The goal
Take the crown off the old king's head, as often as you can, and climb the assassin title ladder while you do it. There are two ways to go about it and they share one purse of royal coins.
- The Coup — pay a contract, sneak across the balcony, and time your approach around the king's turns.
- Dart Strike — pay per throw and hit the king as he crosses the centre line of the dart hall.
Royal coins are a play-only score. They are not money, cannot be bought or sold, and never leave your device.
The foyer
Everything starts on the foyer screen:
- Royal coins — your balance, top left.
- Title plate — your current title and how many coups until the next one, top right.
- Contract row — the five contract costs: 200, 500, 1,000, 3,000 and 10,000.
- Start assassination — pays the selected contract and opens the palace balcony.
- Court menu — four icons along the bottom: Honours, Dart, Settings and Help.
Out of coins? The treasury advances 1,000 play coins so you can take another contract. You never get stuck on an empty purse.
Mode 01 · The Coup
Pick a contract cost, press Start assassination, and the cost leaves your purse straight away. After a short countdown the balcony is yours.
The three states
A banner across the top of the stage always tells you exactly which state the king is in. Play the banner, not your nerves.
- SNEAK NOW (green) — the king is looking away. Hold the stage to approach; the meter fills while you hold.
- HIDE! (gold) — the turn is coming and an exclamation mark pops over the throne. Release now.
- KING WATCHING (red) — he is facing the room. Stay off the stage until the banner goes green again.
Winning and losing
- Fill the approach meter before the mission clock expires and the crown falls.
- A successful coup pays 5× the contract you paid.
- Still moving when he looks means caught, and the run ends there.
- A failed run still returns 2× the contract as consolation.
- Releasing early costs you nothing but time — the meter drifts back slowly.
Choosing a contract
The reward ratio is the same at every tier. What the price buys is pressure: the more expensive the contract, the shorter the calm stretches and the longer the king lingers on each look. Every tier still gives you a warning window you can see and react to.
- 200 — distracted. The tier to learn the rhythm on.
- 500 — restless. The gaps begin to close.
- 1,000 — watchful. He lingers on every sweep.
- 3,000 — suspicious. Short fuse, longer stares.
- 10,000 — paranoid. Barely a breath between turns.
Mode 02 · Dart Strike
Tap Dart in the court menu to enter the dart hall. There is no contract and no approach meter here — just a board, a lit line down the middle of the floor, and a king pacing back and forth in front of it.
How a throw works
- Each throw costs 100 royal coins, hit or miss.
- Tap the stage — or press Space — when the king crosses the centre line.
- A clean hit pays 500 royal coins, takes 20% of the king's composure, and sends him back to one end to restart his walk.
- A miss pays nothing and earns you a taunt. He has four of them and he uses them in order.
- Five clean hits empty the composure bar and end the drill with a scores panel.
The maths: a perfect drill is five throws for 2,500 coins against 500 spent — a 2,000 coin profit. Every miss shaves 100 off that, so accuracy is worth more than speed.
Reading the patrol
The king walks a fixed lane at a fixed speed and turns at each end, so his timing is completely learnable. Watch a full lap before your first throw and aim slightly ahead of him — the dart takes a moment to travel.
Titles and honours
Open Honours from the court menu to see the royal ledger. It has two halves.
Assassin titles
Only successful coups move this ladder. Each title is claimed once for a coin grant.
- Court Shadow — the title everyone starts with.
- Bronze Assassin — 3 coups · 5,000 coins.
- Silver Assassin — 10 coups · 15,000 coins.
- Golden Assassin — 20 coups · 40,000 coins.
- Master Assassin — 50 coups · 120,000 coins.
Court honours
- Royal Infiltrator — start 25 assassination missions · 12,000 coins.
- One Great Night — earn 50,000 play coins from a single mission · 20,000 coins.
- Royal Treasurer — win 1,000,000 play coins in total · 30,000 coins.
Honours unlock on their own but the coins are not automatic — open the panel and press the claim button.
Controls
- Touch — press and hold the stage to approach; lift to hide. Tap to throw a dart.
- Mouse — hold the left button on the stage; release to hide. Click to throw.
- Keyboard — hold Space or Enter to approach, release to hide; press either to throw.
- Escape — closes the Honours panel.
The game is built for landscape. In portrait it shows a rotate prompt rather than squeezing two full-height characters into a narrow column.
Settings
- Sound effects — coin, hit and fanfare audio.
- Music — the background score, with separate lobby and stage tracks.
- Reduced motion — shortens the animations. Reaction windows are unchanged, so nothing gets harder.
- Reset progress — erases the local save completely. There is no undo and no backup.
Audio starts muted until your first tap, because browsers require a gesture before any sound can play.
If something looks wrong
- The tab closed mid-mission. Reopen the game — the interrupted round is restored safely and the foyer says so.
- No sound. Tap the screen once, then check the Sound effects and Music switches in Settings and your device's own mute switch.
- Progress vanished. The save lives in one browser on one device. A different browser, a private window, or cleared site data all mean a fresh start.
- Everything feels too fast. Start on the 200 contract and turn on reduced motion — the response windows stay exactly as long, but there is less on screen competing for your attention.
Still stuck?
Write to gartvaler@icloud.com and tell us what happened, on which browser and device. We read every message.