King of the Pyramid

A stepped pyramid stands over a pit with a crown hanging above the throne on top. The first player to stand on the throne puts it on, and from then on only the person wearing it scores. Everybody else is a thief. A round is 90 seconds of the crown changing heads, and the last fifteen seconds count double, which is where most rounds are won and lost.

How crown time adds up

Wearing the crown earns a second of crown time every second, wherever you are. Standing on the throne earns two. A "Double crown" warning counts down from 1:10, and from 1:15 both rates double and the throne turns gold. A wearer sitting on it then gains four seconds a second, so a 30-second deficit can go in under eight.

Take the crown by landing a punch or a dash-grab on whoever is wearing it. It is yours on the spot, even if they only put it on a moment ago. A new wearer gets no grace period, but the player you robbed is stunned, so they cannot take it straight back.

Fall off the base into the pit and the crown you were wearing floats back over its throne. You reappear 3 seconds later on a lit pad round the base, the empty one furthest from everyone, and blink for just over a second while nothing can hit you.

Punch and dash

• Q Punch, every 1.2 seconds, hits everyone within about 2 metres in a wide cone in front of you, one terrace up or down at most. It knocks them back about 2 metres and stuns them for a second. Hold it for up to 0.8 seconds to wind up: it hits nearly twice as hard, reaches about 0.6 metres further and stuns for up to 1.5 seconds, but you walk at half speed while you charge. A stunned player's punches and grabs do nothing.
• E Dash, every 4 seconds, slides you forward, and the first person you reach on your own terrace is grabbed. Carrying them you walk at 60% speed. Let go of E and press it again, from a third of a second in, to throw them. A hold lasts 1.5 seconds at most, and punching a holder makes them drop whoever they are carrying.

Each terrace is a 1-metre riser, too tall to walk up, so the climb is one hop per level. You cannot clear two at once.

Tactics

• Punch, then grab. A stunned player cannot struggle, so a dash straight after a punch gets the whole 1.5-second hold, long enough to carry them to an edge and throw.
• If you are grabbed, mash. Every Q, E or Space press takes about a quarter of a second off the hold, pressing several keys at once counts each one, and six presses end it.
• Fight from one level below the wearer, not two. A punch reaches one terrace up and no further. A tapped punch usually knocks someone down a level, since the terraces are only 2 to 3 metres deep.
• Wearing the crown on the throne, keep a punch wound up. A full charge reaches further than a tap, so the thief climbing toward you gets hit first.
• Robbed and stunned, wait it out. A punch thrown while stunned does nothing and still costs you the cooldown.

More players, more crowns

The pyramid grows with the lobby: about 18 metres across at the base for 2 players, 26 at 8 and 35 at 16, with three terraces up to 4 players, four up to 10 and five above that. The crowns multiply too.

• Up to 6 players, one crown hangs over the throne.
• From 7 to 12 there are two. Two small peaks rise either side of the summit, level with it, and a crown hangs over each. The summit still pays double to a wearer standing on it, but has no crown of its own.
• From 13 to 16 there are three: one over each peak and one over the summit.

Each crown is picked up from its own peak. A wearer cannot take a second crown, so two wearers can stun each other all day and gain nothing. Only an uncrowned player steals.