Every Torris term, defined

Torris speaks fire: boards ignite, ratings run hot, and a rematch is a Rekindle. Here is every term the game uses, each in a sentence or two — the deep dives are one link away in the Firecraft, the strategy guide, and the terrain guide.

The board

Wood: Intact ground — any tile that hasn't burned. Wood is the resource the whole game spends, and it only ever runs out.
Trail: The ash line a flame leaves behind: every tile you leave burns the moment you go.
Ash: Burned ground. It blocks every flame, yours included, and never recovers on its own — Surge leaps it, and Douse can restore one tile of your own trail.
Obsidian: Tiles that never burn and never open: the walls of the masked boards (Cross, Diamond, Crucible) and what the Backburn leaves behind. It counts as non-intact for Surge — a legal leap target from the first move.
Backburn: The twist that burns the board's outer ring away on a fixed schedule, ring by ring, sparing only the tile a flame stands on. What it consumes turns to obsidian, so a kept Surge still clears it.
Terrain: Height on the board, level 0 to 5 per tile: light is high, dark is low. Slide down anything, climb one step at a time, Surge scales anything once, and a sheer cliff stops even that.
Flame: A player's piece on the board — and the player themselves. Two to four flames share a board; the last one able to move wins.

The moves

Slide: The one move: pick a tile along a straight line from where you stand and go. Ash, obsidian, and rival flames cut the line short — and what “straight” means depends on the board's shape.
Surge: Your once-per-game leap: one slide that crosses ash and obsidian, and on terrain ignores the climb limit too. The game refuses a Surge that buys nothing, so the charge can never be wasted by accident.
Draft: The twist that deals each player one ability before the duel, picks visible to both sides. One charge, whole game.
Douse: Unburn one tile of your own trail, then slide — never a rival's ash, never obsidian. The tile comes back scorched but playable.
Firebreak: Burn one intact tile beside where you land — never one beside a rival's flame. Denial: ground your rival was counting on stops existing.
Phase: Slide straight through a rival's flame instead of stopping at it. You still can't land on them; their body just stops being a wall.
Trailblazer: One slide that burns nothing at all — origin and path both stay wood. The corridor you spare stays open for your rival too.

Ways to play

Ignite: Light a board: open to anyone, or private behind a link.
Jump in: Join a board with a code or a challenge link.
Kindling: Solo practice against Cinder, the trainer, up the bot ladder from Spark to the boss. No account, no clock pressure.
Cinder: The training rival in Kindling. It plays every rung of the ladder, from random-legal Spark to the boss tier, Torris.
The Daily: One seeded board a day, the same for every player. Beat the trainer, keep your streak; the standings rank by fewest moves.
Dare: A challenge link carrying the exact board and rival heat you just beat — send it and see whether a friend can match you.
Rekindle: A rematch on the same board settings: same variant, a fresh ability draft, and the other flame starts.
Duel, Trio, Free-for-all: Two flames head to head; three or four are last-one-burning on the 9×9 Grand board with the Backburn closing in.
Turbo: The 5×5 sprint: one short duel, minutes to burn.

Heat and the ladder

Heat: The rating rated duels move: win and it climbs, lose and it falls, capped at ±40 a game and floored at 100. Every account starts at 1000 — already inside Ember.
Tiers: Seven rungs by Heat: Spark, Ember, Flame, Blaze, Inferno, Torch, and Torris at 2200 and beyond. Prestige, never a gate — every mode is open at every Heat.
Torris: One name, three jobs: the game itself, the boss bot at the top of Kindling's ladder, and the apex Heat tier for anyone past 2200.
Streak: Consecutive Daily wins, account-scoped: sign in and it follows you across devices. Miss a day and it starts over.

Around the fire

Firecraft: The rules. The in-game recap sheet and the full how-to-play page share one source, so they can never disagree.
Pyre: The 3D board view: live timber, char, and smoldering embers. Flip between flat and Pyre from the settings gear or the in-game toggle.
Emotes: Six quick reactions that ride your flame mid-duel — GG, Rage, Cackle and friends. Bots use them too, reading the board as it happens.