Chessillo

Chessillo combines chess with an army-building roguelike. Your pieces move as they do in chess, but their abilities can bend its rules: pawns can return from the dead, kings can inherit another piece’s movement, and rooks can cross the board through portals. Recruit pieces, equip them with abilities from different factions and face three enemy kings in each run.

Battles and objectives

Battles have three possible objectives: capture the enemy king before he reaches yours, eliminate every enemy piece, or survive for as many turns as possible while threats fill the board. The army that feels powerful in one battle may be awkward in another, so you need to consider the objective before sacrificing pieces.

Playable princes

You can choose from three princes, each with a different power:

• Necromancer Prince — Death: Fallen pieces can return as specters beside your King. With Ritual, you sacrifice an adjacent ally so your King absorbs its movement.
• Withered Prince — Time: Once per act, he can rewind a full turn. With Final Hour, one of his pieces falling catches the entire enemy army in time.
• Wandering Prince — Space: He starts with extra inventory space and turns the board into a network of shortcuts. With Portal, he opens two linked gateways that let pieces move from one to the other.

Build your army

After every battle, you can improve your army by recruiting pieces, adjusting the ones you have and making choices in the shop. Some pieces serve as sacrificial fodder; others can win a battle with an ability that seemed minor at first. A shop, an enchanter and rituals give you ways to reshape your forces between fights.

Three acts

Each run has three acts, ending with an enemy king who has distinct abilities and an event exclusive to that act. Each king pressures the board in a different way. Defeat all three to complete the run, or risk losing your army along the way.