# Game end: the half-move cap, the tiebreak and repetition.

> What happens in Hexodic when nobody wins by Network, Takeover or Strangle.

Every Hexodic game is finite: after 60 half-moves without a win, a tiebreak decides it or it is a draw, and a player who repeats an exact earlier position loses. The full order explained.

Canonical HTML: https://hexodic.com/rules/game-end
Site index for agents: https://hexodic.com/llms.txt

A Hexodic game ends when a player wins by Network, Takeover or Strangle, when a player repeats an exact earlier position, or when the half-move cap is reached. Hexodic ends every game after 60 half-moves: a tiebreak then picks the winner, and only a full tie on every tiebreak step is a draw. The half-move cap is the LAST check Hexodic makes, so a win by Strangle or a repetition loss on the capping turn is the result instead of a tiebreak.

Reviewed 2026-09-15 against the Hexodic rules engine.

## The half-move cap

A half-move is one player's turn. If no one has won after 60 half-moves, the game stops before the next turn and goes to the tiebreak. The cap is checked last of all the game-end rules: if the capping turn leaves the next player with no legal Project, that turn is a Strangle win, and if it recreates an earlier position it is a repetition loss — either way there is no tiebreak. The value on this page is the one the Hexodic rules engine enforces; an older design document states a different cap, and the engine is authoritative.

## The tiebreak

The tiebreak compares the two players step by step and stops at the first difference:

1. more stones on unlocked tier-2 cells;
2. higher total tier under all of the player's stones;
3. more captures;
4. more raises made with Shape;
5. otherwise, a draw.

## Repetition loss

A player whose turn produces an exact position that already occurred in the game — the same stones, tiers, locks, reserves, charges, capture and raise counts, lowering budgets and player to move — loses immediately. A turn whose Project was skipped by the capture cooldown is not recorded and cannot trigger this rule. Repetition is checked after Strangle: a turn that both repeats a position and leaves the opponent with no legal Project is a Strangle win for the player who made it, not a repetition loss.

## Order of checks

Hexodic checks the game-end rules in one fixed order every turn, and stops at the first one that fires:

1. Network — the player who just moved has a connected group of their stones on tier-2 cells.
2. Takeover — that player has reached the capture count Takeover needs.
3. The half-move count increases and the turn passes to the opponent.
4. Strangle — the opponent has no legal Project, so the player who just moved wins.
5. Repetition loss — the new position exactly repeats an earlier one, so the player who just moved loses.
6. The threefold draw, a safety net the repetition rule almost always reaches first.
7. The half-move cap — the cap is reached, so the tiebreak decides the game.

Strangle is checked before repetition and before the cap, not after them: this is the order the Hexodic rules engine enforces (`applyTurn` reports Strangle in the same step that passes the turn). A Project skipped by the capture cooldown still counts as a legal Project, so a cooldown skip is never a Strangle.

## Related

- [Tiers](/rules/tiers) — the first two tiebreak steps count them.
- [Glossary: Half-move cap, Tiebreak, Repetition loss](/glossary#half-move-cap)
- [Why Hexodic games are short](/5-minute-strategy-game)
- [All rules](/rules)

[Get the Hexodic app](/download) and try to win before the tiebreak does it for you.

## Where to go next

- [Strangle](https://hexodic.com/rules/strangle) — Winning when your opponent has no legal Project.
- [Strategy](https://hexodic.com/strategy) — The principles that follow from the rules, not from habit.
- [How it works](https://hexodic.com/how-it-works) — The whole turn, in plain language.

## Questions this page answers

- Can a Hexodic game end in a draw?
- What is the half-move cap in Hexodic?