Gameplay of Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate, a chess game with guns. The king is on a chessboard.

Screenshot from Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate, a chess game with a shotgun king.

Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate gameplay. Chessboard with shotgun king piece. "Rook's Soul" card allows extra moves.

Screenshot of Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate game screen. Shows the game menu. Game cards are on the right.

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Imagine a chess game where you are the black king, but all the other pieces in your army have deserted to join the white army. Outrageous! Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate is a turn-based action roguelike game where you have to face the white army as the black king. You are alone, but you have your trusty shotgun, and it turns out to be the perfect weapon to hunt down the defectors and claim your vengeance.

The gameplay system is quite simple. You have to choose between moving or shooting your weapon on every turn, and you must move to reload your shotgun between shots. You win the match if you destroy the white king, and then you get to choose an upgrade for you and another one for the enemy that will take effect during the next games. Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate features five different difficulty levels and an Endless Mode for those looking for a big challenge.

Patch Notes

v1.621 - 4/29/26 (Patch Notes for v1.621: Even more bugfixes)
v1.620 - 4/17/26 (Patch notes for v1.620: More bugfixes)
v1.619 - 4/16/26 (Patch Notes for v1.619: Bugfixes)
11/4/25 (Crashfix on tutorial)
10/14/25 (Crashfix on Steam Deck and MacOS for Chinese and a few other languages)
v1.515g - 1/17/25 (Patch notes for v1.515g: German translation update)
v1.515f - 1/4/25 (Patch notes for v1.515f: Bugfixes and More Stable Saves)
v1.515e - 12/26/24 (Patch notes for v1.515e: More bugfixes)
v1.515 - 10/15/24 (Patch notes for v1.515: Bugfixes + New Rank Tracking per Shotgun)
v1.514 - 10/3/24 (Patch notes for v1.514: Bugfixes!)
v1.41 - 2/1/24 (Patch notes for v1.41: Lots of minor fixes and changes for modding)
v1.38 - 9/8/23 (Patch v1.38 & v1.39: engine update and game fixes)
v1.36 - 12/16/22 (Patch v1.36: Fixes and Balance Changes)
v1.35 - 11/25/22 (Patch v1.35: Fixes and small Balance changes)
v1.344 - 11/23/22 (Quickpatch v1.344: Chinese, Korean and Japanese fix)
v1.343 - 11/17/22 (Quickpatch: v1.343 Changelog)
v1.342 - 11/15/22 (Quickpatch: v1.342 Changelog)
v1.251 - 6/8/22 (Bugfixes: v1.251 quickpatch)
v1.245 - 5/17/22 (QoL improvements and bugfixes: v1.245 Patch)