This article explains the complete rules of Chessic: how squares wear down, how each piece moves, and how your score is calculated. The same rules are available in the app under How to Play.
Your Goal
Clear the whole forge board. The board is a 6×6 grid, and every square needs three strikes. The third strike clears the square.
- Tap any unfinished square to begin.
- After each strike, the piece you hit chooses where your next strike can land.
- Gold marks show legal strikes. Tap one to continue your route.
- If no gold marks remain, the forge cools and the board is over.
Hit Layers
Each strike raises a square's hits and leaves a new piece on it, until the strike that clears it.
- Fresh: 0 hits
- Cracked: 1 hit
- Weakened: 2 hits
- Cleared: 3 hits. A cleared square is empty and can no longer be struck.
The piece a strike leaves behind is part of the board and does not depend on the route you take, so planning ahead always pays off.
Pieces
| Piece | Move | First appears in |
|---|---|---|
| Number 1 | Exactly 1 square in a straight or diagonal line | Apprentice |
| Number 2 | Exactly 2 squares in a straight or diagonal line | Apprentice |
| Number 3 | Exactly 3 squares in a straight or diagonal line | Apprentice |
| Number 4 | Exactly 4 squares in a straight or diagonal line | Artisan |
| Bishop | To the farthest square along each diagonal | Journeyman |
| Rook | To the farthest square along its row or column | Journeyman |
| Knight | Jumps in an L shape: two squares, then one to the side | Journeyman |
| Queen | To the farthest square in any straight or diagonal direction | Artisan |
| Wildcard | Strikes any unfinished square on the board | Master |
Gold targets
Gold marks show every square the piece you just struck can reach. Cleared squares cannot be struck, so a bishop, rook, or queen loses any direction whose farthest square has cleared. Use wildcards to escape tight routes.
Scoring
Your final score is your strike points plus your bonuses plus your time score.
Strike chains
Keep striking the same piece type to build a stronger chain. Changing piece type resets the chain to ×1. Longer chains earn more for each strike:
| Chain | Points per strike |
|---|---|
| ×1 | +1.0 |
| ×2 | +1.1 |
| ×3 | +1.2 |
| ×4 | +1.3 |
| ×5 | +1.4 |
| ×6 or longer | +1.5 |
Bonuses
- Layer clear (+20.0): once every square on the board has taken another strike, a full layer is cleared. A forged board clears three layers.
- Royal run (+5.0): every four chess pieces (bishop, rook, knight, or queen) struck in a row. Wildcards and numbers do not count and break the run.
- Perfect sequence (+5.0): strike the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 in that order. Number 4 first appears in Artisan, so this bonus is available from Artisan on.
Bonus runs can happen more than once on the same board.
Time score
The time score starts at 50.0 and loses 0.1 each second, down to zero. Pausing a single-player forge stops the clock.
Wildcards in Master
In Master, clearing the first or second layer leaves a wildcard on the square you struck.
How a Board Ends
- Board Complete: every square is cleared. The board counts as forged.
- Forge Cooled: no legal strikes remain. Your score still counts, but the board is not forged.
Duels use the same board rules with a different clock and time bonus. See Duels and Duel Rating.