Create a room and add players
Choose Number of players for total humans and bots: 2–4 on Square/Torus, or 2–3 on Triangular, default 2. Select Create Room to enter alone and ready. The host can select Add bot in the host-only actions row below the player list, with up to three bots on Square/Torus or two on Triangular within capacity. Bots show Automatic bot; the host can Remove them before starting. Fill every slot and make every human ready, then select Start Game. Recreating a game opens alone again. Guest rooms are unrated and cannot be joined remotely, even before bots are added.
Race and walls
Colors and distinct starting slots are assigned randomly; Red moves first. Starting assignments are redrawn until turns run clockwise around the board, skipping empty starting slots. Red can start in any slot; every distinct two-player assignment qualifies. With Midpoint edge on an even-sized board, each pawn independently chooses either of its edge's two middle positions with equal probability. That choice stays fixed throughout the game. Square Corner starts and triangular Midpoint edge starts target the opposite corner. Square Midpoint edge starts and triangular Corner starts target any cell sharing a full edge with the opposite boundary. KOTH targets one center cell marked by a crown, chosen once at start. The first goal ends the game. Other participants tie; an entirely blocked game is a draw.
Threefold repetition
The game is an automatic draw when the same pawn positions, next player to move, and total number of placed walls occur three times. The initial position counts once; positions count after completed actions and forced skips. A second occurrence shows a warning. Clocks and changes between human and automated play do not affect the count. Placing a wall starts fresh counts because walls cannot be removed.
Settings
Choose Number of players (2, 3, or 4), Board (Square, Torus, or Triangular), Starting positions (Corner or Midpoint edge), and Goal (Opposite side, Opposite corner, or Center (KOTH)). Triangular boards support 2 or 3 players. Fresh defaults are 2 players, Square, Midpoint edge, Opposite side, size 9, Step and jump, 10 walls per player, and Straight only. Board sizes range from 3 to 11; inventories range from 3 to 10 walls or unlimited. Changing players or Board selects size 9 and 10 walls for 2 or 3 players, or size 11 and 7 walls for 4 players. Other settings preserve those choices. Square and Torus walls are straight or L-shaped with a 90° bend; triangular walls are straight or angled at 60° or 120°. Walls mode allows straight only, bent only, or both, each occupying two unit edges. Triangular boards default to Single-edge only, the first Walls mode option: three orientations, each occupying one internal shared cell edge. The other options are Straight (2 units), Angled (2 units), and Straight and angled (2 units). Every placement costs one wall. Single-edge walls may meet at either endpoint; overlapping endpoint colors divide between the incident walls. Walls cannot share unit edges, cross, or remove every route to any pawn's goal. Walls may share a joint when their arms do not alternate around it; the intersection divides between owner colors. All room settings stay fixed during play.
Pawn movement in Advanced settings offers Step and jump (default) and Slide until blocked on every board. Step and jump moves to an open neighboring cell or jumps one adjacent pawn using the board's landing rules. Sliding follows four row directions on Square and Torus, or six rows of edge-sharing triangles on Triangular. The pawn continues until a wall, another pawn, or the board edge blocks the next cell. It cannot jump or stop early. On Torus, directions wrap across opposite edges; a direction without a stopping blocker is unavailable. A pawn must stop on its goal to win; passing through the goal does not win. A wall or pawn may be needed to stop on the center crown. Triangular slides animate straight between their starting and stopping cell centers. Humans, bots, random seats, and waiting-room practice all use the room's chosen movement. Recreation and saved results retain the choice; older rooms and records without the setting use Step and jump.
Hide identities offers No (default), Players only, and Players and bots. During gameplay, hidden participants use stable numbered aliases and neutral avatars; their profile links and ELO values are hidden. Players and bots also hides bot markers. Lobby and waiting-room identities remain visible. Completion reveals real identities and final ratings, while earlier gameplay history frames retain their aliases.
Torus connects the left/right and top/bottom edges. Pawn moves, jumps, and walls wrap across those connections. Only Center (KOTH) is available; all other settings remain available, including Corner starts whose displayed corners are adjacent across the wrap. Odd board sizes use the central cell; even sizes choose one of the four central cells once at game start. A wall must leave a route from every pawn to the crown through the wrapped board, ignoring other pawns for that reachability check.
Strategy bots try to save a quarter of their starting walls, rounded up, for later emergencies. They become more reluctant to spend walls as their supply drops, especially within that reserve. They can still use reserved walls for important defenses and release the reserve when a pawn nears its goal. Immediate wins take priority.
