Guide

How to play Nehemiah

Rebuild the wall of Jerusalem in 52 days with a crew of up to four. Every day has the same three jobs: carry, build, defend. Here is everything you need for the first day and the last.

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Starting a game

Open play.nehemiahgame.com in a desktop browser (Chrome, Edge or Firefox).
To play with friends, choose to host. You get a five-letter room code and an invite link. Send either to your crew.
Friends enter the code, or open the link, and join the same crew. Up to four players.
When everyone is in, the host begins the work.

New to the game? Choose Learn the Basics on the title screen for a short practice at the Sheep Gate. It walks you through carrying, building, the sling and helping a fallen crewmate up, one step at a time.

Playing alone works too. The host can add bots to fill the empty places in the crew and choose how skilled they are, and a person who joins later takes a bot's place. A lone builder works the wall a little faster to make up for the missing hands, and when no one else is playing, the menu pauses the game. Still, the game is at its best with two to four.

How a day works

Each section of the wall takes a few days, and the whole stretch is the goal from the first morning. The sun crosses the sky on the day plaque. At nightfall the day ends and the work picks up again the next morning, but the stretch must stand before the stars come out on its last day, or the work fails. Finish early and you move on to the next gate with days to spare.

Enemies come in waves. A bell rings a few seconds before each one and a pointer shows where it will hit; between waves a few stragglers keep coming.

Carry. Pick up wood, stone and mortar at the stockpiles and deliver them to the wall.
Build. Stand at the wall and work it up, course by course. Extra hands build faster; taking a hit stops the work.
Defend. Charge your sling and throw stones at enemies before they reach the wall or slip through a gap.

A builder who takes too many hits goes down and can't get up alone while anyone is still standing. Go to them and press E to help them up, back to full health.

At dusk the crew counts the day's work, and the next day starts when everyone is ready. When a run ends, win or lose, the end screen plays back its highlights and the crew votes on what to do next.

If 10 enemies get into the city, it falls and the run is lost. Finish the wall by day 52 to win, as in Nehemiah 6:15.

Evening light over the Sheep Gate. The day plaque's sun is nearly set with nine seconds of daylight left, a red Wave pointer marks an attack coming from the right, and the crew works at the half-built gate. — The sun is low: nine seconds of daylight left, and a wave is on its way.

Watch posts

Nehemiah set people behind the wall “by their families” with their weapons (Nehemiah 4:13). Each section has two footings for watch posts just inside the wall.

Raise it. Bring timber to a footing and work it up like the wall. A slinger climbs on.
Keep it stocked. Each load of stone gives the slinger six throws, and a post holds three loads. When it runs dry, its sign says so.
Know what it costs. A slinger chips at enemies and slows them, but can't hold a flank alone, and every stone in the post is a stone not in the wall. Posts start bare again at each new section.

A slinger stands on a timber watch post behind the stone wall, a basket of sling stones at his feet, while an enemy in a bronze helmet approaches outside. — A watch post behind the Sheep Gate, stocked with two loads of stone.

Controls

Everything works on keyboard and mouse or on a gamepad, and the on-screen hints follow whichever you are using. All keys can be changed in Settings.

Action	Keyboard and mouse	Gamepad
Move	WASD or arrow keys	Left stick
Aim	Mouse	Right stick
Pick up, deliver, build, help up, climb	E	A (bottom button)
Drop	Q	Y (top button)
Dash	Space or Shift	B (right button) or left bumper
Sling: hold to charge, release to throw	Left mouse button	Right trigger or right bumper
Horn (sections with the horn)	R	Left bumper
Menu (pauses when no one else is playing)	Esc	Start

Enemies

Every enemy attacks nearby workers first. Some go for gaps in the wall; others, the wreckers, batter it. A wrecker that knocks a stretch back down to its foundation opens a new gap.

Scouts (from day 1). Quick and light. About half go for the wall; the rest look for gaps.
Brutes (from day 9). Slow and tough. They always go for the wall and batter it back down.
Raiders (from day 21). Fast. Some hunt for gaps, some go for the wall.

The 12 sections

The campaign goes around the city gate by gate, starting at the Sheep Gate, in the order of Nehemiah chapter 3. Each section adds one new twist. For the history behind each gate, see the gates of Jerusalem in Nehemiah 3.

The crew at the wall by the Sheep Gate, with a sheepfold outside and a raider coming. — Choose a gate, a picture, or use the arrow keys. Schematic and not to scale: circles are gates, squares other landmarks, and some positions are debated. Screenshots from the game.

#	Section	Days	Twist
1	Sheep GateNehemiah 3:1	1–4	Finish the gate: hang its doors, bolts and bars.
2	Fish GateNehemiah 3:3	5–8	Heavy beams that two builders carry together.
3	Jeshanah GateNehemiah 3:6	9–12	No quarry stone: salvage it from the burned rubble.
4	Broad WallNehemiah 3:8	13–17	A double-thick wall: more stone, and room for four at the work.
5	Tower of OvensNehemiah 3:11	18–23	Make the mortar: lime and water into the trough, then to the wall.
6	Valley GateNehemiah 3:13	24–29	Enemies come up the valley in surges; sound the horn to gather the crew.
7	Dung GateNehemiah 3:14	30–33	A long haul from the yard: pass loads from builder to builder.
8	Fountain GateNehemiah 3:15	34–36	A quieter stretch by the pool of Shelah, with water close at hand.
9	Water GateNehemiah 3:25-26	37–41	Night falls on the work: keep to the torchlight.
10	Horse GateNehemiah 3:28	42–47	Narrow lanes between the priests' houses.
11	East GateNehemiah 3:29	48–50	Messengers call you down to Ono. Don't go with them.
12	Miphkad GateNehemiah 3:31	51–52	Everything at once, to close the circuit.

Marks

When a section is finished, the crew can earn up to three marks. Each is earned on its own.

In good time. Finish the section inside its par time.
None got through. No enemy reaches the city during the section.
The wall holds. Keep the wall at least 80% sound on average.

Tips for your crew

Talk. Call out who is carrying, who is building and who is guarding before the first wave arrives.
Keep one player on guard. Builders have their hands full, and a hit stops the work.
Stand at the wall to raise it. Delivered materials do nothing until someone works them in, and more hands build faster.
Watch the gaps. Scouts run for any opening; one enemy through a gap counts against the city.
Pass loads on long hauls. Drop a load beside a friend and let them take it the rest of the way.
When the horn sounds, go. It marks where the next surge is coming.
Listen for the bell. It rings a few seconds before a wave, and the pointer shows where it will hit.
Build in order. The gate comes first, then the wall outward; half-built stretches everywhere won't stand by nightfall.
Keep a watch post stocked before a wave, not during it. A slinger with no stones is just watching.
When someone goes down, go and help them up. Nobody gets up alone while a crewmate is still standing.
Need to get past the wall? Press E against a finished stretch to climb over it.

The guard duty is straight from the account: Nehemiah's builders worked with a weapon close at hand. Read why they did.

Ready for day one?

The stones are at the Sheep Gate. Bring your crew.

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