9 Kings Strategy Guide: Best Build and Combat Tips

To win runs in 9 Kings, structure your formation with high-health tanks in the front row to absorb damage and protect high-damage dealers in the back, while tailoring your item purchases to your monarch's core mechanics.

Arrange Unit Formations to Counter Threat Types

Unit positioning dictates how long your primary damage dealers survive each wave. Placing high-health tank units in the front row draws enemy aggro away from fragile damage dealers, giving scaling units time to build up their abilities.

When facing enemies with splash damage or piercing attacks, spread your units horizontally across the board instead of tightly grouping them. Spreading forces enemies to target single units rather than damaging your entire backline at once.

Manage Gold Economy for Early Star Upgrades

Avoid dumping gold into frequent rerolls during early rounds to hunt for high-rarity units. Star-level upgrades on low-tier units provide reliable early power spikes and preserve gold for later shop refreshes.

Maintain a gold buffer to buy key items or essential shop refreshes when transitioning to mid-game waves. While board strength must take priority over pure gold hoarding to secure winning streaks, saving gold prevents forced emergency spending on weak shop rolls.

Equip Items that Complement Monarch Mechanics

Items scale your board by boosting traits specific to your monarch:

• High Attack Speed Monarchs: Equip lifesteal items or percentage-based damage increases to capitalize on rapid attack rates.
• Summoning Monarchs: Equip items that increase unit count or activate secondary effects upon unit deaths.
• Crowd Control Builds: Prioritize core units with stuns or freeze abilities, then add items that extend status duration or capitalize on disabled enemies.

Equip immediate power boosts to preserve health and win streaks rather than hoarding inventory slots for speculative late-game item combinations.

Maintain Bench Reserves to Counter Evolving Waves

Treat your bench as an active tactical reserve rather than dead storage. Keep situational units—such as magic resistance tanks or crowd control units—on the bench to swap into your main lineup when facing specialized wave modifiers or boss mechanics.

If enemy compositions shift toward magic-heavy damage, pivot your active board by inserting magic resistance units or shield-granting items from your bench rather than overhauling your entire core deck strategy.