Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate

Losing your army would normally mean the game is over. In Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate, it’s where the battle begins. With nothing but a shotgun and your king remaining, every match becomes a desperate fight against an entire chess army, where clever positioning matters just as much as knowing when to pull the trigger.

Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate is a turn-based roguelite that reimagines chess as a tactical combat game. Playing as the Black King, you’ll face increasingly difficult boards while choosing powerful upgrades for yourself and new advantages for the White Army after every victory. Every decision shapes the rest of the run, forcing you to balance short-term survival against the challenges still waiting ahead.

What Makes It Different?

• Play as a lone king armed with a powerful shotgun
• Battle full chess armies across increasingly difficult boards
• Choose upgrades after every victory to strengthen your king
• Accept new advantages for the White Army in exchange for better rewards
• Adapt your strategy as every run develops differently
• Defeat the White King across 12 increasingly challenging floors
• Combine classic chess movement with tactical gunplay

Every Upgrade Comes at a Cost

Winning a battle isn’t simply rewarded with stronger abilities. After every victory you’ll choose one upgrade for yourself, but that choice also grants the opposing army a new advantage, ensuring the challenge continues to grow alongside your own power.

Those decisions become increasingly important as the run progresses. An upgrade that feels worthwhile early on may create far greater problems several floors later.

Chess With a Very Different Endgame

Although the foundations of chess remain intact, the shotgun changes every encounter. Positioning is still essential, but you’ll also need to think about range, timing, and how to eliminate multiple threats before they can corner your king.

The result feels familiar enough for chess players while creating situations that could never exist on a traditional board.

Twelve Floors to the Final Checkmate

Each run takes you through twelve increasingly difficult battles before the final confrontation with the White King. Some attempts end quickly after a costly mistake, while others become tense tactical duels as both sides accumulate more powerful abilities.

That compact structure makes every run feel meaningful, encouraging you to experiment with different upgrade combinations and see how they change the road to the final checkmate.

How Long Does a Run Take?

A successful run in Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate takes around 20 minutes, carrying you through 12 floors before the final battle with the White King. Completing the main game typically takes around 1.5 hours, while failed runs are often much shorter depending on when your king is defeated.

Controller Support

Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate features Full Controller Support for:

• Xbox Controllers
• PlayStation Controllers

Good If You Like…

If you enjoyed Pawnbarian, The Ouroboros King, and Once a Pawn a King, Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate offers another clever strategy roguelite that takes familiar tactical ideas in a completely unexpected direction. Company Update arrived in April 2026, accompanied by several bugfix patches. A mobile version launched in February 2026 alongside a PC beta, and in May 2026 a Final Checkmate update was released. The game passed 500,000 units sold by mid-2025.