Magic Chess Go Go Beginner Guide: How a Match Works

Stages and rounds

A match runs through four stages, I to IV, and each is a string of rounds. In every round the shop refreshes, your Commander gains 2 EXP, and you get a preparation phase to buy, sell and place heroes before the battle phase plays out on its own.

Some rounds are against creeps, which drop 3 pieces of equipment; you keep 1 and the other 2 vanish. The rest are against other players. Each stage ends with a Go Go Box supply round.

Losing a fight costs your Commander HP: a base value for the stage plus the total stars of the enemy heroes still standing. The last player with HP left wins.

Stars and the shared pool

Three copies of a hero combine into a 2-star, and three 2-stars make a 3-star. Each step is a large jump in power, which is why finding copies drives most of your spending.

All eight players buy from one shared pool, and each hero has a fixed number of copies in it, from 25 for a 1-Gold hero down to 9 for a 5-Gold hero. When two players chase the same hero, both struggle to finish it.

Where gold comes from

Gold arrives at the end of every round from three places. There is a base reward that grows with the stage, interest of 1 gold for every full 10 you are holding (5 at most, reached at 50), and a streak bonus that pays for consecutive wins and, just as much, for consecutive losses. A record that swaps between winning and losing earns neither streak.

It leaves in three ways: buying heroes at their Gold cost, refreshing the shop for 2 gold, and buying Commander EXP. Levels get expensive quickly. Going from 3 to 4 costs 3 gold, while the step from 9 to 10, the last one, costs 74, so most of a match's spending decisions are about how far up that ladder to go.

Synergies and Ultra

Every hero belongs to a Faction and a Role. Field enough heroes that share one and its Synergy switches on, with bigger effects at each higher count.

Seven Synergies have an Ultra level at the very top. Astro Power, Dragon Altar, Dragoncaller, Echomancer, Kishin and Starbelle reach it at 10 heroes, and SPECTRE at 11.

• KishinSynergy

  Ultra at 10

• EchomancerSynergy

  Ultra at 10

• SPECTRESynergy

  Ultra at 11

Three Season 7 synergies worth knowing first

Scavenger is the simplest: each Scavenger hero on your board hands you a free hero from the shop at the start of every round, so it pays for itself from the moment it is active.

Echomancer summons a Chrono Wanderer, a 5-Gold hero from a past season (Moskov, X.Borg or Gatotkaca), and banks Echo Energy at the start and end of each battle. The energy makes every Echomancer tougher, and reaching 300, 600 and 999 for the first time pays out rewards.

Kishin gives you a piece of Kishin-only equipment that gets better each time you buy another Kishin hero, up to Arcane (Tier 3) through the shop and Supreme (Tier 4) once 10 Kishin heroes are active. Starbelle works through an item instead: whoever holds its Lightstick counts as the Fan and cheers the other Starbelles on.

• ScavengerSynergy

  A free shop hero per Scavenger, every round

• EchomancerSynergy

  Summons a Chrono Wanderer

• StarbelleSynergy

  The Lightstick holder becomes the Fan

Commanders and Power Cards

Before the match you pick a Commander. Its EXP sets your level, and each level adds a board slot and moves the shop toward expensive heroes. EXP comes in at 2 a round on its own, and gold buys more.

Each Commander has its own skill, a star-up that improves it during the match, and a Power Card you receive in Round I-2. Together they set the plan: some make gold, some hand out free heroes, some strengthen your items. The Commanders page ranks them for this season.

Go Go Cards

Go Go Cards are one-off bonuses you collect during a match, and they come in four colours. Blue, Purple and Orange cards are shared by every player; Power Cards belong to one commander each, and yours arrives in Round I-2.

The shared cards cover everything from gold (Payday pays 7 gold now and 7 in each of the next two rounds) to interest (Vault Upgrade+ raises the interest cap to 8) to combat stats. The Go Go Cards page lists all of them.

Equipment and the fight itself

Creep rounds are where most equipment comes from: each one drops 3 pieces, you keep 1 and the other 2 disappear. The pieces range from plain stat items to ones that taunt or execute, and a few commanders are built around them, Minotaur most of all.

You never control a fight once it starts. Heroes pick targets on their own, so the only levers are who you field and where they stand. The last 10 seconds of every battle bring Acceleration: damage goes up and healing and shields get weaker, which is why a close fight rarely reaches the timer.

• Ancient WrathTaunt & DEF

  One of the item effects: it taunts nearby enemies

Magic Crystals

On entering Stages II, III and IV you receive a Choice Magic Crystal. The first time you use one on a hero, you pick from 3 Synergies, 2 from the hero's own and 1 random, and the hero joins the one you choose.

That is how a board reaches a Synergy count its heroes can't reach alone. Confirming locks the crystal slot; cancelling keeps the hero's original crystal effect.

SPECTRE and Alpha

SPECTRE is the Synergy that leads to Alpha, the game's first 7-Gold hero. The first time you 2-star a 5-Gold SPECTRE hero, you receive an Alpha. Alpha only counts as SPECTRE, and it takes four 1-star Alphas to make a 2-star, not the usual three.

At 11 SPECTRE heroes, the Ultra level, your highest-star Alpha gains a star at the start of each battle. Alpha leaps onto the densest group of enemies, stuns them, and summons Beta along the rifts it opens.

• Alpha

  7-Gold, from the SPECTRE line

• SPECTRESynergy

  Ultra at 11

Where to go next

Once the rules are clear, the economy & board basics guide covers what to do with your gold each round, and the Commanders page covers which commander to pick. The Magic Auction guide covers the separate bidding mode, which uses none of the board rules above.