Clocks and random play
Choose 5 minutes + 2 seconds/turn, 10 minutes + 5 seconds/turn (default), 15 minutes + 7 seconds/turn, or 20 minutes + 10 seconds/turn. Only the current clock runs. A completed pawn move or wall placement adds the increment. Forced skips add no increment. When a clock reaches zero it stays zero and the seat uses random legal actions for the rest of the game. Resigning also hands your seat to random play, including when you exit. Navigation or refreshing does not resign you.
Online play and guests
Each human player joins from their own browser session. Guests can play against bots, and can read chat but cannot post. Undo is unavailable. Guest-created rooms are public to view but cannot be joined remotely. Registered rooms support Open, Host approval, or a 4-digit passcode for joining. Every room remains public to view.
Practice area
While waiting, participants and viewers can practice using the room’s setup. You control Red and move first; the other slots are bots choosing random legal pawn moves or wall placements. Starting positions are randomized for each attempt. Practice is untimed and personal, with no effect on readiness, ratings, or the room’s game. Restart begins a new attempt. Practice ends when the live game starts, and resets when you leave or reload.
Board history
First action, Previous action, Next action, and Latest action above the player clocks review server-recorded positions, including the starting board, moves, walls, forced passes, resignations, and timeouts. Earlier positions show their wall inventories, player control states, and frozen clocks. Review is read-only while the live game continues. Next returns to live play from the newest recorded position; Latest loads the current game. Refresh starts in live view. Players and spectators can review history while the room is retained, including after completion.
Communication canvas
The small canvas below the wall controls always shows the current live board. Each player can share one cell or wall mark even outside their turn. The gameplay wall controls select a shape for either canvas; click or drag onto Communication to mark a wall. Wall marks use only the shapes allowed by the room's Walls setting and cannot overlap or cross actual live walls. The game's permitted contacts and Torus wrapping apply. Wall marks that conflict with a newly placed live wall are automatically removed for everyone. Other communication marks do not count as obstacles. You can still mark occupied cells, mark walls that block players' goal paths, and mark walls with no inventory remaining. A new mark replaces your previous mark; clicking your displayed cell or wall mark again clears it without reselecting a wall shape. All submitted marks appear together in the same white color. Each player can update or clear their own mark, and viewers can see every mark without making changes. Use the eye button beside Communication to hide or show the canvas just for yourself. Hidden marks continue to update, and polling preserves your visibility choice. Polling and reloads keep the shared marks synchronized. Resignation clears your mark. The communication canvas is hidden for everyone when the game ends. Marks stay with the retained room across reloads and do not change gameplay or its history.
The eraser beside the eye clears current marks from your view. Your own mark is removed for everyone; others' current marks are hidden only for you. Each player's next new submission appears again, even at the same position. Viewers only hide marks locally. Local dismissals survive polling and eye toggles while the room stays open, and reset when leaving or reloading the room. If removing your own mark fails, an error appears and the others remain hidden for you.
On Torus, dragging either the main canvas or Communication pans both to the same position for you. Other players and viewers keep their own panning positions. Polling, changing or clearing marks, and hiding or showing Communication preserve the alignment. During history review, Communication keeps showing the live board while sharing the main canvas's panning position. History navigation, room changes, and reloads recenter both canvases together.
ELO
One Pathbound rating covers all boards and settings. Ratings start at 1500, with scale 400, K-factor 40, and minimum 1. A winner gets outcome share 1, other players 0; draws give each player 1/N. Expected share is proportional to 10^(ELO/400). ELO change is 40 times actual share minus expected share. Distance to goal and room order do not affect ratings. Bots stay at 1500 and their hypothetical changes are shared equally among registered humans; one human against bots has zero ELO change. The combined human ELO total is preserved when applying the minimum rating. Timeout or resignation retains rating eligibility, using the pawn's eventual result. ELO changes previews each possible winner and Draw during rated gameplay. Final results show committed ELO changes and new ratings to one decimal place. Historical unrated games remain unchanged.
Results
New registered rooms are rated; guest, abandoned, and administrator-ended games are unrated. Completed registered games appear in game history. The final progress chart shows shortest open-path distance to the goal, ignoring pawn occupancy; lower is closer and walls can increase it. Results include every participant and remain available after refreshing while the room is retained.