9 Kings Strategy Guide: Drafting, Positioning, and Run Progression

To win runs in 9 Kings, align your army draft with your active Monarch's unique traits, preserve gold during early shop turns, and position units strictly by their tactical survivability.

Aligning Drafts with Monarch Traits

Every run in 9 Kings centers on the unique passive traits and active buffs of your chosen Monarch. Early drafts dictate whether you should build a low-cost swarm army or reserve board space for late-game scaling units.

Early-Game Flexibility: Draft high-utility units during the first few rounds rather than locking into a rigid synergy immediately. Flexible units provide baseline board strength while you evaluate shop drops and relic options.
Synergy Commitment: Shift into specialized unit drafting once key Monarch-buffing relics or high-tier units appear in the shop.
Pruning Dead Weight: Sell early-tier units that no longer trigger passive bonuses or support your core win condition. Deck thinning keeps your unit pool focused on active synergies.

Tactical Board Placement

Board space in 9 Kings is strictly limited. Proper unit placement ensures maximum combat performance and protects your primary damage dealers.

Board Row	Recommended Unit Types	Tactical Function
Front Line	High-health tanks, units with "on-death" triggers	Absorbs incoming damage and triggers death effects immediately.
Back Line	Fragile high-damage units, ranged units	Maintains uninterrupted damage output behind protective tanks.
Adjacent Slots	Aura buffers, stat amplifiers	Maximizes stat bonuses by touching adjacent priority units.

Arrange your board so adjacent stat buffs reach your core damage dealers. Placing high-health tanks or units with death-triggered abilities directly in the front rank creates a defensive buffer, preventing enemy forces from wiping fragile units before their abilities trigger.

Managing Gold and Combat Risk

Shop rerolls cost gold that is better spent reaching higher unit tiers in the mid-game.

Limit Early Rerolls: Avoid spending gold on rerolls in early rounds. Save funds to build an economic surplus for mid-game shop tiers.
Prioritize Key Synergies: Purchase units that unlock major Monarch bonuses rather than spending gold on minor stat increases.
Preserve Health Buffers: Prioritize survival over greedy scaling during high-difficulty encounters. Taking a safe, minimal victory preserves your health pool, giving you more turns to find essential late-game relics.