Colonist Rush is everything you love about Catan, made faster, more intense, and more fun.

The essence is the same, but the rhythm is completely different. It changes more of your strategy than you'd expect.

This is a follow-up post on Rush Announcement and Development Blog Post

Initial Placements

• Prioritize raw production over resource diversity. More rolls per minute means more value per production rate. A 6-5-9 start with two resources beats a balanced 10-5-9 start.
• Point your roads somewhere safe. Slightly worse spot that nobody else wants is better than a contested spot.
• OWS (ore-wheat-sheep) is even stronger than usual.
• Ports matter more. A 2:1 port is an instant, always-available trade that doesn't depend on an opponent noticing your offer in the chaos.

Keep Low Profile in Early-Game

• Friendly Robber is on by default, and it protects players who are still at 2 victory points. Until you reach 3VP, the robber literally cannot touch you. That means you can spend the opening minutes stockpiling scarce resources, buying dev cards, and setting up your burst.
• The first-impression effect: Colonist Rush moves too fast for careful analysis. Players snap-judge who the danger is during the early game, and rarely update. If you start strong, the table defaults to robbing you and cutting you off, even after you've fallen behind.
• With knights playable at any moment, all three opponents can steal from you back to back. Get marked as the threat and you can bleed three resources per roll. Being strong gets punished instantly from all sides.

Development Card Strategy

• Stack Knight dev cards to chain robber moves, and secure Largest Army in a few seconds.
• Time Monopoly after a big roll. The moment a 6 or 8 pays everyone, fire Monopoly on the resource they just collected, before they can spend it. In the base game of Colonist, you wait for your turn; in Colonist Rush you fire it at the exact second of maximum payout. Then pray nobody fires their own Monopoly on the same resource right after you. Yes, it hurts.

Mastering the Robber and the 7s

• Know when your robber is coming. The indicator shows whose robber the next 7 is. When it's yours, decide your target before 7 lands.
• Idle seconds are for planning, not waiting. When you're low on cards or just waiting on the next roll, don't zone out. That downtime is where good Rush players pull ahead. Use it to map the next 10 seconds: when does the robber rotation reach you, who's quietly stacking knights toward Largest Army, who's one resource from a build, what is each opponent actually trying to do? Decide your move before your numbers hit, so when they do you act on instinct instead of panicking against the clock.

Now You're Ready For Colonist Rush

Don't overthink it. The best way to learn is to play it (or to watch a youtube video about it).

The beauty of Colonist Rush is that a full game of Catan costs you 10 minutes, so you can run it again the moment it ends. Queue up and settle fast. See you on the leaderboard.

In Colonist Rush, why does everyone have to wait while players are discarding? Why are initial placements still sequential? How are decisions like these made?

This is a follow-up post on Rush Announcement, where we'll answer these questions and many more.

How Did We Come Up With the Idea?

For years, we kept asking the same question:

What would Catan look like if it were designed for the internet from day one?

In the summer of 2025, after playtesting early physical real-time variants, we felt we had found the answer.

We had a real-time version that preserved the best parts of 4 player Catan: trading, racing, blocking, and self-balancing player dynamics.

But it removed the biggest problem: waiting.

The result was strange in the best way. Games were faster than 1v1, but still felt like full 4 player Catan.

We immediately knew we wanted to bring that experience online.

Colonist was originally built because we loved Catan and wanted people to play it more easily online.

Colonist Rush comes from the same place.

But this time, we are not just adapting the game for the internet.

We are evolving it into something that could only exist on the internet.

Our Guiding Principle

Throughout development, we followed a simple principle:

Don't stop the game unless absolutely necessary.

We wanted players to stay in flow as much as possible.

That meant players could continue taking actions while others were trading or playing a development card.

The only exceptions were what we called forced actions: situations where a player must resolve something before the game can continue, such as discarding cards after a 7 is rolled.

Discarding is the only blocking event because allowing other actions during it created too much chaos. You could be picking cards to discard when someone plays Monopoly or steals one of those cards. Suddenly it's unclear what should happen.

So we made discarding a forced action that must be resolved before the game continues.

Whenever we encountered a problem, we tried solving it in ways that felt familiar to existing Colonist players. We wanted to minimize learning curve while maximizing speed.

The First Challenge: Colonist Was Built Around Turns

Colonist's codebase was originally designed around a turn-based game. Both the frontend and backend assumed that only one player could act at a time.

The first step was refactoring the game so multiple players could take actions simultaneously. So we generalized it. Instead of one current player, every player now carries their own state at all times. "Whose turn is it" became "what is each player allowed to do right now."

After a month of work, we had a functional version of Colonist Rush. It was sort of playable.

Previously, mechanics were tied to the standard turn structure. We’ve now decoupled them so they don’t depend on how turns work. Individual mechanics can now be customized independently, supporting formats like 2v2, or everyone playing at once.

