The complete rulebook for Super Tic-Tac-Toe — every mechanic, every number, and all 24 fighters.
Super Tic-Tac-Toe is tic-tac-toe with a health bar. You already know how to make three in a row — that part has not changed. What is new is everything wrapped around it: winning a round is a punch, not a victory, and the match keeps going until somebody’s hit points run out.
You do not need to read this page to start playing. It is here for when you want to know why you lost.
A match is a best-of-nothing brawl made of rounds. Each round is one ordinary game of tic-tac-toe on a 3×3 grid. Win the round and you hit your opponent for your damage stat. Drop them to 0 HP and you win the match.
Between rounds you spend the gold you earned in a shop, so a match that goes long turns into an arms race — the fighters you started with are not the fighters you finish with.
Three of your marks in a row — across, down or diagonally — takes the round, exactly as it always has. Eight lines exist, and the centre tile is on four of them.
A few fighters change what a tile means. Proxy’s phantoms occupy a tile without counting for a line — until they harden into real marks after six turns, and detonate on the seventh, taking every mark around them; her Overlay makes one tile count for both players at once, so a single mark can finish both lines and draw the round. Matrix wins on four corners as well as on three in a row.
Armour is not a number you buy directly — it is backed by the durability of the armour pieces in your satchel. Blocking a hit chips that durability permanently. The badge on the piece shows what is left, and the only repair in the game is a +Durability tile on the board:
The last point destroys the piece. Great Armor and Divine Armor are consumable gear, not permanent sockets: run the durability out and the item is gone for good, the satchel slot comes back empty, and there is nothing left for a +Durability tile to mend. Repair it while it still has a point on the badge, or buy another.
Win a round and the loser takes your damage. Armour eats it first, and only the leftover reaches HP — so 3 damage into 1 armour is 1 blocked and 2 hit points gone.
Damage stacks. Permanent +DMG tiles, temporary boosts like Turbo Charge (+5 for one round) and Sacrifice Core, and fighter passives all pile onto the same number. Land a single hit worth 10 or more damage and your fighter stops punching and performs a full cinematic KO finisher — every fighter has their own.
Building toward one is a legitimate strategy: stack damage for several rounds, then end the match in a single blow rather than grinding it down.
Every fighter has exactly three abilities, and they are the whole reason the roster plays differently. Casting costs MP and puts that ability on a cooldown measured in rounds — not turns. A 5-round cooldown means you get that ability roughly twice in a long match, so the question is never whether to cast it but when.
Some abilities let you cast andplace a mark on the same turn; others consume your turn entirely. Every one of Proxy’s does, for example, which is why hers are priced low. The exact behaviour is in each ability’s description in the roster.
From round 5 onward, tiles start carrying stat modifiers. The good ones are tile buffs; the bad ones are tile nerfs. Either way, landing your mark on the tile collects it immediately — which means the best tile for your line and the best tile for your stats are often not the same tile.
Later rounds also spawn tile nerfs — the same icons with a red cross through them. A nerf drains the stat instead of granting it, and it is collected exactly the same way: by placing your mark on the tile.
Fill the board with nobody in a line and the round does not end. Instead the grid spins like a slot machine: 2 lines fall off the trailing edge, everything left slides across, and 2 fresh lines roll in behind. Play carries straight on over those 6 new tiles — same round, same HP, same MP, and whoever was about to move still moves.
Whatever was sitting on the lines that leave goes with them — marks, buffs, phantoms, Ledger’s tolls, even Cascade’s fires get scrolled off the board. That is the point: the reel exists to break open a board nobody can play on.
One tile can refuse. A centre held by Matrix’s Vertex is locked for the rest of the round, and the reel is inside the round — so it stands still, mark and all, while the other eight tiles slide around it.
This is the part worth internalising. The reel does not always push downward — it works through ↓ down, ← left, ↑ up, → right, and from the 5th scroll on it picks a direction at random.
A scroll also ticks your ability cooldowns down a step, exactly as finishing a round would, and hands both fighters +1 MP. The two go together on purpose: a cooldown that has ticked to zero is worthless if you cannot pay for the cast, so the reel gives you the ability and the mana to use it. Abilities are what pry a jammed board open.
A Jam is the exception to the cooldown tick — it keeps counting in real rounds, so stalling cannot shake it off early. And the mana is a top-up, not free overflow: it is capped at your maximum like every other regen in the game.
