League Rules at a Glance

These are the rules actually applied in ROBOT BASEBALL's fictional league (working title: GRL). They are based on how Korean pro baseball is run and match the in-game 📖 Rules menu.

Setting: the Galaxy Robot Baseball League

When the colonization of the Solar System was complete, surplus work robots piled up in the Megafactories. Maintenance engineers installed throwing and batting protocols in these robots and held the first robot baseball game on a vacant lot next to a factory on Mars. As the interplanetary broadcast network spread, parent companies on each world founded home clubs and built ballparks. Ten clubs from ten worlds, joined into one league, make up today's Galaxy Robot Baseball League.

About 60 years before Year One · The Great Migration — The first habitat domes go up on Mars and Luna, and the Solar Federation Megafactories mass-produce robots for colonization.
About 40 years before Year One · The first game on a vacant lot — Robot baseball begins as a stage for the power and processing of surplus robots.
About 25 years before Year One · The orbital broadcast network — Spectator drones receive games in real time, and parent companies found clubs on each world.
About 10 years before Year One · The league is formed — Club payments are unified in credits (CR), and a system is introduced to allocate unit contracts in operating power (kW·season).
League Year One — The first season opens. Imported units from outer-system shipyards can be registered up to a set limit.

In this game	In baseball	Description
Unit	Player	A robot that plays in games. Name prefixes (TITAN-, AXIOM-, etc.) indicate the manufacturing lineage (production line and design lineage).
Operator	Manager	A robot dedicated to command. Called by a code name and a nickname (e.g. OP-K17 "Dohyun").
System Director	General Manager	A front-office robot (e.g. DIR-X42 "Seoyun").
Maintenance Engineer	Coach	A staff unit that upgrades and maintains units.
Owner	Owner	The parent company's management AI (e.g. Hanbit Group's mother AI "Hanbit Core").
Fan unit	Fan	Spectator drones and cheering robots rooting from the stands and over the orbital broadcast network.
Credits (CR)	Club funds	Earned from tickets, merchandise, broadcasting and sponsors; spent on facilities, staff and signing bonuses.
Operating power (kW·season)	Salary	The amount of power reserved for a unit for one season. The club buys it with credits and allocates it. Robots run on power; clubs run on credits.

Game-day weather is space weather. There is solar wind (longer fly balls to the outfield, higher sensor load), gravity currents (shorter fly balls, slower wheel acceleration), plasma heat belts (more overheating), asteroid particle belts (lower optical sensor accuracy), cryogenic orbits (more cooling, lower battery efficiency) and nebula shadow (sensor signal interference). Units are built in the Solar Federation Megafactories or in outer-system manufacturing systems such as Alpha Centauri, Sirius and Proxima.

Regular Season

The 10 clubs play 144 games each, 16 against each opponent (8 home, 8 away).
The schedule is built from blocks of four 3-game series and two 2-game series.
Opening Day is the last Saturday in March, and Mondays are maintenance days.
Every game in the space league starts at 19:30 to avoid starlight interference; no day games are scheduled.
The All-Star Game is held after the games on day 80 of the season (Team Dream vs. Team Nanum).

Standings tiebreakers

Win% is calculated as W ÷ (W + L); ties are excluded. If teams have the same Win%, they are ranked by most wins, then by run differential. The top 5 teams in the Regular Season advance to the Postseason.

Game rules

Games are 9 innings. If the home team is ahead after the top of the 9th, the bottom of the 9th is not played.
The designated hitter (DH) is used. Pitchers do not bat.
If the home team scores the go-ahead run in its final inning, the game ends on the spot (walk-off).
Extra innings: Regular Season games go up to 11 innings; if still tied, the game is a tie. Postseason games go up to 15 innings; a game still tied after 15 is recorded as a tie but doesn't count toward series wins.
Space weather: In open orbital ballparks, conditions such as solar wind, gravity currents, nebula shadow and plasma heat belts affect how far batted balls travel. Shielded domes are not affected.
Substitutions: A unit that has been replaced can't return to that game. A pinch hitter or pinch runner takes over the defensive position of the unit it replaced.
During the break after the 5th inning, you can say a word to the squad in the dugout.

