GoBeyond FAQ
How do I win?
The player with the highest score at the end of the game is the winner. Your score changes during the course of the game. You typically start with 200 points. Each stone you place costs 10 points, reducing your score. You gain 10 points for each stone you capture (or is surrendered to you). If you have surrounded territory, you gain 1 point per territory spot at the start of each of your turns. At the end of the game, you gain 10 points per territory spot.
How do I claim territory?
You claim territory by surrounding empty regions of the game map with your stones. You must “fence in” an empty region—with no opponents’ stones touching it—in order to claim it. If any opponent’s stone is touching it, then the region is considered disputed, and you cannot claim it.
How do I Capture stones?
You capture a group of stones by surrounding it completely. To surround and capture a group, you must use your stones to occupy all of that group’s lifelines. When you place your stone on the final lifeline of a group, that group is captured and removed from the game map.
What is a group?
A group of stones are any number of same-colored stones that are neighbors—sitting on two spots that have a connector between them. When two same-colored stones are neighbors, they join together as a group. Several stones can all become one group by following neighbor connections—possibly a long, even complicated, chain of neighbor connections. Also, a singular stone is always considered a “group of one.” Every group must have at least one lifeline in order to remain on the game map.
What is a lifeline?
A lifeline is an empty spot that neighbors a stone. Every group of stones on the board needs at least one lifeline. Happily, even with many stones in a group, the entire group can remain on the board as long as at least one stone in that group has at least one lifeline.
How do I avoid getting captured?
In the short term, you avoid getting captured by making sure your stone groups have at least one lifeline. In the long term, since your opponent would like to capture your stones, you need to find a way to prevent your opponent from planing a stone on your last lifeline. Since your opponent cannot place a stone where that stone, itself, would have no lifeless, you might create an “eye” within your group—an empty spot that you completely surround. Since your opponent cannot place their stone on such a spot, they can never occupy your groups final lifeline. Pro Tip: two separate eyes in a group make it invulnerable to capture!
What is a reserved spot?
The rule for reserved nodes prevents a back-and-firth capture volley betweenez two players. It works as follows: If you place a stone that captures exactly one stone AND the stone you just placed has exactly one lifeline (which is the freshly captured spot and which you now have claimed as territory), then that freshly-captured, claimed spot is also reserved by you. No one may place a stone on a reserved spot. NOTE: your reservations always expire at the beginning of your next turn, so this protection is only temporary.
When does the game end?
Whenever a player does not see any play that will improve their score, they may choose to PASS, placing no stone, to signal a desire to end the game. Once all players have PASSED consecutively, one final PASS will trigger the end of the game. After a clean-up phase (players can surrender stones and mark “No-Man’s-Land”) and after all players agree to calculate the final score, then the game ends. The player with the highest score is declared the winner. NOTE: in case of a tied score, the earlier play will not win because it is considered a slight advantage to go first.
Why should I surrender my stones?
During clean-up phase, before the final score is calculated, players should surrender any stones that would (clearly, obviously, and easily) be captured were play to continue. This allows for shorter games, allowing completion without requiring a long series of plays that are not strategically interesting. GoBeyond requires a degree of maturity to recognize such “pointless” situations and to concede the stones to the opponent via surrender. We encourage you to find the necessary zen within yourself.
How many unique game maps?
Although there are currently a finite number of game maps that have been created, there is virtually no limit to the number of game maps that can exist for GoBeyond. The GoBeyond rules allow any topology to be played, including multiple dimensions, and a never-ending variety of interesting strategic and tactical permutations!
Known issues:
Version v0.3.2 (30)
- App occasionally freezes after tapping a spot to place a stone before confirming placement.
- Extra audio/visual effects after the end of the game when the opponent exits the game.
- FAQ button links to Gobeyondgame.com home page. (please click the FAQ button on the menu)
- Selecting a spot to place a stone requires tapping the spot precisely.