Glossary and FAQ
Every Pixel Kingdom Wars term in one place (SHARDS, KEEP, deeds, stars, shields, writs, SIWS, SGT) plus plain answers to the questions players ask most.
Pixel Kingdom Wars has its own vocabulary, and some of it overlaps with Solana's. This page defines the words you will meet in the game and in these docs, then answers the questions players ask most often. Everything here reflects the playtest on Solana devnet: every SOL and KEEP figure is test-net money with no real value.
If a term links to another page, that page has the full rules and numbers. Where a feature is switched off or not yet deployed, this page says so rather than describing it as live.
Quick facts
- The game runs on Solana devnet. Devnet SOL and devnet KEEP are test tokens; nothing here is real money.
- SHARDS belong to your base and can never be withdrawn. KEEP belongs to your wallet and is the only thing you can deposit or withdraw.
- Raids move SHARDS only. KEEP is never lootable.
- Land costs 0.2 SOL (devnet) and unlocks the Gold Forge, the market, raiding landowners, and withdrawals.
- The playtest is invite-only: an admin invite code, a Seeker Genesis Token, or a friend's
KEEP-XXXXXreferral code gets you in.
Glossary
Terms are grouped by where you meet them. UI names are written the way they appear on screen.
Currencies and the economy
- SHARDS — the building currency. Off-chain points that belong to your base (and travel with its Land Deed if it is sold). You start with 5,000; Mines, the Daily Cache, quests, campaign prizes, and raid loot add more. SHARDS can never be withdrawn. See Economy: SHARDS and KEEP.
- KEEP — the game token: on-chain name "Pixel Kingdom Gold", symbol KEEP, 9 decimals, an SPL token on devnet. Your in-game KEEP balance is wallet-owned and is the only currency you can deposit or withdraw. Spending KEEP in-game returns it to the emission pool.
- Keep (capital K) — your base's central building, the thing almost every gate keys off. "Keep level 3" means the level of this building, not an amount of the token.
- Emission pool — the single bounded budget (seeded with 500,000,000 KEEP) that every gameplay KEEP reward comes out of: Gold Forge payouts and budgeted reward mail. KEEP you spend, convert to SHARDS, or leave unclaimed flows back into it.
- GOLD FORGE (the Forge) — the only place SHARDS become KEEP. Needs Keep level 3, land, and 2,500 SHARDS to build. Each UTC day you contribute SHARDS up to your Forge level's cap (2,000 at L1 to 200,000 at L20); at UTC midnight the day's 273,972 KEEP emission is split among everyone who contributed, in proportion to their SHARDS, never at more than about 0.78 KEEP per SHARD (so if the whole server puts in less than 350,000 SHARDS, the unclaimed remainder stays in the pool). Your share becomes claimable — tap claim within 30 days or it returns to the pool. See Gold Forge.
- Daily Cache — a free once-per-UTC-day SHARDS pickup that also tracks your streak: 100 × day in your first week (100 to 700), then 500 a day while your streak is 7 or more and 100 if you broke it. See Mining and the Daily Cache.
- Streak / consistency bonus — seven Daily Cache claims in a row multiplies all your mining by ×1.4. A gap of more than a day resets the streak to 1 and switches the bonus off.
- Epoch — not a player-facing economy mechanic here. The word appears only for the weekly Monday-aligned proof-of-reserves snapshot and as an internal baseline constant; nothing halves mining rates on devnet.
Land, deeds, and the globe
- Land — what 0.2 SOL (devnet) buys: an exact Earth cell, a Land Deed NFT, and the land-gated features. Owning land is server state, not something the NFT proves. See Land, deeds, and the globe.
- Land Deed / deed — a Metaplex Core NFT on devnet, one per base, named "Land Deed · xxxx…yyyy". Its picture is your actual base and its traits (Earth cell, country, Keep level, buildings, land size, founding date) update as you play. Selling the deed sells the whole base, never your wallet KEEP or SOL, your identity, or clan membership. Deeds carry a 5% creator royalty that marketplaces honour; it is not enforced on chain.