Live play and tactics

This is exactly how the game engine behaves — the same as the in-game 📖 Rules → Live Play & Tactics tab. Click a heading to expand it.

How a game plays · view modes

Quick Result simulates the game at once. Manage Live plays one plate appearance at a time ('Next At-Bat').
Auto Play runs at-bats back to back. Speed (Slow · Normal · Fast) only changes the wait between at-bats and the replay speed.
End of Inning · End of Game skip straight to the result without the broadcast. End of Game skips the mid-game talk.
Full Game shows every pitch; Highlights shows only the deciding pitch. Results are computed identically — each plate appearance is decided when it starts, and the pitch sequence is staged to match.
The broadcast view (Text · 2D · 3D · 4D) never affects results.

When changes take effect

In Full Game mode, while the pitches of an at-bat are still replaying (before the deciding pitch), plays, steals, intentional walks, pinch hitters/runners, pitching changes and defensive tactics apply to the current at-bat right away. Pitches already shown (the count) stay as they are; the at-bat is re-decided from the remaining pitches with your order. The order section shows '⚡ Applies to this at-bat now'.
Once the deciding pitch is on its way, or in Text / Highlights mode, orders apply from the next plate appearance (the order section shows 'From the next PA').
Re-deciding with the same order gives the same result (the dice are rewound to the start of the at-bat), so you cannot fish for a better outcome by toggling orders.
Pinch hitters go in for the current batter on offense; pinch runners replace one of our runners. Defensive subs and position swaps (not the DH) can be made any time.
A unit taken out cannot return. Pinch hitters and runners inherit the batting slot and position; at a poor-fit position, defense drops and errors rise.
A reliever you pick yourself pitches even with high Load, but starts weakened by that Load.

Leave to the Engineer (auto)

The three switches at the bottom of the live screen (Pitching Changes · Unit Changes · Plays) start on. The opponent is always automatic.
Auto pitching changes (checked before every plate appearance): a starter comes out at his pitch limit (70 + endurance × 0.45; Tactics → Team Strategy 'Pitching changes' Quick −12 / Long +10), at 6+ earned runs, or when trailing with 4+ ER within 25 pitches of the limit. Relievers come out at their limit (12 + endurance × 0.45), at 3 ER, or at the start of a new inning after a full inning.
With a 1–3 run lead starting the 9th or later the closer comes in; in the 8th, a setup man. Only pitchers with Load ≤ 20, on the Majors roster, healthy and unused today are picked automatically. Close games get the best reliever, blowouts the weakest.
Auto unit changes: only from the 7th within 3 runs. From the 8th, a runner with speed under 45 is replaced by a bench unit with 65+ (once a game); with runners on or from the 8th, a pinch hitter goes in if his edge (platoon and tuning included) is 8+ (13+ if it leaves a defensive hole), up to twice a game.
Each defensive inning starts by fixing poor-fit positions (swap, then defensive sub); from the 8th with a 1–3 run lead, one defensive replacement who is 12+ better comes in.
Auto plays: without your orders, the engineer calls bunts, squeezes, hit-and-runs, double steals, drag bunts, steals and pitchouts. The 3–5 hitters and above-average bats never bunt; Team Strategy steal/bunt tendencies scale how often.
These in-game decisions follow the rules above regardless of engineer ratings.

