The Lost in the Game achievement in Marvel Rivals asks you to “Trigger 1 checkmate in Grand Garden.” In practice, that means solving a large environmental chess puzzle during an 18v18 Annihilation match on the Grand Garden map. The puzzle is easy to fail in the chaos of a public lobby, but once you know the exact route and piece order, it becomes very repeatable.
Where Lost in the Game fits in Marvel Rivals achievements
Lost in the Game is part of the Chronoverse Saga achievement set in Season 5 of Marvel Rivals. Completing it awards 5 Achievement Points toward long‑term unlocks such as free Units. It only tracks progress when you are playing a public match; custom games do not count.
Requirements for triggering checkmate in Grand Garden
Before worrying about the puzzle, you need the right mode and map:
- Mode: 18v18 Annihilation.
- Map: Grand Garden.
- Match type: Public match (Quick Play/Arcade queue that can roll Grand Garden Annihilation).
Checkmate can only be triggered on Grand Garden’s Annihilation layout. If you do not load into that map, you simply cannot make progress on Lost in the Game in that match.
Once you are in, the achievement condition is straightforward: successfully complete the chess puzzle once, then stay in the match until it ends so the achievement can register.
How to reach the Grand Garden chess puzzle
The chess puzzle is in a dedicated sub‑area in the center of the arena, away from the main objective fighting.
Step 1: From your spawn, move toward the middle of the Grand Garden arena. Look for a large central structure and a water‑tower‑like building that stands out from the surrounding platforms.
Step 2: Enter the structure via the “water tower” side. Inside, there is an elevator that takes you down to an underground hub area beneath the main arena.
Step 3: Follow the underground corridor forward from where the elevator drops you off. A few steps ahead, you will reach a chamber that opens back upward to the surface platforms where the giant chess pieces stand.
Up top, you will see enormous chess pieces on separate stone platforms, with Gambit standing on a high platform near the board. This is the chess area you need.
Best heroes to use for the chess puzzle
Almost any hero can technically complete the puzzle, but some make it far easier in a 36‑player brawl.
- Angela – High mobility and sustained ranged damage let you stay airborne and chip at pieces while dodging fights.
- Human Torch – Strong vertical mobility and reliable ranged attacks help you hit distant platforms quickly.
- Any ranged or flying hero with good uptime on their primary fire is preferable to short‑range melee characters.
Mobility is valuable for quickly swapping between pieces, escaping enemy pushes, and getting back into position if you get knocked away from the board.
How the Grand Garden chess puzzle works
The puzzle revolves around physically moving giant chess pieces by damaging them. Each piece will slide along its lane and stop on a specific tile if you keep hitting it. When a piece reaches its correct destination square for the solution, grass grows at the base of that platform, confirming the placement.
The goal is to move all involved pieces into a configuration that checkmates the opposing king. You do this by attacking the pieces in a valid order that respects chess rules; moving them in a bad order causes pieces to step to the wrong squares or block one another, making checkmate impossible until you reset.
Key behavior to watch:
- Pieces glow when targetable; if something is no longer targetable, it has either been moved already or the puzzle is in a bad state.
- A faint grass ring around a base means that piece is in the correct final spot.
Exact piece order to trigger checkmate
To reliably trigger the checkmate event and unlock Lost in the Game, move the pieces in this order:
- Pawn
- King
- Queen
- Knight
- Bishop
Every move is performed the same way: stand on a platform with the appropriate piece and keep damaging it until it finishes sliding into place, and grass appears. Do not touch other pieces in between, and do not let teammates “help” by hitting pieces out of order.
There is some flexibility in the underlying chess logic, but the constraints that matter for a simple, repeatable solution are:
- Pawn must move first. If you do not move the pawn immediately, it will later auto‑advance when you try to adjust it for an en passant‑style capture, breaking the intended solution.
- King must move before the knight. If the knight moves too early, it occupies the king’s ideal destination square and blocks the final checkmating layout.
- Bishop must move after the knight. The bishop’s final position depends on the knight vacating its starting square.
- Queen is flexible but never first. The queen always goes to the same final tile, but moving it before the pawn causes the puzzle to desync. Place it only after the pawn and king are correctly moved.
Follow the listed order exactly if you want the lowest‑friction path to the achievement, especially in busy public lobbies where other players may be hitting random pieces.
How to reset the chess puzzle if something goes wrong
With 35 other players on the map, someone will often hit the wrong piece or disrupt the sequence. When that happens, you need to reset the entire board.
Step 1: From the main chess platforms, drop back down into the underground area beneath the board.
Step 2: Look for a small standard‑sized chessboard embedded in the floor a few steps forward from where Gambit stands above. This board has an interactable button.
Step 3: Interact with the reset button on that underground board. This snaps all giant pieces back to their starting positions and restores their targeting logic.
After resetting, return to the upper platforms and repeat the piece sequence: Pawn → King → Queen → Knight → Bishop. Confirm that each base sprouts grass before moving to the next piece.
What happens when you successfully trigger checkmate
Once every required piece is in its correct position, the game recognizes a checkmate on the invisible underlying chessboard. Two things happen immediately:
- The large platforms shift, and a hidden room opens below the chess area.
- A floating walkway appears, connecting Gambit’s high platform to the far side of the chessboard, creating a permanent bridge for the rest of the match.
Step 1: When you see the platforms move, jump down into the newly revealed room underneath the chessboard.
Step 2: Inside, you will find a normal chessboard laid out in a static checkmate position. Entering this room after solving the puzzle is what fulfills the “Trigger 1 checkmate in Grand Garden” condition.
From this point on, you only need to remain in the match. Leaving early can prevent Lost in the Game from registering on your account.
Common issues and how to avoid them
Other players moving pieces out of order. In public 18v18, teammates and enemies alike may hit random glowing pieces. When you notice the wrong piece has moved, or a piece stops being targetable unexpectedly, go straight to the underground reset board and start over.
Queen cannot be targeted. If the queen stops being targetable even though you have not moved it yourself, either:
- Someone else moved it earlier, or
- The piece order was already broken by a different move.
In both cases, use the reset board below to return the puzzle to a clean state.
Dying while working on the puzzle. Grand Garden Annihilation is extremely chaotic. Expect to be killed while you are focusing on the pieces or while you explore the underground area. Using mobile heroes and timing your attempts during quieter phases of the match (for example, after a big team fight has just wiped out nearby enemies) helps reduce interruptions.
Custom or private matches not counting. Only public matches on Grand Garden Annihilation award Lost in the Game. If you solve the puzzle in a custom lobby, you can still see the room and walkway, but the achievement will not unlock.
Once you know where the chess area is, how to reset the board, and the exact move order, Lost in the Game becomes a short mid‑match detour rather than a mysterious objective. Queue into 18v18 on Grand Garden, grab a mobile ranged hero, solve the puzzle once, and let the checkmate animation and hidden room do the rest.
