Player's Spire

*You've also found a large, pulsing core that seems to be powering the Spire. You try to carefully remove it but instead smash it into 20 still-humming pieces! You give the pieces to your Scientists, who name the magical new material "Spirestones" and use them to begin construction on your own Spire!* - Message upon clearing the Spire for the first time

The **Player's Spire** is a new feature added in 4.10. It allows you, the player to build your own Spire after defeating Druopitee in the Spire at Zone 200. Build up Towers and Traps in order to kill enemies passing through the Spire, make your Spire more threatening by raising Threat and experiment with new strategies in this new tower defense simulation, a "game within a game".

## Description and Screen

Once the player defeats Druopitee and clears the Spire for the first time, the Player's Spire is unlocked and is shown to the player. A new tab will also unlock next to the Mastery (and Nature) tab. Clicking this tab, or pressing P on the keyboard will bring the player to the Player's Spire screen.

On the left is your Spire, where enemies will periodically wander through it harmlessly. This is where you can place Towers and Traps in order to attempt to kill them.

On the right is the screen for Settings and Tower/Trap information, as well as for any upgrades for them.

The player may choose to shrink the screen by clicking on the "Shrink Window" button, which will compress the right of the screen and only display the Spire on the left, as well as a condensed list of Towers/Traps and upgrades (if any).

## Spire Layout and Threat

Initially, only the first row of the Spire is unlocked, containing 5 cells for enemies to pass through and to place Towers and Traps. Killing enemies will award a new currency called Runestones, which are needed for more Towers/Traps and their upgrades. In addition, your Spire becomes more threatening to future enemies, causing them to grow stronger and subsequently earn more Runestones from killing them.

The Threat is a measure of how strong your current Spire is, and corresponds directly to the health of enemies that will spawn. Threat increases as enemies are killed and decreases as enemies manage to survive to the end of your Spire and escape (this is called "leaking").

Up to 20 rows of the Spire (with 100 cells total) can be unlocked. In order to build more floors of your Spire, a new currency called Spirestones is required. Spirestones are obtained from recycling Spire Core Heirlooms, themselves obtained by clearing Spires in the world, with higher Spires rewarding better Heirlooms that are worth more Spirestones. Their rewards are as shown below:

The requirements for each floor (maximum of 20) are as shown below:

## Towers/Traps and Upgrades

By placing Towers and Traps, it becomes possible to damage and kill enemies passing through your Spire. There are 7 of them in total: 4 Traps and 3 Towers. They are the Fire Trap, Frost Trap, Poison Trap, Lightning Trap, Strength Tower, Condenser Tower and Knowledge Tower.
Their initial cost, scaling and unlock requirements are shown in the table below:

Traps and Towers can be sold for a full refund (100% cost) of the Runestones spent on them. This allows the player to experiment with the layout in order to maximise the damage output.

### Fire Trap

This trap deals 50 damage to each enemy stepping on it.
By upgrading this trap, it will be able to deal more damage, and even reward extra Runestones when landing the killing blow on an enemy. Its upgrades are shown in the table below:

### Frost Trap

This trap deals 10 damage when stepped on, and causes the target to become Chilled, slowing movement to 50% speed for 3 cells. This speed reduction causes the target to stay on each Trap for twice as long, triggering each Trap twice. Note that Frost Traps are coated with antifreeze, preventing chill effects from working while an enemy is standing on a Frost Trap. Upgrade them to increase damage, Chill duration and other bonuses. Its upgrades are shown in the table below:

### Poison Trap

This trap adds 5 Toxicity when stepped on. Target will take damage equal to its total Toxicity each time it attempts to move. Upgrade them to increase the Toxicity applied, and to harvest Runestones from escaped enemies. Its upgrades are shown in the table below:

### Lightning Trap

This trap deals 50 damage when stepped on, and afflicts the target with 1 stack of Shocked. 1 stack of Shocked is consumed each time an enemy steps on a Trap or Tower, causing that Bad Guy to take 2x damage and 2x effect from the Trap or Tower that consumed the stack of Shocked. Shocked can boost the damage but not the effect of other Lightning Traps. Upgrade them to increase Shock stacks and their bonus damage and effect taken from other Traps/Towers. Its upgrades are shown in the table below:

