How to beat King difficulty and King IX IX in 9 Kings
- Updated
- Game version
- 1.0 (12 November 2026); community methods from Patches #29 to #31
- Topic
- Progression
Six guides and forum threads written between July 2025 and November 2026 describe the same plan for King and the King IX levels. Fill the perk board before the run, especially with early-game and multiplier perks. Pour every level and buff into one carry, either your base or a single troop plot. Keep your free re-rolls for the decree that powers that carry at the year-5 Royal Council. Re-roll the attacking king to avoid area damage and to collect Overhaul or Offering. Restart openings that cannot reach the carry. Source counts below are independent authors; the plans are checked against 1.0 card text.
Pick a king and its carry
The full card, perk and decree plans are in Builds for every king. This table names the carry each plan scales.
| King | Carry | Decree to look for in year 5 | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nothing | Castle levelled with Wildcards, or a Paladin or Soldier plot | Development: 1 Wildcard per empty plot | 3 call it the most consistent king |
| Greed | Mercenary count, 1 unit per 9 gold | Servitude: Mercenaries are never fired | 4 |
| Blood | Imp plots beside Cemetery and Demon Altar | Covenant for the Altar, Evil Pact for the Pagoda | 2; a third plays for the Pagoda base |
| Spells | Citadel with stacked Ruthless instant kills | Tempest: double Citadel attack speed | 3 |
| Progress | One Executioner plot levelled by Overhaul | Futurism: troops level to 99 | 1; a second scales the base with Recyclers |
| Nomads | Warlord unit count copied to Mobs | Khanate: double Warlord units | 2 |
| Stone | Trapper and Trebuchet, or poison Ballistas | Engineering or Venom | 2, disagree on the carry |
| Time | Warper summons | Kintsugi with Portal loops | 2 |
| Nature | Wallmaker walls healed by Forests and the Treant, with poison | Venom | 2 plans; one player says Nature cannot win far above King |
For a first King clear, use the King of Nothing or Greed. TomarEmerald (April 2026), Vao and Matsuri name Nothing as easy or consistent. In November 2026, TomarEmerald also said Greed was the king they could still win with comfortably after the Patch #29 to #31 changes.
Perks before the run
- Equip a full board. When Patch #17 shipped, the developer said many difficulty complaints came from players who had not found the perk screen. Matsuri found that without early-game perks a King IX IX run is nearly lost by year 3. Four sources rely on perks.
- Put the carry’s perk in the top-left and multiply it. Authoritarian fixes the top-left regular perk at x3. Verticalist, Leftist and Nationalist add applications to their neighbours, and Expander adds slots. Aevean’s November 2026 board runs two king perks at x4 and a third at x3 next to Authoritarian, Expander and Moderate. Matsuri calls Verticalist essential, and Vao prefers Authoritarian for most kings. Four sources multiply perks this way.
- Universal perks that buy time: Resilient (+1 life), Persistent (+2 free re-rolls per rank), Politician (+1 decree choice) and, for base carries, Ingenious (+3 base levels per rank since Patch #24, down from +5).
- Low king level: king perks unlock one per level, so a new king lacks its own perks. thegrassyknoll levelled each king at the highest difficulty open to it and lost one to three runs before winning King difficulty with level 3 to 5 kings.
Run plan by year
Years 1 to 4
- Restart weak openings. TomarEmerald restarts when the first hand has no Wildcard or Castle card. 3DM’s Progress plan restarts when no Defender appears by year 2, and Aevean expects a few resets per King IX IX win. Four sources treat early restarts as normal at these levels.
- Level one plot. A duplicate card played on the same plot levels it up. Leave other plots empty if your year-5 decree rewards empty plots (Development) or new placements (Settlement).
- Re-roll the attacker into a useful deck. A win offers loot from the king you beat. Vao and TomarEmerald re-roll toward the King of Progress for Overhaul, which destroys a plot to level up 2 random plots and adds one more each use. They also re-roll toward the King of Spells for Offering, which turns a plot into 3 random tomes. With few plots on the board, those level-ups land on the base or carry. Vao levels the Castle to 9 before year 9 this way. Three sources use the method.
- Do not spend free re-rolls on loot. TomarEmerald keeps them all for the first council. The base-first plan also accepts losing two lives in years 2 and 3.
Year 5 Royal Council
Re-roll the council until it offers the carry’s decree from the table above. If it never appears, the base-first Nothing plan restarts. Politician adds a fourth choice. Royal Council decrees explains how the offer is built.
Years 7 to 31
- Merchant, year 7. The first card costs 30 gold. Greed players spend it on a Rainbow card or Mercenaries, and the Greed perk Peddler makes a shop purchase free. Patronage raises the base 3 levels past its cap, which Vao uses to offset the Ingenious cut.
- Councils in years 13, 21 and 29. Overwork makes support buildings apply their effect again (up to 3 times). 3DM’s decree list ranks it first, and Vao calls it important for fast scaling. Feast doubles troop HP for tank carries. Venom doubles poison for Cauldron and Poison Vial builds. Gunpowder widens area attacks for base carries. Take Rebirth, which gives 3 lives beyond your maximum, when you are down to one life.
- Peace diplomat. Make peace with the area-damage king that threatens your build. 3DM advises keeping at war the kings whose cards you need, such as Nothing, Stone or Nature for its Progress tank.
