The rules, in plain English

EKKO is a weekly savings game. You choose how much you will save each week. That number is your target for week one, and your line is the balance your savings account has to reach. Once a week at 5:30pm Aotearoa time, EKKO reads that balance and compares it to your line. The person who starts the game picks the check day, and that day is the first check. Reach your line and the week is a HIT. Fall short and it is a MISS.

Your line goes up by your weekly amount each week you reach it. Week one’s line is your weekly amount, and week two’s is double that if you reached week one: at $35 a week your line is $35, then $70, then $105. If you miss a week, your line stays where it was, so next week asks for one week’s amount, not two. Your line does not start from what is already in your account. Money you already had counts toward it, and so does everything you save. Anything above your line is yours to spend without putting you behind.

None of it is luck. The result comes from your balance at 5:30pm on your check day and nothing else. The same balance always gives the same result, every time, for everyone.

Once a game has started, a miss uses a lifeline, and with none left you are out of that game. Before its start date nothing is checked, so nothing can put you out.

• Free, $0. Your bank stays connected for 12 weeks from the day you sign up. A game you start can run up to 12 weeks, and you can join any game from a link while you have free bank weeks. They are checked for real.
• Plus, $7 a week. Keeps your bank connected after those 12 weeks and lets a game run up to 52 weeks.

Both plans play every game for real.

When your 12 free weeks end, your past results and Discipline stay. You can’t join a new game until you’re on Plus.

When you start a game you pick how much you will save each week, any amount from $1. That number is your week-one target exactly. EKKO never works it out from your income or your spending.

Your amount also puts you on a level. There are seven, from the first to the top: Beginner, Standard, Hard, Extreme, Advanced, Elite and Master. The level is a name for your amount. Your target does not climb: it stays the same every week unless you change it. You can raise it during a game: pick any whole dollar above what you save now, any time before a check, and it counts from that check. You can also lower it up to three times in a game: it counts from the check after the next one, so the next check stays as it is. Your line keeps what you have already built.

• Every three weeks in a row earns a medal: at three, six, nine and twelve, then every third week after. It shows on your game and in your trophy cabinet. A miss starts the count again, but never takes a medal back.

Your weekly amount only changes when you change it. Week 1 asks for the amount you picked, and so does every week after it. A twelve-week game at $35 a week asks for $35, twelve times, unless you change it.

Everyone picks their own weekly amount. You are never handed somebody else’s target by joining their game.

Once a week at 5:30pm Aotearoa time, EKKO reads your savings account balance through Akahu and compares it to your line. The person who starts the game picks the day it begins, and that same day is the first check - so a first week can be shorter than seven days, and you are told the date before you join.

What counts is the balance at 5:30pm. Money that moves after 5:30pm does not count for that week, in or out. If your bank gives a transaction a date but no time, EKKO treats it as having happened before 5:30pm.

• HIT. Your balance reached your line. Your line moves up for next week and you earn XP.
• MISS. Your balance was below your line. This uses a lifeline, if the person who started the game gave you any, and your line stays where it was.
• OUT. Once the game has started, when you miss with no lifelines left. Your savings are not touched - only your place in that game ends.
• SKIPPED. If Akahu cannot be reached for more than four hours after a check, that week is skipped. No lifeline is used and you are told. Your line stays where it was, so the next week asks for one week’s amount, not two.
• A second skipped week in a row. One week EKKO cannot read your bank costs you nothing. If it cannot read it the next week either, that week counts as a miss and uses a lifeline, and so does every week after it until your bank can be read again. With no lifelines left, it ends your game. In a game of three or more, if EKKO cannot read anyone’s bank in the same week, that is an Akahu problem, not yours: nothing is counted against anyone and the rule does not apply that week. In a game of one or two, the rule still applies. You are told each time, and reconnecting your bank stops it.

A miss does not pile up. Your line stays where it was, so next week asks for one week’s amount, not two.

It works in your favour too: save more than your target and the extra counts toward the weeks to come.

Every result is stored with the exact target, balance, line and working, and you can see all of it in Past results.

There is no weekly reward. The one thing EKKO pays is the pool in the first Battle Royale. A Battle Royale that is waiting to start pays nothing: nothing is checked and nothing is earned while it waits. The rules of that pool are further down this page.

Until 2 October 2026, Solo paid a weekly reward. Solo closed on 5 October 2026, and every weekly reward earned in it has been paid.

Your amount puts you on a level. This is the amount each level starts at, and nothing more:

How the split works

• Everyone in the first Battle Royale is in its split. No plan is needed.
• The pool is EKKO’s own money, and you never put any in. If someone leaves or goes out, what EKKO added for them stays in the pool. The people who make it to the end split it. EKKO takes no cut.

