Magic Chess Go Go Basics

The round

A match runs through four stages (I–IV). Later stages give more rewards and more Commander damage, and each stage ends with a Go Go Box bonus-supply round.

Each round the shop refreshes, your Commander gains 2 EXP, then you get a Preparation phase to build your board and a Battle phase where it fights. In the last 10 seconds of Battle, Acceleration kicks in — attacks hit harder and healing/shields are weakened, so a fight that's close usually breaks one way fast.

End of round: you collect Basic Rewards, Interest on your banked gold, and a Win-Streak or Lose-Streak bonus. Creep rounds also drop 3 equipment pieces — you pick 1 and the other 2 vanish.

When you lose a fight, Commander damage = a round base value + the total star levels of the enemy's surviving units. Bigger enemy boards hurt more.

Heroes, stars and the shared pool

Every hero has a Faction and a Role. Matching Factions or Roles across the heroes on your board activates Synergies (see below).

Buy 3 copies of a hero and they auto-combine into a 2-star; 3 two-stars make a 3-star, a large power jump.

The hero pool is shared by the whole lobby, and each hero has a fixed number of copies. If several players contest the same hero, nobody 3-stars it easily — so watch what opponents are building, and consider buying a hero they need to deny their spike.

Gold and economy

Gold comes from a base amount each round, win/lose streaks, and Interest — 1 gold per 10 banked, up to 5 at 50 gold.

Rolling the shop (refreshing it for 2 gold) is how you hunt specific heroes. When to bank, when to level and when to roll are covered in the economy & board basics guide.

Commanders

You pick a Commander before the match. It gains 2 EXP per round automatically, and you can spend gold to buy EXP directly.

Higher Commander Level means more heroes you can deploy and better shop odds for expensive heroes. Levelling costs rise steeply: 3 gold for Lv.4, up to 74 gold for Lv.10 (the max).

Each Commander pushes a different plan: gold, free heroes or stronger items. The Commanders page ranks them for Season 7.1.

Power Cards

In round I-2 you get your Commander's unique Power Card (these were formerly the shared 'Go Go Cards'). Each Commander has one guaranteed card that shapes their whole game plan — free heroes, gold, economy traps, and so on.

The full list of captured Power Cards and the shared card tiers is on the Go Go Cards page.

Magic Crystals & synergy planning

Entering Stages II, III and IV you get a Choice Magic Crystal. The first time you use one on a hero, you're offered 3 Synergy options — 2 from that hero's own Faction/Role and 1 random — and picking one adds that hero to the chosen Synergy.

This is how you force a synergy your natural board can't reach — e.g. giving a carry the Marksman or Stargazer crystal it needs. Confirming locks the crystal slot; you can cancel to keep the hero's original crystal effect, and re-buying the hero restores it.

Some Synergies also have a magic-crystal-like item (Season 7's Starbelle 'light stick') that makes whoever holds it count toward that Synergy.

Synergies

Synergies are the point of the game — matching Factions/Roles unlocks scaling team buffs and, for many, free bonus heroes or milestone rewards. The Synergies page lists every one with its effect.

Season 7 (Chrono Echoes) added Echomancer, SPECTRE, Starbelle and Mistbender, and brought back Shadeweaver. SPECTRE is notable for unlocking Alpha, the game's first 7-Gold hero. See the Comps & Tiers page for which synergies are winning right now.

Positioning tips

Melee and high-defence heroes go in the front row; ranged and high-damage heroes go in the back.