King of Tokyo: The Ultimate Strategy Guide (11 Tips)

King of Tokyo is a fast-paced, dice-slinging monster mash of a game that pits players against one another for the superiority of their monster. I’ve been playing this game a lot online recently and I’ve been delighted to find that there is a wealth of strategy mixed in with the luck of the dice throws. These King of Tokyo strategies will help you get a leg up on the other monsters and win more often.

The best King of Tokyo strategies are to adapt to the number of players in the game and adopt a play style opposite of the majority of other players. Focus on efficiently doing damage and healing, look for powerful combinations of cards that supplement your strategy, and largely ignore Victory Points.

There is a lot of luck involved in King of Tokyo so I can’t guarantee that the strategies below will make you win every game, but you’ll definitely win more often than your opponents. Each game plays out differently, but knowing how, why, and when to implement these tips will improve your game dramatically.

Adjust your play style to the number of players

One of the first things I noticed when playing King of Tokyo was how different the game felt depending on how many players are in the game. The game fundamentally changes with the number of players, and it mostly has to do with the ratio of players inside Tokyo vs outside.

While it’s possible to play with 2 players, it really isn’t all that fun or recommended. Still, most of the strategies I discuss here will be applicable to all group sizes. Let’s look at how the ratio of players inside Tokyo vs those outside changes with the number of players.

Players	# In Tokyo	# Outside Tokyo	Attacking Ratio
2	1	1	1:1
3	1	2	1:2
4	1	3	1:3
5	2	3	2:3
6	2	4	1:2

Ratio of players inside and outside of Tokyo

A monster inside Tokyo will do best when the Attacking Ratio above is low, meaning there are relatively few monsters outside of Tokyo compared to those inside. It is more advantageous to be in Tokyo in games of 2, 3, and 5 players than it is in games with 4 or 6. The takeaway is this:

In a 2, 3, or 5-player game, emphasize entering and remaining in Tokyo
In a 4 or 6-player game, prioritize playing more passively

This means that in games with 2, 3, or 5 players you should place a larger emphasis on entering and remaining in Tokyo, doing damage to your enemies and collecting Victory Points (VPs). There are fewer monsters outside of the city from which you can take damage and, in 2 or 3-player games, it takes fewer turns for you to collect VPs.

In games with 4 players, there are now 3 monsters that can do damage to you before you score any VPs, making it much more difficult to weather. In 6-player games the ratio is just as good as in a 3 player game (because there are 2 monsters IN the city) but there are still 4 monsters that can damage you before scoring VPs.

Look for powerful card combinations

King of Tokyo features tons of really fun cards that unlock cool abilities that can buff your monster and make life harder on your opponents. In general, don’t roll for energy points with the goal of buying cards, but when you do have enough points to buy a card you should make it count. Invest in cards that synergize well together and/or fit into your overall strategy.

Some card combinations that I’ve found particularly powerful are:

Regeneration + Rapid Healing = Easily regain a lot of health for a very reasonable cost
Freeze Time + Gourmet + Herd Culler = Roll three 1’s to get an extra turn and 2 VPs
Complete Destruction + Plot Twist + Herd Culler + Stretchy = Change dice rolls for 9 VPs
Nova Breath + Spiked Tail + Shrink Ray + Poison Spit = Do lots of sustained damage to all players
Parasitic Tentacles + Alien Origin + Metamorph + Friend of Children = Steal cards from other players at a discount and resell them for more than they’re worth

Note that you don’t need all of the cards in those combos to make them effective – many of them synergize very well without the complete set. There are, of course, many other powerful combinations in the game that can lead to some pretty wild monster battles! Keep an eye out for cards that work well with the ones you’ve already purchased to get the most value out of your energy points.

Buy cards that add or manipulate dice

When in doubt, I like to buy cards that allow me to add dice to my rolls or manipulate the results after the fact. Dice rolling brings a lot of randomness to the game, so if you can mitigate some of that randomness and make the dice work for you then you’ll be at a huge advantage.

The most powerful (and expensive) of these cards is ‘Extra Head’ which grants you 1 extra die per roll. If you can buy this early in the game you’ll see big rewards as the game goes on. I also really like ‘Telepath’ which grants an extra reroll for 1 Energy – particularly useful if I’m not focused on buying any additional cards.

Be aggressive to put opponents on their heels

The overall strategy you should take depends on the number of players in the game (discussed above) and how those players are behaving. If the other players prefer to sit on the sidelines outside of Tokyo and focus on cards and VPs (very common) then you should adopt an aggressive strategy to put them on the defensive.

Near the beginning of the game and/or when you still have lots of health, try to enter Tokyo and begin relentlessly smashing your opponents for as much damage as you can. This is most effective in 2, 3, and 5-player games but can work in any game as long as the other players are passive/defensive.

