Welcome to Zatikon! Like many turn based strategy games, it is difficult for a player to jump right in and be able to compete. As such it is a very frustrating experience to constantly be surprised by an opponent's moves simply because you did not understand the nuances of a certain piece. This guide is intended to help you spend less time trying to learn basic gameplay mechanics the hard way, and instead allow you more time to strategize.

- In Zatikon everyone plays to have fun and as such it is expected that you keep it friendly at all times, insults and the like are frowned upon by the community in general, but friendly banter is common; we are friendly, not strict.

If you find a way to cheat please report it as soon as possible, it is considered VERY rude to cheat in Zatikon and doing so you will more often than not leave you with no one to play with.

Inviting people is a good way to find someone to play with, however due to the way the chat windows are programmed simply pressing enter while chatting with someone else will cause you to accept an invite. Intentionally sending an invite during chat to trick someone into accepting a game is referred to as 'Dragging'. When dragged, the match the player left ends, since it is now in effect missing a player. To avoid dragging wait until players are not currently in a match or ask them permission to send an invite beforehand. It can be quite frustrating if you are in a coop and are 2 moves away from victory then you get 'dragged' out and into another type of match.

Zatikon is played on an 11x11 board, with a castle occupying 1 tile on each side of the board. The object of the game is to take one of your pieces and move it onto the opponent's castle. To do so a player is given 1000 points to construct an army, each unit has a specific point value; better units receive a higher point value.

The Main Menu is quite simple. In the bottom right you have the credits button. It shows you the credits.

Above the credits button is the refer friend button, this options allows you refer a friend via email. If that friend upgrades his/her Zatikon account you get 5k gold to spend on more units.

Above the refer friend button is the account button, it allows you to change your password and is also the place where you write the key code to upgrade your account when you get an expansion. Upgrading allows you to use more units and you get 10k as a thank you present from Chronic Logic for upgrading, this happens every time you upgrade.

Underneath the credits button are the sound and music buttons, it should be pretty obvious what these do, 1 click and no SFX or no music, this can only be used on the main menu and disables.

Single Player
In the bottom right is the single player button, this allows you to play against a computer.

Cooperative
Below the Single Player is the cooperative button, in cooperative you and another player play against the AI together. The rewards in cooperative are usually higher than in constructed or random. As with single player, the higher the level the AI is, the more gold you get. It is also worth mentioning that higher level players get a gold bonus for playing cooperative with a lower ranked player.

2 vs 2
Below Cooperative is the 2 VS 2 button, this starts a team match between 4 players. It's like cooperative mode except that it is against a team of other players. The match up is as follows: The first and second players that enter the search queue on team 1 while the third and forth on team 2.

Constructed
Next is the constructed button, this puts you a search mode for playing a constructed game, which is a game where you play against another player in a ranked match using an army you have created.

Random
After the constructed button is the random button, the random button initiates a search for an opponent for a ranked random match. The difference between constructed and random is that when you play random you are given a randomly generated army.

Edit Army
The button below the random button is the edit army button, this button is used to edit your army for use against the AI and other players in constructed or cooperative modes, more on this button later.

Army Archive
The next botton down is the army archive button. This button allows you to store an army you have made in the edit army screen so you can easily load it later. There are a total of 10 slots as of right now.

Buy New Unit
The bottom button is the new unit button. When you press this button you spend 100 gold and are given a random unit, however this unit can belong to an expansion regardless whether you own the expansion or not, so you may end up with units that you cannot use. As you get more units it gets cheaper to buy each unit in singles instead of hoping to hit it with random buying.

Current Rank and Gold
In the top left of the window is your username, current rank and your current gold . You get gold by defeating the AI in single player and by fighting against other players. You start out gaining only small amounts of gold per single player victory. The AI increases in difficulty as you defeat it and the amount of gold you earn per victory increases with the level of the AI, so after a few victories you are able to begin to earn the gold you need.

The player list shows who is currently online. The 2 crossed swords indicate the player is currently in a game, the little character with a green shirt indicates the player is available for play.

Using the player chat, a player can talk to other players, or use the invite function to invite players to participate in a cooperative game, or to play a non-ranked random or constructed game.

A player can also mute or un-mute players using the options tab.

The Zatikon chat window informs you of the latest updates, who is playing who, and the outcome of those games. It is great for getting people together or finding people to play with overall.