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9 Kings 1.0 Crowns a Million-Selling Early Access Run
Building a sensible kingdom has never really been the point of 9 Kings, as breaking one spectacularly is far more entertaining. Sad Socket and publisher Hooded Horse have launched 9 Kings into version 1.0, ending an Early Access period that began in May 2025 and saw the roguelike kingdom builder sell more than one million copies within its first year.
The full release is available on PC through Steam, GOG, the Epic Games Store, and the Microsoft Store, and it also joins PC Game Pass. A 50% launch discount runs until November 26, reducing its regular US$19.99 price on Steam.
That puts 9 Kings among a growing collection of systems-heavy strategy games in Hooded Horse’s catalogue, which also includes the roguelite city-building of Super Fantasy Kingdom and the factory-driven warfare of upcoming BELTFED.
Joker Mode Lets Players Build Their Own Nine-Card Kingdom
The headline addition for 1.0 is Joker Mode, a custom mode that gives players much more freedom over how a run begins. Instead of sticking to a particular King’s established card pool, players can build their own nine-card starting deck using cards drawn from across all Kings, then adjust additional rules to create their preferred setup.
That joins three existing modes: traditional single-player runs, asynchronous multiplayer battles against other player-created kingdoms and Quest Mode, which sends players across the nine lands through more curated challenges.
The broader card pool has also grown significantly during development. Sad Socket originally planned for 81 cards, but 1.0 now includes more than 130, including additional Rainbow Cards that enable particularly powerful combinations.
More Than 30 New Decrees Join the 1.0 Update
Joker Mode is only part of the final Early Access update. Version 1.0 introduces more than 30 new Decrees, bringing the overall pool beyond 140. Each King now has nine unique Decrees, alongside universal and Rainbow variants that can introduce additional buffs, modifiers, and unusual interactions.
There are also more than 110 perks, 80 quests and 140 vanity items, alongside random daily quests, new animations, audio improvements, performance work and other quality-of-life changes accumulated through player feedback.
That steady expansion has been central to 9 Kings since its Early Access debut. Sad Socket pushed out more than 30 patches during development, adding features including multiplayer, Quest Mode, additional Kings and Champions of Chaos encounters along the way.
Mobile versions of 9 Kings, published by Playdigious, are separately available on iOS and Android. For anyone who spent Early Access finding increasingly unreasonable combinations of buildings, armies, and spells, 1.0 doesn’t seem interested in restoring order. It is giving players more tools to break the kingdom even harder.
