NodusNexus is a strategic card game of matching patterns. Every card has three attributes — a color, a shape, and a number. You build a shared grid of cards and score points by forming valid lines. The player with the highest score when the deck runs out wins.
In a standard game, cards combine four colors (red, green, blue, yellow), four shapes (triangle, square, circle, cross), and the numbers 1–4. Smaller "Mini" and larger "Mega" game sizes add or remove an attribute value (Mega introduces purple, the star shape, and the number 5).
On your turn you place one or more cards from your hand of four onto the board. Cards must be placed adjacent to an existing card — up, down, left, or right, never diagonally. The very first card of the game starts the grid.
Whenever your cards form a line (horizontal or vertical), each attribute across that line must be either all the same or all different:
Lines can be at most four cards long.
You can place up to four cards in a single turn, but they must all go in the same row or the same column. Placing more cards at once builds longer lines and bigger scores.
Wild cards match any color, shape, or number, letting you bridge lines that wouldn't otherwise be valid. A wild must join a line that already contains at least one normal card. Later in the game, a player can replace a wild on the board with a matching card from their hand, as long as every line through that square stays valid.
The deck also contains action cards that change the board:
Your score for a turn is the sum of the card numbers in every line you form or extend. Wild cards count as zero. Completing a full line of four cards (a "lot") doubles that line's score, so closing out long lines is the key to a high total.
The game ends when the deck runs out and players can no longer draw. The player with the highest total score wins. Play solo against AI opponents (easy, medium, or hard) or challenge friends online in multiplayer.