One Try Tower

One Try Tower is a reaction-based roguelike horror sidescroller set in a tower with three locations, such as a library, prison and warehouse. Each location has two parts, and each part has 13 floors: seven inside the tower and six on balconies. You descend through the floors, face a unique boss at the end of each part and use checkpoints to restore health along the way.

Floors and bosses

At the start of every part except the first, you find an altar that restores HP and serves as a checkpoint. You can hear the part’s unique boss once you reach its altar. The tower changes over time: later groups of characters descend through the same tower at an older point in its history. A boss defeated in an earlier tower does not appear again, and the enemies change according to how much time has passed between groups.

Characters and helmets

The game features 18 playable characters with different stats, weapons, animals and colors. Each character also has a unique helmet that shapes which obstacles they can see. Enemies and obstacles come from the bottom, middle or top, and each eye on a helmet corresponds to a grid of nine squares, some open and some closed.

The first character is a blue rhino with average stats and a spear that represents the animal’s horn and fighting style. His helmet lets him see the main square, his back and the backs of middle-level enemies. It also reveals bottom-middle traps, which can help indicate which ceiling-mounted traps will appear on the floor below, but it does not show top traps.

Character progression

Characters are introduced in trios: a balanced hero, a hardcore hero and a final hero with the highest difficulty and a unique mechanic. You always begin as the balanced hero and unlock the others by completing the game with the previous character.