War of the Black Holes is played on a board with four concentric rings of spaces. Each player has a single spacecraft piece which moves each turn, either within a single ring or with one change to an adjacent ring. The number of spaces that can be moved depends on the ring the move ends in, with the inner rings requiring faster movement than the outer rings. After moving a "black hole" piece is placed in a space adjacent to one's spacecraft. These pieces can be moved over but a move cannot be ended on one; a player wins when their opponent cannot move to an empty space.