Guide

Section 1

Overview

Locus League is a travel game on a real map of Earth. You sign in, drop a pin where you are, and start your adventure.

There is no campaign to finish. You pick a way to play and follow it as far as you like — or invent a new one tomorrow.

Things people do here:

• Mark places they have actually been in real life.
• Stretch a trail of hops across a country, a coast, or an ocean.
• Join a team and claim territory and titles, and defend them.
• Collect landmarks, passport stamps, and awards.
• Fly, ferry, and chat with other players.
• Build a little fortune in Yen and spend it on a variety of enhancements.

Everyone signed in can see every move. The map is the game.

Location is only used when you place a GPS pin. It is not tracked, stored, or used for any other purpose.

Section 2

Getting Started

1. 1 Sign in with Google and pick a username. You can change it later.
2. 2 Find yourself on the map, tap Pin, then tap inside the green circle.
3. 3 Open that pin and hop from it, or go on a road trip and place more GPS pins. After that, the game is yours.

Key Ideas

GPS pins mean you are there. Hops stretch from a pin you already own. Yen is the money — hourly income waits in a Deposit Box until you empty it. Hexes are land your team claims. Landmarks are famous discs on the map. None of this is required. All of it is waiting.

Play How You Like

There are no official modes. These are just ways people tend to play — mix them, ignore them, or make up your own.

Section 3

The Map

The world starts wide. Nearby pins bunch into numbered clouds in your highlight color. Tap a cloud and the camera flies until that group fills the view.

Zoom in and the disks appear — hops small, GPS a little larger. Zoom a bit more and a hex grid sits under the land.

The eye opens map filters: your pins only, airports, clouds, the grid, hexes, airport pins, and landmarks. Change them when you want. They stay the way you set it.

Your profile is the chip in the top left. A red dot means you have a message. The bar beside it is level. The Yen chip is your balance; tap it for the hourly picture and the Deposit Box. Pin and hex chips are how much of each you have left.

Pins

GPS needs location. Tap Pin, wait for the circle, tap inside. You may nudge it a little from where you really stand. Place names fill in a moment later.

Hop works with location off, once you have a pin. Open it, tap Hop, tap inside the circle, wait a beat while it builds. The new pin opens, ready to hop again. New hops are named No Name until you say otherwise.

Pins need a little space so their disks do not cover each other’s centers. You can edit name, emoji, and note — not the place, and not the type. Lock a pin you own so Auto Tear Down will not sell it.

A pin on water says so. A hop that lands in water cannot hop again until a Ferry Token moves it. Usually, if you can swim there, you can put a pin there. GPS pins pay a one-time travel bonus the first time you plant in that country or island.

Sell is permanent. A hop pays ¥5.

Yen and the Store

Yen is the in-game money. GPS pins pay according to how hard that place is to live in — your best ones each hour. Extra GPS still count for score. Hops pay a little. Sell a hop for ¥5. Landmarks pay ¥5 each hour if you keep a pin on the disc. Pin Bling and Pin Nameplate each add ¥2 each hour on the pin they dress.

That hourly income does not hit your pocket. It goes into a Deposit Box. Empty it from the Yen chip. Leave it a full day and the box becomes full — hourly Yen stops until you empty it and start the clock again.

Forum thumbs-up and travel bonuses still go straight to your balance. The Store spends that balance. Tap any item for what it actually does.

A few favorites: Ferry Token moves a water hop. Airline Ticket flies between airports. Private Jet is yours to park and hop from. Bionic Hop scouts farther, for a while. Nudge slides a pin a little. Pin Bling and Pin Nameplate dress a pin and each add ¥2 each hour. Hex Cat sleeps on a hex and nobody can take that cell. Tourist Map finds hidden landmarks near a pin. Pin Slot makes room for one more pin. Auto Tear Down sells your oldest unlocked pin in the background when a hop needs a slot.

Teams and Hexes

Dropping a pin does not claim the land. Join or create a Team, then Deploy Hex from a pin you own. Without a team you can’t deploy hexes. But you can be a team of one.

A hop tints the cell in the team color. A pin can help protect it. A GPS pin can really protect it. Hex Cats also protect hexes. You can still hop and drop pins on anyone’s hex.

Ring empty cells with your team’s hexes and the inside fills. Those fills are not owned — just a mark in your color — and they add Power. Power is what lets you Take Hex from another team. Attack and defense grow with Power, pin slots, and how close you are to each Center of Power. A team hop in the hex raises defense. A team GPS pin raises it a lot. A Hex Cat raises it massively, but a strong enough attack can still win.

Far hexes cost more Yen, up to ¥5,000. The Team sheet can fly you to your center.

Cities and states are municipalities. Every hex in a fort counts toward the city and state at its center. The team with the most of those hexes controls that city or state. Holding one adds extra Power. Enclosed fills still add Power even if another team holds the place. Countries are not claimed. A team holds up to ten people. The owner invites from a player's profile. Invites wait until you Accept.

Getting Around

Zoom in on a red airport marker to see the grounds. With a pin on the airport, an Airline Ticket lets you Fly and land a hop near a connected city. One flight a week. Cancel before you place and the ticket stays.

Private Jet parks near your newest pin, then flies to your selected destination. Touch down, and hop from where it sits. Board it from nearby.

Bionic Hop reaches farther for a short window. Each tap is a scout disc, not a pin. End it — or wait — and a real hop plants at the last disc.

People

Tap a pin to see who placed it, then tap the username. Their profile shows pins, Awards, History, Passport, and Landmarks — and a way to message them or send Yen.

Yours has all of that, plus Messages, Notifications, Forum, Public Chat, Team, High Scores, Players, Guide, Store, and Settings.

Messages are private. Notifications is mail from Locus League. Public Chat is a live wall. Forum is a board of threads. Team Chat is its own room. Players finds travelers by any scrap of a username. High Scores lists the top ten for Score, Hops, GPS, and Teams. Boards update on the half-hour. Report a message, post, pin, or player if it should not be here. Block hides their pins and posts and stops private messages.

Collections

You score for placing pins and for being first of that type in a city, state, or country — GPS and hop lists are separate, and they are yours alone. Level opens more pin slots. Score stays if you sell pins.

Awards are one-time surprises for going far, holding many places at once, visiting landmarks, and a few other secrets. Your profile shows progress; others see what you have earned.

Passport is GPS country stamps that stay even if the pins are gone. Landmarks is a sticker book in visit order. Famous places hide until someone pins within 10 miles. Then everyone can see it. The pin that finds it wins ¥1,000. Anyone with a pin on the disc gets the sticker. Your profile lists hidden landmarks you discovered. Keep a pin there for ¥5 each hour.

History graphs how a profile has grown.

Settings

Username, appearance, map style, font size, pin color, and highlight all save together. About has Release Notes. Notifications chooses which unread types light the map chip. Blocked Players lists who you have blocked; Unblock brings them back. Export your pins as CSV. Support goes to the operator.

Reset wipes pins, score, Store items, and look. Username and messages stay. Delete Account removes everything, including your username and messages. The next sign-in is a new game, even with the same account. There is no undo.

Privacy: /privacy. Terms: /terms.