Prism Duel Rules
Current release: New Friendly Spark matches use deterministic server replay engine 2. Preset arenas remain frozen under rules 2; configurable arenas use rules 3. The server reproduces every accepted checkpoint and final run before it can settle a winner or grant a bounded reward. Prize Duel remains unavailable unless its separate product, policy, replay, and Play Integrity gates are all approved and enabled.
Prism Duels are asynchronous skill-based Gem Quest score races. Rival Shards are earn-only game items with no cash value. They cannot be purchased, sold, transferred, withdrawn, redeemed, or used outside Gem Quest. A player's Rival Shard wallet is created with a one-time server grant of 250 Shards. Friendly Spark has no entry cost; only an eligible, replay-verified result can create its small bounded reward.
Fair Match
The challenger can review and choose a plain or randomized map, a plain-map size from 7×7 to 10×10, blockers on or off, Easy, Intermediate, or Hard difficulty, and zero to five temporary boosts. Randomized maps may also resolve size and difficulty from the server seed. Blockers add sealed cells and takeover gems that deny playable space. The exact resolved dimensions, move allowance, optional Blitz timer, blockers, scoring rules, and temporary Duel Kit are frozen before acceptance and shown to the invitee. Both players receive the same frozen arena and starting seed. Account boosts, Prism Charge, paid items, advertisements, Rare Resonance, and campaign upgrades do not affect the duel. Each player receives one run. Scores remain sealed until both runs are final.
Invitations and deadlines
An invitation is open for 30 minutes according to Gem Quest server time. When it is accepted, both players receive a new 30-minute play window. Closing the App does not immediately forfeit the run, but the server timer continues. A saved run may be resumed before the deadline. Declined, cancelled, incompatible, or invitation-expired matches do not produce a winner.
Results and verification
Every new match identifies server_replay_v2 as its verification mode. The server validates the immutable transcript, replays every cumulative checkpoint from the frozen seed, and calculates the score, moves, completion state, final board, random state, and remaining Duel Kit itself. The App's displayed result is diagnostic only. Engine-v1 matches remain visible as legacy_non_authoritative; they cannot settle a winner or grant currency, rewards, trophies, achievements, streaks, profile credit, or leaderboard credit.
The highest verified score wins even when a submitted run does not use every move. An exact score tie is a draw; client-reported completion speed is not trusted or used as a tie-breaker. At the play deadline, a player who submitted a valid run defeats a player who did not submit. If neither player submits a valid run, the match is a no contest. A system or verification failure is also resolved as no contest unless reliable server evidence supports another result.
Friendly Spark
Friendly Spark has no entry cost and never spends Rival Shards. A replay-verified, Play Integrity-backed win can count toward Duel achievements and streaks subject to anti-farming limits. An eligible win in a pair's first settled Friendly Spark match of a UTC day may produce a Rivalry Facet cache of 5 Rival Shards and one match-earned Shuffle, and a player can receive at most one such cache per UTC day. The reward remains in Prism Post until accepted. Friendly Spark does not grant leaderboard score authority.
Prize Duel
Prize Duel fails closed unless a supported deterministic server replay ruleset is active, the Prize Duel product switch and separate policy approval are both enabled, and Google Play Integrity is enforced. It may remain unavailable by region, account, age group, release channel, or server setting even when the App contains the feature.
If enabled later, players choose only a displayed fixed Rival Shard entry. Invitation creation checks only whether both players are eligible for that tier; it does not reveal a balance or hold currency. On acceptance, the server rechecks and atomically holds the displayed entry from both players. If either player can no longer cover it, the match closes, neither balance changes, and the challenger is prompted to try a lower fixed entry. A server-verified winner receives the two-entry pool plus a server-funded bonus equal to 200% of that pool (six times one player's entry in total) and one Gem Bomb. A draw or no contest returns both entries. Declined, cancelled, and invitation-expired invitations need no refund because no entry was held.
A settled reward can remain safely available in Prism Post until claimed. An unclaimed reward does not change the match result. Gem Quest never prompts a player to make a real-money purchase to cover a Duel entry.
Fair play and safety
Modified clients, automation, fabricated commands or scores, replay attacks, account sharing, collusion, intentional disconnect abuse, and exploiting an error are prohibited. A result may be rejected, resolved as no contest, refunded, or excluded from rewards, trophies, achievements, and rankings when replay or integrity evidence is invalid. Players can block or report another account. A block prevents new invitations between those accounts. Prism Duels have no free-text messages or chat.
Changes and support
Rules and game-engine versions are frozen per match. A client that cannot reproduce the frozen version is not allowed to start that match. For a result or reservation problem, use the in-app feedback tool and include the displayed Fair Match ID. Privacy and deletion details are in the Gem Quest Privacy Policy. For support, email privacy@xerosoftstudio.com.