Double Fine's Kiln is unlike anything else in the multiplayer brawler space. You sculpt ceramic pots on a pottery wheel, then inhabit those pots as a little spirit and fight other players in online arenas. The shape you choose directly affects your stats, your Special Ability, and even which parts of the map you can access. Getting your head around that loop early is the difference between winning and just looking pretty while losing.
What exactly is Kiln and how does it play?
Kiln is Double Fine's first online multiplayer game, released April 23, 2026 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, PlayStation 5, and Steam. It launched day one on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and supports Xbox Play Anywhere and Handheld Optimized modes. The Standard Edition costs $19.99 and the Fired Up Edition runs $29.99, which bundles in premium glazes, stickers, attachments, and developer-made custom pots. Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can grab the Fired Up Edition Upgrade separately for $9.99.
The core loop: build a pot, fight inside it, douse the enemy's kiln with water before they douse yours. Simple on paper, surprisingly deep in practice.
Pottery wheel shaping tools
How does pot shape affect your stats?
This is the mechanic most new players underestimate. According to the official Double Fine launch tips, adjusting your pot's shape automatically changes three key attributes: Health, Capacity, and your Special Ability. Size also controls your movement speed and which secret entrances around the arena you can squeeze through.
The relationship between Health and Capacity is inverse, and that matters a lot for team composition:
A small pot hits harder and survives more punishment, but carries less water toward the enemy kiln. A large pot can flood the enemy's kiln quickly but goes down fast if left unprotected. Your team needs both.
Use the Cross Section tool while shaping to see the inside of your pot. It reveals angles you cannot judge from the outside view alone, which helps when fine-tuning wall thickness and mouth size.
The size of your pot's mouth also determines what topper you can equip, so plan your aesthetic around the shape rather than the other way around.
How do the pottery creation tools work?
Beyond basic shaping, Kiln's pottery wheel gives you several tools to work with. The ruler and shaper (unlocked as you progress) add more precise angle control and can be rotated for additional customization options. The rotation feature in the glazing phase helps layer glazes evenly and create patterns that would be impossible with a static view.
Stickers can be resized freely using the resizing feature, so you are not locked into a default scale. Want a massive sticker dominating the entire side of your pot? You can do that.
According to Double Fine's official tips, even if you mess up your pot during creation, you can always start over. The tools reward experimentation, and nothing is permanent until you decide it is.
The Wedge is the dedicated practice space where you can work on pottery outside of matches, decorate pots at your own pace, and share your creations with other players.
How do you win in Quench mode?
Quench is the primary game mode at launch. Two teams compete to douse the opposing team's kiln with water while protecting their own. According to Double Fine's breakdown, water management is the central skill that separates good teams from great ones.
Here is what the official tips confirm about water behavior:
- You drop water when you get hit
- You drop water when you roll
- You drop water when you smash into other players
- You drop water when hitting enemies
That last point is easy to forget in the heat of a fight. Aggressive play bleeds your own water supply. Even if an enemy smashes you directly in front of their kiln, that spilled water still counts toward dousing it, so sometimes dying in the right place is a net positive.
Water sources are limited. Locate the large and small blue amphora and any ground grates immediately when a match starts. You can also collect water from the broken clay fragments of defeated enemies, so letting enemies carry water to you and then smashing them is a legitimate strategy.
Team composition in Quench
Before locking in your pot, check what your teammates are running. If your team already has several large pots handling water delivery, a small fast pot focused on disrupting the enemy's carriers is more valuable than adding another heavy. According to Double Fine's launch tips, the volume of water reaching the enemy kiln is what wins matches, so the balance between offensive disruption and water delivery is the real strategic lever.
Map awareness and defense
Some arenas include sponge walls that absorb just a single drop of water to temporarily block off a passageway. Activating one of these at the right moment can buy your offense the seconds needed to mount a counter-attack when your kiln is close to being doused. In Dionysus' Boogie Lounge, small pots can roll into a side room near the enemy kiln for a hidden water source and a flanking angle, according to the official Double Fine tips.
What's the best pot for beginners?
There is no single correct answer, and Double Fine explicitly says every pot has strengths and weaknesses. That said, a medium-sized pot gives you room to learn all the mechanics without being punished too hard in either direction. You will have enough health to survive early mistakes and enough capacity to contribute water to the objective.
Once you understand how your team's composition works and which role feels natural, branch out into smaller or larger shapes. The only way to find your preferred playstyle, according to the developers, is to try a variety of pots and see what clicks.
Small pots can access secret routes and nooks that larger pots physically cannot reach. Before dismissing a small build as underpowered, test which shortcuts it unlocks on each map. A fast flanking route to the enemy kiln can be worth more than raw water capacity.
Which edition should you buy?
The Standard Edition at $19.99 covers everything you need to play. The Fired Up Edition at $29.99 adds the Battle-Hardened Decoration Pack and Battle-Hardened Pottery Set: three new glazes, five Kintsugi-base stickers, five attachments, and three developer-made custom pots. If you are already on Game Pass Ultimate, the base game is included and the $9.99 Fired Up Edition Upgrade gets you the cosmetic content without paying full price for the bundle.
Double Fine has already published a Spring 2026 roadmap for post-launch content, so the game is actively being developed beyond its launch state. Stats, balance, and available tools may shift as patches roll out.
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