Build around shared buffs and useful years
Place your fighting plot beside Amplifiers receiving useful buffs, then finish Portals after valuable events to play through those years again. Use Regression to reopen a plot's upgrades while retaining its accumulated strength, and throw Rewind into the pit immediately after the cards you want copied.
What each core card contributes
| Card | Effect and practical use |
|---|---|
| Portal | Reaching maximum level sends the kingdom 2 years back. Stack copies on the same plot and time the jump around an event worth repeating. |
| Regression | Lowers a plot by 1 level while preserving its current stats and effects. It cannot target level 1 plots; keep another upgrade ready to follow it. |
| Rewind | Throw it into the pit to replace your current hand with copies of your last played cards. After a Portal turn, this can return Portal cards for another trip. |
| Amplifier | Passes received buffs to adjacent targets, reaching one plot at level 1 and three at level 3. Give it an incoming buff and check which neighbours receive it. |
| Bastion | Your base casts damaging rifts that warp each enemy to the backline once. It provides a fallback when your troop setup struggles, but still needs protection. |
Give the Amplifiers something to share
An Amplifier needs an incoming buff to share, so adjacency alone does not complete the engine. With Wise equipped, years played supply stat growth that Amplifiers can pass to their neighbours. Portal trips add more years played, linking your calendar engine to your board's growth.
Use central positions for Amplifiers and place Orbiters and Portals directly against them. Check the affected-plot highlights while placing an Amplifier before committing the layout. Keep space around your planned Hourglass for additional Amplifiers, and delay placing it until the Orbiters survive the opening clash.
Run the Portal and Rewind sequence
- Establish the fighting layout. Place Amplifiers with Orbiters against them, and reserve an adjacent position for the Portal. Keep the Hourglass copies until the troops can hold the opening clash.
- Choose the event you want to revisit before finishing the Portal. A useful Royal Council, merchant or Rainbow opportunity gives the extra years a purpose. Prepare enough Portal upgrades to trigger the trip after that event.
- Stack Portal copies on the same plot until it reaches maximum level. The resulting jump goes 2 years back, so check that the event you want falls within the years you will revisit.
- After the Portal turn, throw Rewind into the pit to recover Portal cards. Because Rewind replaces your hand, consider the useful cards you are giving up before committing to the refill.
- Use the returned cards to prepare the next Portal activation while continuing to strengthen your fighting plot. Every trip requires fresh copies, so check that the next jump is affordable in cards before committing to another repeat.
Use Regression between productive upgrades
Regression changes a plot's level while keeping its accumulated stats and effects. Plan the follow-up upgrade before using it, rather than lowering a plot without a next move. Keep its role separate from Portal: Regression reopens plot development, while Portal changes the calendar.
Rewind also needs deliberate ordering because it copies your recently played cards. When recovering Portal cards, use it after the Portal turn; when recovering Patronage, use it straight after Patronage. Avoid slipping an unrelated play between the card you want and the refill.
Choose a repeatable payoff
For a multiplayer cloning loop, aim Hegemony so its targets include both the Portal plot and your main plot. Hegemony copies the targeted cards into your hand, and revisiting its blessing year lets it trigger again. Including the Portal supplies cards toward the next trip; missing that plot breaks the supply. With another blessing, Portal can still revisit decree choices and merchants, but it does not provide the same Portal-card refill.
A base-focused route uses Patronage to raise Bastion beyond its normal cap, followed immediately by Rewind to recover the tome. Exiler adds another warp, while Loophole doubles the number of warps. Patronage comes from the Jack of Rainbows rather than Time's deck, so commit to this route when it appears instead of assuming it will arrive.
Fix the weaknesses extra years cannot solve
A weak opening leaves little for the Amplifiers to multiply. If your troops keep collapsing before the Hourglass is ready, invest in Bastion instead of forcing the same setup. Beacons beside the base provide attack-speed growth, but keep watching the enemy matchup: the King of Stone's piercing Ballistas can still land hits while the rifts work.
An unsupported Hourglass charges too slowly to carry the fight. Give it outside attack-speed support rather than expecting ordinary levels to solve the delay. Steel Coat stacks also punish slow, powerful hits by cancelling them, so judge the build by whether it clears the enemy's protection in time.
Apply the rules for your release and mode
9 Kings left Early Access for its 1.0 release on November 12, 2026. Regression is no longer playable on level 1 plots, so replace any older sequence that depends on that interaction. After installing a patch, start a new run so its changes apply.
In multiplayer, check the current decree pool in the lower-left corner of the lobby before planning around a particular choice. Decree pools change by season, so leave room to adapt. Quest Mode has scenario-specific rules and Knight, King and Chaos difficulties; match a walkthrough to your selected challenge and difficulty before copying its sequence.