Pact or Peril has four ways to play, each its own door on the main menu. They share the same
rules — the differences are who you play, whether it counts for rank, how long you get to take
a turn, and what happens if you quit.
| Single Player | Casual | Correspondence | Ranked | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opponents | Bots only, offline | Online players (+ bot fills) | Online players (+ bot fills) | Online players (+ bot fills) |
| Affects RP / rank? | No | No (unranked) | No (unranked) | Yes |
| Earns gold & achievements? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tracks your stats? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Maps | Official + your custom maps | Official + custom | Official + custom | Official maps only |
| Settings | Full control | Full control | Full control, but placement is Auto only | Standardized — some options locked |
| Pace | One sitting | One sitting | Over days — a turn deadline | One sitting |
| Penalty for leaving | None (offline) | None | None | Yes — escalating bans |
A few things are true in all modes:
Casual play comes through two doors on the main menu. The rules are identical — what changes is
how long you get to take a turn, and whether anyone has to be online:
| Casual (live) | Correspondence | |
|---|---|---|
| The match | Played out in one sitting | Played out over days or weeks |
| Your turn clock | A turn timer of 45–120 seconds | A turn deadline of up to 24 hours — 24 hours by default |
| Everyone online at once? | Yes | No — nobody has to be |
| Where you find your games | The lobby browser | Your Games |
| Troop placement | Your choice | Auto only |
| Matches at once | One | Up to 6 |
Correspondence runs casual rules — the same gold, achievements and casual stats, and it never
touches RP or the ranked ladders — but it is its own mode on the
menu, with its own screen. Full details, including missed deadlines and abandoning a match:
Correspondence.
Whichever mode you play, the lobby also picks how the match is won:
| What wins | Extra rules | |
|---|---|---|
| 🌍 World Domination (default) | Own every territory on the map | — |
| ◕ World Domination % | Hold a set share of the map at once — no need for every tile | The host picks the target: 60–95% in steps of 5, default 70%. Firestorm tiles don't count as part of the map |
| 🏰 Capital Conquest | Own every capital at once, from round 3 | Capital Selection phase; capitals defend with 3 dice and pay +2 armies/turn |
| ♛ King of the Hill | First to the points target | Everyone votes on one territory — the Hill — before round 1; holding it at the end of a round scores a point, from round 3 |
All four are available in Single Player, Casual, Correspondence and Ranked. Each has its own ranked ladders — except World Domination %,
which counts on the same Domination ladders as a full-map win (see
The ranked ladders), and which always plays to 70% in Ranked.
In an online match all four also end early the moment only one side is still in it — see
Last side standing. Full rules:
Win Conditions.
Pick a mode to dive in: