How to play PathWars

PathWars is Quoridor online: race your pawn to the far side of the board while spending walls to slow your rival down. A match takes two to five minutes; the rules take about two minutes to learn and a long time to master.

1. The goal

In Duel (9×9) you start at the bottom edge and your rival starts at the top. The first pawn to reach the opposite edge wins — any square of that far row counts. In Race (9×13) both pawns start at the bottom, side by side, and run to the top row. In the four-player game (11×11) all four pawns race for the single golden cell in the very centre of the board.

2. Your turn: move or wall

Each turn you do exactly one thing:

• Move your pawn one square up, down, left or right (no diagonals — except for jumps, see below).
• Place one wall on the board. Walls are limited: 10 each in Duel, 10 or 15 each in Race (chosen when the room is created), 7 each with four players. Spent walls never come back.

You cannot move and wall on the same turn. That single choice — road for me, or trouble for them — is the whole game.

3. How walls work

A wall sits between squares and is two squares long, placed either horizontally or vertically. A wall cannot be jumped over, only walked around. Pawns never leave the board and walls never overlap, but they may touch and form longer barriers — that is how real traps are built (see wall tactics).

The rival can no longer walk straight down the middle — the road now bends around the wall ends. Every wall you place should buy you more than it costs: count both roads before spending (more in strategies).

4. Jumping over your rival

When the two pawns stand on adjacent squares, you may jump over the rival to the square directly behind them instead of an ordinary step. If a wall or the board edge sits right behind them, the jump goes diagonally to one of the two side squares. In the four-player game, if two pawns stand in a line directly ahead and there is nowhere to go but backwards, you may jump over both.

5. The rule that shapes everything: no full block

You may never place a wall that leaves any opponent with no route to their goal at all. The game checks every wall and simply refuses illegal ones. So a wall is always a detour, never a prison — the art is in forcing long detours cheaply while keeping your own road short.

6. Time limits

The room creator picks the format: no overall limit, 3 minutes or 5 minutes per player for the whole game. Either way, a single move may take at most 30 seconds — miss it and you lose (in the four-player game you are out while the other three play on). Lose connection mid-game and you have 30 seconds to come back; across a game those pauses add up to one minute, then the next disconnect is a loss.

7. Your first game, move by move

1. Tap Quick match — a nickname is assigned and an opponent is found in seconds.
2. Moves 1–3: just run. Walk straight toward your goal and watch which way the rival runs.
3. Move 4+: place your first wall only when you see the rival's road — bend it sideways, don't just drop a wall in front of yourself.
4. Endgame: when both pawns are 2–3 rows from the goal, stop walling and count: if your road is shorter, just run — every wall you place now is a move you didn't spend running.

Practice against the computer first (about the AI levels) — it never judges and never waits.

8. Scoring and ranks

Public-room wins earn rating points: +25 for a win, +40 if the opponent outranked you; a loss costs 10, or 20 against a weaker rival. Rating never drops below zero. Points build ranks: Rookie → Student → Strategist → Wall Master → Pro → Legend → GOAT. Friend games by code and practice against the AI never touch the rating — they are for fun and training.

Beginner mistakes

• Walling too early. Walls placed before you know the rival's plan usually bend nothing. Run first, wall second.
• Chasing instead of racing. If your road is shorter, run — don't spend moves slowing someone who is already behind.
• Forgetting the jump. Standing next to the rival is often a free two-square leap, not a traffic jam.
• Burning the clock. 30 seconds a move feels generous until the endgame. Decide your plan on the rival's move, not yours.