Along the way, we fixed countless visual bugs, gameplay bugs, synchronization issues, and edge cases.

Once the functionality was stable, we moved on to the fun part: gameplay optimization.

Problem #1: Game Was Too Slow

Our starting point was rolling the dice every 30 seconds, but we noticed it felt painfully slow.

We wanted something faster.

As we reduced the timer, a new problem appeared.

Players were getting resources too fast and were being forced to discard constantly. Frequent discards meant frequent interruptions. Frequent interruptions meant players waiting for each other.

This directly violated our goal of keeping the game moving.

Our solution was increasing the discard limit from 7 to 9.

Why 9, and not 10 or 11?

1. 9 wasn't a new idea. It's the same limit our 1v1 Ranked players already use, so it was battle-tested and felt familiar from day one.
2. Discard penalty exists for a reason: it punishes hoarding and keeps the 7 rolls meaningful. 9 was the smallest change that smoothed out the interruptions while keeping that tension intact. Go higher, and discards almost never happen. Hoarding becomes risk-free and the robber loses its bite.

This change dramatically reduced how often players had to stop and discard. The game flowed much more smoothly, so we were able to reduce the dice timer to as low as 5 seconds.

Problem #2: Trade Offer Spam

Once we achieved the pace we wanted, another issue quickly became obvious. Trade offers were everywhere. Players would spam offers constantly. On mobile devices, this became particularly annoying.

Our first attempt was simple: make trade offers hide-able.

That helped, but didn't fully solve the problem. Players still wanted to see useful trades. They just didn't want to see every trade.

Eventually we realized something important:

• In the base game, a rejected offer is worth keeping around. Turns are slow, and trading is a negotiation. How an opponent responds can change your own answer, so "no" often means "not yet." You might reconsider before the turn ends.
• In Colonist Rush, none of that holds. Everyone is trading at once, offers arrive by the second, and once you've rejected one, you're not coming back to it. The offer has done its job.

So we made rejected offers disappear immediately.

That was a major improvement, but we took it one step further. If you don't own the resources required to accept an offer, we simply don't show it.

These changes dramatically reduced the amount of distracting trade noise without reducing meaningful trading.

Problem #3: Hotkeys

One of the first suggestions everyone had during testing was hotkeys. Rush creates more demand for hotkeys than any other Colonist game mode. So why didn't we add them?

Because hotkeys would create a significant advantage for web players over mobile players. Maintaining competitive fairness across platforms was more important than maximizing speed for one platform.

As tempting as hotkeys were, we ultimately decided against them.

Problem #4: Initial Placements

Initial placements presented another challenge. How could we make them feel more aligned with the spirit of Rush?

During our yearly Guild Retreat at Istanbul, we experimented with multiple approaches, including having everyone place at the same time.

Some of these versions were chaotic. Some were fun. But they all had one problem: They significantly reduced the strategic depth of initial placement. In the end, we decided to keep placements sequential. We made initial placements short enough that you always need to pay attention, but still long enough for real strategic thinking.

Finding the Right Speed

One of the most interesting discoveries from testing was that different player groups preferred different speeds. Casual players generally found 8s turns easier to follow. Competitive players preferred 5s turns because it delivered the "Rush" feeling we were aiming for.

When we were first testing Colonist Rush in rooms, we chose 8s as the default. Over time, something interesting happened. Among the optional settings, 5s became by far the most popular speed. That led to another question: Should 5s become the default?

We worried that new players might bounce off the mode if their first experience felt too intense. So we looked at the data.

Players whose first Rush game used 5s timer were actually more likely to play another Rush game than players who started at 8 seconds.

That gave us the confidence to make 5s default. And yes, we tested 3s and 4s timers too. They were nearly unplayable.

The Results

When we released alpha Rush in Custom Rooms in January, Colonist Rush immediately became one of our highest-retention game mode.

Later, we ran separate experiments for bot players and ranked players. Rush proved popular across every cohort we tested.

That said, some of the most enthusiastic feedback came from 1v1 Ranked players.

The reactions we received on Discord and Reddit were incredibly encouraging and motivated us to continue improving the mode.

What Colonist Rush Taught Us

One unexpected benefit of Rush was that it exposed UX inefficiencies throughout the game. When every second matters, friction becomes obvious.

For example, we would like to provide more information when choosing whom to rob. We would like trade offers to communicate more context. We would like opponent panels to make it easier to identify who's winning at a glance.

Colonist Rush highlighted many opportunities to improve the overall Colonist experience, not just Rush itself.

What's Next?

The optimizations never stop. Every improvement that removes friction makes larger and faster real-time games more feasible.

Once we've solved enough of those problems, maybe 50-player Colonist games won't sound so crazy.

Oops.

That might have been a spoiler.

The Future of Colonist Rush

Colonist Rush started as a simple question: What would Catan look like if it were designed for the internet from day one?

Now that Rush is live, we see it as the beginning of a much larger direction for Colonist.

