Building a tower, setting everything in front of it on fire, poisoning whatever survives, and finding a collection of trinkets pretty much sums up Tower Tactics II.
Asraworks’ tower defense roguelike enters Early Access today, bringing back the unusual combination of deckbuilding and enemy waves from Tower Tactics: Liberation with considerably more to put into each build. There are more than 180 cards and 150 trinkets available from the start, alongside five playable characters, a quest-based campaign, post-game content, and another four modes waiting outside the main adventure.
That’s before you start making your own maps too.
Every Tower Starts With a Card
You don’t head into a run with a menu full of towers waiting to be placed wherever you like. Instead, your options come from the deck you build.
Cards can give you towers, spells, upgrades, and other tools to deal with each wave, which means drawing the right combination matters just as much as finding the right place to put everything. New mechanics in the sequel add Hero Cards, temporary effects, card items, and status effects including Burn, Poison, and Frail, giving you more ways to make different parts of the deck work together.
Trinkets also give you something to work with. There are 150 of them in the Early Access version, and finding the right ones can push a promising combination much further as a run develops.
Enemies have some new tricks too, including additional abilities and combat types, while Sector 4 provides another challenge for anyone who got comfortable dealing with the original game’s later stages. With that many moving parts, placing the tower is really only the first of many decisions you’ll need to make.
Five Characters Bring Their Own Cards
Tower Tactics II also introduces playable characters rather than giving every run access to exactly the same pool of ideas. There are five available at the beginning of Early Access, each with their own playstyle, card pool, trinkets, and Hero Cards. Switching characters therefore changes more than a starting bonus, since you’ll have different pieces to build around before the first wave has even arrived.
Progression continues between runs too. New decks and strategic options can be unlocked over time, while the Forge lets you customize your starting arsenal. The Sanctuary provides another way to increase your power through offerings, giving you several things to work towards even when the current attempt doesn’t make it far.
All of that feeds into a quest-based storyline centred on stopping the Sal’koth invasion, with Kaya guiding you through the game and its different systems. There’s post-game content once those quests are dealt with too, so reaching the end of the main adventure doesn’t mean you’ve run out of reasons to keep experimenting with decks.
You Can Build More Than Decks
If the included maps eventually stop being enough, Tower Tactics II is also handing some of the building work over to players. A map editor and Steam Workshop support are available, letting you create your own battlefields and download maps made by other players. The wider Creative Hub is designed to expand those tools beyond maps, with custom decks, missions, and events also part of the developer’s plans.
There are four additional game modes included at the beginning of Early Access as well, giving those 180 cards and 150 trinkets somewhere else to go once you want a break from the main adventure.
Asraworks expects Tower Tactics II to spend around one to two years in Early Access, with more cards, trinkets, enemies, and other content planned throughout development. The core tower-defense deckbuilding isn’t expected to change radically, but individual systems will continue to evolve with player feedback.
There’s already plenty to start putting together today. You just need to work out which of those 180 cards gets a place in the deck.