Magic and Spells
Your tower height crossing a marked line earns you a spell, and that single spell has two faces. Cast it as Light Magic to stabilize your own tower or as Dark Magic to wreck an opponent, and casting one discards the other. There are 6 light spells and 13 dark spells. Hoarding kills you just as fast as burning a spell on a minor problem, so time every cast to a real structural moment.
Every time your tower height crosses one of the marked colored lines, you pick up a spell. That spell has a light face and a dark face, and you choose which one to cast. Light magic is on J and dark magic is on K, but these are not two independent slots. Casting either one spends your spell and discards the other.
Knowing when to reinforce your structure versus when to attack is the core strategic layer of Tricky Towers. If you hoard spells, you die. If you waste them on minor problems, you die when the real problems start.
Several modes restrict the pool. Single player Endless gives you light magic only. In multiplayer, Race Easy and Survival Easy are light only, Puzzle Easy offers nothing but Undo, Puzzle Normal offers nothing but Ivy, and Puzzle Special has no spells at all. Survival Special is light only too, since the dark magic there arrives as waves nobody casts. That leaves three variations where you can throw dark magic yourself: Race Normal, Race Special and Survival Normal.
Light Magic (Defensive)
Light magic targets your own tower. It exists to fix mistakes, stabilize weak points, and save you from total collapse. There are six light spells.
| Spell | What it does | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ivy | Binds bricks it touches together | Fuses a cluster into one rigid object. Use it on joints under strain, or to anchor a cantilevered section back to the tower. |
| Petrify | Petrifies a brick so it cannot move | Turns a brick into a fixed, immovable anchor. Dropping one at the far edge of your base is a free increase in width. |
| Tower Piece | A small piece to build upon | Spawns a small platform in mid air, giving you a fresh flat surface. |
| Undo | Removes your last placed brick | The only spell that reverses a placement you have already committed. |
| Extra Life | Gives you an extra life | Restores a lost heart. Useless until you have actually lost one. |
| Auto Build | Places a couple of petrified bricks | Dealt only to players who are behind. See below. |
Ivy is commonly called "vines" by players, but Ivy is the name the game uses.
Tower Piece is a trap for new players. A free platform in mid air looks like pure upside, and in Race it genuinely is, for the same reason Petrify is. In Survival, if your tower is already stable, it tends to sit in the way and make placing the next brick harder. Save it for a lower tower that has gone hopelessly uneven.
Dark Magic (Offensive)
Dark magic targets your opponents by altering the bricks falling on their side of the screen. There are thirteen dark spells, and they split into three jobs: wrecking a brick's physics, wrecking the player's control of it, and wrecking their view.
| Spell | What it does | Why it hurts |
|---|---|---|
| Large | Makes a brick large and heavy | The classic tower-killer. A narrow tower cannot absorb it. |
| Ice Brick | Bricks become very slippery | Bricks slide off flat surfaces. Brutal against a tower with no gaps to catch them. |
| Bubble | Soapy bubbles let bricks float away | Lifts a placed brick off the tower. The target can save it, but only by reacting fast. |
| Ghosts | Tiny ghosts steal the target's brick | Pulls a brick away outright. |
| Mystery | Bricks get a more difficult shape | Replaces the normal brick with an awkward object. Pianos, windmills and doors all show up. |
| Fast Brick | Bricks drop a lot faster | Cuts reaction time to almost nothing. |
| Slow Down | A balloon slows bricks down | Costs the target time, which matters most in a race. |
| Auto Rotate | Bricks rotate on their own | The brick spins while the target tries to line it up. |
| Rotated Brick | Bricks cannot be rotated | A rotation lock, despite the name. The target takes whatever orientation they are given. |
| Mist | Mist makes it hard to see | Obscures the view and forces rushed, panicky placement. |
| Grass | Grass makes it hard to see | The same job as Mist with a different overlay. |
| Super | A combination of dark magic | Dealt only to players who are behind. See below. |
| Super Duper | An even stronger combination | Dealt only to players who are behind. See below. |
Mystery changes a brick's shape. Large changes its size and weight. Both are nasty, but against a narrow tower it is Large you want, and against a player who has just built a perfectly flat surface it is Mystery.
