Last updated on December 11th, 2025 at 08:05 am
BadukPop Go – Board Game Review
BadukPop Go is a Board/Education/Strategy game from CorePlane Inc., first launched in 22nd October 2019.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 6,107+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes BadukPop Go Stand Out
This app is for Go players of any level, from beginner to professional.
Learn how to play the ancient board game Go – also known as Igo (囲碁), Baduk (바둑), or Weiqi (圍棋) – with a fun, interactive tutorial. Sharpen your Go skills with daily random Go problems (Tsumego) at your choice of difficulty. Play Go against a variety of AI opponents, each with its own unique playing style and strength. Enjoy correspondence games with your friends, and challenge other players around the world!
• Includes over 4,000 Go problems (Tsumego) curated by pro Go players
• Play with quirky AI opponents ranging in strength from 20 Kyu (beginner) to 7+ Dan (professional)
• Compete with players around the world on the online Go leaderboard
• Improve your Go and Tsumego knowledge with interactive Go lessons
• Track your progress with a customized leaderboard for you and your friends
LESSONS
• Includes a range of fully interactive lessons from beginner to advanced level
• Learn the basic rules of Go in just a few minutes
• Get familiar with Go problems with step-by-step beginner lessons
• Dig deeper into Go tactics like eye shapes, Ko, and shortage of liberties
• Master advanced techniques for Tsumego problems like under-the-stones Tesuji and multi-step Ko
GO PROBLEMS (Tsumego)
• Play Life and Death, Tesuji, or Endgame problems
• Rated mode tracks your skill level automatically
• When you answer correctly, your rating rises and you face more difficult problems
• If you make mistakes, your rating falls and you'll get easier problems
• Use Practice mode to try Tsumego problems at your own choice of difficulty
• Global leaderboard shows top players by Tsumego rating and problem practice points
AI PLAY
• Play Go on boards up to 19×19 with a variety of AI opponents
• Includes weaker opponents for new Go players to practice with
• Also includes a full-power neural-network AI that plays at human professional level
ONLINE PLAY
• Use "Automatch" to instantly play against a Go opponent near your own skill level
• Play correspondence games with your friends on any board size: 9×9, 13×13, or 19×19!
• Scoring is fully automatic, using advanced Go AI. There is no need to mark stones manually.
HEAR FROM REAL STUDENTS:
"I always wanted to learn to play Go and never found a time for it. Then after watching the documentary AlphaGo, I went searching and found this great app. The lessons and puzzles were exactly what I was hoping to find. This app has turned out to be exactly what I needed to help start my journey in Go. Thank you."
"Fun app, and excellent for learning this fascinating game. Thanks developers."
"It's the best app for Go that I've seen so far."
Terms of Service: https://badukpop.com/terms
Questions? Reach out to us at [email protected]. Happy Go practice!
This Board game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, BadukPop Go is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 12th September 2025
Recent improvements include:
- Minor bug fixes
Download & Availability
BadukPop Go is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Great app, but please please give us the option of viewing the problem afterwars.
We loved this app and used it daily… Until today when an update makes it impossible to play without logging in. There is no use for this other than to appear on the leaderboard. Which we dont care about. Too bad, this used to be a great app.
The instructions include vocabulary with visual explanations as well as practice. The material is logical and moves chronologically.
BadukPop is a wonderful introduction to the game of Go. Lessons to get you up and running, then games you can play against AI, different virtual opponents of different abilities plus the option to play ranked player from around the world.
Lessons are clear & explanatory without being patronizing. The monetization model does not hinder exploration, and the pay incentive is subtle and reasonable. Its nice to see devs who get it,.
4 stars until thats fixed. Great app but it seems when playing against the computer, our avatar covers some of the board and we cant place stones down there. Its a pretty serious issue Im sure you can imagine when we cant address whats on the board when were fighting for territory down there. Ill try updating the app to the latest version but until thats fixed Im afraid we can only justify 4 stars. The app is great afaik aside from that.
Easy to understand and learn Wei Qi.
The app is very user friendly and fun BUT we really wish it were easier to invite friends, initiate games and chat. We used to play on Dragon Go Server and we loved how easy it was to create a game and invite players, or see games other players had created and decide to play. We also wish ranking was based more on gameplay than on puzzles.
Easy way to play go online with people.
We do think it could be a little more flashy! Like make it more intense with some cool optional visuals.
Just learning how to play and the instructions and trial games are so helpful.
We have realized that if we do not create a time schedule of learning and competing within this learning and recreating app that we will not succeed based purely upon the act of missing our time allowed to play our moves. Quitting or stopping mid game is a poor strategy. This moves us toward better planning. We love this app and we love this game. This app puts you into games with people who we think also feel the same. Play with people who are enjoying Go and all that it teaches you with introspection and challenge to grow.
Nice user interface and offline ai. Great for flights.
This app teaches you how to to play Go and when youre ready the app hooks you up with opponents.
Incredibly helpful lessons and practice.
Decided we wanted to learn Baduk Go and this app is the one that we chose to learn first from. Tutorial is great.
We are new to Go and this app makes learning to play simple and fun.
Its great to have such good help to learn Go game. Its very fun and customer service is very good, Pietro has a great dispoditiob to help Thanks.
Fun lessons, great explanations, really breaks it down. Best Go app Ive used.
Excelente juego tena mucho tiempo que no lo jugaba y sigue manteniendo el encanto de la primera vez, us gustara en un futuro prximo que ya estuviera el idioma espaol disponible.
Learned more from this games lessons than from any books or videos.
