • Pressure

    Three win conditions run at once. Answering one almost always concedes ground toward another.

  • Containment

    Strangle turns restriction into a win outright: take away every legal move and the game is simply over.

AN OPEN QUESTION

Help us discover how deep it goes.

Every match explores another branch of the game. Play, experiment, challenge the patterns that look settled, and help reveal the strategies nobody has found yet.

We are not claiming hexodic is a perfect game. We are claiming it is worth trying to find out — and that the interesting part of the search is the part that happens on real boards, between people who are trying to break it.

WHERE YOU CAN PLAY

Play now in your browser.

Play Hexodic

No download. Full rules engine. Available right now.

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