How to Win at Riftbound

The short answer

The game checks for a winner each time it cleans up, which happens after almost anything that changes the board. You win at that moment if you have at least the victory score and more points than every opponent. The victory score is 8 in 1v1 and in free-for-all games, and 11 in 2v2. Most of those points come from the battlefields in the middle of the table, so the whole game is a fight over which units are standing where.

The four ways to gain points

Each battlefield can score for you only once per turn, by conquer or by hold, never both. In 1v1 there are two battlefields, so a normal turn is worth at most 2 points from them. A battlefield you take on your turn and keep through your opponent's turn scores twice: once for the conquer, once more for the hold at the start of your next turn.

You only control a battlefield while you have units there. If your last unit at one dies or goes home, you stop controlling it, and there is nothing to hold next turn. Keeping a unit at each battlefield you want to hold is most of what defending means in Riftbound.

The 8th point: the final point rule

The last point is harder to get on purpose. When you are one point from the victory score, a conquer gives you that point only if you have scored every battlefield this turn. If you haven't, you still take control of the battlefield, but you draw a card instead of gaining the point.

The rule only touches conquering. A hold, a point from a card and a point from an opponent's burn out all count normally, at 7 points or at any other score.

Without this rule, a player at 7 could win with a single attack on an empty battlefield. With it, winning by conquest means controlling the whole board for a turn, which gives the player behind a real chance to stop it.

Three ways to get the 8th point in 1v1

The second plan is the one beginners miss. A hold counts as scoring that battlefield for the turn, so holding one battlefield at 6 points takes you to 7 and also unlocks the final point for a conquer later the same turn.

There is one more route: a card that says you score a point. Those points ignore the final point rule, so a deck with one can finish a game without controlling the board.

Ties, burning out and conceding

If two players are at or above the victory score at the same time, the one with more points wins. If they are tied, nobody wins yet, and the game goes on until one of them is ahead when the game checks again.

You don't lose for running out of cards. When you have to draw from an empty main deck, you burn out: shuffle your trash into a new main deck, choose an opponent to gain 1 point, then draw. With a 40-card deck this is rare, but a long game or a deck that draws a lot can get there, and that 1 point can be your opponent's last.

A player can concede at any time. When only one player is left in the game, that player wins.

Beginner strategy: playing for points

These are habits rather than rules, and good players break them when the board calls for it. They are a solid starting point for your first games.

Count both scores every turn

Before you move anything, count what you can score this turn and what your opponent can score on theirs. A battlefield they will hold next turn is worth a point to them, so taking it away is often worth as much as scoring one yourself.

Leave units behind to hold

A conquer is 1 point. A conquer you keep through your opponent's turn is 2. Moving every unit out to chase a second battlefield can leave the first one empty, and an empty battlefield can't be held.

Don't attack into a fight you can't win

If the defender still has units after damage, your survivors go back to your base and nothing is scored. Add up both sides' Might before you move, and remember your opponent may have an Action or Reaction card waiting for the showdown. How combat works walks through the math.

Plan the last point a turn early

At 5 or 6 points, look at how you will get to 8, not just to the next point. Ending your turn with units on a battlefield sets up a hold, and a hold at the start of the next turn opens the hold-one, conquer-the-other route. Your opponent knows the final point rule too, and will spend their turn trying to clear the battlefield you plan to hold.

Keep a trick for the showdown

Most close fights are decided by a card played during the showdown. Holding one Action or Reaction card, and the runes to pay for it, makes attacking into you riskier for your opponent and defending against you harder.

Winning in other modes

With three battlefields in play, the final point by conquest needs all three scored in one turn, which is harder than in 1v1. In 2v2, a battlefield your teammate controlled during your Beginning Phase doesn't count against you. How scoring works in Riftbound has the full scoring rules for each mode and what happens when time is called at a tournament.

Frequently Asked Questions