• Faster games.
• Less waiting.
• More simultaneous decisions.

And this is only the first version.

Play Colonist Rush. Break it. Tell us what to fix. Help us build the future of Colonist.

and if you want to build cool stuff like this, apply here

Colonist Rush is a real-time version of Catan where the whole table plays at once.

• There are no player turns; everyone can build, buy development cards, and trade at the same time, in parallel.
• The dice roll automatically at regular intervals, and resources are distributed to every player simultaneously.

Games wrap in under 10 minutes, so there's no waiting on slow turns, no AFK players holding things up.

2. Are there turns in Colonist Rush?

Rush has no player turns: all players build, trade, and buy development cards in real time. The only pause is right after a 7 is rolled, while the robber is moved and while discards occur.

3. Do I roll the dice myself in Colonist Rush?

No, they roll automatically on a timer set in the room settings.

If the whole table is ready early, players can vote to roll, and once all active players vote, the dice roll immediately. It keeps the game moving when nobody wants to wait around.

4. What happens when a 7 is rolled in Colonist Rush?

It works like base mode, with a small difference. Players move the robber in order, and there's an icon showing who will use the robber when next 7 is rolled.

5. How long does a game of Colonist Rush take?

Most games finish under 10 minutes.

6. How many players can play Colonist Rush?

Ranked Colonist Rush is a 4-player.
In Room, players can play with up to 8 players.

7. Can I play Colonist Rush against bots?

Yes. You can add bots to a private Rush game to practice or fill out a table.

8. Is there a ranked Colonist Rush mode?

Yes. If you want to play competitively, Rush has a ranked mode with seasonal play and leaderboards.

9. Can I play Colonist Rush with friends?

Yes. Create a private room, invite your friends, and start. With no turns, nobody's stuck waiting around for their go.

10. Does Colonist Rush support expansions like Cities & Knights or Seafarers?

Not yet, Colonist Rush is played on the base game only.

If you want us to prioritize support for other modes, upvote in https://suggestions.colonist.io/

11. Can Colonist Rush be played on a physical Catan board?

No. Rush depends on things that really only work digitally: a shared auto-roll timer, resources landing for everyone at the same instant, and the whole table building at once without waiting for turns.

We handle the timing, resource distribution, and bookkeeping so your group can move fast. We recommend your group download Colonist and play together.

12. What happens if two players go for the same spot at the same time?

Whoever builds there first gets it. There are no turns, so the first build to land on a spot gets it. Spots fill fast in Rush, so if you want one, go get it!

13. How to play Catan faster?

Colonist Rush is the fastest game mode possible!

14. How long does Catan usually take to play?

A standard board game of Catan usually takes 1 to 2 hours.

Colonist has faster ways to play: Colonist 1v1 is a quick head-to-head match around 15 min, and Colonist Rush plays the whole table at once with no turns, so most games finish in under 10 minutes.

15. How many digital game modes are available for Catan?

On Colonist, you can play all of these: Classic 4p, 1v1, Cities and Knights, Shuffle, and Rush.

16. Is there a new way to play Catan?

Yes. The newest is Colonist Rush, a real-time mode where the whole table plays at once. No turns, auto-rolling dice, and most games finish in under 10 minutes.

17. What should I play if I like Catan?

If you like Catan but want a change of pace, try Colonist Rush. It is a real-time version with no turns where the whole table plays at once, so a full match finishes in under 10 minutes.

Read more about Colonist Rush:

• How we made it: https://blog.colonist.io/colonist-rush-development/
• Announcing Colonist Rush: https://blog.colonist.io/announcing-colonist-rush/

Since starting Colonist, one question stayed on our minds:

What would Catan look like if it was designed for the internet from day one?

We craved for something faster, more intense. Over the years, both Colonist and our community experimented with more simultaneous ways to play. Eventually, something clicked.

So we built Colonist Rush.

• ⚡ Real-time gameplay
• ⚡ Simultaneous building & trading
• ⚡ Minimal wait times
• ⚡ Full 4-player games in under 10 minutes

Rush is our vision for the next phase of Catan.

We believe Colonist Rush will become the most played variant. Until we create something even better…

Thank you for playing, sharing feedback, and helping us improve Colonist year after year. We entered 2025 focused on one thing: making Colonist more accessible, competitive, and social.

By the end of the year, Colonist is faster and cleaner across web, mobile, and Discord platforms. We also expanded how players discover games, compete, and join community events.

With mobile games growing up to 65% of all games, mobile UX and performance became the center of our roadmap. Our mobile version allows playing Colonist anywhere, anytime with no setup required making our game super accessible.

If you only remember three things from 2025:

• We updated every single week: 52 releases
• We launched a major new matchmaking mode: Shuffle.
• We did a complete redesign of our Home Page.
• We scaled competitive play through Colonist Championship 2025, powered by 114 tournament hosts in 37 countries.

