Docs
How Hexapons works
You start with a supply ship, a beach and a rumour of ore. Everything else you build one hex at a time. Shafts, smelters, a power grid, roads, and the port that finally gets the metal off the island.
Nothing on this page is written by hand. Every cost, yield and requirement below is read from the same config the game runs on, so it cannot drift out of date.
- 0kinds of ground
- 0ores to find
- 0structures
- 0technologies
Quick start
If you read nothing else, read this. It is the shortest path from an empty beach to a mine that pays for itself.
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1
Put a lumber camp in the forest
Timber is what everything else is built from. Get it first.
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2
Put a dock on the beach
The dock sells your surplus. Credits are what pay for the next hex.
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3
Claim the coal seam
Coal feeds the smelters later, and a generator right now.
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4
Drop a prospector camp on it
It works a seam slowly and draws no power at all. Perfect first mine.
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5
Research Geological Survey
That unlocks the mine shaft, which pays back several times over.
That is the first five minutes. After that the island decides: follow the ore you actually found, not the plan you arrived with.
Two ways in
Both are on the front page. Neither one is a trial version.
Connect wallet and play
Connects a browser wallet, then drops you onto your island. The colony is saved against your address, so you can close the tab and come back to it. Only that wallet can open it.
Demo
Starts immediately. No wallet, nothing to sign, nothing to agree to. You get the whole game with nothing held back. When the tab closes, the island goes with it.
Changed your mind mid game? Connect a wallet while playing and the island you are on is adopted, so nothing is lost. If that wallet already holds an island the game says so rather than writing over it.
The loop
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Survey ground
Pick a kind of ground from the panel on the right, then click the map to claim it. New ground must touch ground you already hold, and every claim costs credits and supplies. The price creeps up as the concession grows, so sprawl is never free.
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Find a deposit
Coal, iron, copper, gold and crystal. Each deposit hex rolls its own reserves and its own ore grade, so no two are worth the same. Click one to see exactly what is under it.
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Sink a mine
A prospector camp works a seam slowly and needs no power, which makes it the right first move. A mine shaft needs the Geological Survey technology, wants three crew and draws power, and pays for itself several times over.
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Process the ore
Raw ore is nearly worthless. A crusher next to your mines lifts what they pull out. A smelter turns ore and coal into metal. A refinery turns gold into credits and coal into fuel. A workshop turns timber into the supplies everything else is built from.
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Keep it running
Generators fill the power grid. Worker housing fills the shifts. Warehouses stop your stockpiles spoiling. Neglect any of the three and output sags long before anything actually breaks.
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Move the tonnage
Haul roads link developed hexes into a network, and vehicles start running it on their own. Docks sell the surplus that would otherwise rot on the pad. Credits are what pay for the next hex.
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Research and promote
Six branches of technology, and a charter that grows from a prospector camp to a mining corporation. Each promotion raises your hex cap and storage, and clears richer ground for survey.
Controls
- Left click
- Claim the hex in hand, or select a hex you hold
- Click a held hex
- Opens the build wheel around it
- Space
- Rotate the hex in hand
- Right click
- Rotate the hex in hand
- V
- Reshuffle it for a different variant
- Esc
- Deselect
- R
- Technology programme
- I
- Operations report
- Drag
- Pan the camera
- WASD / arrows
- Pan the camera
- Right drag · Q · E
- Turn the camera
- Scroll wheel
- Zoom toward the cursor
Ground
Costs rise as your concession grows. The figures below are the base price for your first few hexes. Higher charters clear the richer ground.
| Ground | Base cost | What it gives you |
|---|
Resources
Everything except energy and credits takes up warehouse space. Go over capacity and the excess spoils on the pad, and the crew notice.
Structures
Two structures fit on a hex. Click any hex you hold to see what it will take. Anything unavailable says why.
Power and crew
The grid browns out, it does not break
Generators fill an energy buffer and machinery drains it. Run out and nothing stops. Every powered building simply throttles down toward a third of its output until supply catches up. The energy tile in the top bar turns amber when demand is outrunning supply, which is your cue to build another generator or bank more coal.
Short handed sites run slow
Worker housing raises your crew, and every mine and plant wants a share. If demand outruns the crew, sites run at reduced output rather than shutting, and the crew tile tells you how many you are short. Morale scales everything on the island, and it falls when supplies run out, warehouses overflow, or the lights go off.
Research
One project at a time. The cost is paid up front, and laboratories make the clock run faster. Press R in game.
Charters
Your charter is how big the colony is allowed to get. Promotion is something you choose and pay for. It is never automatic.
| Charter | Hex cap | Storage | Requires | Fee |
|---|
Saving and wallets
A connected wallet is your player profile. Your island is stored in this browser against your address, which means:
- Every wallet gets its own separate island. Switch wallets, switch worlds.
- The game saves on its own every few seconds and whenever you claim a hex.
- Demo play saves nothing at all, on purpose. The button says so before you start.
- Nothing about your island leaves this browser, and no wallet signature is needed to play.
Because the save lives in this browser, clearing your browsing data or switching to a different device or browser will not carry the island with it. That is the trade for a game that needs no account and no server.
The on-chain charter
Optional, and completely separate from playing. If the on-chain economy is live you can register your concession against your address and buy charter tiers with HEXC, the game's token. Each on-chain tier pays a real, permanent bonus to your island's output.
What it costs
Registering is free. You pay only the network's own fee. Promoting a charter costs HEXC, and your wallet will ask you to approve the spend once before the first promotion.
What it is worth
Because the contract is what moves the tokens, nobody can hold a charter they did not buy. That is why the game can safely pay a real bonus for it. Your charter, and the island it belongs to, stay readable by anyone, forever.
Progress you publish on-chain is self reported. It is a public scoreboard entry, not a claim on anything, and nothing is ever paid out against it.
Something looks wrong
- My output dropped and I did not change anything.
- Check the top bar. Amber energy means the grid is behind. An amber crew figure means sites are short handed. A full storage bar means stock is spoiling. All three throttle output rather than stopping it, which is why it feels gradual.
- A mine has stopped producing.
- Its deposit is probably worked out. Click the hex and the geology panel shows exactly what is left. Deposits are finite by design, so move the camp.
- I cannot build what I want on a hex.
- Open the build wheel and hover the option. Every unavailable structure says why: wrong ground, missing technology, no room left, or not enough materials.
- My island disappeared.
- Make sure the same wallet is connected, because islands are stored per address. If you were in demo play, nothing was saved. That is what the button warned about before you started.
- The page is black, or the island never appears.
- The game draws in 3D, which your browser will refuse to do if graphics acceleration is switched off. Look for "use hardware acceleration" in your browser's settings and turn it on, or try a different browser. An old phone or a locked down work laptop is the usual culprit.