The Complete Feature Guide

Welcome to Gomoku Online! Beyond playing against the computer, the app packs in plenty of fun features for playing with friends and the community. This article walks through each one in detail.

✖️ Play vs Computer — 12 Levels from Easy to Brutal

The most basic mode: you face the computer across 12 difficulty levels of increasing strength.

• Levels 1–4: for newcomers — the computer plays quite "gently", ideal for learning the rules.
• Levels 5–8: the computer starts calculating tactics, suited to intermediate players.
• Levels 9–10: a real challenge — the computer looks many moves ahead.
• Levels 11–12: extremely hard, for masters who want to test their strength.

After each game you earn experience points (XP) and a rating (Elo) score. Beating the computer at higher levels earns more points.

👥 Game Rooms — Play Real People Live

Game Rooms are where you create a private room to play friends in real time — every move you make, your opponent sees instantly.

Creating and Joining a Room

Open 👥 Game Rooms.

Tap Create Room — you'll receive a room code.

Send the code (or the invite link ?room=CODE) to your friends.

Your friends enter the code to join.

There are two kinds of rooms:

• Private rooms: only people with the code can enter.
• 🌐 Public lobby: open rooms anyone can enter to watch and play.

What's Inside a Room?

• Automatic turn rotation: the first two people in the list play each other; the winner/loser rotates to the back of the queue.
• Side swapping: each new game automatically swaps sides (played X last game, you'll play O next). The host picks the board size (10×10, 15×15 or 20×20) when creating the room.
• Per-move comments: attach a 💬 comment to any notable move.
• Flying emoji reactions: drop 😂👏😮 right on the board.
• Round-robin tournaments: the host can run a tournament and the system keeps the standings automatically.

Guests Can Watch

You don't need an account to enter the Public lobby and watch games in progress. Sign up free when you want to play or comment.

⚔️ Challenges — Challenge a Friend Directly

Want a game right now against one specific friend? Use Challenges:

Go to 👤 Friends (sign-in required).

Add friends by searching their username.

Tap Challenge next to a friend's name.

Your friend receives a push notification "⚔️ Challenge!" — tapping it opens the challenge to Accept or Decline.

On accept, both of you are brought straight into a shared game room.

✉️ Correspondence — Play Without Being Online at the Same Time

Friends aren't always free at the same hour. Correspondence games solve that:

• Each player makes one move whenever they're free — no time limit on thinking.
• When your opponent moves, you get a push notification "✉️ Correspondence — your move!".
• When a game ends (five in a row, or a resignation), both players get a result notification.
• Tapping the notification opens that exact game.

It's a great way to play many games at once with many different friends, a few moves a day.

🧩 Puzzles — Train Your Tactical Eye

Daily Puzzle

One position every day: win in 1 move (or block the opponent's winning move). Solve it to keep your daily streak — long streaks earn big XP bonuses.

Community Puzzles

Players can create their own positions and challenge everyone to solve them. Well-loved puzzles (lots of ❤️) get featured, and their authors earn XP and a name credit.

🏆 Leaderboards, XP and Titles

Every win and loss affects your Elo rating. Beating a strong opponent earns more than beating a weaker one.

XP comes from everything: playing games, solving puzzles, daily check-ins, commenting, inviting friends... Earn enough XP to level up and receive titles.

The 🏆 Leaderboard shows the strongest players — where do you stand?

🎁 Daily Check-in and Quests

• Check-in: come back each day for bonus XP — checking in on consecutive days earns even more.
• New-player quests: simple starter quests, each rewarding XP.
• Referrals: invite friends with your personal link and you both earn XP when they play their first game.

🔔 Notifications — Never Miss Your Turn

Turn on Push notifications in Settings to get notified even when the app is closed:

• ⚔️ Someone challenges you.
• ✖️ It's your move in a game room.
• ✉️ It's your move in a correspondence game.
• 🏆 An opponent resigns / a correspondence game ends.

Note for iPhone: push notifications require iOS 16.4 or later, and you must install the app to your Home Screen (open in Safari → Share → Add to Home Screen), then open the app from the installed icon.

📊 And Plenty More...

• 📜 History: review every game you've played, move by move.
• 📤 Share: create beautiful result cards to share on social media.
• 🌐 Vietnamese / English: switch any time in Settings.

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Have fun playing! If you have feedback or spot a bug, don't hesitate to contact us. ✖️