What a code did
Signing up was free, and so was building tops and fighting the computer. A code was what let you fight other people. Each one opened a Battle Active slot in your locker, and a top in one of those slots could go into live battles; a player could fill up to fifty. From December 2012 each code opened two slots, one for a top and one for a BeyWheel.
A code worked once, codes were never sold on their own, and every card said the website was available “for a limited time only”.
You did not have to use the Bey you had bought. The code opened a slot, and you could build any top you liked to fill it. That is why players remember impossible combinations, like an L-Drago wheel on another Bey entirely.
The locker
The locker was your account. It held:
- an avatar
- your tops and BeyWheelz
- your level, stars and awards
- how many codes you had entered
- a checklist of the toys
- the customiser
In the customiser a top was built from its five parts: face bolt, energy ring, fusion wheel, spin track and performance tip. Each part shifted the top’s attack, defence, stamina and balance.
A battle
You set your launcher, the angle of the launch and its power, and let it rip into a stadium. During the battle five buttons changed what your top did:
- reverse its direction
- vanish for a moment
- raise a shield
- freeze
- boost its spin, for when it was nearly out
Battles were best of three, and a top stuck in one of the stadium’s two penalty zones lost the round. Every hundred points raised your level.
Battles earned stars, which you spent in the Battle Shop on stadium and locker themes, parts, avatar clothes and seven extra powers. Those included a laser, a flame attack, a force field, a shrink and a teleport; the dearest, a turbo speed, cost five hundred.
Each battle type had its own themed stadiums:
- attack: a volcano and a snake pit
- balance: a forest and an ice arena
- defence: the moon and a haunted house
- stamina: a black hole and a pyramid
Wheels, domes and warriors
BeyWheelz raced rather than battled. Arrows on the track gave a boost, obstacles slowed you, and the stunt you chose decided how hard you hit. The Destroyer Dome gave every top the same dome track and a choice of four wheels. From July 2013 Shogun Steel codes also opened secret areas and extra warriors in BeyWarriors, a side-scrolling game on the site and, from August, on phones.
Tournaments
From October 2010 the site ran its own tournaments, monthly at first and then every day for three weeks in January 2012. The winners’ flags were shown beside their names: the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Britain, South Africa, Peru, Venezuela, Belgium and Portugal.