- Parcel / Earth cell — one 0.5° land cell on the real Earth (about 55 km across at the equator, roughly a county), identified by a cell index and a country. There are exactly 58,920 base tiles; when they are gone the game says Earth is sold out. Ocean and Antarctica are not claimable.
- Globe / WORLD — the Earth map where every landowner's parcel sits. You see public name, avatar, and Keep level; tap a parcel for shield status, approximate loot ranges, and whether you can attack. Reach is trophies, never distance.
- Landless / deedless — a free base with no land. It has no parcel, is invisible on the globe, cannot be scouted or raided by landowners, and is matched only against other landless keeps.
Raids and combat
- Raid — an instant attack on another base. There is no travel time: 30 seconds to begin deploying, then a 90-second battle from the first unit landed. See Raids and loot.
- Stars — one for destroying 50% of the base (walls and traps do not count), one for destroying the Keep, one for 100%. Any star is a win.
- Energy — raid energy, one per PvP raid. 6 free per UTC day; more for 0.03 SOL each or 6 for 0.09 SOL (devnet). Campaign raids cost none.
- Ante — SHARDS the attacker pays to start a PvP raid: 100 × your Keep level. Refunded if the raid expires unsubmitted.
- Lootable pool — half of the defender's liquid SHARDS and open Forge stake combined, escrowed when the raid starts. You take 25% / 50% / 100% of what is exposed for 1 / 2 / 3 stars, plus the uncollected buffer of every Mine you destroy.
Why: mined wealth is meant to be raidable and KEEP is not. Keeping loot in SHARDS lets raids matter without ever touching the withdrawable token.
- Vault — a building that shields part of your raid-lootable SHARDS. Up to 50% of a base's liquid + open-Forge SHARDS is at stake in a raid; the highest Vault still standing shields 1.5 of those points per level (30 points at level 20, leaving 20% lootable). A Vault that falls in the raid protects nothing.
- Trophies — your rating: +8 / +12 / +16 for 1 / 2 / 3 stars, −10 for a 0-star attack, scaled by the rating gap. Trophies belong to the base and transfer with its deed.
- League — Bronze / Silver / Gold / Sol at 0 / 400 / 800 / 1,200 trophies, recomputed every Monday. Tiers are live; the weekly KEEP prize pot currently has no funding source, so expect 0 KEEP from it.
- Shield — 2 days (48 h) of immunity granted when a raid against you scores at least 1 star. Attacking anyone drops your own shield (PvE never does). Extend by 12 h for 0.05 SOL once 36 h or less remain, never past 48 h total.
- Revenge — a map flag on anyone who raided you in the last 4 hours. It is a badge, not a bypass: trophy window, shield, and once-per-day rules still apply.
- Warzone — an admin-opened shieldless window with its own rules. Implemented, but off by default and only active when an operator opens one.
- Writ — an elite training writ, an item that unlocks one elite troop for your wallet: Mage, Dragon, Gloamfang, Hexbarrow, or Direwyvern. The Mage writ is sold in the shop for 5,000 KEEP; the other four drop only from the Gold Forge and can be traded on the market. See Troops and heroes.
- Relic — mostly a nickname. The inventory has a RELIC tab, but no item in the catalog is a relic today; the word is used informally for the drop-only WARZONE AEGIS, which can never be bought or sold.
- Campaign — 100 authored PvE stages in 10 acts. Free: no energy, no ante, no trophies, no shield break; best stars are kept and the first 3★ on a stage pays a one-time SHARDS prize. See Campaign and PvE.
Wallets, sign-in, and the playtest
- SIWS — Sign-In With Solana. The game sends your wallet a message to sign; signing proves you own the wallet and opens a 7-day session. The message says it plainly: no transaction, no fees. Sensitive actions (withdrawals, 2FA changes, key export) ask for a second, fresh signature over the exact request, valid for 5 minutes. See Wallets and sign-in.
- MWA — Mobile Wallet Adapter, the Android path where the game hands off to your installed wallet app (CONNECT WALLET APP). It is the route on Seeker's web shell and Android Chrome. On iOS the game instead opens inside the wallet's own browser via OPEN IN PHANTOM / SOLFLARE / BACKPACK.
