How Castles Work
The ZapMap challenge. No land is ever lost here — but positions can be taken. A Castle is your ZapRush streak against the wall on a hex you want.
The Castle
A Castle trades two positions. From one of your hexes, you challenge a neighboring enemy hex: you play a ZapRush, and your streak goes against the ZapWall posted on it.
In a swap, both sides keep what they built. Your hex's Volts travel with you onto the new position — plus the winning run's Volts — and the owner's travel with them onto your old hex. Below: a real Castle, on camera.
- 1On a ZapMap, pick an enemy hex that touches one of yours, and choose which of your neighboring hexes you challenge from. No adjacent hex, no Castle.
- 2You play a ZapRush — it comes out of your free daily runs, and your streak is what counts.
- 3Your streak beats the wall (matching it is not enough) — you and the owner swap positions. Your Volts travel with you; your new wall is your streak; the owner lands on your old hex with a fresh wall of 14.
- 4Fall short — nothing moves, and the run still banks its Volts to you: every ZapRush run pays.
- 5Either way, the owner hears it from the bell.
Defending
Same truth as duels: there's no defense action. The wall you built is the fight. Fourteen is a stroll; twenty-five is a real ask; forty is a fortress. Where you set it is where you set your risk.
When a castle lands, the swap is immediate. The notification arrives after — new position, wall reset to 14, get fortifying.
Duel vs Castle
Two challenges, one per world — and nothing is ever destroyed: hexes change owners, positions trade. The difference, side by side:
When a player leaves
One rare case bends the swap rule. When a player deletes their account, their hexes leave with them — except a hex that's under a live Castle at that exact moment. That one stays on the board, ownerless, so your run isn't wasted.
Finish the run and the hex is yours automatically — with no owner left, there's no wall to beat. But there's also no one to trade places with, so this is the one Castle that moves you instead of swapping you: your Volts travel to the new position, your streak becomes its wall (never below the map's minimum of 10), and your old hex is removed from the map. A relocation, not a swap — and you can't start a Castle against an ownerless hex; this only happens when the owner leaves mid-fight.
Positions taken. The last move of this world is the one that stops it happening to you: the wall itself.