9 Kings

9 Kings is a fast-paced roguelike kingdom-builder from Sad Socket, published by Hooded Horse. The core loop is deceptively simple: expand your realm, draft units and upgrades, and throw your growing war machine against increasingly dangerous rival kings until one of you is dust. Runs are self-contained, which means every session is a fresh puzzle of what broken combination you can engineer this time. If you have ever lost three hours to a deckbuilder because you found one busted card interaction, this is exactly that feeling, just with armies. The build variety is the headline. The developers advertise thousands of combinations, and while that number is obviously marketing math, the emergent synergies feel genuinely deep rather than cosmetically diverse. You can lean into economic engines that fund a late-game avalanche of troops, or go aggressive early and try to kneecap opponents before they stabilize. Certain unit types and upgrade chains reward careful planning across a run, while others are pure opportunistic pivoting. The game does not hold your hand through this, which will frustrate players expecting guided difficulty curves but will delight anyone who likes decoding systems from scratch. The kingdom-building layer adds meaningful texture between battles, giving each run a strategic shape beyond raw combat sequencing. Battles themselves are where the pacing earns its "fast" label. Fights resolve with satisfying momentum rather than dragging into attrition wars, which keeps runs feeling punchy even when you are deep into an extended session. The PvP mode adds a competitive dimension that sharpens the build-craft stakes considerably. Playing against another human who is also trying to break the game creates a meta-game that the AI opponent loop alone cannot replicate. Early Access means balance is a moving target, and some builds will feel oppressive until Sad Socket patches them, but that volatility is also part of what makes the community conversation around the game lively right now. Honest caveats: the Steam review score shows Very Positive on a large sample, but the raw math there is unusual and worth noting. The game launched into Early Access in May 2025, so systemic rough edges are present. UI clarity during hectic mid-run moments can lag behind the complexity the systems demand. If you need a polished, complete experience, wait. If you are the kind of player who enjoys growing alongside a game and finding exploits before they get patched out, the current state is genuinely entertaining. The multiplayer PvP component in particular seems to have real legs, provided the player base sustains itself through the Early Access period. For RPG-adjacent players coming in expecting narrative depth or character arcs, a gentle redirect: the storytelling here is mechanical, not written. The drama is the moment your cavalry upgrade chain clicks into a borderline-illegal synergy and you roll over a king you had no business beating. That is its own kind of story, and 9 Kings tells it well for what it is. Filler grind is mostly absent since runs are bounded and purposeful. The kingdom theme gives just enough thematic dressing to make the strategic decisions feel weighted. It is the kind of game Hooded Horse tends to publish, systems-forward and comfortable with letting players find their own fun rather than scripting it for them. Monika, Scout Team