‘9 Kings’ Is a Game I Need Y’all To Play; It’s a Roguelike Kingdom Management Deck-Builder, and I Must Break It (Demo Impressions)

Nothing says more about a game that wants you to break it. To discover its hidden secrets and gleefully exploit them. Well, Sad Socket (incredible studio name), you did it. I played the demo of 9 Kings on a whim while browsing Steam’s demo page, and now? Though I’d love to hoard my experience and keep such joy from the masses, I can’t. It may be in Early Access, but this deckbuilding kingdom management roguelike is the strategic chaos that informs my entire existence!

So, in 9 Kings, you naturally start as the King of Nothing — the most balanced among the warring kings. You’re shown your king’s nine-card roster, containing Tomes (single-use buffs), Enchantments (permanent buffs), Buildings (placed for a variety of effects), Troops (duh, it’s war), and other surprises! Now, hold on. “All I get is nine stinkin’ cards? What do the developers expect me to do with that?”

Well, it’s more of a nine-card rotation. On your first turn, you receive your primary Building card and then choose one of three random cards. The King of Nothing is a simple guy. He has tanky Knights, well-rounded Soldiers, a Blacksmith “building” that buffs adjacent units — you get the picture. Oh, right, you also begin with a 3×3 grid to place your cards. It’s time to talk about 9 Kings‘ genius!

with your king and starting cards selected, it’s time for war

My first 9 Kings encounter was against the King of Spells. As you can probably guess, the guy loves wizards and other magical shenanigans. While the troops duke it out automatically, my Castle has a handy trebuchet to fling rocks at the King of Spells’ mages to skew the odds in my favor. With a click and a cooldown, I aim where the most wizards are assembled, and the King of Nothing becomes the King of One Win.

Afterwards, I chose between three of the King of Spells’ cards to add to my deck. Suddenly, that nine-card roster opens up exponentially as you cycle through the revolving door of three other Kings that could challenge your reign from turn to turn. Luckily, 9 Kings knew I was green as hell and offered me the Spire building card. Which heals my units while they protect our glorious kingdom!

Between rounds, you’re adding more units, looking over Enchantments and Tomes to boost your numbers and strength, and trying your best to plan for whatever’s thrown at you. While the King of Spells was my first encounter in 9 Kings, my most consistent rival during my initial run turned out to be the King of Greed. Whose deck prioritizes income and boosting units via a bountiful economy. Let me tell you where I messed up in my desire to be the One True King.

pride came before my downfall in ‘9 kings’

For a while, I was cookin‘. My Knights stood at the vanguard, deleting my foes left and right. Between the King of Spells, the King of Greed, and the King of Nature? My kingdom thrived from the spoils of war. I even issued a Royal Decree that gave me 99 gold, which fed the Mercenaries I got from Mr. Greedy. …But you know what happened? Irony reared its ugly head because I got greedy. 9 Kings gave me too much, too soon.

I was spending gold like it was going out of style. Investing in land expansion for more units and purchasing new cards from the Merchant. The Mercenary unit — otherwise known as the bulk of my military force — has a fun effect. The number of Mercenaries at your disposal depends on how much gold you have. The more gold in your reserves, the more Mercs you recruit. If you keep spending gold, you lose Merc numbers. Yeah, you can see where this tragedy is going.

to my credit, though, i *did* successfully make it to the end of my first demo run in ‘9 kings’!

I realized how screwed I was late in my run when I looked at my Mercenaries and said, “…Is there a reason I only have eight Mercenaries — what happened?!” Luck was on my side, though. Those eight Mercenaries were so durable (through obsessive upgrades and Building placements) that I somehow made it to Year 27 — the end of 9 Kings‘ demo run. When the game asked me if I wanted to try “Endless Mode” with my current kingdom configuration, of course I kept the good times rolling!

And by “good times,” I mean I was immediately punished for my hubris, getting rinsed by a newcomer: the King of Blood. His units were fast, deadly, and unpredictable. And we just didn’t have the numbers to overcome his wrath. But I learned many, many valuable lessons to take into future runs. In short: 9 Kings is the deckbuilding roguelike you’re never going to want to put down.

Few things are more satisfying than watching as your troops obliterate enemy forces as a result of your careful planning. …Or in the case of my first run: pure, dumb luck. It’s strategic and chaotic in equal measure, allowing you to potentially craft hundreds of unique and unhinged builds.

give ‘9 kings’ a try as soon as you can

By itself, the 9 Kings demo gives you a lot of runway to experiment with the different Kings and see which playstyle suits you. Maybe you’ll be like me and find an hour and a half flying by as you tinker and toy with the game’s systems. Since Sad Socket encourages it, you best believe my goal for the full game (which I hurriedly bought) is endless deletion.

In war, it’s not enough to defeat those who would strike you down. No, this is about domination — pure and simple. And letting chaos be your guide when you need it most. You can download the 9 Kings Steam demo here, and if you dig it? You can buy it in Early Access and support Sad Socket’s phenomenal, hopelessly enthralling roguelike!