--- title: "Rules · Thursday Arena" description: "How to play Thursday Arena: best-of-three matches, the 10-token shop, food, auto battles, ghost opponents, Elo rating, tiers, and seasons." url: https://thursdayarena.com/rules --- # Rules · Thursday Arena How to play Thursday Arena. ## The match A match is best of three rounds. Each round has two parts: a shop, where you spend tokens on bots and food, and then an auto battle against an opponent's board. The first side to win two rounds wins the match. If no side has two wins after round three, the side with more round wins is the winner. An equal count is a draw. Your team has up to 3 bots. The bots that you buy stay on your board between rounds, and so do their permanent stat gains. Temporary boosts, such as Potato, reset after each battle. ## The shop - Each shop gives you 10 tokens. Tokens that you do not spend do not go to the next round. - The shop shows 3 bot offers and one food. Bots cost 3 tokens or more, and rarer bots cost more (see the table below). - Reroll costs 1 token and replaces every offer and the food. Freeze an offer to keep it after a reroll and in your next shop. - Selling a bot refunds 1 token and fires that bot's sell ability, if it has one. - Move bots left and right to set your battle order. The leftmost bot fights first. - You need at least one bot on the board to end the shop and start the fight. | Rarity | Shop cost | Appears from | Odds | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Common | 3 tokens | Turn 1 | Normal | | Uncommon | 4 tokens | Turn 2 | Normal | | Rare | 5 tokens | Turn 3 | Normal | | Epic | 6 tokens | Turn 3 | Normal | | Legendary | 7 tokens | Turn 3, from season 2 | Half | | Mythic | 8 tokens | Turn 3, from season 3 | Quarter | Legendary bots are in the shop from season 2. The shop offers each legendary bot half as often as each other bot. Mythic bots are in the shop from season 3. The shop offers each mythic bot a quarter as often as each other bot, and your team can have only one mythic bot. Each bot has a kit: a trigger, such as Buy, Sell, Start of battle, Before attack, Faint, or Knock out, and the effect of that trigger. The Bots page lists every bot and its kit. ## Food Each shop offers one food. Feeding it to a bot costs 3 tokens. - Apple: +1 attack and +1 health, permanently. - Honey: when that bot faints, it summons a 1/1 Drone in its place. - Potato: +2 attack for this round only. Potato is in the shop from turn 2. - Honey and Potato replace each other on one bot. A bot cannot take a second copy of the same boost, and the try costs nothing. Apple stacks with all other food. ## The battle Battles are automatic. Start-of-battle kits fire first. Then the two front bots hit each other at the same time, and each takes damage equal to the attack of the other bot. A bot at zero health faints, its faint kit fires, and the next bot moves to the front. Before-attack, knock-out, and friend-ahead-attacks kits fire when their trigger happens. A side with no bots left loses the round. If both sides lose their last bot in the same exchange, the round is a draw. After 40 exchanges the fight stops, and the side with more total health wins. If the health is equal, the side with more total attack wins. If the attack is also equal, the round is a draw. ## Seat rules From season 2, each match gets three random seat rules: one for the front seat, one for the middle seat, and one for the back seat. The round 1 shop shows the front rule, round 2 adds the middle rule, and round 3 adds the back rule. After a rule shows, it stays on for the rest of the match. A rule applies to the bot in its seat on both teams. The front seat is the leftmost bot, the middle seat is the second bot, and the back seat is the last bot. So with fewer than three bots, one bot can be in two seats. Start-of-battle rules apply before any kit fires, from front to back, your side first. | Rule | What it does | | --- | --- | | Spotlight | Start of battle: +2 attack. | | Pit stop | Start of battle: +3 health. | | Warm-up | Start of battle: +1 attack and +1 health. | | Encore | The bot's start-of-battle kit fires twice. | | Hard hat | Each hit on the bot deals 1 less damage, to a minimum of 1. | | Hot seat | The bot loses 1 health after each exchange. This is not a hit, so hurt kits do not fire. | ## Crews From season 3, each bot has a crew: Sales, Ops, Marketing, Personal, or Builders. The card shows its crew as a shape: Sales is a triangle, Ops is a square, Marketing is a circle, Personal is a diamond, and Builders is a hexagon. When two bots of one crew are on your team, the crew bonus turns on at the start of each fight, after the seat rules and before any kit fires. With 3 bots of one crew, you get the bigger bonus. The shop shows your active crews above your line, and the rival's crews work the same way. | Crew | 2 bots | 3 bots | | --- | --- | --- | | Sales | +2 attack for each Sales bot | +3 attack and +1 health for each Sales bot | | Ops | +3 health for each Ops bot | +1 attack and +4 health for each Ops bot | | Marketing | 2 damage to each enemy bot | 3 damage to each enemy bot | | Personal | +1 attack and +1 health for each Personal bot | +2 attack and +2 health for each Personal bot | | Builders | +2 attack and +3 health for your front bot | +4 attack and +5 health for