Player guide // Alpha 1.02
How to play HypeBoard Tactics
Everything you need to go from your first placement to a finished vault race: rules, turn order, champions, wallet profiles, online play and the current marketplace model.
What is HypeBoard Tactics
HypeBoard Tactics is a competitive browser tactics game about meme-born champions fighting over destructible corner objectives. It borrows the spatial clarity of chess, then changes the win condition, board size and unit rules into a faster arena built around pressure, flanks and abilities.
The game is playable as a local hotseat prototype and as online PvP through an authoritative server. Wallet sessions connect profiles, Elo, inventory, marketplace actions and reconnects.
Getting Started
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1
Open the game
Go to the main page and choose Play. The browser client runs on desktop and mobile.
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2
Pick a mode
Use Local Match to learn instantly, or connect a wallet for Online PvP and marketplace.
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3
Place your champions
Deploy eight champions inside your legal deployment zone, then lock in items before the first turn starts.
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4
Win the vault race
Destroy both enemy corner objectives before your opponent breaks yours.
Controls
| Action | Desktop | Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Select champion | Click a champion | Tap a champion |
| Move | Click a highlighted legal square | Tap a highlighted legal square |
| Inspect | Click any champion or objective | Tap any champion or objective |
| Zoom | Zoom controls or Ctrl-wheel | Pinch or zoom controls |
| Pan board | Scroll or drag the board area | Swipe the board area |
| Use ability | Pick the ability, then choose a valid target | Tap the ability, then tap a valid target |
Board & Objectives
A larger arena creates room for lanes, flanks and corner pressure.
Each player protects two base corners and attacks the opponent's two corners.
Objectives have HP bars and can be destroyed by auto-attacks.
Ranged auto-attacks deal reduced damage to objectives.
Match Flow
Setup is locked before the first turn: champions are placed first, then items are equipped. Normal turns stay deliberately strict so the server can validate online play with the same structure.
Players alternate until both eight-champion squads are deployed.
Each player can equip all active items into champion slots, then the items are locked.
Spend up to two movement actions, or skip movement to hold position.
Use auto-attacks and abilities. They share a two-action budget for the turn.
Status durations tick down, then the opponent begins with mana and status upkeep.
Placement
Each player brings eight champions. The placement phase alternates between teams until both rosters are deployed. Legal placement squares are the back row plus the deployment squares near each protected corner.
Movement & Blocking
Champions use either slide movement or leap movement. Slide movement travels along legal directions and stops at the first occupied square. Leap movement jumps directly to its destination and can ignore blockers in between.
| Rule | Current behavior |
|---|---|
| Friendly blockers | Friendly champions block movement. |
| Enemy blockers | Enemy champions block movement. |
| Objectives | Live objectives occupy their corner squares. |
| Visibility | All champions are always visible. There is no fog of war. |
Champions & Roles
Champions are the units you deploy and command during a match. Their exact roster, stats, movement and abilities change with balance updates, so this overview only keeps the stable concepts.
Roles describe a champion's broad job in a squad, such as holding space, creating pressure or supporting allies.
Each champion has its own movement pattern, attack range and baseline stats.
Abilities define the champion's tactical identity and spend mana during the action phase.
Abilities & Mana
Every champion has two active abilities, mana, max mana and 1 base mana regeneration. Mana regenerates at the start of that player's turn, then abilities spend mana during the action phase. Abilities do not have cooldowns in the current prototype.
Status Effects
Burn ticks at the start of the affected owner's turn.
Stunned champions cannot move, attack or cast while stunned.
Regen restores HP during start-of-turn upkeep.
Items & Stats
Each champion has one item slot. Items grant their shown stat bonuses directly, but the exact item list and live economy belong on the Items page so this overview does not need to track every balance update.
A champion can hold one equipped item at a time.
The value displayed on an item is added directly to the matching stat.
Equipping happens after champion placement and before the first normal turn.
final = base + itemBonus
Combat & Targeting
Auto-attacks can hit enemy champions or enemy objectives if the target is in range. Abilities can target champions, terrain or empty cells depending on the selected skill. Interceptable projectile abilities can be body-blocked by the first champion in the line of fire.
Costs no mana and uses one combat action.
Costs mana and uses one combat action.
Disabled. A friendly body-block wastes the projectile but does not damage the ally.
Online PvP
Online games use the shared TypeScript engine on the server. The client proposes actions, but the server validates turn ownership, phase, movement, range, mana, blockers, items, status effects and win state before broadcasting the result.
| Mode | Purpose | Matchmaking |
|---|---|---|
| Room code | Play a specific opponent | Create or join by code |
| Quick match | Ranked PvP | Closest waiting rating in window |
| Correspondence | Longer asynchronous turns | One day per turn |
Timers & Timeouts
Each live turn has a running countdown.
Long matches use a one-day turn deadline.
Three consecutive timed-out turns lose the match.
Profiles & Elo
A wallet session represents the online player profile. Ratings, wins, losses, inventory, loadouts and reconnects are tied to the wallet address. Finished matches update Elo when the result is decisive.
Marketplace
Champions and items are off-chain assets in the game database for the MVP. Players can list an owned asset, another wallet can buy it, and the server transfers ownership after payment verification.
| Action | Current rule |
|---|---|
| List | Owned, unlisted champion or item instances can be listed with a token price. |
| Buy | Payment is verified before the asset moves to the buyer. |
| Cancel | The seller can cancel an open listing. |
| Fee | Completed marketplace sales use a 3% platform fee. |
Solana Payments
The payment layer is isolated behind a verifier interface. Mock mode is only available for local development with an explicit dev configuration. In Solana mode, one atomic marketplace transaction pays the seller's net proceeds directly and sends only the platform fee to treasury. The server verifies signer, mint, both exact recipient deltas, memo and double-spend status through RPC before transferring the off-chain asset.
Mobile Play
The board is built for touch: tap to select, tap highlighted squares to move, pan around the arena and zoom when the 12x12 grid needs more room. Important actions are available through buttons, not hover-only interactions.
FAQ
No. HypeBoard Tactics runs in the browser.
Yes. Local hotseat works without a wallet. Online profile features use wallet login.
Destroy both enemy corner objectives, or win by timeout or disconnect when online rules apply.
Not in the MVP. Champion and item instances are off-chain game assets controlled by the server.
Yes, but objectives reduce ranged auto-attack damage by 33%.
Yes. Reconnects use the same wallet identity to resume an in-progress match when possible.