Death is not the failure state for this king; it is the engine. The King of Blood runs the most summon-heavy deck in 9 Kings: troops die, imps pour out of the gaps, and his signature Demon's Altar quietly grows stronger with every friendly casualty. Played well, the deck snowballs into the hundreds of units. Played carelessly, it eats itself in the first decade.
The deck: nine cards
| Card | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Pagoda | Base | Summons Imps onto the field |
| Imp | Troop | Fast, aggressive squad of small units |
| Bomber | Troop | Charges the enemy and explodes for area damage |
| Mangler | Tower | Area-damage tower; sacrifices adjacent units each year for extra damage |
| Cemetery | Tower | Spawns an Imp whenever adjacent troops die in battle |
| Demon's Altar | Tower | Summons a demon per level, and permanently grows stronger for each allied death |
| Carnage | Enchantment | Dying units explode, dealing damage around them |
| Sacrifice | Tome | Destroys a target plot to upgrade its neighbors |
That is eight. The ninth slot used to belong to Vampirism, a healing enchantment that Patch 0.9.5 removed in July 2026: the developers felt a healing card did not fit a death-focused deck, and a new enchantment was added to fill the gap. The same patch added the Oblation card (all troops gain a unit when it is thrown into the pit), the Oracle perk, and a quest called Blood Money.
How a Blood run plays
The opening decade is the hard part. Blood decks want deaths, but your kingdom is fragile before the engine spins up, so careless players lose the run before the first Demon's Altar stacks anything meaningful. The standard arc looks like this:
- Early years: establish Pagoda and one tower, feed cheap units into fights, and let Cemetery convert those deaths into imps.
- Mid years: stack Demon's Altar and Carnage so that every battle leaves your board stronger than the enemy's.
- Late years: the summon snowball takes over; the enemy's yearly scaling has to outrun an army that grows after every death, and usually cannot.
The playstyle sits at the aggressive end of the roster: you are rewarded for picking fights, because winning battles is also how you steal cards from the kings you defeat. He is also the community's perennial answer to "which king is strongest": see where he lands on our tier list. If the ritual of it appeals, the gameplay loop guide explains the yearly rhythm the deck exploits.
Unlocking him
The community wiki records the task as killing 9,999 enemy units across your runs. That sounds enormous until you remember Bomber exists: aggressive early runs with sacrificial troops rack up kills quickly. The task shows on the locked king's card, and progress carries across runs.
FAQ
How do you unlock the King of Blood?
Kill 9,999 enemy units in battle, per the community wiki's task list. The counter task appears on his locked card in the king selection screen.
Is King of Blood good for beginners?
He is powerful but punishing. New players usually start with the King of Nothing, then move to Blood once they understand how placement decides auto-battles.
What happened to Vampirism?
It was removed in Patch 0.9.5 (July 2026). The official notes say a healing card did not fit the death-focused deck, and a new enchantment took its place.