Yearly growth between 2021=>2025:

• Yearly Active Players: +38%
• Monthly Active Players: +46%

2023–2024 active players include a one-time, low-retention Discord distribution.

How players actually play:

• 36% play ranked games
• 30% play bot games
• 24% play room games
• 10% play casual games

Highlights shipped in 2025

For all updates, see Patch Notes.

Community and Events

Colonist Championship 2025

Championship brought community-run qualifiers into a global finals ecosystem. The host network was a core part of that effort, with 114 total qualifier hosts supporting qualifiers worldwide.

Weekend Tournaments

Throughout the year, recurring events helped create a consistent competition window and a straightforward way for players to participate without needing to coordinate large brackets themselves.

Colonist Retreat (Istanbul)

We are a remote team spread across multiple countries, so getting everyone in one place is rare. In 2025, we met in Istanbul for our company retreat. We used the time to plan, review what we shipped this year, and reset for what’s next. The best part was meeting Colonist players in Istanbul and putting faces to the names we see every day in-game and in the community.

Fun Data

• Longest game played: 81h 42min
• Most played mode: 1v1
• Friends Added: 312K

2026 Direction

In 2026, we’ll stay focused on improvements that will make Colonist better every month:

• Mobile-first experience: faster performance, cleaner UI, fewer taps, and stronger stability.
• Competitive play at every level: a bigger, better Championship 2026 with more weekend tournaments.
• Communities first: improved support for communities, organizers, and creators that keep Colonist alive.
• New Modes: we have dopamine soup cooking in the kitchen 🍜😉.

Want to help us accomplish these goals? We're looking to expand our team. Join Colonist now! If you have friends, refer them!

• 2024 Summary
• 2023 Summary
• 2022 Summary
• 2021 Summary

Hey settlers,

We wanted to share something that has been brewing behind the scenes—and you might have already noticed it: Colonist is slowly shifting toward a portrait-only experience on mobile phones.

And yep—we’ve heard you. Loud and clear.

Some of our most loyal players have reached out asking, "Why can't I rotate my phone anymore?" or "Is landscape mode coming back?"

So here’s the honest story, straight from the team

We’re a Small Independent Team

Colonist.io started as a passion project—and it still is. We're a small, dedicated team focused on building the best digital Catan experience possible. Every design decision we make is carefully weighed against our time, resources, and the ability to iterate fast without breaking your game.

Why Portrait Mode?

1. It’s Just Faster to Play

In our internal testing, portrait games on mobile are completed up to 30% faster than landscape ones. Why? The UI is cleaner, interactions are quicker, and it's easier to keep track of your hand, your roads, and the chat.

2. One-Handed Play is a Game-Changer

Let’s be real—most of us play while multitasking. Whether you're waiting in line, lying in bed, or sneakily playing during meetings (you didn’t hear that from us), portrait mode makes it easier to play with one hand.

3. Fewer Bugs, Better Experience

Supporting both landscape and portrait sounds good on paper—but it doubles the work. It means double the layouts, double the edge cases, and double the bugs. By focusing on one orientation, we can fix issues quicker, ship sooner, and improve the game more meaningfully.

4. The Data Backs It Up

• 95% of mobile games today are portrait-first. That’s what players expect.
• Over 92% of Colonist mobile games in the past 3 months have been in portrait mode.

So... Is Landscape Mode Going Away?

Eventually, yes. While it’s still technically available in some devices right now, we want to be upfront: landscape mode will be deprecated from mobile phones in the near future.

We know it can be challenging to adjust to such change, especially if you've gotten used to a certain playstyle. This wasn’t an easy decision. But it’s the one that lets us focus, build faster, and keep delivering a smoother and more intuitive game.

We’re Listening

Thank you if you’ve shared feedback with us—we’ve read every message and discussed it thoroughly, making sure concerns were not ignored. This decision wasn’t made in isolation; it’s based on observing how you play, understanding what works, and identifying where we can make the game even better.

In upcoming updates, we will continue working to improve the Portrait mode experience.

The “broken” dice algorithm is a highly debated topic. So we researched this comprehensively and we were surprised by the results!

“The odds are way too low to roll a 🎲6 three times in a row!”

“Look at this distribution, it’s nuts, what are the odds of rolling 🎲4 three times more than 🎲5?”

“Wow, I just played a game and the 🎲7 almost didn’t roll!”

Does this sound like you? We heard you!

Read more about our random dice algorithm.

Are the dice broken?

The “broken” dice algorithm is a highly debated topic. So we researched this comprehensively and we were surprised by the results!

2 Common issues players run into:

1. Roll Streaks (Example: rolling 🎲4 multiple times in a row)
2. Skewed distribution (Example: 🎲3 rolling way more than 🎲5)

“If there are 50 rolls in a game, the chances any number is rolled 3 times consecutively at any points in the game is 3.8%. However, it seems like it happens every other game.”- Source

At your request, we revisited our algorithm and this is what we’ve found...