### Strength Tower

This Tower (max of 1 per Floor) increases the damage of all Fire Traps on the same Floor by 100%. When stepped on deals damage equal to the cumulative damage of all Fire Traps on its Floor (after Strength Tower Effect). In addition, this Tower increases the attack of your Trimps in Maps and the World by 30% (additive with other Strength Towers). Upgrade them to increase the attack boost to your Trimps. A maximum of 10 Strength Towers can be built. Its upgrades are shown in the table below:

 III
 IV
 V

### Condenser Tower

This Tower, when stepped on, increases the target's Toxicity by 25% (multiplicative). In addition, each Condenser Tower increases all Helium found by 10% (additive with other Condenser Towers). Upgrade them to increase the Helium bonus. A maximum of 10 Condenser Towers can be built. Its upgrades are shown in the table below:

 III
 IV
 V

### Knowledge Tower

This Tower causes Chilled enemies that step on it to become Frozen, slowing the target to 33% speed for 5 cells. In addition, each Knowledge Tower increases Fluffy's Experience gain by 15% (additive with other Knowledge Towers). Note that Knowledge Towers are coated with antifreeze, preventing chill effects from working until the enemy steps off of this Tower. Upgrade them to increase the Fluffy EXP bonus. A maximum of 10 Knowledge Towers can be built. Its upgrades are shown in the table below:

 III
 IV
 V

## Enemies

Periodically, enemies will wander through your Spire. One enemy will enter your Spire every 3 seconds. They are represented by boxes with icons moving through your Spire. Only a certain number of enemies may be in your Spire at any time, as shown below:

### Life Bar

Enemies have life bars corresponding directly to the % of health available. Their colors are as shown below:

 50% - 75%
 20% - 50%
 Below 20%

### Status effects

Enemies may be affected by several status effects which are inflicted by Traps.

#### Chilled

Chilled enemies move at half speed, causing them to step on any Trap/Tower twice for the duration of the effect. Enemies' life bars will have a blue section next to their health bar.

#### Frozen

Frozen enemies move at one-third speed, causing them to step on any Trap/Tower thrice for the duration of the effect. Enemies' life bars will have a purple section next to their health bar.

#### Shocked

Shocked enemies are more vulnerable to the status effects and damage from any Tower/Trap they step on for the duration of the status effect. Affected enemies' health values/health % values will be written in yellow.

## Tutorial

There is a tutorial system for the Player's Spire. At the beginning, only the first row of the Spire is unlocked, with the Fire Trap and Frost Trap available. By completing the quests highlighted in **bold**, more Traps, Towers and Spire floors will be available.