The new tiles roll for buffs, but the reel pays out quietly: most come up plain, about 30% carry a recovery buff (+HP, +MP or +Durability — nothing that sharpens your attack), and roughly 10% come up as nerfs. Stalling gets you back on your feet; it does not get you paid.
Every round pays out. Winning is worth 5 gold, losing still pays 3, and a draw hands both players 3 gold plus 2 MP. Losing a round is a setback, never a shutout — you are always earning.
Between rounds the shop opens for 30 seconds with three slots. Early on it stocks cheap gear; the longer a match runs, the better the chance something match-swinging shows up. Do not like your three? Reroll them for 5 gold. Holding items you have outgrown? Drag them onto the sell zone to salvage them back into gold.
Interest: sit on 50+ gold at the start of a round and you bank a free 5. Saving instead of spending is a real strategy — and it is Ledger’s whole identity.
Wear it and it just works — no button, no timing. It occupies one of your three satchel slots for as long as you keep it.
Tap one from your satchel mid-round to fire it, and it is spent. These are your emergency buttons — and the expensive ones are how a losing match gets turned around in a single move.
This is where the shop gets interesting. Collect 3 copies of the same item in your satchel and they fuse automatically the moment the third one lands — into a legendary far better than anything the shop sells outright. Buying duplicates on purpose is a plan, not a waste.
The two potion recipes work differently, and it is the most missable rule in the game: they need 5 copies, and they fuse from your storage chest (5 slots) rather than your satchel.
Drag anything you have outgrown onto the sell zone and it melts back into gold. Every item lists its own salvage value (shown beside each item above) — it is always less than you paid, so salvage is a way to unstick a full satchel, not an investment.
The game actively works against runaway leads. If you are behind, several things start helping you at once:
The leader is not forgotten either — 3 round wins in a row starts healing them 1 HP per round, so a dominant run still closes matches out.
24 fighters are playable, with the grid built out to 24 as more arrive. Stats, passives, mana costs and cooldowns below are the live values the game runs on.
The All-Rounder
Passive — No passive. Reliable stats and flexible board tricks.
The Vampire
Passive — Bloodthirst: winning a round leeches 1 HP. At full HP he gains +1 Max HP instead (up to 8).
Facing them — He is the only fighter who grows. Every round he wins leeches a hit point, and at full HP it raises his ceiling instead — a long match against Variant is one you are losing slowly even when it looks even.
The Wizard
Passive — Energy Shield: while MP is at 100% and HP is 2 or higher, ALL incoming damage is negated — but each negation burns 1 MP per HP he currently has. Spending or losing any MP drops the shield; it restores itself the moment MP refills. At 1 HP the shield cannot form.
Facing them — You cannot hurt him at all while his mana is full and he is above 1 HP. Make him spend MP — bait a cast, or drain it — before you try to win a round, or the damage simply vanishes.
The Understudy
Passive — Mimicry: Proxy never strikes with less force than she's shown. Her DMG is always at least her opponent's — she copies their strength, but can never exceed it.
Facing them — All three of her abilities END her turn: she never gets a mark on top of a cast. Every ability she uses is a tile she did not take, so punish the tempo.
The Juggernaut
Passive — Last Stand: while at 2 HP or below, MONOLITH deals +2 DMG and every ability costs 2 less MP (minimum 1). He is at his most dangerous when he is nearly dead.
Facing them — He is at his most dangerous at 2 HP or below, not at full — Last Stand hands him +2 damage and cheaper abilities exactly when he looks beaten. Finish him in one blow or not at all.
The Geometer
Passive — True North: MATRIX wins the round on a line of three like anyone else — and ALSO wins outright the moment he holds all four corners. A second win condition on tiles the opponent has no natural reason to contest.
Facing them — Watch the corners, not just the lines. He wins outright the moment he holds all four, and the corners are tiles you have no natural reason to contest.
The Saboteur
Passive — Feedback Loop: every time the opponent spends MP on an ability, VECTOR siphons 2 MP off the cast. Their kit fuels hers — and against someone who never casts, she gets nothing.
Facing them — Against her, casting is never free — every ability you pay for feeds her 2 MP. Consider winning rounds on placement alone and starving her passive.
The Broker
Passive — Compound Interest: LEDGER banks +2 gold every round on top of the normal payout, and starts earning shop interest at half the usual pile (25 gold instead of 50).
