Player FAQ
Quick answers to the questions new and returning players ask most.
Getting started
Do I need to buy anything to play? No. Free players can play matches, earn FOCUS, open card packs, solve puzzles, join community events, and enter weekly tournaments. Weekly events charge a small entry fee in FOCUS, which you earn by playing and cannot buy, so nothing costs money. A club board unlocks the ranked seasonal ladder, but you can play and improve for free indefinitely.
Do I need any special technical knowledge? No. Sign up with email or Google/Apple and your account is created for you automatically. Everything technical is handled behind the scenes.
What is a club board? Your club board is your key to ranked seasonal play. It permanently records your wins, rank tier, and club.
Bring a friend
How do I get a friend in during the alpha? Share your referral link. From the lobby, open Rally, then Referrals, and copy your link. A friend who signs up with it is admitted right away, no waitlist: they get an invite link on screen and by email, good for 7 days. Someone already on the waitlist can use your link too. Each link admits a limited number of people per week, and you need one real match played (or an account a few days old) before your link works. See Bring a Friend.
What do I get for a referral? Once your friend has played 3 matches against 3 different real opponents (you don't count, and neither do very short games), the referral qualifies. You get 250 FOCUS and your friend gets 100 FOCUS plus one Common Battle Card. Up to 10 referrals pay out per season. Referral FOCUS spends normally but does not count toward tier or rank progress, and it doesn't use your daily earning cap.
What is a Herald? A Herald is a player who has brought in enough friends. Herald is 5 qualified referrals lifetime, Herald Prime is 10 in a single season, and Herald Eternal is 20 across the two seasons of an arc. The badge shows on your Referrals page and comes with a Discord role. Heralds keep counting past the 10-per-season reward cap.
Do badges like Herald come with anything else? Permanent badges do more than sit on a profile. From time to time, badge holders are rewarded with in-game cosmetics, invitations to tournaments, and Battle Card airdrops. Herald is one of those badges.
Gameplay
Can my King capture pieces? Yes, and it is better at it than you might expect. The King deals 2 damage, so it takes any piece that is down to 1 shield or less. Against a healthy piece it wounds instead of capturing, and the piece strikes back.
The King carries 5 shield and survives its first fight against anything on the board. The danger is the second one.
"A crown is armour. It was never a sword."
What happens if my King loses a fight? You lose the match, immediately. If your King attacks a piece and the counter finishes it, your King is eliminated and the game ends there. This is called the Honeypot, and it is always in effect.
A piece left undefended next to your King may be bait. A Knight is the most dangerous bait of all, because a Knight never gives check from an adjacent square, so attacking one always looks safe.
"The crown that swings can fall."
Can I use cards from any club on any board? Every ability is open to every club. Your starter cards, and every card from a Standard Pack or a Battle Box, are universal, so anyone can play them. A club edition, from a Club Pack, is played by that club's members only.
What happens to my card when my piece is captured? The card returns to your collection afterward, with one durability used. It is not destroyed. Only its charges for that match are lost.
Can I activate two abilities in one turn? Not yet — every player in both clubs is limited to one ability per turn. A second activation is Etheryst's club identity, and it arrives with the Etheryst passive in a later season.
What happens to a Pawn's card when the Pawn promotes? The Pawn card's remaining charges transfer to the promoted piece. The promoted piece keeps using the Pawn card's abilities — it does not gain a Queen card.
Can I use a Gambit Card and a Battle Card on the same turn? Gambit Cards are arriving in a later season. Full rules will be published when they launch.
FOCUS and currency
Can I buy FOCUS? No. FOCUS is earned only through play, in matches and quests. It cannot be purchased anywhere. That's deliberate: progression is earned, not bought.
Is there a daily FOCUS limit? Yes, there's a daily cap on the FOCUS you earn from Quick, Casual and Ranked matches. FOCUS from quests doesn't count toward it, and tournament earnings are not capped. Puzzles don't pay FOCUS on their own; the Daily Gauntlet pays only through its quest, when that quest is running.
Can I win money? No. Everything you earn is in-game: cards, rank badges, a permanent record on your board, and FOCUS, which you earn by playing and cannot buy. There is no cash prize and nothing to cash out. Prized tournaments are on the roadmap, and a prize pool is only announced once it is funded.
Seasons and cards
What happens to my cards at season end? Some of a card's remaining uses carry into the next season; details are announced before each season ends.
What resets at season end? Your XP never resets — it is a career total, and a rank you reach is permanent. Your Gauge Start drops one level (Finale to Midgame, Midgame to Debut). Rank tier rewards are claimed per season. Your ELO, all cards and boards, cohort, and badges stay forever.
Are there permanent badges for competitive play? Yes. Some badges are earned only through ranked wins and are permanent. They can't be bought — they're pure proof of competitive history. Permanent badges do more than sit on a profile. From time to time, badge holders are rewarded with in-game cosmetics, invitations to tournaments, and Battle Card airdrops.
Can I buy cards? Soon. A card shop is built and opens once the card catalogue is large enough; until then the Cards screen shows no shop button. When it opens, a new shelf of packs goes up every Monday, priced in FOCUS, and every pack shows its exact contents before you buy. Nothing is random, Omega cards are never sold, and FOCUS itself can never be bought. See The Card Shop.
Physical hardware
Will there be a physical chess board? A physical board is planned. Details are announced through the official channels.
Still stuck?
→ Card Interaction Rules — official edge-case rules → Ask in the official ChessVS Discord