BACK TO THE GAME

This article contains everything you need to know about Arkadium’s Gridland Ultimate Game.

Use the list below to navigate specific topics about Gridland Ultimate. 





How to play


Gridland Ultimate is a match-3 survival RPG where you build a town during the day and defend it from dangerous creatures at night.



By matching tiles in the daytime using the blocks below, you gather resources and construct buildings on top, which unlock new tools and abilities. The more tiles you match, you'll see the sun set and the night will appear, changing the game. But be careful—once night falls, matching tiles will summon waves of monsters that try to destroy everything you’ve worked hard to build. Stay prepared, strategize wisely, and survive the night!



The game board is an 8×8 grid filled with different types of tiles. Your goal is to swap two adjacent tiles (side by side or above/below) to create a match of three or more identical tiles in a row.

  • If a move doesn’t create a match, the tiles will return to their original positions.
  • When a match is made, the matching tiles disappear, and the tiles above them fall down to fill the empty spaces.
  • If new matches are created from falling tiles, they will also disappear, creating chain reactions.


  • Each time you swap tiles, it counts as a turn.
  • Every turn affects the action happening above the grid, depending on whether it is day or night.
  • At the end of each turn, the sun or moon moves across the sky. When it reaches the far-right side of the screen, the time of day changes (day turns to night and vice versa).


Daytime


The player starts with 3 types of tiles on the board (stone, wood and wheat). As the game progresses, the number of tiles will increase to 6, with 5 of them providing resources for upgrades (knowledge, brick).


During the day, tiles represent resources that help build and sustain your town. When you match tiles:

  • The resources are stored in the storehouse.
  • Every 30 matched tiles create one building block.
  • The character automatically collects these blocks and distributes them evenly to construction projects.



Resource Types


There are 5 main resources collected during the daytime:

  • Grain – Restores health.
  • Clay, Cloth, Stone, and Wood – Used for constructing buildings.
  • Mana – Used to charge the Gem and cast magic spells. You'll see this later in the game.



As you proceed through the game, you will gain new buildings on top, to save your resources and evolve even further.





Turns & Health Management

  • Each swap (even invalid ones) counts as a turn, moving the sun forward in the sky.
  • With every turn, the character’s health decreases unless you match Grain tiles, which restore health.




Nighttime


During the night, removed tiles play an important role in combat. Matching enemy tiles will cause enemies to appear on the board.

  • Each match of enemy tiles summons one enemy.
  • The character will automatically move to engage enemies in combat.



Combat Details

  • Once combat begins, both the character and the enemies will deal damage to each other.
  • Sword and shield matches help refill your sword and shield meters.
    • Swords increase the damage you deal to enemies.
    • Shields absorb the damage from enemy attacks.
  • Both sword and shield meters deplete as they are used.



Progression & Experience

  • The moon advances across the sky when an enemy is defeated.
  • As the night progresses, each resource type changes, and as you upgrade them, their effects during the night improve.


Once an enemy is defeated, you will gain experience points.

  • When the XP bar fills up, the character will level up, which triggers an instant wipe-out of all enemies on the screen.
  • No XP is gained from the enemies wiped out by leveling up.
  • Leveling up also adds one heart to your heart meter, increasing your health.



The key to surviving the night is balancing combat and managing your sword and shield meters while collecting enough experience to level up and become stronger


The night will also become more dangerous as the days pass, with more and more types of enemies appearing in a greater number. Matching the correct tiles will become more important than ever.



  • The game automatically saves at the end of a full day/night cycle.
  • If you close the game or your character dies before a cycle is complete, you will lose all progress from that cycle(resources, items, and experience).
    • For example, if you quit the game during Day 3 or die during Night 3, you’ll have to start again from the beginning of Day 3.


You can click on the little trash can icon to delete your progress.


Clicking on the Code button will give you a code that you can copy and save. You can then use that code to load your Gridland save from any version of the game.


Click the menu button (☰) in the bottom right to open settings:

  • Change the difficulty
  • Adjust sound & music


Tips


NOTE: Part of the fun of the game, are the surprising elements that you must face each day, and the way the player can play again and again to attempt to go further. For this reason, we recommend not reading through the Tips section right away. Try and come up with your own strategy by exploring the game.


This chapter is about some strategies on how to perform better.


Getting Started: Daytime Strategy


The game begins during the day, so start by matching resource tiles to gather materials. If you notice that a certain type of tile is hard to find, try making vertical matches—this helps bring in new tiles more efficiently.


Managing Your Health


Keep an eye on the heart/health meter on the left side of the screen. During the day, your health slowly decreases due to hunger, with each move you make. You can restore health by matching food tiles.