Facing them — She is not trying to beat you early. She is banking, and she arrives in the late game holding gear you could not afford. Close the match out before her interest compounds.
The Wildfire
Passive — Cinders: whenever one of CASCADE's marks is torn OFF the board — cleared, eaten or shoved aside — the tile it stood on catches fire for 1 round, and NEITHER player can place there. Destroying his marks costs you the ground they stood on. (A mark bribed away leaves willingly, so it starts no fire.)
Facing them — If one of your marks is alight, place a mark directly beside it — up, down, left or right, never diagonally — to smother it. Fire left burning costs you 1 HP at round end, though it can never take your last one. And think before you clear his marks: the tile they stood on catches fire and locks BOTH of you out.
The Alchemist
Passive — Distillation: every tile buff BUFFER collects is DOUBLED, and tile nerfs hit her at face value instead — a -HP tile costs her 1 HP and can never take her last one. Tiles also start carrying buffs from round 1 in her matches, not round 5.
Facing them — She farms the layer of the board nobody else plays on. Every buff you leave standing is worth double to her, so take the tiles you would normally ignore — or invert them with a nerf she has to eat.
The Gambler
Passive — Loaded Dice: at the start of every round ENTROPY flips. HEADS and his abilities cost half this round (rounded up); TAILS and he swings for +1 DMG. He always gets one or the other — never nothing, never both.
Facing them — Check which face his coin landed on before you commit to a round. Heads halves his whole kit's cost; tails sharpens his damage. He is never simply unlucky.
The Armourer
Passive — Tempered: FIREWALL's satchel has a 4th socket nobody else gets, and his worn armour mends 1 durability at the start of every round — the only self-repair in the game that doesn't need an armour tile.
Facing them — Beating on his armour is how he hurts you: while Recoil is armed, every point his plating soaks comes straight back at you, so a round you win by grinding through his gear can cost you more than losing it. Take rounds outright, or wait out the recoil.
The Gaoler
Passive — Perimeter: MUTEX's marks on the four CORNER tiles can never be swapped, cleared, eaten, overlaid, inverted or shoved. Not for a round — for the whole match. A corner he takes is a corner that is finished.
Facing them — Take the corners early or concede them for the match — once one of his marks is on a corner, nothing in the game can move it. And keep your marks spread: while Shackle is on you, you may only place beside your own last mark, so a tight cluster is a cell you built yourself.
The Charlatan
Passive — False Face: the FIRST mark SPOOF places each round shows up on your opponent's board wearing THEIR colours. It is a real mark and it wins lines like any other — it just has the wrong name on it. She always sees the truth. Any ability touching the tile drops the disguise, as does the end of the round.
Facing them — Count your own marks. Once a round, one of the marks on your board with your symbol on it is hers, and it wins lines for her — so a row you think you have finished may not be yours at all. Any ability you spend on that tile strips the disguise, which is often worth the mana on its own.
The Arbiter
Passive — Equilibrium: a DRAW is a win for PARITY. She banks 6 gold and 4 MP from a stalemate instead of the usual 3 and 2, takes no burn damage on a drawn round, and the sudden-death -HP flood that normally punishes back-to-back draws never spawns in her matches.
Facing them — Never let a round drift. Every stalemate pays her double what it pays you, and the -HP flood that normally forces a decision does not spawn against her — so a slow board is one she is already winning. Take rounds early and decisively, before Impasse can shut the win condition off.
The Conduit
Passive — Wellspring: CACHE draws 2 MP at the start of every round on top of every other source — and every point of damage he takes burns 2 MP off him. The deepest pool on the roster, wired to the thinnest body.
Facing them — Hit him. His mana pool is his real health bar, and every point of damage burns twice that much off it — so chip damage you would normally skip is disarming him. At three hit points he cannot afford a single bad round, and an Overload he could not pay for is an Overload that never comes.
The Seer
Passive — Foresight: nothing stays hidden from ORACLE. She sees through NULL's Cloak and SPOOF's False Face as if neither were cast. On top of that, the first time each round her opponent spends mana on an ability, she draws 1 MP — she is paid for watching them commit.
Facing them — She is reading you, not the board. A Scry you cannot see is sitting on one empty tile waiting for you to walk into it, so vary where you play and do not take the obvious square twice running. Her Prophecy cuts both ways though — once she has named a line, denying exactly that line costs her a hit point for nothing.