Totally new approach to strategy. Interesting game that will warrant further attention to master.
We should be able to watch a series of adds to get more play tickets. Im not interested in spending $50 to play but we would watch an ad or two. We hate not being able to keep playing. Other than that its a good app with a good AI. We dont always like that the AI resigns so quickly. Im a new player and think its valuable to play out a full game. Also, there could be better explanations throughout the steps in the lessons.
This app just keeps putting us in handicap games. One after another after another after another. We want to play real Go. We dont want to play with a handicap. We dont want to play against someone with a handicap. But it keeps putting us in handicap games. Every time we resign because he put us in a handicap game that we dont want to play, it costs us 25 points in ranking. And then it just keeps putting us in more handicap games. We cant ever get ahead in rank because of this. Im looking for another go app that wont do this. Edit: Ive really had it. We DO NOT WANT TO PLAY HANDICAP GAMES. AND 80% OF THE GAMES ON THIS APP ARE HANDICAP GAMES. YOU ARE GIVEN NO CHOICE. We AM ABSOLUTELY DONE WASTING MY TIME WITH THIS APP.
We really loved the game and decided to pay the $50 for PRO. We cant get our other devises to recognize this. It sees that Ive paid but wont let us use the unlimited feature. DO NOT BUY UNTIL THEY FIX THIS.
The lessons are lame. We learned more from ChatGPT than their lessons faster. Popups galore. Ui was decent. Animations gamified are fun but could be improved.
So far the game good with 2 huge flaws. So far Ive been playing this game for 30 minutes. Then it says that you have to wait 45 minutes until another ticket comes up. Im just a kid so we dont have the money to get unlimited edition. So kids, we think that you shouldnt get it. Second ive been playing the game go four for years on a regular game set, and this one we always make mistakes with the touch screen, so that would mean, people of all ages, just know that the touchscreen probably wont work as well as the other games in the world. Zats why we only put on two stars as the recognition of our feelings for this game.
Im just starting out but the app had a good tutorial to understand the rules on how to play Go. The puzzles help how to react to different scenarios.
Its so good! Like a video game.
Pictures instead of models should be available pls, Im not a fan of the character designs for the person avatar, we prefer using pictures for our pfp.
A quick and casual intro to the basic rules of go, slides right into some very basic problems, then starts on some smaller board ai games with some hints (but just where to play, not why, still have to puzzle out some stuff on your own).
We love go and this is go!! And its really fun.
After watch several K-dramas where Baduk played a central role. We sought an entry into this game. So far this app has been perfect.
Great tool to learn Go for beginner.
Most satisfactory app for the reasonable price. We are very satisfied. We recommend to those who want to enjoy Baduk.
Would give it five stars but the inability to create correspondence games is frustrating.
This is probably the best app to play Go on. We have 1 main issue. To play agains the AIs you have to spend tickets that regen after a certain amount of time, this is fine. The issue we have is that if you are playing well against the AI, the AI will resign and not let you finish your match. This is very unsatisfying and it feels like you get punished for playing well since you dont get to play for as long. It doesnt feel like we get our tickets worth. This is especially frustrating since you dont get to see how many points you were winning by and you dont get to practice late stage games since they all end early.
Confusing as the top review states. When you place a wrong stone it basically says "wrong" then immediately removes the board from the screen, preventing you from analyzing. It also doesn't show the future moves proving that it is a lost cause. Useful if you're already proficient at Go but not if you're new.
The AI and online games are good, but the puzzle and lesson modes are unnecessarily frustrating. We are not sure you can get past them without paying for cheats – unless you are already quite good at go. We have been doing daily puzzles for 3 months, and still cant score perfect 3 times to open the next sets of puzzles. The problem difficulty seems to vary wildly, and when you see the solutions there is no explanation WHY the move they picked was the one true move. We suppose it is supposed to be obvious, but if it was that obvious we wouldnt need to do the puzzles! The lessons seem to be based on guessing until you get it right – but again, when you get it wrong (or even right) there is no explanation WHY. Grope around in the dark until you figure it out is not a learning method we enjoy.
FANTASTIC step by step lessons. Ive really struggled with basic Go strategy, and we feel like this app is finally helping us wrap our head around some of the basics. Thanks.
Lets play Go!! Sometimes anyway.
It has detailed lessons for beginners which we really need.
Have long been intrigued by the game of Go but a bit intimidated by the apparent simplicity yet mysterious play rules governing capture. This app gets right to the point of clarifying capture and defense. Now we can enjoy the game even if first as a newby.
Best Go trainer Ive ever met. Has Ai to play with, lessons to get started, and an online community. Worth it.
Its fun. The lessons are great and to the point if you tinker with the interface. Like in puzzles youll be able to check results and see how you got it wrong and how the next moves would be. It helps you improve. Its a game we want to be able to play with our siblings so far its super fun learning and improve upon our mistakes.
They teach you simply and you can play. Highly recommend.
Ive tried learning Go before, but this app has a good step by step process that not only teaches how to play, but the basic strategies with shapes and defending your set up. Ive really enjoyed it and finally give the beginner computer a run for its money.
It explains the rules clearly and teaches you.
The game is great our only critique is we really like some of the ai opponent backdrops (like Kumas) but we are unable to download them.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.42.1
- Size: 81.83 MB
- iOS: 15.1 or later
- Languages: EN, KO, ZH, ZH
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Contests
- Developer: CorePlane Inc.
Last updated: 12th September 2025 | Genre: Board, Education | Developer: CorePlane Inc.