Netflix's Alice in Borderland is a brilliant but gory masterpiece, bringing life to the manga of the same name by Haro Aso. This popular adaptation is perfect for lovers of the K-drama Squid Game, as it similarly pits survivors into life-or-death situations disguised as simple games. The protagonist, Arisu, and his friends are forced into enduring many tough trials to add time to their visas and live to see another day.
All the games in Alice in Borderland have different ranges of difficulty, classified under the card suit they belong to. For example, clubs are team-based games. No matter the suit or card number, every game is dangerous in its own right. A Game Over will always result in instantaneous death. Here are some of the most dangerous games shown in Netflix's Alice in Borderland.
6 Dead Or Alive - Three of Clubs
The game, "Dead or Alive" shows viewers exactly what Alice in Borderland is about, with a brutal challenge to start things off. Shortly after arriving in The Borderlands, Arisu, Chota, and Karube come across a mysterious game arena inside an office building. The premise is simple with a twist: the team must pick between two doors, marked 'Alive' or 'Die,' but the door doesn't always correspond to the sign-posting on the door.
This game is a brutal introduction to The Borderlands as it relies on pure luck and some guesswork. As the players successfully pass through each room, their time limit decreases, giving them less time to make their decision and amplifying the stress. If players choose the wrong door, they face an instant death, or they could choke on the toxin that filled the room before it is set alight. They believed the initial solution was to sacrifice a player to enter a room to see if it was safe. Luckily, the players managed to clear the level through Arisu's memory, allowing him to correctly guide his team through the rooms to the exit.
5 Hide & Seek - Seven of Hearts
Alice In Borderland takes no prisoners, kicking off the brutality and heartbreak with a bang in Season One, Episode Three. This episode reveals the Seven of Hearts game, nicknamed Hide & Seek, featuring Arisu, Chota, Karube, and Shibuki. The Hearts games are known for psychological warfare, as players must play with the hearts of others, causing them to manipulate or betray their allies.
In Hide & Seek, all players are greeted with an array of weapons and an explosive collar around their necks. One player is selected to be the wolf at random, while the other three become sheep. These three players could become a wolf by making eye contact with the selected player. Whoever was a sheep at the end of the 10-minute time limit would be killed by their blasting collar, and only the wolf would survive. This game truly tested Arisu's friendship with Chota and Karube, as they later sacrificed themselves in a bloodbath so that he would live. This is one of the most heart-breaking games in Alice in Borderland, setting the tone for the series.
4 Solitary Confinement - Jack of Hearts
The Jack of Hearts game in Season Two, Episode Three, was revealed to be Solitary Confinement, featuring a cast of new eccentric characters alongside the cunning Chishiya. Like other Hearts games, it revolved around psychology, as the players had to decide who they could trust as an ally. Solitary Confinement was a unique game with no time limit. The aim was for players to discover the Jack of Hearts in their ranks and force him to guess his symbol incorrectly.
If players guessed their own symbol incorrectly, it would be an instant Game Over, and players could not view their symbol through a reflective surface. Their symbols changed after each round, and players struggled to trust one another, even lying to each other to whittle down the numbers and reduce potential threats. Out of 20 players, only three survived, including the fan-favorite character Chishiya.
3 Beauty Contest - King of Diamonds
The King of Diamonds game was about math, wits, and luck. It featured five players, including Chishiya, as they had to shackle themselves to a seat with a tablet in front of them. In the beginning, they had to pick a number between zero and 100, with the player's average answer multiplied by 0.8. The player with the answer closest to the median would win the round, while everyone else had one point deducted from their score.
Above their heads hovered a weighing equilibrium stand that would steadily fill with sulfuric acid as they had more points deducted from their score. Players would get a Game Over when they reached -10 points, and the tipping scale would fall upon them, melting them immediately. As the game progressed, pure luck became a significant factor. Chishiya succeded, but only because the King of Hearts let him win.
2 The Witch Hunt - Ten of Hearts
Season One of Alice In Borderland ended in an absolute bloodbath, as the survivor community of The Beach fell following the final game. Ten of Hearts, nicknamed the Witch Hunt, began with Momoka's body being found in the Beach's lobby, as she had been killed by a witch. All the Beach's residents were tasked with burning the suspected witch in the Fire of Judgement, with no limits on killing each other.
As their survival instincts kicked in, the once thriving community began to turn on each other. The Beach's military forces instilled fear into the remaining survivors, causing distrust to run rife as dozens of innocent people were thrown into the fire, and no one was safe. The witch was later revealed to have been Momoka; all the players needed to do to clear this game was to burn her body to advance into the Second Stage.
1 Survival - King Of Spades
Season Two of Alice in Borderland kicked off with a bang, quite literally! The advancement to the Second Stage saw all players greeted by The King of Spades trial, one of the most unfair games in the series with absolutely no rules. The King of Spades began a shooting spree at Shibuya Crossing, armed with a machine gun with pinpoint accuracy, brutally gunning down anything in his eye line. He would stop at nothing while pursuing his victims, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.
The survivors eventually realized that the ever-looming threat of The King Of Spades could not be ignored. Despite the game's name, mere survival was not an option as the group decided to face the King of Spades head-on. Due to the King of Spades' military training, this was not without its many bloody sacrifices and intense fistfights. The group's triumph over the King of Spades marked Ann's death, as many others were also badly injured.