Enemy kings to re-roll away
Re-rolling the attacking king costs 10 gold, then 10 more each time, and the price never resets during the run. Banisher removes one king from the next run.
| Your build | Re-roll or make peace with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Swarms: Greed Mercenaries, Blood Imps, Nomads Mobs | Stone, Spells, Time | Ballistas pierce lines, and area spells and Time summons kill many small units (Vao) |
| Steel Coat tanks (Nothing, Spells) | Blood, and Stone if possible | Bombers kill the front line instantly (Matsuri) |
| Time Warpers | Greed, Nature | Their troops target Warper units instead of the summons (Vao) |
| Any build with high damage and low HP | Progress | Defender reflects all damage it takes |
Matsuri ranks the enemy kings by threat at King IX IX as Blood, Spells, Time, then Progress, Nothing, Nomads and Greed, then Stone, with Nature the weakest. Vao rates Stone higher than that against swarms because Ballistas pierce.
Final battle in year 33
- Empty your hand. Every card must be played or thrown into the pit before the battle starts. Plan years 29 to 31 so the last cards can go onto the carry.
- Lives no longer save you. A life lost in the final battle ends the run, so take Rebirth or more HP earlier rather than gamble on the last fight.
- Last purchases. The year-31 merchant is the last shop. Thorough gives a random card from your king in year 33.
- Boss damage. Vao reports that a Converter cannot turn a boss into a rat and deals heavy damage to it instead, even unlevelled. Only Vao reports this.
Why runs fail
| What happens | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Dead by year 3 to 6 on King IX levels | No early-game perks; cards spread over several plots | Equip early perks, level one plot, restart openings without the carry |
| Base stops killing in the late years | Castle damage lowered in Patch #30; Ingenious lowered in Patch #24 | Add a troop carry in front of the base; use Patronage, Beacons and attack-speed decrees |
| Swarm wiped in one battle | Area damage from Stone, Spells or Time | Re-roll the attacker, make peace or banish that king |
| Your troops die attacking | Progress Defenders reflect damage | Raise HP above damage with Feast, Shields or Forests |
| No re-rolls left at a council | Free re-rolls spent on loot | Save them for year 5; take Persistent or Outsourcing |
| Lost year 33 with lives left | A final-battle loss ends the run | Prepare in years 29 and 31 |
King-difficulty achievements
- True Royalty (26.2%): any king on King. King of Kings (3.3%): every king on King. Any level above King also counts. Win with Nothing and Greed first, and leave Nature for last.
- Self-Sufficient (17.7%): win on King with no perks. Vao credits the player Clyde with a Nomads route: re-roll for the King of Nature first to get Procreate’s 9 units, avoid Progress, Time and Stone, and put three Mobs beside a Cemetery and Demon Altar taken from Blood.
The 25 levels and their enemy multipliers are listed in Difficulty levels.
Sources
- IX-IX Any King, Steam guide by Vao (updated 9 October 2026 for Patch #31)Per-king IX IX plans; re-rolling the attacker for Overhaul and Offering; which area-damage kings to avoid; Converter against bosses.
- Steam discussion 'solo difficulty' (October to November 2026)Aevean Leeow's per-king notes after the Patch #29 to #31 changes (7 November 2026); TomarEmerald on resets and Greed; thegrassyknoll's King of Kings order.
- King of Nothing, King IX IX guide by TomarEmerald (updated 23 October 2025)Base-first plan: restart weak openings, keep re-rolls for the first council, take Development, put every Wildcard into the Castle.
- Matsuri game blog, King IX IX with Nothing, Spells, Greed and Blood (9 July 2026, Japanese)Early-game perks decide year 3; Verticalist; enemy threat order; keep HP above damage against Progress Defenders.
- Steam discussion 'King Difficulty' (April 2026)King of Nothing named the most consistent king; Rainbow perks multiply perk ranks.
- 3DM King-difficulty guide by NirvanaLoey (21 July 2025, Chinese)Restart without the key troop; Politician for a fourth decree choice; which kings to keep when making peace. Pre-Patch #29 card list.
- 3DM decree tiers (21 July 2025, Chinese)Overwork ranked first among decrees.
- Patch #17 notesDeveloper: many difficulty complaints came from players who had not equipped perks.
- Patch #24 notesIngenious lowered from +5 to +3 base levels per rank.
- Patch #30 notesAuthoritarian perk; Castle damage slightly lowered.
- 9 Kings 1.0 release notes1.0 balance changes: Mangler, Dragon Den, Regression, weaker CPU Blood armies.
Related
Builds for every king in 9 Kings at King difficulty and aboveOne working high-difficulty build per king in 9 Kings 1.0: the carry card, the perks to stack, the decree to re-roll for, the enemy kings to avoid and how many player guides agree.
Difficulty levels in 9 Kings, Peasant to King IX IXAll 25 difficulty levels in 9 Kings 1.0 in order, how each one unlocks, and the enemy and experience multipliers stored for each level in the game data.
Perks and king levels in 9 KingsHow 9 Kings perks unlock with king levels, how the 9-slot perk board and ranks work, when Rainbow perks unlock, and which universal perks change a run most.
Royal Council and decrees in 9 KingsHow a Royal Council builds its decree offer in 9 Kings 1.0: the four decree pools, pick limits, re-rolls, the perks and decrees that add choices, and decrees that change the next council.
Run calendar for 9 KingsThe years of a 9 Kings run in which the prophet, Royal Councils, merchants and the final battle happen, plus diplomats, expansion towers, the Jack of Rainbows and Endless mode.
Hardest 9 Kings achievements and how to get themMethods for the rarest 9 Kings achievements: Wall Street, The Spire Slays, King of Kings, Your Grindness, Spoiled, Time Bender, Nobel Prize, Wonderwall, the speedrun and the 1.0 additions.