Making the Most of Your Moves


Try to chain together as many matches as possible in a single move to fill up resource blocks efficiently. As the game progresses, large (4+ tile) matches become rarer, so it’s best to focus on making matches near the bottom of the screen. This causes more tiles to shift and can create automatic chain reactions.




You only get 20 moves per daytime cycle, and every move counts—even ones that don’t create a match. So think carefully before swapping tiles!


Resource Management


At the start, there are only three types of resources, so you don’t need to worry about which ones to match. But as you build more structures, new types of resource tiles will appear.

Once you have 5-6 different resources, your daytime choices will have a big impact on how well you survive at night. Each resource type transforms into a specific kind of nighttime tile, and if you don’t have enough swords or shields by the end of the day, you’ll struggle to defend yourself. To avoid this, focus on matching food, brick, and knowledge tiles in the afternoon, while avoiding stone and wood.




Avoiding Resource Bottlenecks


Buildings require a specific amount of resources to upgrade, and if one type of resource fills up too quickly, it can block progress. For example, prioritizing brick matches might max out brick storage before you’ve collected enough stone or wood, preventing upgrades.

To prevent this, focus on collecting wood and stone early in the day so that all resource types stay balanced. This will help keep your town growing while also preparing you for nighttime battles.




Surviving the Night: Combat Strategy


At night, brick, knowledge, and food tiles transform into summoning tiles—matching them will spawn enemies. Your goal is to defeat 12 enemies to progress to the next day.

Gaining Experience & Leveling Up

Slaying monsters fills the experience bar on the side of the screen. When you level up, a bright flash appears, wiping out all enemies on the screen and fully restoring your health. This is similar to the effect of drinking a blue potion, but with a larger attack zone.

Combat Tips: Managing Matches

Unlike during the day, chaining matches at night can be dangerous because:

  1. It might remove valuable sword and shield tiles that you’ll need later.
  2. It can spawn multiple enemies at once, overwhelming your stick figure, which can only attack one enemy at a time.

To stay in control:

  • Prioritize small, horizontal matches (3 tiles) at the top of the grid. This helps limit enemy spawns while keeping your weapons intact.
  • The night only advances when enemies are defeated, not when collecting swords and shields. This means you can take your time to prepare.

However, if you’re struggling to get enough sword and shield tiles, making vertical matches can help by shifting the grid and increasing the chance of new weapon tiles appearing.


Choosing Which Enemies to Fight

  • Enemies grow stronger as buildings are upgraded. However, they always give the same amount of experience.
  • Try to target the weakest enemies first, especially those that can be defeated with 1-2 sword hits without damaging you. This helps conserve your shields for tougher fights.


Using Crystals to Escape the Night


While it’s possible to use crystal bonuses to skip the night, it’s better to level up naturally since the experience boost is valuable. However, if your weapons are too weak for the current enemies, you can:

  1. Prioritize making 4+ tile matches to spawn more crystals.
  2. Use crystals to escape the night when in danger.
  3. Immediately replenish the crystal bonus by matching another crystal tile.

  5. Repeat this process until you’ve upgraded your blacksmith and can handle nighttime combat more effectively.


Endgame: Facing the Dragon


Once you reach the late game, matching mana shards may summon a lich. Defeating a lich can sometimes drop a treasure chest containing a dragon medallion, a special nighttime-only item. Clicking the medallion will summon the dragon, the final challenge of the game.


Preparing for the Dragon Fight

Before summoning the dragon, it’s best to spend several cycles upgrading your swords, shields, and items. This will give you the best chance of survival.

How the Dragon Fight Works

  • When the dragon appears, all non-weapon tiles will turn into dragon tiles.
  • Matching dragon tiles will trigger the dragon’s attacks.
  • Combat works similarly to fighting regular enemies—use swords and shields to stay alive and deal damage.
  • If no other good matches are available, match wing tiles, as they only cause knockback (pushing your character back) and deal the least damage.


Winning the Fight

  • Keep matching sword and shield tiles to keep your meters full.
  • Use items as needed to maintain your health and defenses.
  • Once the dragon’s health is fully depleted, you win!


After the Battle: What’s Next?

After defeating the dragon, the game will display your final statistics. You then have two choices:

  1. Continue playing – You can keep fighting liches and dragons, leveling up, and increasing your heart meter.
  2. Start a New Game+ – Begin a fresh playthrough with added challenges and progression.


Scoring


The Gridland Ultimate game has no scoring system. There is no way to save a score in the Gridland Ultimate game. This game is meant to be a progression-based adventure, without a specific scoring system or leaderboard. The game is incompatible with the regular competitive Arkadium leaderboards, and it's meant for simple fun progression.