Help & FAQ
Everything in one place — each game's full rules, how to play, and how diamonds & accounts work.
Game rules (FAQ)
How to play
Puzzles — forced-mate tactics
Find the forced checkmate in this Crazyhouse position. Crazyhouse means captured pieces can be dropped back onto the board.
- Make the move(s) that force checkmate — every puzzle has a guaranteed mate.
- Drop a captured piece from your pocket onto an empty square as one of your moves.
- Difficulty adapts to you, and missed puzzles come back for review.
Manhouse — the mana roguelike
A run is ten fights against ever-stronger bots. You play standard chess, but mana arrives every move and you spend it to summon extra pieces onto the board — the head-start you build yourself.
- Spend mana to summon a piece onto any empty square — a summon USES your move, so it is a real trade.
- Clear a fight to draft a Mutation: a stacking augment that changes your mana economy for the rest of the run.
- Bank ♣ clubs across runs to buy permanent Artifacts; win a run to unlock the next rung.
Perudo — Liar's Dice
A bluffing game for the people you are playing with, not against the app. Your phone is your dice cup: it rolls five dice and keeps them secret. Play it around one table, or open an online table and share the code.
- Roll, look at your own dice, and bid: a quantity and a face, counting EVERYONE's dice together.
- Each player raises the bid or calls "dudo" to doubt it — whoever is wrong loses a die.
- The queen is wild and counts as any face. Lose all five dice and you are out.
Roguehouse — Standard Hoard
A run is 15 stages in a row against ever-stronger standard-chess bots, ending in a Boss. Your edge is a War Chest — pieces you can drop onto the board, but each one is gone for the rest of the run. Spend to survive now, or hoard for the harder stages ahead.
- Drop from your War Chest to win a stage; captures never refill it, so spend carefully.
- Clear a stage to draft a Mutation — a stacking per-run augment — and earn diamonds (◆).
- Bank ◆ across runs to buy permanent Artifacts in the Foundry; clear a whole run to unlock the next Level.
Puzzlehouse — a roguelike run of puzzles
A run is a track of puzzles you climb one node at a time. Chain solves for a bigger combo, draft mutations as you go, and beat the boss to clear the run — but three wrong moves end it.
- You have 3 hearts; a wrong move costs one, and zero ends the run.
- Pick your path at each step — every node shows how hard it is, and a camp heals a heart.
- Clear a run to bank spades (♠) and spend them on your empire between runs.
Free Play — casual games, your rules
Play Crazyhouse or the mana games vs a bot with no ladder pressure — set the options and just play.
- Pick a game and a bot strength; there is no unlock gate — everything is open.
- Play a friend by sharing a link, or rematch after a game to run it back.
- Free Play games still move your local Elo, so casual games still count.
Diamonds & accounts
Diamonds (◆) are earned by playing and spent in the Roguehouse Foundry (board & piece skins are free); XP is separate progress that levels you up. Sign in on your profile to sync progress across devices.
Diamonds vs XP — two different things. Diamonds (◆) are a currency you spend in the Roguehouse Foundry (board & piece skins are free). XP is progress you can't spend — it only raises your account level as you play. Earning ◆ never costs XP, and levelling up never costs ◆.
Q. Where's my diamond balance?
In the top bar (the ◆ pill, on every page) and on yourProfile.
Q. Will I lose my diamonds?
No — they're stored in your browser and survive app updates. Turn oncloud-save (Profile) to carry them across devices.
Q. Can I run out of diamonds and be stuck?
No — playing is always free and unlimited. ◆ are only spent in the Roguehouse Foundry, so running low never stops you solving puzzles or playing a game.