# Hexodic vs Go: one kind of stone, two very different boards.

> Both games give a stone its meaning through position. Hexodic adds height to the board and three ways to win.

How Hexodic differs from Go: both use a single kind of stone, but Hexodic plays on a 37-cell hexagonal board with changing height while Go is normally played on 19 by 19 lines, with the British Go Association cited.

Canonical HTML: https://hexodic.com/hexodic-vs-go
Site index for agents: https://hexodic.com/llms.txt

## How does Hexodic differ from Go?

Hexodic resembles Go in one fundamental way and differs in three. Like Go, Hexodic uses a single kind of stone whose value comes entirely from where it sits. Unlike Go, Hexodic is played on a small 37-cell hexagonal board, Hexodic cells have height that players change every turn, and Hexodic stones can move once a player's reserve is empty.

The British Go Association gives 19 by 19 lines as the normal Go board. This page explains the differences and does not rank the games.

## Side by side

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th scope="col">Property</th>
      <th scope="col">Hexodic</th>
      <th scope="col">Go</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <th scope="row">Players</th>
      <td>Two</td>
      <td>2 (British Go Association)</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th scope="row">Board</th>
      <td>37 hexagonal cells with three height tiers</td>
      <td>Normally 19 by 19 lines; 13 by 13 and 9 by 9 also used (British Go Association)</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th scope="row">Stones</th>
      <td>One type, placed from a limited reserve, then moved</td>
      <td>Black and white stones placed on the lines' intersections</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th scope="row">Does the board change?</th>
      <td>Yes: each turn raises or lowers one cell</td>
      <td>No</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th scope="row">Capture</th>
      <td>Encirclement weighted by cell height</td>
      <td>Surrounding a group, per the source's rules</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

## Why the differences matter

Hexodic encirclement is weighted: a Hexodic stone is captured when the tiers of the cells around it outweigh its own, so height decides whether a ring is strong enough. Hexodic also offers three simultaneous win conditions, **Network** (connect five of your tier-2 stones), **Takeover** (capture six opposing stones), and **[Strangle](/rules/strangle)** (leave the opponent with no legal Project), so a Hexodic game is not decided by counting territory at the end. The **tier** of a cell is its height, and **Shape** is the sub-action that changes it. The full Hexodic rules are on [how it works](/how-it-works).

## Sources

- Go facts (players, board sizes, stones): British Go Association, [How to Play](https://www.britgo.org/intro/intro2.html), read 2026-09-15.
- Hexodic facts: the Hexodic rules engine; see [how it works](/how-it-works) and [the bot gauntlet](/bot-gauntlet).

More pairings are on the [comparisons hub](/games-like-hexodic), and the genre view is on the [abstract strategy hub](/abstract-strategy-game). Reviewed 2026-09-15. [Get the Hexodic app](/download).

Part of the [Hexodic comparison hub](/how-hexodic-compares), which links every side-by-side comparison on this site.

## Where to go next

- [Hexodic vs chess](https://hexodic.com/hexodic-vs-chess) — Where the two games differ, with the Laws of Chess cited.
- [Strategy](https://hexodic.com/strategy) — The principles that follow from the rules, not from habit.
- [How it was measured](https://hexodic.com/how-hexodic-was-measured) — The evidence behind every published number, and the method.

## Questions this page answers

- How does Hexodic differ from Go?
- Is Hexodic like Go?