Tower
The Tower climb is a PvEvP game mode in Swordai where players compete to climb a tower full of monsters, traps, and treasure. Players are free to cooperate or to kill each other at their discretion. The tower is a sequence of persistent, instanced, multiplayer dungeons that are connected by portals. Traversing a red portal takes you to the next tower area, while taking a white portal will exit the tower and bank your loot.
Core Mechanics
A video overview of the tower is here:
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Tower Time
When players enter the tower they start with a fixed amount of tower time. A players tower time is displayed at the top left of the screen under their health bar. Additional tower time can be earned in a variety of ways, such as killing NPCs or opening chests.
Upon death, a player loses tower time based on the tier of the area that they died in ranging from 1 minute to 4 minutes. After that penalty, if they still have time remaining they will respawn at there most recent bind stone.
When a player runs out of tower time, they are no longer able to respawn and they receive the Final Fury debuff.
Final Fury
Final Fury is a debuff that is triggered when a players Tower Time runs out. It causes the player to lose 4 health per second, while also granting them life steal, reflection, a damage bonus, and an armor bonus. Final Fury is removed when a player gains additional tower time (eg. by killing an NPC or looting a chest).
Bind Stones
Bind stones are respawn points. Any time a player traverses a red portal they are automatically bound to the nearest bind stone. Other bind stones can be found in the dungeon and you can use the interact button to bind to them.
Portals
There are two types of portals in the Tower, white portals, which allow the player to exit the tower bank their essence and all items in their backpack, and red portals which allow the player to teleport deeper into the tower tower. Many portals require that the player have a Soul Key buff to activate the portal.
Blessings
Blessings are temporary buffs that are obtained from blessing shrines throughout the dungeon. Blessings are lost on death. Killing a player who has a blessing and looting their loot crystal will also steal their blessings.
Tiers
Each area of the tower has a tier. Players start their run in a tier 1 area and advance a tier each time they progress through a red portal. Higher tiers have better loot but dying in higher tier areas results in a greater time loss.
Chests
Chests provide additional tower time and give essence and items. The rewards for a chest scale with the amount of time that has past since the chest was last looted as well as the region tier.
Loot Crystals
Minibosses, bosses, and other players drop loot crystals on death. Looting a players crystal steals any blessings or |soul keys that that player had as well as half of their essence and all of their backpack items. When an NPC is killed and looted, if that NPC gives a |soul key then all players that dealt damage to the NPC will receive the buff.
Soul Keys
Soul Keys are a special buff that allow a player to activate certain portals. Generally soul keys are obtained from completing specific objectives, or by killing and looting bosses or mini-bosses. If an NPC drops a a soul key, then all players that dealt damage to the NPC will receive the buff when its crystal is looted.