Offensive and defensive calls

Offensive plays apply once when you press 'Next At-Bat': Swing Away, Sacrifice Bunt (runner on 1st/2nd), Drag Bunt, Squeeze / Safety Squeeze (runner on 3rd), Hit and Run (runner on 1st only), Take (walks↑ strikeouts↑ power↓), Double Steal (1st & 2nd or 1st & 3rd), Steal (on the pitch before the at-bat). All need fewer than two outs; orders that do not fit are ignored.
Defensive tactics (Standard · Shift · Infield In · Outfield In · Double-Play Depth) stay until you change them; 'Engineer Decides' returns to auto.
Effects: the shift lowers hit odds for power-60+ hitters but raises them for others; infield in raises hit odds a lot to hold the runner on third; outfield in trades singles for doubles; DP depth means more grounders and slightly fewer homers.
Auto tactics: infield in from the 7th within one run with a runner on third and fewer than two outs; DP depth from the 7th when leading with a runner on first (third open); shift against power 66+ (not vs. opposite-field teams); otherwise standard. They reset each half-inning.
Intentional walk sends the batter to first. Pitchout (runner on 1st or 3rd, fewer than two outs) greatly improves the odds of catching a steal, squeeze or hit-and-run, but wasting a ball raises walk odds.

Clutch moments · key situations

Clutch spot (key moment): ① from the 7th inning, within 2 runs, with a runner on 2nd or 3rd, or ② from the 9th (extras included), within 1 run (or tied), with anyone on base. The situation bar lights up on offense or defense, and the 3D · 4D clutch staging uses the same rule. It only highlights — it does not stop Auto Play.
The 4D broadcast then holds the pitcher-vs-batter split screen a little longer — once per half-inning, at least 4 plays apart, never on steals or pickoffs.
With runners in scoring position, the batter's clutch and the pitcher's poise always affect the outcome.

Mid-game talk

After the bottom of the 5th, Auto Play pauses so you can address the squad (if you skipped ahead by innings, you are still asked up to the 7th).
Your tone raises (up to ±3) or lowers Majors units' processing focus for the rest of the game. Each behavior OS reacts differently (pitchers at 70%), repeating a tone lessens the effect, and scolding a flat dugout backfires.

Postseason (step-ladder)

Each time the lower-ranked team wins, it climbs one step to face the next higher-ranked team: 4th vs. 5th → winner vs. 3rd → winner vs. 2nd → winner vs. 1st.

Round	Format	Home field
Wild Card Round	Up to 3 games, first to 2 wins. The 4th seed starts with a 1-win advantage (4th needs 1 win, 5th needs 2 straight).	All games at the 4th seed
Semi-Playoff	Best of 5	Higher seed hosts Games 1, 2 and 5; lower seed hosts Games 3 and 4
Playoff	Best of 5	Same as the Semi-Playoff
Space Series	Best of 7	Regular Season 1st-place team hosts Games 1, 2, 6 and 7; opponent hosts Games 3, 4 and 5

The Space Series champion is the defending champion until the next Space Series ends, and its emblem gets a gold border. A Space Series MVP is named, the champion club gains a lot of trust from its owner AI, and an orbital starship parade, a celebratory flight around the home world, is held. Postseason stats are tracked separately from Regular Season stats.

💡 The gap between 4th and 5th is huge. The 4th seed needs only one win in the Wild Card Round and plays every game at home, so late in the season, holding on to 4th often matters more than reaching 3rd.

Rosters

The Majors roster holds 28 units. The total roster limit, including the Majors, the Minors and development units, is 65 units.
A club can have up to 3 imported units.
A unit removed from the Majors can't be re-registered for 10 days (except units out with a malfunction).

Contracts and Free Agency

A unit first becomes eligible for free agency after completing 8 seasons, and again every 4 seasons after that.
Each club can sign at most 2 outside free agents per offseason (re-signing with the original club doesn't count).
Signing an outside free agent requires paying compensation to the original club: 200% of the unit's previous operating power, or 100% for units with an overall rating (OVR) below 60.
Besides operating power and contract length, free agents also weigh playing time and team performance. They avoid teams with many better units at the same position.
The minimum operating power is 30 kW.
The Offseason order is Power Allocation negotiations → Prototype Draft → Free Agency → Opening Day of the new season.
The Prototype Draft has 5 rounds, with picks made in reverse order of the previous season's standings.

