How To Play

Game Goal

You are a wizard trapped in a cursed tower. Every floor is a choice: push upward now, or grow stronger first and risk losing time.

1. Choose your wizard and begin your ascent.
2. Before each climb, shape your build in prep by selecting cards that permanently empower your run.
3. In hubris, decide: climb to a higher floor now, or stay and stabilize.
4. Survive combat phases, break through enemy waves, and defeat the level 10 boss.
5. Your run is recorded automatically when it ends, win or lose.

The true objective is speed with control: reach the top in as few turns as possible, while keeping score high enough to win tiebreakers.

How To Reach The Top Of The Leaderboard

1. Only runs that reach at least level 10 are ranked.
2. First ranking priority is speed: fewer rounds is better.
3. If two players have the same rounds, higher score wins the tie.
4. So the best run is both fast and efficient.

Run Structure

One cycle usually goes like this:

1. Prep: pick one card to permanently improve your build.
2. Discard (if needed): reduce your hand to the allowed size.
3. Hubris: choose to stay on your current level or climb.
4. Intro (level 10 boss): watch intro video, then battle starts.
5. Fight: cast spells during phases I, II, III, and IV.
6. Battle result popup: victory or defeat.
7. Continue: move to next prep phase (or end run at level 10 clear).

Phases Explained

Setup

Pick your wizard. Each wizard starts with different HP, defense, and starter spell.

Prep

You choose one card from your hand. That choice is permanent for your current run: it upgrades stats or spell power.

Discard

If your hand is over the limit after prep, you must discard until the game allows you to continue.

Hubris

Choose risk level: stay on current floor or climb to a higher floor with stronger enemies.

Intro

At level 10, a boss intro video plays first. The fight starts automatically when it ends (or you skip).

Fight

Combat moves through spell phases I to IV. Enemies attack on specific phase marks. Kill all enemies before phase IV ends.

Ended

Run is finished (for example after clearing level 10) and can be saved for ranking.

What Selecting A Card Does In Prep

1. The selected card is consumed from your hand and moved to discard.
2. Its effect is applied permanently for this run.
3. For spells, the selected spell gains power (future casts become stronger).
4. Some cards increase max HP, heal, mana max, or elemental/physical defense.
5. After prep, you continue to discard or hubris depending on hand size.

XP, Spell Unlocks, And Progression

1. You gain XP by defeating enemies.
2. Tougher enemies give more XP than weaker ones.
3. As your XP grows, you unlock more spells during the run.
4. Unlocks improve your options in later fights and increase your draw potential.

How Score Works

1. You gain score when you win battles.
2. Defeating stronger enemies increases your score more than weaker enemies.
3. Score matters most when players are tied on rounds.

Shields & Defense

1. You have separate defenses for fire, ice, thunder, and physical.
2. Incoming enemy damage is reduced by matching defense type.
3. If defense is high enough, that part of damage is fully absorbed.
4. Shield-style upgrades increase these defenses and improve survivability each phase.

Why A Spell Is Sometimes Unavailable

1. Wrong phase: many spells are only usable in specific phase tags (I, II, III, IV, or I-IV).
2. Not enough mana: each spell has a mana cost.
3. Spell is not unlocked yet, or has no power yet.
4. You are not in fight phase (you can only cast combat spells during battle).
5. Some cards are not fight-casts (for example pure upgrade cards and shield-style prep cards).
6. If a single-target spell has no valid target selected, it will not behave as expected.

Win / Loss Rules

1. Win: all enemies reach 0 HP before phase IV ends.
2. Loss: your HP reaches 0, or enemies still live at end of phase IV.
3. On loss, you drop one level and attempts increase.
4. On win, you gain score and progression benefits.
5. At level 10 victory, your run ends and can be saved for leaderboard ranking.