57% chance to roll the same number three times in a row...

To properly address why this is the case we need to consider the probability of rolling a 🎲2 three times in a row OR a 🎲3 three times in a row… OR a 🎲12 three times in a row then sum all the probabilities together. After running the numbers, for a 50 turn game the chance to roll a number three times in a row is 57%.

Yeah, we were surprised too! The statement "happens every other game" was quite correct.

If you’re curious on how we got to this answer, we broke it down.

Does Colonist dice match expected results?

Next we compared 1 million Colonist.io simulations to the expected results. This is what we found:

The Colonist.io dice actually has a ~1-2% lower total probability of rolling triples than expected. This is close enough to mimic real dice.

Try it yourself

Want to see how dice rolls play out in practice?

We’ve created an open tool for simulating dice rolls, available at this link. You can input the number of rolls and instantly see a chart showing how often sums from 2 to 12 appear. This helps understand how randomness works in the game Colonist.

How to Use

The tool is easy to use. After visiting this link, you’ll see an interface in the fourth block with a field to enter the number of rolls and a "Generate" button.

This process helps visualize why, for example, the chance of rolling the same number three times in a row seems high (57% in a 50-roll game), though it’s normal for random events.

We recommend starting with 50 rolls to see a typical distribution for a standard game, then increasing to 200 or 1000 to notice how the distribution becomes more even.

We hope this tool helps you better understand the mechanics of dice rolls in Colonist and dispels doubts about "broken" dice. Use it to experiment with different numbers of rolls and see how randomness works in practice.

Technical Details

The code is available for review, showing how it generates random rolls (1 to 6 for each die) and sums them to produce results from 2 to 12. CSS styles the interface, including buttons and charts, while JavaScript handles the simulation logic.

61% chance of rolling non-ideal distributions

To measure the probability of rolling non-ideal distributions, we used a statistical value called Goodness of Fit. The values span a range from 0 to 1 where a perfect distribution approaches a value of 1. There are more complex explanations but this is a concept more easily visualized. Note below the increasing normality as we increase the Goodness of Fit:

So what is the average Goodness of Fit for a standard game?

This means 61% of the games have an awful dice graph. Surely we must fix this.

It takes >200 turns to get a good fit

More competitive Colonist players are often quoted saying “This is randomness, games on Colonist aren’t long enough to get an even distribution.” After crunching the numbers, we’ve worked out that games would only be expected to be evenly distributed after 200 turns! That is roughly the length of 4 games!

Implementing the Balanced Dice

While some of the most competitive among you argue that random dice are at the core of the game, this doesn’t change the fact that a large subset of you are frustrated by what can easily be perceived as a lack of randomness. So, as game developers, it was important to us to provide a new optional dice algorithm, Balance Dice, that more closely matches expectations. Don’t worry though, the original Random Dice remains untouched!

Using Dice Deck to control distribution

Dice Deck is a card deck with all 36 combinations found in a 2 dice system. Instead of rolling the dice you draw a card. After the card is drawn it is discarded. This provides an easy way to create a balanced distribution. The problem with a Dice Deck is that it creates a system that is easily countable. To lower the predictability (Goodness of Fit) it is possible to change the point at which the deck is reshuffled:

Above you can see that by modifying the minimum number of cards left in the Dice Deck before reshuffling, it is possible to tune the Goodness of Fit expected from the algorithm to closely match an ideal double dice distribution. The range between 10-15 provides a good balance between Goodness of Fit and predictability.

Dice Deck and Roll Streaks

We got a new problem. Though it effectively controls distribution, the dice deck doesn’t lower the probability of Roll Streaks by much. Also, the probability of rolling doubles remains constant despite dice deck configuration.

With such a large percentage of you complaining about dice streaks, a simple Dice Deck would only solve part of the problem.

Weighted Dice Deck to reduce the odds of rolling streaks

The only way to reduce the odds of rolling streaks was to lower the odds of rolling the same number consecutively. With this goal in mind a truly tunable algorithm could be created. In the following graph we reduce probability of recent rolls from 0 to 50 and see how it effects "Average doubles per game":

So the final solution had to be a combination of a simple Dice Deck to control distribution paired with a weighted random number generator (RNG) to reduce the probability of Roll Streaks.

Final Balanced Dice Stats

With some fine tuning we landed on the following solution:

The Colonist Balanced Dice algorithm uses a single Dice Deck with reshuffling at 12 cards remaining and a 30% probability reduction of rolling the same number 2 times in a row. This increases the average Goodness of Fit from 0.25 to 0.8 and decreases the number of doubles per game from 5.43 to 3.75.

The final code:  Link

The results

Once we made the changes, we asked our play testers to send in example games played with Random Dice and Balanced Dice:

• Random Dice
• Balanced Dice

All play testers advocating for Balanced Dice were satisfied with the end results :)

Go try the new Balanced Dice option on Colonist and tell us what you think on our Discord channel!