You were able to finish constructing the first Floor of your very own Spire with the Spirestones you found, and you still have a few left over to try to make it even taller. You had your Trimps build a wall around the entire town, making your new Spire the only entrance and exit point. You feel super safe for a few seconds, and your Trimps are super stoked on their new fortress.
After those few seconds are up, you see that the Spire is attracting a decent amount of unwanted attention from jealous enemies, who seem to take your Spire as a challenge.
Luckily, your Scientists have managed to come up with a few Trap designs that can hopefully stop the flow of enemies into your town.
 2
Unfortunately, it seems like each enemy you kill in here makes your Spire a more important target, causing stronger and stronger enemies to come through.
Fortunately though, your Magical Spire Traps convert Bad Guys into a new type of resource whenever they kill one, which your Scientists call 'Runestones'. Even more fortunately, larger enemies with more Max Health convert into larger amounts of Runestones! As your Spire's Threat increases, so will your Runestones per second, and so will your Spire's defenses (if you're doing your job).
You don't have to stay here while Runestones build up, you can go back to leading your Trimps while your Traps do some work. The enchanted Spirestones copy your progress to all possible dimensions, so you won't even lose your Traps if you Portal!
 3
While you're appreciating your deadly handiwork, a small group of Scientists runs up to you and shares some new research. They say that the Runestones can also be used to create mini-towers that broadcast their energy to all Trimps in the World. Wasting no time, they hand you the schematics for the Strength Tower, which increases the effect of all Fire Traps on its Floor, and grants all of your Trimps an attack bonus.
 4
You've finished constructing the third Floor of your Spire, but it seems as if you've used up your entire intial supply of Spirestones. You'll need to clear a Spire again to earn more! Note that you'll find considerably more Spirestones from more difficult Spires.
 5
You consult with your Scientists, who tell you that they can create upgrades for your Traps, but that they need to study corpses of high level enemies in order to exploit their weaknesses.
 6
You seem to have a pretty decent understanding of how to manage your Spire, and I believe you can handle it on your own for a while. Continue to raise your HZE to unlock more upgrades, collect Spirestones to add more Floors and enemies, and tweak your Trap layout every once in a while to make sure you're getting as many Runestones as you can, you'll definitely need them later.
Your Scientists let you know that they can possibly forge a new Trap and Tower, but they need to study Spirestones from a higher level Spire first.
**Complete Spire II to unlock Poison Trap and Condenser Tower! Once you have your new Traps, raise your Spire's Threat to 600 and build your sixth Floor.**
 7
While you're feeling comfortable maintaining your Spire's defenses with the tools you have, you still feel like there's something missing. Your Scientists say that they could perhaps create one more Trap and Tower, but again they'll need to study Spirestones from an even higher Spire.
 8
Raise your HZE, clear Spires, buy upgrades, build Floors, and come up with the perfect layout for your Spire.
**I'll hang out and make sure everything's OK until you reach Threat level 1300 and build your thirteenth Floor, and then you'll be on your own.**

## Sealing the Spire

Once 10 of each Tower (Strength, Condenser and Knowledge) has been built in the Spire, the player is given the option to seal the Spire. This will stop enemies from entering the Spire and the generation of Runestones, but a bonus of having 11 of each Tower will be granted. The Spire tab will also disappear from the main window of the game.

If the player wishes to unseal the Spire, the player can go into the Settings to do so. The sealed Spire can also be still accessed by pressing the "p" hotkey, whereby the player can also unseal it from there. This will allow enemies to start moving through the Spire again, but the bonus of having 11 of each Tower will be removed.

## Strategies and Tips

* Place all of your Poison Traps at the start of your Spire, to allow enemies to take more poison damage as they progress through your Spire.
* Place a Frost Trap, then a Lightning Trap at the end of a row, then a Strength Tower and 4 Fire Traps on the row after it. This causes Shocked enemies to step on the Strength Tower twice, taking a lot of damage.
* Place a Lightning Trap, then your Condenser Towers immediately after your last Poison Trap, alternating with Lightning Towers, to drastically increase Toxicity applied.
* In short, first place a group of poison traps, then a group of condenser towers. The final part is a group of fire traps.
* It might be worth it to sell most of your Towers and Traps for a powerful upgrade.
* You can shift a Tower/Trap and all others after it up/down one cell at a time, by pressing the Shift Up/Shift Down buttons, then the Tower/Trap you want to move.
* Since there is no downside to selling a Trap/Tower, you can tinker with the layout as you please. Experiment to get the best layout!
* With the introduction of Spire Cores, don't forget to equip the most powerful Core you can find (and upgrade) to boost your Towers and Traps.
* The best Cores are those with modifiers that synergize well with each other e.g, Fire Trap Damage and Strength Tower Effect, or Poison Trap Damage and Condensor Effect. Both can be further enhanced with Lightning Trap Damage.

## Trivia

* The effects of Chilled and Frozen do not stack. This means that a Frozen enemy stepping on a Frost Trap will be Chilled instead of remaining Frozen.
* Chilled and Frozen last for a certain number of cells, but Shocked only lasts for the number of times an enemy steps on a Tower/Trap, so Shocked lasts a lot shorter than the other two effects.
* The Player's Spire, and all its associated elements persist through Portals.