How to play Slow6

The goal

Win in one of three ways:

• Bring a 6 home. Promote a piece to a 6, then walk it back to the square it started on. That wins at once.
• Wipe them out. Take every one of your opponent’s pieces.
• Lead on points. Once you’ve both made 15 moves, add up the ranks you each have left (a 6 counts as 6). The higher total wins, and a tie is a draw.

Your pieces

You each have five pieces ranked 1 to 5, dealt in a random order along your back row. Every rank is visible to both players all game. Nothing is hidden and there are no dice, so it’s all about reading the board.

Your turn

• Move one piece up to 2 squares in a straight or diagonal line. You can’t jump over anything.
• Attack by moving onto an enemy piece within reach. The winner stays on the square and the loser is removed. Equal ranks remove each other.
• If you have no legal move, your turn passes.

Who beats whom

Bigger wins when it’s 1 or 2 bigger. When the gap is 3 or more, the smaller one wins, so the 1 and 2 are giant-killers. Every piece beats two others and loses to two.

Equal numbers knock each other out. In a game, tap one of your pieces and the ones it can’t take fade back.

Making a 6

Each of your ranks promotes in one lane: the column where your opponent started their piece of the same rank. Reach the far row in that lane and your piece becomes a 6. The lanes are printed faintly on the board, and selecting a piece lights up its lane.

• A 6 beats everything except another 6 (two 6s remove each other), but it moves only 1 square at a time.
• A 6 has two lives. Attack it with anything else and your piece loses, but the 6 is stunned: it turns red and can’t move on its next turn.
• While a 6 is stunned, any enemy piece can take it. If nobody does, it recovers but keeps a red ring, and it now loses a head-to-head with a 6 that hasn’t been hit.

So a well-timed sacrifice is the best defence against a 6.

Powers

Classic Slow6, plus powers. Before the first move, each player picks 3 of these 10. Use each one once, on your own turn, one a turn, as well as your move. Your opponent’s powers show in their bar and fade once used, so you always know what they have left.

• Double moveMake two moves in a row (a 6 can’t make both).
• DashOne of your pieces can move up to 3 squares on its next move.
• LeapOne of your pieces (not a 6) can land on any empty square within 2 on its next move, jumping over anything in between.
• ShieldOne of your pieces survives its next lost fight.
• FreezeOne of their pieces can’t move for their next two turns.
• SwapTwo of your pieces swap squares, then you move as normal.
• RecallJust lost a piece? Bring it straight back to its starting square, if that’s empty. It can’t move until your next turn.
• TrapHide a trap on an empty square. An enemy piece that lands on it or passes over it stops there and can’t move for two turns.
• ShovePush one of their pieces that’s next to one of yours one square straight back, onto an empty square. Then move as normal.
• SurgeOne of your pieces (not a 6) hits harder on its next move: it also beats the piece three below it. If that wins the fight, it rests a turn.

The 7 × 7 board

The big board gives each player seven pieces, ranked 1 to 7, and 21 moves each. A piece that promotes becomes an 8. Each piece beats the three just below it, counting round: a 4 beats 3, 2 and 1, and a 1 takes 7, 6 and 5. Start it from the Big board with Powers tile on the home screen. It’s still in Beta, so these games don’t count towards your stats yet.

Ways to play

• Anyone online: you’re matched at random with another player.
• A friend: send them a link, or give them your game’s code to enter.
• The computer: four opponents, from careful to hard.
• Challenges: a new challenge every day, the same for everyone, plus 200 more set positions from Easy to Hard.
• Learn to play: a guided game against the computer that takes about three minutes.

Online, you have 24 hours for each move, and an invite lasts 24 hours. You can play as many games at once as you like. You don’t need an account. Signing in is optional, and adds friends and a saved game history.