- Embedded wallet (Privy) — CONTINUE WITH GOOGLE / X / EMAIL creates a Solana wallet for you with no seed phrase, then signs in with the same SIWS flow. Key export happens inside Privy's own modal and requires Privy MFA. Only present when the build has it enabled.
- Seeker / SGT — Solana Mobile's phone and its Seeker Genesis Token. A wallet holding an SGT is auto-admitted to the playtest and gets the ◈ VERIFIED SOLANA MOBILE SEEKER badge. One SGT admits at most one game account, forever. The SGT and
.skrchecks (and the PROFILE wallet tab's SKR/USDC/USDT balances) are read from mainnet; all game money is devnet. A.skrname alone grants nothing. - Invite code — the one-time 26-character code emailed after your application is approved. Single-use; a used code and a wrong code return the same error.
- Referral code —
KEEP-XXXXX, given to every admitted player. It admits up to 25 wallets and, once the referred player mints a deed and reaches Keep 3, adds +0.5% to your mining while they stay active. See Playtest and the tester program. - 2FA / TOTP — an authenticator app enrolled on the SECURITY screen (reached from PROFILE or the KEEP WALLET). Needed for instant withdrawals once it has been active for 24 hours. Email codes are a contact and recovery factor, never a money factor. See Deposits, withdrawals, and 2FA.
- Unbonding — the 24-hour hold on a standard withdrawal. Your KEEP is frozen and raid-protected during it, and you can cancel at any time.
- PoR — proof of reserves.
GET /porpublishes the custody wallet's reserve against all player liabilities plus a weekly Merkle root posted on chain. There is no in-game proof screen yet. See Smart contracts and on-chain. - Builder — a worker that runs one job at a time (build, upgrade, clear, repair). You start with 1 and, once you own land, can buy up to 6 with SOL; walls need no builder. See Base building.
FAQ
Is this real money?
No. The playtest runs on Solana devnet. Devnet SOL and the devnet KEEP token are test-net tokens with no real value, and there is no mainnet deployment, no exchange pool, and no mainnet game state. Treat every price and payout on these pages as a test number.
How do I get an invite?
Three ways in: apply at pixelkingdomwars.com and redeem the one-time code from your approval email; hold a Seeker Genesis Token (checked automatically on the PLAYTEST ACCESS screen); or redeem a friend's KEEP-XXXXX referral code, typed into the gate or carried by a ?ref= link. Admission sticks to your wallet. Signing in is not gated, so you can connect first and redeem afterwards, and no SOL is needed to redeem.
Do I need to pay to play?
No. Once admitted, your first base appears on your first visit with a level-1 Keep and 5,000 SHARDS. Building, mining, training, heroes, quests, and the 100-stage campaign are free and stay free. Buying land (0.2 devnet SOL) adds your parcel, the Gold Forge, market trading, raiding landowners, PvE bounties, the clan screens (clans themselves are COMING SOON), and withdrawals.
Where are my SHARDS? Why isn't my balance going up?
SHARDS sit in a Mine until you collect them, and each Mine holds at most one day of output. When its buffer is full, production pauses; nothing is lost, it just stops until you tap collect. A Mine also only produces after its build job completes. And if you switched bases, remember each base has its own SHARDS.
Tip: collect at least once a day. A full Mine is not losing SHARDS, but it is not making any either.
What can be stolen from me?
SHARDS only. A raid exposes half of your base's liquid SHARDS plus any SHARDS in today's open Gold Forge, and a 3-star attacker can take all of that exposed share; destroyed Mines also hand over their uncollected buffers. KEEP is never lootable, KEEP in withdrawal escrow is raid-protected, and nothing on chain (your deed, your wallet SOL) can be taken by a raid. You never gain KEEP from raiding either.
Can I lose my land?
Not through gameplay. Raids move SHARDS and trophies, never the parcel or the deed. Your land changes hands only if the Land Deed NFT leaves your wallet because you sold or transferred it; then the whole base follows the deed to the new owner.
Why did my raid get 0 stars?
Stars need 50% destruction (walls and traps do not count), the Keep destroyed, or 100% destruction. If the fight ended before you reached half the base and the Keep still stood, you scored nothing, lost 10 trophies (more if you were the favourite), and paid the ante. The battle ends early once no attacker troop is alive and you have nothing left to deploy, so keep reserves for the 90-second clock.