P.S. Checkout all the data presented in this article.

Hi everyone.
On May 4, our website, mobile app, and Discord activity were all down for about 6 hours. We understand that this is unacceptable, and we sincerely apologize for this incident.

What Happened

Our domain provider (the company that helps people reach our website) was doing some planned maintenance.
During this, some settings that tell the internet how to find Colonist were reset. Because of this, no one could access our site or services.

How We Fixed It

Once we realized what was wrong, our team acted fast.
We reached out to our provider and also updated the settings on our end. It took a little time for the internet to catch up to the changes (which can take up to 48 hours), but by the evening, most people were able to get back in.

What We’re Doing So It Doesn’t Happen Again

We’ve already started making changes to avoid this in the future:

• Moving our website setup to a more reliable provider
• Improving tools to catch problems faster

Better Communication Next Time

We also fell short on communication. During the outage, we didn’t do a good enough job keeping everyone informed.
While we responded to messages in Discord, we failed to communicate broadly across all platforms.
To ensure this doesn’t happen again, we’re putting better systems in place. Moving forward, we’ll keep everyone informed with timely updates across all our platforms whenever there’s something worth sharing.

Thanks again for your patience and support. We’re working hard to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Colonist Team

Hey Colonist Community,

This is our 6th year live! Thank you for your ongoing support. Your passion and feedback fuels our mission to create the ultimate online settling experience.

• In 2024, we grew our playerbase by 1,000,000+
• Colonist also became the largest repository of Catan game data, logging over 3,000,000 monthly Catan matches and saving 600GB of data—giving us complete insight into every game.

Recap of 2024

Big Features

We built some of the most requested features by our players:

• Game Replays
• Many trade improvements including Open Ended Trades
• Auto-reconnection
• Bot difficulty levels
• Improved friends feature

In addition to the above features, we added:

• Beginner mode
• Mobile Discord Activity
• Countless mobile app improvements
• Notification panel
• Gifting Memberships

Development Stats

We went from updating every 2 weeks, to every week! With our new schedule we released 52 new versions.

This leads to different kinds of comparisons, to show the impact of our work:

This shows that making changes, improving things, and fixing even small annoyances in the game is worth it. - Kovarex

Colonist Social Stats

Our attention has primarily been on the game but our Discord and Reddit communities have been growing at a solid pace!

We've also started uploading content to our Youtube channel.

We hosted our 4th Colonist Con! Watch it on YouTube.

Colonist Community Stats

We love seeing our players post video and highlights. Here’s a look at some of their growth this year:

• The Catan community is growing a lot. Especially Reddit.
• This is not an exhaustive list of the community, only the most popular ones.

2025 Plans

Here is our public to-do list. This year, our primary focus will be to double down on enhancing the user experience and making the entire experience more enjoyable across all of our platforms, especially mobile!

Want to help us accomplish these goals? We're looking to increase the size of our team. Join Colonist now! If you have friends, refer them!

• 2023 Summary
• 2022 Summary
• 2021 Summary
• 2020 Summary

Ever feel like your friends and family always gang up on you in Catan? Looking for a new way to enjoy the game without the usual drama?

Even if you're already a seasoned Colonist.io player, transitioning from in-person Catan to the online version comes with its own set of challenges and opportunities. This digital platform offers the classic Settlers of Catan experience with added convenience, global competition, and a surprising amount of collaboration.

Ready to dominate the online arena? Here’s your quick guide to enhancing your Colonist.io experience:

1. Sharpen Your Skills vs Bots:
Even if you're familiar with the game, practicing in “Beginner Mode” or with easy/medium Bots can help you refine your strategies and get comfortable with the nuances of the digital interface. This is also a great way to teach friends and family how to play online.

Tip #1: Focus on Resource Balance:
During your practice games, aim to build settlements on numbers that have high production (like 6 & 8). This will give you more flexibility in trading and development.

2. Master the Interface:
If you haven't already, take some time to familiarize yourself with resource management, real-time trading, and strategic robber placement. These features will become second nature as you continue to play.

Tip #2: Utilize the Trade Menu:
Don't be shy about using the trade menu! Clearly propose your desired trades (e.g., 1 Wheat for a Brick and an Ore) and see what offers come in. The real-time chat allows for quick negotiation and can significantly enhance your gameplay experience.

Adapting to the Online Social Game:

Online Catan presents a unique social dynamic. While friendly banter is encouraged, keep your text chat concise and focused. Long-winded messages can slow down the game.

Tip #3: Be Mindful of Chat Etiquette:
Use emojis or short phrases to express emotions ("Good trade!" or "Bummer about the robber!"). Avoid negativity or accusations in chat, as it can sour the online experience for everyone.

The Nuances of Online Play:

One interesting aspect of online Catan is the rise of "extortion." Unlike the classic game where the robber can only steal resources, online players might offer non-blocking or non-stealing placements in exchange for a specific resource.