By smashing your opponents for high damage every turn, you force them to spend their turns healing. If you get them low enough on health they will be reluctant to enter Tokyo for fear of dying. Stay in Tokyo for a full round (or more if you can manage it) to gain VPs and do as much damage as you can.

This strategy is very effective if you’ve acquired some cards that let you negate damage and/or heal even when in Tokyo. The ‘Cannibalistic’, ‘Wings’, ‘Camouflage’, ‘Armor Plating’, and ‘Super Jump’ cards are really nice for this purpose. Cards that let you revive at full health after death like ‘It Has a Child’ or ‘Monster Sidekick’ can be extremely powerful and let you stay in Tokyo for many consecutive rounds.

Hit hard from Tokyo for maximum value

Doing damage from Tokyo is the most effective way to mete out punishment to your opponents because you affect many players at once. You get more value for each Claw on your dice compared to when you’re outside Tokyo and only do damage to the monsters in the city.

When adopting this aggressive strategy, look to combine your damage with additional damage and effects from cards like ‘Spiked Tail’, ‘Acid Attack’, ‘Poison Spit’, and ‘Shrink Ray‘ which are particularly annoying for other players to deal with.

DID YOU KNOW? King of Tokyo has several expansions and adaptations including (links to Amazon):

King of Tokyo: Monster Box (includes all expansions)
King of New York
King of Tokyo Halloween Edition

Play passively when other players are aggressive

The flip side of this coin is that when the majority of other players are trying to play aggressively, fighting over control of Tokyo and trying to dish out damage to one another, it’s a good idea for you to sit on the sidelines and rack up VPs and Energy to buy powerful cards. You can just focus on staying alive and building up your VPs and abilities while the other players are doing damage to one another.

This strategy does usually require that you eventually hop into the action to do some damage yourself, but with a card like ‘Nova Breath’ (your attacks damage all other monsters) even that isn’t necessary. It’s fairly rare to win a game on VPs, so look for away to leverage the abilities from your cards for massive damage in a single turn.

Bend the dice to your will

In many games, it’s a good idea to adapt your strategy to wherever the dice are leading you. I have found that isn’t the case in King of Tokyo. Instead, you should decide on what you’re looking for in your rolls and don’t stop trying for it regardless of the result of your first roll. This is much more effective than ‘following the dice’ on every turn which might lead you to do damage one turn, collect Energy the next, and pick up some VPs from the dice here and there.

It’s much better to decide on an overall strategy and try to make the dice conform to that strategy on each turn. Cards that let you add or manipulate dice can help a lot with this, as we discussed earlier.

Sweep cards that work well for opponents

As is the case with almost any multiplayer board game, it’s important to keep an eye on what your opponents are doing and what cards they’ve purchased. Know what cards they have at their disposal and always know what cards are available for purchase so that you can try to stop your opponents from acquiring powerful card combos like the ones I highlighted above.

This is easier to do when you have a running familiarity with all of the cards in the deck, but even if you’re new to the game you can read the descriptions of the card abilities and know what would work well together.

If you notice that a card comes up that your opponent would love to buy then you would do well to either buy it yourself (if it would help you) or simply pay the 2 Energy to sweep all three cards away. Either way, you deny your opponent a potentially game-winning card.

Yield Tokyo to low-health opponents

One of the easiest ways to lose a game of King of Tokyo is to get sucked into Tokyo when you’re already at low Health. If you’re in Tokyo and you get attacked by a player that has very low health (3 or fewer) then you should yield control of the city to them so that they can be attacked and hopefully killed.

Keep this tip in mind even when you’re in super-aggressive mode and trying to do as much damage as you can from the city. Eliminating a player is a big deal and you should look for any opportunity you can to do so.

Be careful of rerolls when you’re low on health

Be careful not to fall into this trap yourself! If you’re very low on health you want to avoid entering Tokyo since it will open you up to attacks that could easily kill you. When you’re very low on health your objectives should be to:

Gain health back through dice or cards
Finish your rolling with no Claws (do no damage to the monster in Tokyo)

Consider not rerolling this!

To accomplish the latter objective, strongly consider not rerolling your dice if you’re currently showing no Claws. A reroll opens you up to the possibility of rolling a Claw and allowing your opponent to force you into Tokyo when you don’t want to be there.

Try to keep your health at 6 or higher

Speaking of Health, you should generally try to keep it at 6 or higher at all times. This makes it incredibly difficult (and often impossible) for your opponents to kill you in one attack. There are, of course, plenty of times when you should be flexible with this guideline, but it’s a good rule of thumb. Once you dip below 6 Health you become a target for other players to fixate on and they are likely to be much more aggressive to finish you off.

Thanks for reading! If I missed something or you have your own opinions, please drop a comment below.