The Revenant
Passive — Blood Price: when HEAP can't cover a cast with mana he pays the shortfall in BLOOD — 1 HP for every 3 MP he's missing, never down to his last point. And every point of damage he takes feeds him 1 MP. Hurting him is how you charge him.
Facing them — Damage feeds him — every hit you land hands him mana — and he will happily spend his own health to keep casting, so a Heap on low health is a Heap who chose that. Watch for the Grave Mark: a line through it needs only one more of his marks, so block it as if two of the three squares were already gone. And do not bother destroying his marks, because Exhume simply digs them back up.
The Duelist
Passive — First Blood: BURST is on a clock of his own making. Win a round in 4 to 5 placements and the damage is DOUBLED — but let a round run past 5 of his placements and his damage collapses to 1 for that round. In TEAM MODE the count is his SIDE's placements, not his own. Fastest kill on the roster, or no kill at all.
Facing them — Slow him down and he beats himself. His damage doubles if he closes a round inside three placements and collapses to 1 if the round runs past five, so every turn you make him spend is damage taken off his own attack. Block, stall, and take the round late — a Burst who has to grind is barely a fighter.
The Latecomer
Passive — Out of Step: ROLLBACK keeps his own time. Turn-timer pressure slides off him — NULL's Timelapse and the late-game clock cut both leave his turn at full length — and every whole round he casts nothing, he banks 2 MP onto his maximum, up to +4. Patience is a resource for him.
Facing them — Rushing him does nothing — the turn clock you rely on to hurry people simply does not apply to him, and every round he sits out he is quietly gaining mana. Watch for a frozen mark: it is still on the board when the next round is dealt, so he can start a round already holding a square. Make him spend, early and often.
The Splinter
Passive — Backscatter: SHARD is made of edges. The FIRST time each round she loses health, whoever dealt it takes 1 straight back — armour, shields and range are no answer to it, because it is not an attack, it is what happens to anyone who breaks her. Once a round only: opening her up costs you, but grinding her down still works.
Facing them — Three hit points, and she wants you to spend them one at a time. The counter is to open her up ONCE and finish it — Backscatter only bounces the first hit of each round, so a round where you hit her twice costs you exactly as much as a round where you hit her once. Do not poke. And keep your marks apart: Shatterpoint takes a whole cluster off the board in one cast, so the tidy block of three you were building is the thing it is priced for.
The Whip
Passive — Majority Rule: QUORUM counts the floor. While her side holds MORE marks on the board than the opposition she swings for +1 — strictly more, so a level board pays nothing and an empty one never does. Every round opens with her behind, and every mark she puts down is also a vote. In TEAM MODE it is the SIDE's marks that are counted, not her own.
Facing them — Count with her. She is only +1 damage while her side is actually AHEAD on marks, so the fight is over the count, not the line — trading a mark for a mark keeps her level and keeps the bonus off. Take the tile she Pledges before her next turn opens and the cast is wasted outright. Above all do not crowd her: every mark you place touching two of hers is a mark Recount takes from you.
The Outlaw
Passive — Levelling: TORRENT robs the rich to pay the poor, and prices himself the same way. While his side is BEHIND on hit points every ability costs 1 MP less; while it is AHEAD every ability costs 1 more, never under 1. Level is level and pays the listed price. Beat him down and he only gets cheaper — the safest way to fight him is to stay exactly even, which is not a thing anyone can plan.
Facing them — Stay level. His whole kit gets a discount the moment his side falls behind on hit points and a surcharge the moment it pulls ahead, so an even fight is the expensive one for him — the worst thing you can do is knock him down and leave him there. Walls do not work either: Longshot goes over sealed, roped-off, splintered and leashed tiles alike, so do not build a plan that depends on a square being closed to him. Only fire stops it.
The Knight
Passive — Vigil: BASTION stands in front. Every hit against him comes down by 1, always, to a floor of 1 — no cast, no cooldown, nothing to strip. In TEAM MODE it goes further: while he still has a hit point left, a blow that would knock his PARTNER out is taken by him instead. He does not out-damage anyone. He simply does not fall over, and neither does whoever he is standing next to.
Facing them — Every hit you land on him is worth one less, permanently, with nothing to strip and no cast to interrupt — so chip damage is close to worthless and big single blows are the only ones that keep their value. Do not bother removing his marks while Aegis is up; for that round nothing you own can touch them. And in TEAM MODE, killing his partner means going through him first, so take HIM down and the pair falls apart.
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