How to Win Your First Run in 9 Kings

Build a front line the Castle can fight behind

To win your first run in 9 Kings, strengthen the Castle behind a supported Paladin plot and prepare for the champion battle in year 33. Focus your upgrades on that formation so the Paladins survive long enough for the Castle to kill the enemies they hold.

Choose the run and opening hand

Choose a standard single-player kingdom run on Peasant with the King of Nothing. This is your starting king, and its straightforward deck suits learning troop placement and support. Quest Mode has its own challenge rules, so follow this opening in the normal kingdom mode.

Use this Paladin opening when a Paladin is in your opening hand. If it is absent, reroll the start for this particular plan. Establishing the troop you intend to support gives your early placements a clear purpose.

Place the base and understand when battle starts

A standard run opens with nine empty plots and four cards: your base and three cards from your king's deck. The base must be placed first. Plan the formation across your early turns rather than expecting to establish every support building immediately.

Place the Castle behind your intended fighting line. The Paladins will hold enemies in front while the Castle supplies damage from behind them. Plan the surrounding space around that relationship rather than treating the base as your only investment.
Place the Paladins in front of the Castle, with neighboring space for support buildings. Keep their plot central to the planned formation so a Farm, Blacksmith, and later Library can each touch it. Those neighboring plots are part of the build.
Reduce your hand to two cards through placements or discards to begin an ordinary year's battle. Reaching that remainder starts combat automatically. Check what your next card contributes before crossing the threshold, because this is a remaining-hand rule rather than a fixed allowance of card plays.

Make the early formation grow

Place a Farm directly beside the Paladins. It adds a unit each year, growing the front line you already intend to protect. Keep your support concentrated around that troop plot instead of spreading the same investment across separate fighting groups.
Place a Blacksmith directly beside the Paladins. It adds 2% damage each year to adjacent plots, and Paladins also gain HP from damage buffs. This makes the same adjacency improve their offense and survival; a distant Blacksmith cannot supply that support.
Upgrade the Castle with matching cards as they become available. Paladins hold enemies for the base, so a stronger shield cannot replace the damage needed behind it. If the front line holds but enemies are not dying, prioritize the Castle before adding more troop plots.

Use decrees and enchantments to strengthen the core

Choose Development at the first decree pick if it is offered while you still have empty plots. Its Wildcards can go into Castle levels, giving the existing formation more killing power. Otherwise, Overwork is the alternative decree for this opening.
Apply Steel Coat to the Paladins when you obtain it. Each stack cancels an opening hit in battle, protecting the troop plot receiving your Farm and Blacksmith support. Concentrate that protection instead of scattering it across additional troop plots.
Place a Library beside the Paladins after they have Steel Coat to copy. The Library can duplicate that enchantment, allowing the defensive investment to keep growing. Its position matters: it must touch the troop plot it supports.

Prepare the formation for the champion

Choose Feast when it is offered later in the Paladin route, after your Overwork picks. Feast doubles troop HP, giving the established line more health. That larger HP pool also prepares the Paladins for a useful late application of Balance.
Use Balance on the Paladin plot after its HP has grown, if the card becomes available. Balance sets HP and damage to whichever value is higher, so accumulated health can become damage as well. Build the health first, then equalize the stats.
Use or discard every remaining card in the final year. The champion battle is in year 33, and this turn requires an empty hand rather than the usual two-card remainder. Make those last card decisions serve the Castle's damage or the Paladins' protection.

Turn the result into your next decision

An ordinary defeat consumes a life and gives you a card from your own king's deck, while a victory provides loot from the defeated king. Use the next card decision to address what failed. Check whether the Paladins collapsed or the Castle lacked damage before committing more resources to the same weakness.

Treat the champion result differently from an ordinary loss. Winning the year-33 final battle unlocks progression, including higher difficulties, and gives you the option to continue into Endless Mode; losing that final battle ends the run. After a win, choose whether to keep testing this formation in Endless or begin another run.

Check locked king cards when choosing your next run. Their quests display the requirements and your progress toward unlocking those rulers. When you complete a king's quest, the ending screen announces the unlock.