Whoever starts a Battle Royale picks the day it starts. That day is also the first day your balance is checked, and it is checked on that same day every week after.

Before the start date

• Nothing is checked and nothing is earned. You are waiting.
• EKKO takes a reading of your savings account once you have joined. That reading does not set your line. Your line for week one is your weekly amount, and what you already have in your account counts toward it.
• Send the link to anyone. Everyone who joins picks their own weekly amount, and each person is measured against their own.
• Tap I’m in to say you are in. If you joined from an invite link, that is done for you when you take your seat, unless the start date changed while you were joining. You can change your mind at any time before the start date.
• The host can move the start date, change how long the game runs, and change how many lifelines it has, at any time before it starts. Any of those changes clears everyone’s I’m in, the host’s own included, because the game people agreed to is not the same game any more. Everyone taps I’m in again.

On the start date, the game begins on its own

Three things happen at 5:30pm on that day:

• Anyone who has not said they are in is not in the game. It does not wait for them, and there is no extra time. Nothing had been checked yet, so nothing is lost - they are simply not playing.
• Nobody else can join. The link stops working.
• Lifelines come on, and so does being put out. Whoever started the game set how many lifelines - up to three, or none at all. Each miss uses one, and a miss with none left puts you out.

Your first week is however long the host made it. If the game is made on a Monday and set to start on the Thursday, the first check is that Thursday, three days later. Every week after it is seven days.

Whoever starts the game also picks how long it runs, 4 to 52 weeks, or up to 12 on Free - and can change it any time before the start date.

Only the first Battle Royale has a pool. It started on 1 October 2026 and keeps its pool until it ends. EKKO pays it from its own money, as promised. No other game has one. The rest of this section is about that one game only.

The pool is EKKO’s own money, paid through Stripe from EKKO’s own Stripe balance. It is real money, not points, and the people in that game split it.

You never put money into it. Nobody buys in. There is nothing of yours in it to lose.

• The first Battle Royale. EKKO puts in $10.00 a week for each person in it who is still in, and everyone who makes it to the end splits it evenly.
• If nobody makes it to the end of that game, the pool is still paid. It goes to whoever lasted longest and hit at least one week. Someone who never hit a week is passed over. If several went out on the same check, they split it evenly. It only goes back to EKKO when nobody in the game qualifies, and nothing is taken from anyone, because nothing of yours was ever in it.

You claim from the Arena screen, after connecting a payout account through Stripe. Everything you are owed goes in one transfer, the full amount, on to your bank on Stripe’s normal schedule. EKKO takes no cut.

Lifelines are second chances. They exist in Battle Royale only, and only after a game has started. Whoever starts the game chooses how many, up to three, or none at all. Each one covers one miss without putting you out.

• A game that has not started yet has no way to put you out, because nothing is checked before its start date.
• Lifelines cannot be bought, earned back, or moved between games.
• They start fresh when you join a new game.
• Hitting a week never gives back a lifeline.

Your line is the total of your weekly amounts so far. Anything sitting above it is yours - spend it, move it, leave it there. Only the part up to your line has to be in your account when EKKO checks.

Saving more than your target is always allowed and never penalised. The extra is buffer: it is already banked, so a lean week later has something to land on. There is no cap.

EKKO does not judge where your money came from. Wages, a gift, a tax refund, money moved from another of your own accounts - none of it is treated differently, and a deposit is never penalised for being large, unexpected, or received rather than earned. The only question asked on your check day is whether your balance reached your line.

This only happens once a game has started, when you miss a check with no lifelines left. A game that has not started yet cannot put you out.

• It ends your place in that one game, and nothing else.
• Your subscription carries on unless you cancel it separately.
• Your bank balances are not touched.
• Any part of the pool you had already earned stays yours to claim.
• You can start or join a new game from the Arena straight away. On Free, that is while you have free bank weeks.
• Your XP and lifetime rank are kept.

You can cancel any time from Your plan. It stops at the end of the week you have already paid for, and there are no part-week refunds.

Cancelling never touches the first Battle Royale’s pool. The pool is EKKO’s own money, so you never paid into it, and your savings are not touched.

If you have been billed by mistake, email chow@ekko.nz.

Open Past results, find the week, and use the “Something look wrong?” link on it. That week’s exact figures go with your question automatically. You can also email chow@ekko.nz.

EKKO checks the figures recorded for that week and writes back with the full working, so you can see every number the result was built from.