Tip #4: Counter Extortion with Collaboration:
If someone tries to extort you, consider proposing a collaborative trade. Offer to help them build a road or army in exchange for the resource you need. This can be a win-win situation and build alliances.

Join the Colonist.io Community:

That's just the beginning!

Make sure to join the Colonist.io Discord, introduce yourself, and learn tips in the #Strategy channel - https://discord.gg/colonist

So, what are you waiting for? Gather your resources, fire up Colonist.io, and get ready to conquer the online Catan world!

Written by CellyK

Making friends is great, but winning at Catan is infinitely greater.

In this post I’ll give you three mischievous tactics to add to your arsenal which can benefit you immensely when the time comes.

1. Extortion or ‘No Block’

If you’ve played enough Colonist games you’ve probably come across people on the chat saying things like “ore for NB?”

This is not your opponents offering to give you a Ninja Bunny, but instead extorting you: if you give them the material they’re asking for, they will not place the robber on you.

NBs are a dangerous tool for a few reasons:

• The deal is not binding
• Blocking that player might be more valuable for you than the trade itself
  

However, if you really want to block someone but want to get a specific resource, you can resort to a NS: non-steal.

If you’re lucky and it makes sense on the board, you’ll be able to trade the resource you want in exchange for not stealing from that player but still blocking them.

This tactic is pretty common in Colonist games, but I wanted to share it to show you how to gain some flexibility and leverage when you roll a 7 or even when using a knight card.

So now let’s move into some sneakier strategies.

2. The Cold-Hearted Plow

One of the most frustrating elements of this game is when you’re racing someone for a settlement and they beat you to it.

Not only does it suck because you don’t get the settlement, but you also lose so much momentum, particularly if it’s at the beginning.

So how great would it be if you could ensure ‘plowing’ your opponents?

Something we often don’t think about when placing our settlements is the materials we’ll get from our second placement.

However, these materials could come in extremely handy when faced with a position where you might be racing someone.

Imagine you’re racing someone or contemplating placing a spot likely to be contested.

If your second placement was on a spot with both wood and brick, you’ll be guaranteed starting with a road which will enable you to win the race.

This is especially useful if you’re rolling before the opponent you’re racing, as it  essentially makes sure that you’ll win that spot.

But this tool can be used even if your opponent plays before you, it’s just slightly riskier depending on what materials they got from their second settlement.

So have fun torturing some innocent souls with this tactic.

Now let’s move on to the most evil of them all.

3. The Infamous Pre-Monopoly Trade

The monopoly card. We all love drawing it and we all absolutely hate when it’s used against us.

You’re saving up your resources religiously and finally you get enough wood to trade 4:1 for the wheat you need to build a settlement.

But right before you, boom. Your opponent monopolies the wood and it seems like the floor just fell from beneath you.

It sucks and yet it’s one of the most fun features of the game.

Now, what sucks even more and is even more fun when you’re the one doing it is getting extra resources for free.

This is how it goes:

1. You’re planning on monopolying a resource which is abundant on the board and which you have some of, let’s say ore.
2. You offer your ore for some other resource (you even do 2:1 or more if they don’t initially take it)
3. You get as many resources as you can for your ore
4. Everyone is happy
5. Then you monopoly ore.
   

Beautiful, isn’t it?

Well there you have it, three tactics to add to your arsenal that can get you some extra resources, momentum, and, most importantly, will win you some games and make you some enemies.


Written by Sergio Sastre

Hey Colonist Community,

This is our 5th year! Thank you for your ongoing support. Your passion and feedback fuels our mission to create the ultimate online settling experience.

• In 2023, we grew our playerbase by 1,000,000+
• Colonist became a multiplatform game by launching on Mobile and Discord Activities

Recap of 2023

We started using average numbers for Monthly Active Players. Our best month, December, saw 1.3M Monthly Active Players. We also had a huge Discord Activity launch that same month.

Big Features

We built some of the most requested features:

1. Mobile App on iOS & Android!
2. Revamped trade system
3. Added new keyboard shortcuts
4. Karma filter setting for room games
5. Fullscreen gameplay

In addition to the above features, we:

• Translated the game to 30 languages
• Added Apple & Discord login options
• Added Hover Mechanics: Click on the board to build

Development Stats

We went from updating every 2 weeks, to every week! With our new schedule we released 35 new versions.

This leads to different kinds of comparisons:

This shows that making changes, improving things, and fixing even small annoyances in the game is worth it. - Kovarex

Colonist Social Stats

Our attention has primarily been on the game but Discord and Reddit have been growing at a solid pace!

We hosted our 3rd Colonist Con! Watch it on YouTube.

