Getting started
What Pixel Kingdom Wars is, what you need to play, and your first five minutes: connect, sign in, get past the playtest gate, and build.
Pixel Kingdom Wars is a pixel-art base-builder on Solana. You raise a Keep, mine Shards, train an army, and raid other players' bases; land ownership and the game's KEEP token live on-chain, while every rule, cost, and battle is decided by the game server. The game is in playtest on Solana devnet, which means the SOL and KEEP you see are test-net tokens with no real value, and you need an invite to get in.
Quick facts
- Where: play.pixelkingdomwars.com in a browser, desktop or mobile.
- You need: a Solana wallet (Phantom, Solflare, or Backpack recommended) or, where offered, a Google / X / email login that creates a wallet for you.
- Signing in is free: one signature, no transaction, no fees.
- It is invite-only right now: invite code, Seeker Genesis Token, or a friend's referral code.
- On Solana Seeker, install Pixel Kingdom Wars from the Solana dApp Store — it opens the same game in an app shell, and a Seeker wallet is admitted automatically.
- Your first base is free: Keep level 1, 5,000 Shards, one builder, and terrain to clear.
- Free, and stays free: building, mining Shards, training, heroes, quests, and the campaign.
- Buying land costs 0.2 devnet SOL and unlocks the Gold Forge, the market, raiding landowners, PvE bounties, and withdrawals.
What kind of game this is
Three things shape everything else:
- The server is authoritative. Your browser draws the base and sends orders; the server validates every build, timer, cost, and raid. Every number on your HUD comes from the server, not from the client.
- Land and KEEP are on-chain. Buying land mints a Land Deed NFT for one cell of the globe, and KEEP is an SPL token. Shards, the everyday building currency, stay inside the game and are never withdrawable.
- It is a playtest on devnet. Everything works with devnet SOL and devnet KEEP. Treat all of it as test money. See Smart contracts and on-chain for the details.
Your wallet is funded for you (devnet)
Everything on-chain in the playtest runs on Solana devnet, so the SOL involved is free test SOL. You no longer need to hunt for a faucet: once your first Keep stands, the game funds your wallet automatically with 0.5 devnet SOL (it tops you up again later when you run low, up to a playtest lifetime cap of 1.5 SOL). A small banner tells you when the SOL has arrived. If the automatic grant ever fails, the same banner shows the two-minute fallback: copy your address, open faucet.solana.com, choose Devnet, request SOL.
Your welcome mail also carries 5,000 KEEP as a claimable reward — open MAIL and tap CLAIM. It is enough to try the shop, elite troops and the Gold Forge without grinding first.
What you need
A Solana wallet. The game recommends Phantom, Solflare, or Backpack, in that order; the Jupiter Extension is also recognised on desktop, listed after those three. On desktop you install a browser extension (Chrome, Brave, Edge, or Firefox; Safari cannot host wallet extensions). On mobile you open the game inside your wallet app's browser, or on Android use CONNECT WALLET APP.
No wallet yet? When the build offers it, CONTINUE WITH GOOGLE / X / EMAIL creates an embedded Solana wallet for you with no seed phrase. It then signs in exactly like an external wallet.
Tip: On iPhone and iPad, Apple gives wallet apps no way back to Safari or Chrome, so your wallet opens the game in its own browser. That is normal. If you have installed the game to your Home Screen, the social login option is moved to the top so you can stay inside the installed app.
For every connect path, error message, and platform quirk, see Wallets and sign-in.
Your first five minutes
1. Connect
Open the game and tap CONNECT WALLET on the title screen.
The connect sheet adapts to your device: on desktop it lists wallets it detects in your browser first, then store links under NO WALLET YET?; on mobile it offers OPEN IN PHANTOM / SOLFLARE / BACKPACK links that reopen the game inside that wallet, plus CONNECT WALLET APP on Android.
2. Sign the sign-in message
Once connected, the title button changes to PLAY AS <your short wallet address>. Tap it and your wallet asks you to sign a message that reads, in part: "Sign to authenticate with Pixel Kingdom Wars. This request will not trigger a blockchain transaction or cost any fees." That is exactly what it does: it proves you hold the wallet, nothing more.
- The sign-in request expires after 5 minutes; if you wait longer, just tap PLAY AS again.
- Your session lasts 7 days on that browser. Signing out or revoking the session ends it immediately.
- Signing in creates only a player record. Your base is not created yet.
Why: A signed message is the standard "Sign in with Solana" proof. It costs nothing and moves nothing, which is why the game can ask every player to do it before showing them anything.
3. Get through the playtest gate
Until your wallet has been admitted, you land on the JOIN THE PLAYTEST screen: "Pixel Kingdom Wars is in an invite playtest on Solana devnet — free to play, nothing in it is real money. Enter the one-time invite code from your approval email (or a friend's KEEP- code) to unlock this account."
There are three ways in, and one text field handles two of them:
| Way in | What to do |
|---|---|
| Invite code | Apply at pixelkingdomwars.com (the gate links to the form). When approved, you get a one-time 26-character code by email. Paste it into the gate. |
| Seeker Genesis Token | If the wallet you signed in with holds a Solana Mobile Seeker Genesis Token, the gate checks automatically and admits you with SEEKER VERIFIED — WELCOME TO THE PLAYTEST. No code needed. |
| Friend's referral code | Any admitted player can share a KEEP-XXXXX code. Type it into the same field, or open play.pixelkingdomwars.com/?ref=KEEP-XXXXX and the gate redeems it for you after sign-in. |
Rules worth knowing:
- Admission sticks to the wallet. Once in, you stay in.