Why can't I attack this base?
The usual reasons: it is shielded (a shield blocks targeting and scouting); it is outside your trophy window (±20% of your trophies on the map, floor 50); you already attacked it today (once per UTC day per target); its owner is mid-attack themselves; or it is on the other side of the land line, because landless keeps and landowners never meet.
Why can't I withdraw yet?
Withdrawing KEEP needs land (a paid deed with an active base). Then: at least 500 KEEP per request, a 2% fee, one withdrawal per rolling 24 hours, and a daily cap set by your strongest paid base's Keep level (50,000 at L1 up to 250,000 at L20). A standard withdrawal freezes your KEEP for 24 hours before it pays out. An authenticator enabled for 24 hours lets you tick INSTANT and skip the hold; disabling or re-enrolling it resets that clock, and email codes never unlock instant. Everything is devnet KEEP.
My withdrawal says FAILED. Is my KEEP gone?
No. A failed payout keeps the full amount in escrow. A REFUND button appears only when the server can prove nothing was sent; otherwise contact support rather than retrying, because the transfer may already have landed on chain.
Can I buy KEEP with SOL?
Not right now. The KEEP WALLET screen shows BUY KEEP WITH SOL — TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE, and the server refuses the request. You can still deposit KEEP you already hold, and convert KEEP to SHARDS 1:1 (one way).
Where is my Gold Forge KEEP?
Forge payouts are not auto-credited. After UTC midnight your share appears as claimable; tap claim within 30 days or it returns to the pool. Settlement is deferred while any contributing base is in a live raid, so a day can settle a little late. Item drops land in the contributing base's inventory in the same transaction, at most one of each item per day.
Why didn't I get a league prize?
League tiers are live, but the weekly KEEP pot currently has no funding source in the code, so the Monday settlement pays 0 KEEP unless operators fund it.
Why can't I train Dragons or Mages?
Five elite troops need a training writ consumed for your wallet: Mage (shop, 5,000 KEEP) and Dragon, Gloamfang, Hexbarrow, and Direwyvern (Gold Forge drops only, tradeable on the market). Wallets created before 2026-08-17 that met the old Keep-level gates keep those troops permanently.
Can I create a clan?
Not yet. Clans are COMING SOON: founding and joining are refused in this playtest, and the clan screens also need land. Existing pre-freeze clans are preserved.
What happens if I sell my deed?
The buyer gets the complete playable base: structures, the SHARDS on that base, Mines, army, heroes, items, trophies, and battle history. Your wallet KEEP and SOL, your username, and your clan membership stay with you. The base arrives inactive for the buyer until they activate it, and the game notices the transfer within about a minute.
Can I have more than one base?
Yes. Each deed is a base; you can hold any number and keep up to 5 active at once. Each base has its own SHARDS, army, and trophies; KEEP and your identity are shared across them.
Why does the game open inside my wallet app on iPhone?
Because iOS gives wallet apps no way to return to Safari or Chrome, OPEN IN PHANTOM (or Solflare, Backpack) runs the game in the wallet's own browser. On Android you can also use CONNECT WALLET APP. If you installed the game to your Home Screen, the Google / X / Email option keeps you inside the installed app.
Who decides what happened in a battle?
The server. Clients only render and submit orders; validation, costs, timers, and raid resolution happen server-side, and replays play back the server's event timeline rather than re-simulating. Every battle on a deed is kept forever with its replay.
How many bases fit on Earth?
58,920. Earth is divided into base tiles — one base per tile, one tile per 0.5° land cell (about 55 km across) in a real country — and there are 58,920 of them. When the last tile is taken the server refuses to put two bases on one cell: Earth is full. Where your tile is never decides who you can attack — raids are matched by trophies, not by distance. Details in Land, deeds and the globe.
How do I get devnet SOL?
You usually do not have to: the game funds your wallet automatically with free devnet SOL once your first Keep stands (0.5 SOL per grant, topped up when you run low, 1.5 SOL lifetime during the playtest). If the grant fails, the in-game banner and your welcome mail show the faucet.solana.com fallback.