Trades

The trade deadline is July 31. After that, no trades are allowed until the season ends.
A unit with a no-trade clause blocks the move unless its team compatibility is low.
When you package several units together, the other club discounts their value. Only 100%, 60%, 40% and 30% of their value is counted, in order from most to least valuable.
A club's core units (its top 3 by value) can't be acquired without giving up units of similar caliber.
You can trade with the same club only once per season. The more trades you make in a season, the more other clubs demand in return, 15% more each time.
Credits (CR) can also be included in trades. You can receive at most half of the other club's credits on hand.

Tips for making good trades are covered separately in Scouting, Draft, Free Agency & Trades.

Coaching staff (engineers)

Engineer ratings run 1–20 (10 = league average) and are used only for the items below — also shown under 📖 Rules → Staff & Scouting and Club → Coaching Staff.

Role	Where the rating matters
Hitting Engineer	Hitter upgrade modifier ((avg with Fielding − 10) × 0.08) · Strategy Lab mastery gain (avg with Pitching: 0.9 + avg × 0.05 per day) · trade opinions on hitter deals (lower = bigger misjudgment) · scouting report on opposing pitchers
Pitching Engineer	Pitcher upgrade modifier ((rating − 10) × 0.08) · pitch development chance ((rating − 10) × 2.5 pts) and training time (40 + (20 − rating) × 1.5 days) · Strategy Lab mastery · trade opinions on pitcher deals · scouting report on opposing hitters
Fielding & Baserunning Engineer	Hitter upgrade modifier (averaged with the Hitting Engineer)
Conditioning Engineer	Upgrade modifier for every unit ((rating − 10) × 0.03)

In-game auto pitching changes, pinch hitters and play calls do not depend on engineer ratings — they follow Team Strategy and situational rules.
Higher-rated staff cost more power. Retired leader-type units appear as engineer candidates.

Pre-game scouting report

On game days, open it from the Home 'Next Game' card (📋 Scouting Report) or on the live screen before the first pitch: the opposing starter (hand, velocity, stuff, control, endurance, pitch mix, weak side), key hitters and hot/cold bats, lineup handedness, last 10 games and streak, season series, and a suggested plan (e.g. have a right-handed pinch hitter ready against a lefty).

Accuracy: opposing pitchers are read by the Hitting Engineer, opposing hitters by the Pitching Engineer, the plan by their average. A Strategy Lab scouting report on that team this season adds +3 to all and feeds its findings into the plan.
15+ is precise (no error), 11–14 good, 7–10 rough, 6 or below unreliable. Below 15, numbers carry error and show '~'.
Lower ratings show fewer pitches (3 below 11, 1 below 7) and leave hot/cold (below 9), endurance (below 10) and the weak side (below 7) 'unknown', with fewer suggestions.
Estimates also reflect Scouting (scout accuracy × unit knowledge). Game stats are public and exact.

Rivalries

Unit rivalries form from races and battles: Rookie of the Year, home run, batting title and MVP races, same-team starting-job and ace battles, academy rivals, and a former club's face after a move.
Checked monthly from day 50: top two in HR within 3 (leader 12+), top two qualified AVG within .010, from day 80 top two WAR within 0.7, top two rookie WAR within 0.6. One same-team rivalry per team per season; a unit of OVR 62+ that changes teams gets a rival from its former club.
Unit details and History → Rivals show a 'Why rivals?' line for each pair. Older saves infer it from the first note, or show 'no record'.
Effects: both gain processing focus in head-to-head games (scaled by heat), the trailing one gets a monthly output boost, and losing a starting battle raises a warning signal. Up to 45 active rivalries league-wide.
Club rivals are fixed home-world rivals from the league's founding: bigger crowds and fan reactions, and a rival club asks 25% more in trades.