Magic Chess: GoGo — how it works

The round

A match runs through four stages (I–IV). Later stages give more rewards and more Commander damage, and each stage ends with a Go Go Box bonus-supply round.

Each round the shop refreshes, your Commander gains 2 EXP, then you get a Preparation phase to build your board and a Battle phase where it fights. In the last 10 seconds of Battle, Acceleration kicks in — attacks hit harder and healing/shields are weakened, so a fight that's close usually breaks one way fast.

End of round: you collect Basic Rewards, Interest on your banked gold, and a Win-Streak or Lose-Streak bonus. Creep rounds also drop 3 equipment pieces — you pick 1 and the other 2 vanish.

When you lose a fight, Commander damage = a round base value + the total star levels of the enemy's surviving units. Bigger enemy boards hurt more.

Heroes, stars and the shared pool

Every hero has a Faction and a Role. Matching Factions or Roles across the heroes on your board activates Synergies (see below).

Buy 3 copies of a hero and they auto-combine into a 2-star; 3 two-stars make a 3-star, a large power jump.

The hero pool is shared by the whole lobby, and each hero has a fixed number of copies. If several players contest the same hero, nobody 3-stars it easily — so watch what opponents are building, and consider buying a hero they need to deny their spike.

Gold and economy

Gold comes from a base amount each round, win/lose streaks, and Interest — 1 gold per 10 banked, up to 5 at 50 gold.

The core skill of the game is banking to 50 for maximum interest through the early and mid game, riding a win or lose streak for the bonus, then spending the pile all at once when your HP gets low or you can lock in a key 3-star.

Rolling the shop (refreshing it for 2 gold) is how you hunt specific heroes — do it when you have spare gold above 50, or when you're low on HP and need board power now.

Commanders

You pick a Commander before the match. It gains 2 EXP per round automatically, and you can spend gold to buy EXP directly.

Higher Commander Level means more heroes you can deploy and better shop odds for expensive heroes. Levelling costs rise steeply: 3 gold for Lv.4, up to 74 gold for Lv.10 (the max).

Rushing to Lv.9 ahead of the lobby — so you can field a full late-game board first — is the plan behind most top commanders (Lancelot, Kalea, Vale). See the Commanders page for the tier list.

Power Cards

In round I-2 you get your Commander's unique Power Card (these were formerly the shared 'Go Go Cards'). Each Commander has one guaranteed card that shapes their whole game plan — free heroes, gold, economy traps, and so on.

The full list of captured Power Cards and the shared card tiers is on the Go Go Cards page.

Magic Crystals & synergy planning

Entering Stages II, III and IV you get a Choice Magic Crystal. The first time you use one on a hero, you're offered 3 Synergy options — 2 from that hero's own Faction/Role and 1 random — and picking one adds that hero to the chosen Synergy.

This is how you force a synergy your natural board can't reach — e.g. giving a carry the Marksman or Stargazer crystal it needs. Confirming locks the crystal slot; you can cancel to keep the hero's original crystal effect, and re-buying the hero restores it.

Some Synergies also have a magic-crystal-like item (Season 7's Starbelle 'light stick') that makes whoever holds it count toward that Synergy.

Synergies

Synergies are the point of the game — matching Factions/Roles unlocks scaling team buffs and, for many, free bonus heroes or milestone rewards. The Synergies page lists every one with its effect.

Season 7 (Chrono Echoes) added Echomancer, SPECTRE, Starbelle and Mistbender, and brought back Shadeweaver. SPECTRE is notable for unlocking Alpha, the game's first 7-Gold hero. See the Comps & Tiers page for which synergies are winning right now.

Positioning tips

Melee and high-defence heroes go in the front row; ranged and high-damage heroes go in the back.

Spread your back row against AoE casters; stack it if the enemy has single-target assassins diving your carry.

Bank gold early and mid game, then convert it to board power once your HP drops — a full bank with no board wins you nothing.