How to Play on ZapMaps
Above the Arenas sits a second game — slower, meaner, and played for bigger ground. ZapMaps are the territory maps: you never play a game on them, and placed land is never taken away.
This chapter is the world itself: earning ground, placing it, and the wall that guards your position. The fights here — Castles and Fortify — each get their own chapter after this one.
ZapMaps
Same hex grid as the Arena, different rules — and a different board to prove it. You don't claim here by playing ZapStacks — you place ZapClaims you earned by completing tiers. Each hex stands for something one level down: ZapCores on a subcategory map, subcategories on a category's map, whole roots on the General map.
And you don't duel here. You castle — a different fight, with its own chapter. Below: a real ZapMap, read stop by stop.
Completing a tier
Play every ZapStack in a ZapCore end to end, with a real result on each — that's completion, and it sticks. Lose hexes later; nobody can take the completion.
What you get is a ZapClaim: a hex you've earned but haven't placed, for the ZapMap one level up. Finish every ZapCore in a subcategory, same deal a level higher. ZapClaims don't expire and don't place themselves — they wait in your ZapFolio until you decide where they go.
Placing a ZapClaim
Open your ZapFolio and pick the token — or tap glowing ground on the map itself. Placement follows the same law as everything else: you build next to the action. Your first hex on a map lands adjacent to ground that's already taken; after that, you grow from your own. Fully surrounded? The map loosens and lets you place beside anyone again.
Every placement starts with a ZapWall of 14 — middle of the range. From there it's yours to raise, or yours to lose. Where you place matters as much as what you earned — the neighbor bonus applies here too. Below: a real free hex, placed on camera.
ZapWall
On ZapMaps your land can't be taken — your position can, and the wall is what stands in the way. Baseline 14, floor 10, ceiling wherever your ZapRush streak can reach. A taller wall means a longer streak required to move you.
The wall doesn't fight anyone for you. It just stands there and dares them to climb. A 14 is an invitation. A 25 is a real ask. Past 30, most rivals look elsewhere.
- 1Every placed hex raises a ZapWall at 14. A Castle swap hands the displaced owner a fresh 14 too.
- 2A Castle takes the position only by strictly beating the wall.
- 3A successful Fortify raises it — to exactly your streak.
- 4Every enemy Fortify on a touching hex drops it by 1.
- 5The floor is 10. And no wall ever moves with time — only play moves walls.
The climb
Bottom to top: ZapStacks are the games. Arenas are the daily fight. Completed ZapCores earn ground on subcategory maps. Completed subcategories earn ground on category maps. Completed categories earn the General map — one map for the whole game, where every hex is an entire root subject.
A placed hex starts at zero Volts, and every run later fought on it builds its worth. The maps get bigger. The competition gets harder. Castling someone off the General map is the loudest move in ZapInto.
Ground earned, placed, and walled. Now the two fights of this world — taking positions, and making yours untakeable.