Competitive and Tournaments
The free Tournament Update of November 2016 built out competitive Tricky Towers with Online Cups and an Endless puzzle leaderboard. A Cup is a sequence of randomized modes and difficulties awarding 3 medals for first place, 2 for second, 1 for third, and none for fourth, and it has no fixed round count, running until somebody reaches 9 medals. Endless leaderboards cover Race, Puzzle, and Survival, and they reset on a rolling basis so the top ranks stay reachable.
The competitive side of Tricky Towers arrived on November 16, 2016 with the free Tournament Update. It shifted the endgame away from single-player trials toward multiplayer tournaments and high-score chasing.
This guide explains the systems that govern the competitive ecosystem.
The Endless Leaderboards
Endless is where you go once the 50 trials stop teaching you anything. There are three separate challenges, ranked independently, so you can specialize in one.
They did not all arrive together:
| Challenge | Added |
|---|---|
| Endless Survival | With the base game, August 2016 |
| Endless Puzzle | With the Tournament Update, November 2016 |
| Endless Race | February 1, 2018 |
The Tournament Update announcement mentions weekly and monthly leaderboards. The boards visible in the Endless interface today are the weekly ones, and Steam itself exposes three all-time boards, one per challenge. Whether a monthly board still exists is unclear, so do not plan a run around catching one.
Multiplayer Online Cups
A Cup is a sequence of randomized rounds, not a single match. It draws on all three modes (Race, Puzzle, Survival) at varying difficulties (Easy, Normal, Special).
The "Cup winner!" achievement asks you to win one outright, so you need to be the first player to 9 medals, and merely finishing well is not enough.
How Medals Work
Each round awards medals by finishing position:
- 1st place: 3 medals
- 2nd place: 2 medals
- 3rd place: 1 medal
- 4th place: none
A Cup is not a fixed number of rounds decided on cumulative score. Play continues until somebody reaches 9 medals, and the first player there wins. That is what makes the format tense in a way a best-of-five is not.
That threshold changes how you play the back half of a Cup. Sitting on a comfortable lead is not the same as winning, because a single strong round closes a three-medal gap. Equally, being behind does not mean the Cup is gone, since rounds keep coming until someone crosses the line.
The modes and difficulties are randomized, so one specialty is not enough. You need to handle a Puzzle round on Special, which gives you no spells at all, as reliably as a Race round on Special, which blows a constant wind across your tower.
What Happens on a Tie
If two players cross 9 medals in the same round, the overshoot settles it. Medals earned beyond 9 still count, so a player arriving on 11 beats a player arriving on 10. Only when they land on exactly the same total does the Cup go to one extra round.
That has a practical consequence. If you are close to the line and can take first instead of second in the deciding round, the extra medal is not wasted, because it is the tiebreaker.
The other consequence is that second place has real value. Across a long Cup, a player who reliably takes second beats one who alternates between first and fourth. When a round type you are weak at comes up, play for a safe finish instead of gambling on a win you probably will not get.
The Endless Ruleset
The three Endless challenges each end differently, and the differences drive how you play them:
- Race Challenge: climb ahead of rising water. There are no lives at all, so you can throw away as many bricks as you like provided the top of your tower stays above the waterline.
- Puzzle Challenge: keep the tower below the laser, conserving bricks. Clear all the bricks in a given group and the laser rises to give you a new stage, with more bricks required each time. The run ends when your top brick reaches the laser.
- Survival Challenge: stack as high as you can. Every brick you lose costs a life, and the run ends when the last one goes.
You can only cast light magic in Endless. That is not the same as saying no dark magic exists here, and the difference catches people out. In Endless Survival, waves of dark magic land on you roughly every 30 seconds and can arrive combined, and Endless Puzzle drops petrified bricks into random positions as you go. What you lose is the ability to throw sabotage, not the experience of receiving it.
What Endless does strip out is the opponent. A tower that survives online because a rival misplayed their dark spell falls over here. That is why leaderboard rank reads as a better measure of raw stacking skill than a Cup record does.
None of the three has a target to reach. They run until you fail. The 99-brick and 66-brick figures attached to Endless belong to achievements, not to the modes.
Piece order matters enormously over a long run, so expect a meaningful share of attempts to die to a bad sequence through no fault of your own. Serious leaderboard runs are a volume game. Play a lot of attempts, abandon the ones that start badly, and commit only when the early pieces cooperate.
Wizard Levels
Separate from trial medals and Cup medals, online play feeds a persistent rank ladder. It runs Rookie Magician, Apprentice Magician, Magician, Rookie Sorcerer, Apprentice Sorcerer, Sorcerer, Rookie Wizard, Apprentice Wizard, Wizard, Expert Wizard, and then Master Wizard Level 1, 2 and upward with no published ceiling.
Read it as a participation record, not a skill rating. You earn experience even in matches you lose, so given enough games almost anyone reaches Master Wizard. A high level tells you somebody has played a lot, not that they will beat you.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does scoring work in a Tricky Towers Online Cup?
Each round awards medals by finishing position: 3 for first, 2 for second, 1 for third, and none for fourth. There is no fixed number of rounds. Play continues until somebody reaches 9 medals, and the first player there wins the Cup.
What exactly is an Online Cup in Tricky Towers?
A Cup is a sequence of randomized rounds, not a single match. It draws on Race, Puzzle, and Survival across Easy, Normal, and Special difficulty, and it runs until one player has 9 medals.
What happens if two players tie in a Tricky Towers Cup?
Medals earned past 9 still count, so whoever overshoots further wins. A player arriving on 11 beats one arriving on 10. Only an exact tie sends the Cup to one extra round, so taking first instead of second in the deciding round is worth doing.
What did the Tournament Update add to Tricky Towers?
It arrived on November 16, 2016 as a free update and added local and online tournament mode, the Endless puzzle leaderboard, weekly and monthly leaderboards, new achievements, a printable party pack, and key binding options. Endless Survival already shipped with the base game, and Endless Race did not arrive until February 2018.
Is there dark magic in Endless mode?
You cannot cast it, but you do receive it. Endless Survival throws waves of dark magic at you roughly every 30 seconds, sometimes combined, and Endless Puzzle drops petrified bricks into random positions. Only your own casting is restricted to light magic.
What are Wizard Levels in Tricky Towers?
A persistent online rank ladder running from Rookie Magician up through Expert Wizard and then Master Wizard Level 1 and beyond. You gain experience even in matches you lose, so it records how much somebody has played, not how good they are.
What to Read Next
- Magic and Spells. Counter-play that decides close matches.
- Physics and Building. Speed and stability under pressure.
- Achievements. Leaderboard and endurance achievements.
- Tips and Tricks. Cup medal maths, overshoot tiebreaks, and what the rank ladder measures.