your front bot | ## Captains From season 3, each match starts with a pick: three captains, dealt at random for that match. Pick one before the round 1 shop. Your captain helps you for the whole match. Your rival has a captain too, and it shows from the first fight on. A fight captain acts at the start of each fight, for both teams. A shop captain changes the tokens or the prices of each of your shops. Tap a captain in the match to read what it does. | Captain | What it does | | --- | --- | | Drill | Each fight: your front bot gets +2 ATK. | | Medic | Each fight: your back bot gets +3 HP. | | Banker | Up to 5 unspent tokens carry to your next shop. | | Scout | Your first reroll in each shop is free. | | Chef | Food costs 1 token less. | | Recruiter | Each shop gives you 1 more token. | ## Opponents, practice, and rated play - Anyone can practice without an account. Practice matches are against an AI board and do not change your rating. - Sign in with X to play rated matches. When you end a shop, the game saves your board as a snapshot. Then you fight the snapshot of another player at the same round, the one closest to your aim. That opponent is your ghost. - Your aim is your rating plus 23. Attackers win a little more often than equal ratings say, so a board at your aim gives you an even chance. Your last 10 rated results move your aim: after more wins than losses it goes up, and after more losses than wins it goes down, by at most 70 points. Your rating change still comes from your rating and your ghost's rating, so a higher board gives more points for a win and takes fewer for a loss. - The game looks at every saved board for your round. It uses the first of these ranges that has a board: within 100 rating points of your aim, within 200, within 400, and then any rating. In that range, a board that you have not fought comes before a board that you have fought, and then the closest rating comes first. - When one player was your ghost in 10 of your last 50 rated matches, the game takes a board of another player first, from any range. A board more than 400 rating points above your aim comes last. - After the game picks your ghost, you fight the boards of that same player in the later rounds of the match. - If no ghost is available for your round, you fight an AI board, and the match is unrated. The result screen shows this. ## Rating, tiers, and seasons Each player starts a season at 1000 Elo. A rated match changes your rating by standard Elo with a K factor of 32. A win against a higher-rated ghost gives more points, a loss against a lower-rated ghost takes more points, and a draw counts as half a win. Your rating changes as soon as the match has a result, so if you leave after you lose the last fight, the loss still counts. Your ghost counts too. When another player fights your board, your rating goes up when your ghost wins and down when it loses, with a K factor of 16, if the two ratings are within 400 points. Attackers win a little more often than equal ratings say, so the expected score gives the attacker 23 extra rating points. So an average match moves the ladder by almost nothing. | Tier | Rating | | --- | --- | | SuperGrok | #1 at 1700 and up, from season 2 | | Grok | 1600 and up | | Deep Thought | 1500 to 1599 | | Big Brain | 1400 to 1499 | | Grandmaster | 1300 to 1399 | | Diamond | 1200 to 1299 | | Platinum | 1100 to 1199 | | Gold | 1000 to 1099 | | Silver | 900 to 999 | | Bronze | Below 900 | From season 2, SuperGrok is a title for one player: the #1 player of the ladder, when their rating is 1700 or more. The leaderboard shows the top 100 players of the current season by rating. Each season has its own ratings, and each new season starts every player at 1000. ## Frequently asked questions ### How long is a Thursday Arena match? A match is best of three rounds. Each round is one shop followed by one auto battle, so a full match is at most three shops and three fights. ### Do I need an account to play? No. Anyone can practice against the AI without signing in. Sign in with X to play rated matches against the boards of other players and to get a place on the leaderboard. ### How many tokens do I get each round? Each shop gives you 10 tokens. Unspent tokens do not go to the next round. Bots cost 3 to 8 tokens by rarity, food costs 3, a reroll costs 1, and selling refunds 1. ### How many bots can I have on my team? Up to 3. Their left-to-right order is the order they fight in. ### What is a ghost opponent? In a rated match, your opponent is the saved board of another signed-in player at the same round, with the rating closest to your aim. You fight their board, not the player, and other players can fight your board. When they do, your rating moves too. ### How does rating work? Rated matches use Elo with a K factor of 32. Everyone starts each season at 1000. The tiers, lowest first, are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Grandmaster, Big Brain, Deep Thought, and Grok. Silver starts at 900, Gold at 1000, Platinum at 1100, Diamond at 1200, Grandmaster at 1300, Big Brain at 1400, Deep Thought at 1500, and Grok at 1600. From season 2, SuperGrok is a title for one player: the #1 player of the ladder, when their rating is 1700 or more. ### Is Thursday Arena free? Yes. Thursday Arena is a free browser game with nothing to buy.