Colonist Community Stats

We love seeing our players post video and highlights. Here’s a look at some of their growth this year:

• The Catan community is growing a lot. Especially Reddit.
• DandyDrew came out of nowhere and placed himself as the 3rd top Youtube channel in his first year.
• This is not an exhaustive list of the community, only the most popular ones.

2024 Plans

Here is our public to-do list. Our primary focus this year will be to create a more welcoming platform for new players. We've seen that many players are interested in playing Colonist but don't know what Catan is. We want to address this problem and make the game easier to learn.

Some of the ways we plan to do this is:

• Adding a Beginner Mode
• Finishing mobile version
• Addressing issues raised by the community

Want to help us accomplish these goals? We're looking to increase the size of our team. Join Colonist now!

If you have friends, refer them. We give $2K referral rewards!

• 2022 Summary
• 2021 Summary
• 2020 Summary

We dug into the data and found that a two-seven streak occurs 1.6 times per game. Even worse, three-seven streaks happen in a staggering 70% of games, practically every other match! Do the math: with an average of 15,000 1v1 games per day, that's:

• 75 players experiencing an unfair eight-seven streak.
• 165 players struggling with a dominant seven-streak advantage for their opponent.
• Nearly 5,000 players facing a four-seven streak daily.

The 7 Imbalance

But wait, there's more! Even with an algorithm designed to avoid streaks, a seven imbalance can still rear its ugly head. Imagine this scenario:

Yikes! In this situation, your opponent hoarded 75% of all sevens, leaving you at a significant disadvantage. Let's dive into actual data

Only 30% of our games have an even split of sevens. If we do the math like before, 100 players each day only get 10% of all the sevens rolled. So, in a game with 10 sevens, you only rolled one!

Dynamic Seven Adjustments

So, here's the fix: before each Balanced Dice roll, we fine-tune the probability of rolling a seven based on whose turn it is.

• If you're on a seven streak, the chance of you rolling another seven decreases
• Likewise, if your opponent is on a winning seven streak, it becomes less likely for the sevens to roll in their favor.

Additionally, we keep track of the overall seven distributions throughout the game. Ideally, in a two-player match, each player should have roughly 50% of the sevens. Any deviation from this balance triggers an adjustment:

1. We calculate the difference between the ideal and actual seven ownership.
2. We translate this difference into a percentage.
3. This percentage is then added to the "streak adjustment" mentioned earlier.
4. Voila! The final probability of rolling a seven is now perfectly balanced, no matter who's winning or losing.

The results

Look at these results. We can not only reduce the chance of streaks, but also make sure each player gets the same number of total seven rolls.

Final Code: link

Remember, balanced gameplay is at the heart of Colonist.io, and we're constantly refining our algorithms to ensure fair and exciting matches, especially in those intense 1v1’s. So, roll on, colonists, and may the sevens (and all other numbers) be ever in your favor!

Feel free to participate in our Discord to tell us what you like and don’t like!

Colonist Team

Colonist is under scheduled maintenance. During this 60-minute period, the website will be temporarily unavailable.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding and patience.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact our support team on our Discord server.

Thank you for your continued support.

Colonist Team.

Grab some friends and hop on a Discord call for a new way to play Colonist!

What Is Colonist?

Colonist is the most popular online alternative to the wildly popular board game Settlers of Catan. In Colonist, players trade, steal, settle, and play powerful development cards to take over the island!

Your goal is to be the first player to reach 10 Victory Points by building settlements, cities, and competing for other win conditions such as the Longest Road and Largest Army!

Colonist can be played on over 15 exciting maps that each offer unique challenges and gameplay scenarios. Definitely check out the available expansions such as Seafarers or Cities & Knights to spice up your game!

How Can I Play Colonist on Discord?

To play a game of Colonist on Discord, you need to start a Discord Activity. You can find instructions on how to start a Discord Activity here.

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask in our Discord Server!

Starting a Game

Select Multiplayer to play against others in your voice call, or play against the AI in Single Player mode.

In the Multiplayer lobby, choose your preferred game mode, map, and scroll down to customize advanced settings! When everyone is ready, click "Start Game" to begin settling. You’re ready to play!

Choose your starting settlements, and you can begin trading, stealing, and building your way to victory!

To view the resource cost associated with each action, hover over the build options at the bottom of the screen. For further information, you can consult the rulebook located in the top left corner or watch our tutorial video!

Colonist on Discord VS Colonist.io

There are a few small differences when playing Colonist as a Discord Activity or on the Colonist.io website:

- Profile and game history are only accessible on Colonist.io
- Ranked game mode and leaderboards are only accessible on Colonist.io
- Discord is completely ad-free!

Colonist on Discord FAQ

Q: Can my existing Colonist account be linked to Discord?

A: Yes! Your account will be automatically linked, so any items or subscriptions will carry over

Q: Where can I learn more about the rules of the game?

A: Check out the Colonist FAQ Blog Post.

Q: Where can I report bugs and problems with the game?

A: You can submit a bug report by going to https://discord.gg/colonist.