- Invite codes are single-use. A used code and a wrong code produce the same "invalid or already-used invite code" answer.
- One referral code can admit at most 25 wallets, and you cannot refer yourself.
- One Seeker Genesis Token admits at most one game account, ever. If your SGT sits in a different wallet than the one you signed in with, the gate lets you link it.
- You do not need any SOL to redeem a code.
More on invites, applying, and the tester program in Playtest and tester program.
4. Meet your free first base
The first time an admitted player opens the base screen, the server creates it: a Keep at level 1 in the center of your claim, 5,000 Shards to spend, one builder, and a plot scattered with trees, rocks, and stumps. Your plot is 30x30 tiles, and the buildable claim in the middle starts at 14x14; the empty ring outside it is where attackers will later drop troops.
Nothing else is pre-placed, so your first job is to build.
5. Follow the tutorial
A short walkthrough appears on your first visit to the base: 14 cards that cover the camera, the Keep, Mines, the Vault and Gold Forge, your first building, Barracks and Camps, defenses, heroes, raiding, multiple kingdoms, quests, mail, and land. Tap NEXT to advance or SKIP TUTORIAL to dismiss it; some cards advance themselves when you do the thing they describe (fit the camera, place a building, collect). You can replay it any time from PROFILE → SETTINGS → REPLAY TUTORIAL.
Your first builds
Nearly every building costs Shards and, except walls, ties up your single builder for its build time. One builder means one job at a time, so order matters. A sensible opening with 5,000 Shards:
| Building | Cost | Build time | Why first |
|---|---|---|---|
| MINE (your first) | 400 Shards | 60 s | It is your income. A level-1 Mine next to a level-1 Keep makes 500 Shards per day. |
| ARMY CAMP | 1,000 Shards | 60 s | Holds your army. |
| BARRACKS | 300 Shards | 1 h | Trains troops. |
| CANNON or ARCHER TWR | 200 / 250 Shards | 1 h | Your first defense. |
| VAULT | 800 Shards | 60 s | Protects part of your Shards from raiders. |
| WALL | 150 Shards each | instant | Never uses a builder; drag to place a run. |
A few rules that catch new players:
- You can own 2 Mines at Keep level 1 (8 from Keep level 7). Only the first Mine costs Shards; the 2nd through 8th cost KEEP.
- Buildings still under construction exist on the map but do not count for defense, troop capacity, or mining until the job finishes.
- Clearing a tree or rock costs 10–60 Shards and a bit of builder time, and pays back 15 Shards when it finishes. Only obstacles inside your claim can be cleared.
- Moving a building is free and instant. There is no way to sell or demolish one, so place with care.
- The Keep gates everything: no building can be upgraded past your Keep level, new building types unlock at set Keep levels, and how many of each you can place grows with it. Upgrading the Keep from level 1 to 2 costs 182 Shards and takes 8 hours.
Tip: Your first Keep upgrade is an 8-hour builder job. Queue the quick 60-second builds first, then start the Keep before you log off.
Full costs, timers, caps, and the defense roster are in Base building and Defenses, traps, and walls.
Collecting
Mines produce around the clock into a buffer that holds at most one day of output. When the buffer is full, production pauses (nothing is lost) until you collect, so check in at least daily.
Once you have a finished Mine, a free Daily Cache also becomes available once per UTC day. In your first week it pays 100 Shards times your streak day (100 on day 1 up to 700 on day 7); after that it pays 500 a day while your streak is 7 or more, and a 7-day streak also multiplies your mining by 1.4. Miss a day and the streak resets to 1. Daily quests add a little more, paid in Shards.
Details in Mining and daily cache and Economy: Shards and KEEP.
Pick a name
Until you choose one, other players see you as your short wallet address. Set a name in PROFILE → SETTINGS: 3–16 characters, letters, digits, _ and -, unique across the game. You can rename once every 30 days, so choose one you like. Verified Seekers can adopt their .skr domain as their name.
What buying land unlocks later
You can play for free indefinitely: build, mine, train, level heroes, do quests, and fight the campaign. While you own no land, your base is not on the globe, nobody can find or raid it, and your PvP matches are only against other landless keeps. The HUD reminds you with NO LAND YET — FORGE, MARKET & RAIDS LOCKED.
When you are ready, BUY YOUR LAND · 0.2 SOL (devnet SOL; the tutorial points you to faucet.solana.com to get some). You pick a cell on the globe or take a random one, the server freezes that exact cell and price before your wallet is asked to pay, and confirmation on-chain takes about 30 seconds. That single payment gives you:
- Your parcel on the globe and a Land Deed NFT.
- The GOLD FORGE, the only way to turn Shards into KEEP (needs Keep level 3 as well).
- Buying and selling on the market.
- Raiding landowners and PvE bounty raids.
- Withdrawals of KEEP to your wallet (devnet KEEP, no real value).
- A place in clans later: land is one of the requirements, but clan warfare is still marked COMING SOON in the game and clan creation is switched off.
- The ability to buy extra builders and land expansions with SOL.
It also puts you on the map: once you own land, other landowners can raid you.
Why: "Free until you buy land" is deliberate. The free game earns nothing withdrawable (quests, for example, pay Shards and never KEEP), and the money-facing features (Forge, market, withdrawals) are tied to a Land Deed, so they move with the land rather than with a throwaway account.
See Land, deeds, and the globe for the full purchase flow and Deposits, withdrawals, and 2FA for cashing out.