Frequently asked questions

Hive is a fast-paced, abstract strategy game played with hexagonal tiles. Think of it as chess... with bugs. And remember: always protect your Queen. You can buy a physical set of Hive from the website of the publisher Gen42

Each player takes turns placing or moving tiles with the goal of surrounding the opponent's queen bee. The full rules are here in PDF form or if you prefer a video, you can check out a short YouTube video here.

All three official ones: Mosquito: Copies abilities of adjacent bugs. Ladybug: Moves exactly 2 steps on top of the hive, 1 step down. Pillbug: Tosses adjacent pieces once per turn.

Yes. You can toggle if expansions are used when creating a game, and playing without expansions is good for beginners! Rated games are only available if expansions are used, as it's the official competitive format.

Yes. Just like in chess, it's totally okay to concede a match without playing it to conclusion on the board if you think you've no chance of victory.

No. But creating an account is free and simple.

Absolutely. Hivegame.com runs smoothly on mobile, tablet, and desktop. Just beware of slippery fingers mid-match.

Not yet. Hivegame.com is available as a progressive web app. just add it to your mobile home screen for an app-like experience.

When logged in, click on your username on the top right of the screen to go to the Profile Page.

Hivegame.com supports both. You can play a live match or revisit your tab hours later, based on the time settings used while setting up a game.

On the home page, click one of the six Time Control settings to start a game or the 'custom' button to choose different settings.

The time control settings dictate the game speed. To illustrate, 3+3 means that when the game starts each person is allotted a total of 3 minutes. When on turn, time begins to countdown. When a turn is completed, 3 seconds are added to the time available as at end of turn. All other time formats work similarly.

Real time games are to be finished within the time settings chosen so typically requires both players to be online simultaneously. Correspondence games are generally spread over several days or with at least 1 move every x days. If you do not play your move within the time, you will forfeit the game. Untimed games are self-explanatory.

You can choose to have your game rated (Glicko-2 system) and thereby get an estimate of your proficiency and track progression over time. Newcomers start with a rating of 1500. In general, winning increases your rating, losing a game decreases your rating. Higher rating implies higher proficiency. Winning games vs. much lower-ranked opponents does not increase your rating materially. But winning games vs. a higher-ranked opponent can bump up your rating significantly. Winning or losing Casual games has no effect on your rating. Reminder: Rated games are only available if all three expansions are used (MLP format).

A ? next to your rating indicates that your rating is provisional i.e., you should expect a higher volatility in ratings till you've played a statistically significant number of games for the system to determine your rating with higher accuracy.

MLP is the default competitive setup and uses the Mosquito, Ladybug, and Pillbug (aka MLP) pieces. Base game does not have these 3 bugs.

A public game is available on the home page for any other player to join. A private game provides you a link that you can send another player.

This setting allows only opponents within a specific range variation of your rating to accept the match. This ensures that you can choose opponents who are as close (or not!) to your rating as per your preference.

When you're setting up a game, you choose whether you want to start as White, Black, or as randomly determined by the system.

Right-click or long press (on mobile) a stacked tile to expand it. You'll see the tile(s) underneath while you hold.

Yes! Ongoing real-time games are visible on the home page. Click any to spectate.

Yes, you will see a red message icon at the top of the page with a number indicating how many games you are on turn. Alternatively, navigate to your Profile Page and you can filter for currently Playing, Unstarted Tournament, and Finished games.

You can connect your discord account to your Hivegame.com profile and receive notifications from the busybee bot. Click on your profile button at the top-right corner and click on 'Edit Account'

The chat feature is very much a work in progress; we are aware it has issues, so important things to keep in mind when using it: 1. Currently the chat does not persist in the database so whenever we deploy an update your chat messages will be lost! 2. For now, it is only possible to chat in a game (direct messages and other ways will be added in the future), spectators don't see the player chat, nor do the players see the spectator chat. 3. Sometimes the red chat notification will show new messages when there aren't any.

Yes! Just click on Create Tournament and the rest should be self-explanatory.

Yes, you can join a tournament even if you're a beginner. However, some tournaments may be restricted by rating or could be invitation-only as decided by the tournament organizer. As of this writing, there are no entry fees and no prizes (apart from bragging rights and rating points increases!)

The tournament page should typically outline all these details. If you've any questions, please contact the tournament organizer. Currently, only Round-Robin tournaments are available, but more formats will be added soon.

H2H - Head 2 Head record, which is the first tie-break criteria. WB - Win as Black, which is the second tie-break criteria. SB - Sonnebron-Berger Score, which is the third tie-break criteria. Finished - number of finished games.

Navigate to your profile page and you will see filters to your currently Playing and Unstarted Tournament Games.

Navigate to profile > Edit Account or use this link

Send a mail to leex@klautcomputing.de from the same email address that you use on Hivegame.com requesting for a password reset.

When making a move there are 3 modes: 1. Single click - The fast one: if you do not want to lose time in fast games. Be careful not to misplace or wrongly move the piece as a single click immediately makes & confirms the move. 2. Double click - The default one: the first click to place / move the piece and the second click confirms the move. 3. Clock confirm - The secure one: first click to place / move and then to confirm the move, you click on your own timer. Double click or Clock confirm modes are recommended.

Yes, finished games have a microscope icon that will load the game into analysis mode but this feature is currently under development, so don't expect too much yet.

Yes, click the button 'Play Bot' on the homepage and select the bot you want to play against. An untimed game will immediately start.

Check out the Resources Section of the site for a curated list of resources to get started.

Yes! Join the World Hive Community Discord server here - full of friendly players and strategy talk.

Of course! You can use the crossed swords icon next to a player's name to challenge them directly. Alternatively create a private game (click the 'custom' button on the homepage) and share the link privately. Only a player with the link can join.

Join the Hivegame.com Discord server here and you can message the developers using the channels therein.

Screenshot the behaviour and contact us via Discord @klautcomputing / @ionoi we will sort it out.

You haven't played enough games yet for the system to be really sure how accurate your rating is. Just keep playing a couple games more, hopefully win them and you will show up.

Users who make a voluntary and optional monetary donation to support Hivegame.com get a crown symbol next to their name. Besides, the symbol next to their name, donors get no additional privileges.

All donations, big and small, help to keep Hivegame.com running and are gratefully received. Considering credit card and bank transaction charges, a donation of minimum EUR 5 is suggested.

Click on Donate in the navigation bar or use this link