Note that the laser, which the game also calls the zapper in its achievement text, is the height limit built into Puzzle play and not a spell at all. It appears in Puzzle trials, multiplayer Puzzle and Endless Puzzle alike.
The Three Catch-Up Spells
Three spells go only to players who are losing, and the game tells you so directly. Their in-game descriptions end with the sentence "This spell is available only to lagging players."
- Auto Build (light): Places a couple of petrified bricks for you.
- Super (dark): A combination of dark magic.
- Super Duper (dark): An even stronger combination.
The game prints this in the spell description you read before casting, so nothing about it is hidden. If you are in the lead and wondering why you never see Super Duper, that is the reason, and it is working as intended.
Beyond those three, what shapes your spell pool is mode and difficulty, not what place you are in. Each of the nine multiplayer variations draws from its own set, so Puzzle Normal hands you nothing but Ivy and Puzzle Special hands you nothing at all. Within that set the draw is random.
The achievement asks you to use every spell once. Since Auto Build, Super and Super Duper only appear when you are behind, you cannot finish it while winning.
Counter-Play
Two counters are worth knowing. Both are player-discovered techniques and not documented systems, so treat them as reliable tricks with no guarantee behind them.
- Stripping a light spell off a falling brick. If an opponent has cast Petrify or Ivy on a brick that is still descending, hitting them with Mystery or Large replaces that brick, and the light spell riding on it goes with it. In Survival this is almost always good. In Race it is a real tradeoff, because you stopped them petrifying a brick but handed them a bigger one that gets them closer to the top.
- Turning an incoming Large into a foundation. If an opponent drops Large on you while you are holding an uncast spell, cast Petrify on that oversized brick. Laid flat at one edge of your tower, it becomes an enormous immovable base and widens your building area in a single placement. This is a standard technique in the harder trials, not a niche trick.
Timing is Everything
Do not fire dark magic blindly. Watch your opponents' screens. If their tower is wide and flat, an Ice Brick will not hurt them. If it is narrow and already leaning, Large will finish it.
Conversely, do not cast light magic just because it is available. Save Petrify and Ivy for the exact moment the physics starts to fail you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between light and dark magic in Tricky Towers?
Light magic targets your own tower to fix mistakes and stabilize weak points, and there are six light spells: Ivy, Petrify, Tower Piece, Undo, Extra Life, and Auto Build. Dark magic targets opponents by altering the bricks falling on their side, and there are thirteen of them. You hold one spell with both a light and a dark face, and casting either one discards the other.
What does the Petrify spell actually do?
Petrify makes a brick so it cannot move, turning it into a fixed anchor. Dropping one at the far edge of your base is a free increase in width, and that makes it the standard tool for widening a foundation in the harder trials.
Why can I never get the Super or Auto Build spells?
Because you are winning. Auto Build, Super, and Super Duper go only to players who are behind, and the game states this outright in each spell description. It is not a hidden mechanic. It also means you cannot finish the All-round magician achievement while in the lead.
Can you strip a Petrify or Ivy spell off an opponent in Tricky Towers?
Yes. Hit them with Mystery or Large while the affected brick is still descending. The dark spell replaces the brick, so the light spell riding on it goes too. In Survival this is almost always worth doing, but in Race it is a tradeoff, since a larger brick gets them closer to the top.
How do you counter a giant block from dark magic?
Cast your Petrify spell on the massive brick as it falls. Laid flat at one edge of your tower, the oversized block becomes an enormous immovable base and widens your building area in a single placement.
Which spells does Tricky Towers never tell you about?
Undo removes your last placed brick, and it is the only spell that reverses a placement you have already committed. Extra Life restores a lost heart, which matters in Survival. Bubble floats one of your opponent's bricks off their tower, and Ghosts steals a brick outright.
What to Read Next
- Physics and Building. The physics spells manipulate.
- Competitive and Tournaments. Spell counter-play at high level.
- Game Modes. Which spells matter in which mode.
- Tips and Tricks. The single spell slot, and the three spells you never see while winning.