Game Rules

EKKO is a weekly savings game. You set a savings target based on your income. Each week you must grow your Arena balance past a new High-Water Mark (HWM). Miss the mark with no lifelines remaining and you are eliminated.

The game is not about luck. It is about consistently saving a portion of what you earn, week after week. The outcome is determined entirely by your balance at 5:30pm on Friday - which is determined entirely by your own decisions.

Grind and Gold each have their own real prize pool, funded by EKKO from its own subscription revenue - the two pools are always kept separate, never combined. The last player (or players, in team mode) surviving in that pool win the accumulated pot - alone if you outlast everyone else, split evenly if you reach the end together.

Your weekly savings target is a percentage of your Uncommitted Monthly Income (UMI). EKKO works UMI out from your connected Akahu accounts as:

Everyday spending like groceries and transport is not subtracted - that’s the money you choose to save from. EKKO reads only the category and amount of your transactions to work this out, never the merchant or description.

You choose a difficulty when you start a game, and it is fixed for that game - Beginner, Standard, Hard, or Extreme. Each difficulty sets a starting weekly target and a pace it climbs at from there, added on top of the last, never compounding. Harder difficulties start higher and climb faster.

Your target does not climb forever. Each difficulty has its own ceiling - once a week hits it, the following week resets back down to your difficulty’s starting target and begins climbing again - your High-Water Mark, lifelines, and progress are untouched by the reset. Each time you go through a full reset cycle, the next cycle starts a little higher too, so the game keeps getting gradually harder the longer it runs. Check-ins do not affect your target in any way - they exist for your own tracking, not to raise or lower what you owe.

Your High-Water Mark (HWM) is the minimum your Arena balance must reach by 5:30pm Friday. It starts at your Arena balance on day one and grows by your weekly target each week.

Every Friday at 5:30pm New Zealand time, EKKO reads your Arena account balance via Akahu and compares it to your HWM.

Every Judgment Day result - the exact balance, HWM, and calculation - is stored in an immutable audit log. You can view it any time and dispute any result within 48 hours.

Every player begins with 3 lifelines. Each lifeline absorbs one MISS without elimination.

• Lifelines cannot be purchased, earned back, or transferred between games.
• Lifelines reset if you join a new game after elimination.
• Surviving an escalation week earns 150 bonus XP but does not restore lifelines.

If EKKO detects a deposit into your Arena account that appears to be external income (a gift, windfall, or transfer from someone else) rather than your own saved money, this is a Free Money Violation. Large, unexplained deposits shortly before Judgment Day trigger review.

You will be notified and asked to explain the deposit. If the violation is unresolved by Friday 5:30pm, you receive a forced MISS at Judgment Day - regardless of your balance.

This rule exists because the game is about your own savings discipline. Receiving a large gift to pass Judgment Day defeats the purpose.

EKKO funds the prize pool from its own subscription revenue. Funds accumulate in a ring-fenced reserve account held by Immiscible Tech Limited. The prize pool is real money - not in-app currency. Grind and Gold each fund and grow their own separate pool - a Grind player only ever competes for the Grind pool, a Gold player only ever competes for the Gold pool, the two are never mixed.

• Who wins: If everyone else is eliminated and you're the only one left, you win the whole pool. If multiple players make it all the way to the end together, they split that tier's pool evenly (or every surviving group in Kotahitanga Mode).
• Free and Utility players: Can join a Grind or Gold lobby and play the full game, but are never eligible for either prize pool - they play for the game itself, not the money.
• When it pays: Your prize is recorded as owed to you the moment the game ends. Bank-transfer payouts are not live yet - the money-movement pipeline is still being built.
• If you cancel mid-game: Your reward eligibility ends immediately. The reward is company-funded and you never paid into it, so you lose nothing by leaving.
• If EKKO shuts down: The prize pool reserve is disbursed to eligible players before any other creditor. See the Terms of Service for wind-down details.

Kotahitanga is a group mode where teams of 2-5 players compete together. The team wins or loses as a unit at Judgment Day - but each player’s individual target is calculated from their own UMI.

• All team members must HIT for the team to survive.
• If any team member is eliminated, the whole team is eliminated.
• Teams share a leaderboard position.
• Prize is split equally among surviving team members.

Elimination occurs when you miss Judgment Day with no lifelines remaining, or when your team is eliminated in Kotahitanga Mode.

• Elimination ends your participation in the current game only.
• Your subscription continues unless you cancel it separately.
• Your bank balances are not affected.
• You can join or start a new game from the lobby immediately after elimination.
• Your XP and lifetime rank are preserved.

A game is won when one of the following conditions is met:

• Last player standing: Only one player (or team) remains active. They win the accumulated prize pool.
• Finish Line: All remaining players survive the same Judgment Day - a shared victory. The prize pool is split equally. All survivors earn 500 bonus XP.

You can cancel your subscription at any time from your Account page. Cancellation takes effect at your next billing anchor (Friday). No partial-week refunds are issued.

If you cancel while in an active game, you leave the game and your reward eligibility ends. The reward pool is company-funded from EKKO's own revenue, not from players, so you never paid in and you lose nothing. Your savings are untouched.

Refunds for billing errors can be requested at chow@ekko.nz.

If you believe a Judgment Day result is wrong, you have 48 hours from the result to raise a dispute using the dispute button in your audit log.

EKKO will request the balance data from Akahu for that exact timestamp and compare it to your bank statement. If a verifiable bank error is found, your lifeline is restored and the outcome is reversed. If the balance was genuinely below your HWM, the outcome stands - with the full data provided to you transparently.

For escalation beyond EKKO’s own dispute process, see the Terms of Service (Section 9).