Once Upon a Tower Guide: 7 Tips, Cheats & Tricks You Need to Know

Once Upon a Tower is a vertical platformer for iOS and Android devices that teaches everyone if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. In this game, you are a princess who is being held hostage in a tower by a dragon and its minions. After waiting for years for your savior to come, you end up watching him get eaten by the dragon. Well, so much for that plan. There is some good news for you, however. The brave knight may have fallen but he left behind his hammer. Armed with this new weapon, you decide to take matters into your own hands. Your goal is to bust yourself out of the tower by going through obstacles, enemies, and eventually, the dreadful dragon. There may not be a prince coming to your rescue but you can always rely on our Once Upon a Tower tips and tricks to help you make it out of the tower alive!

1. Be Careful Where You Land

One of the easiest way to die in this game is to fall into a trap. Whether it’s a bed of spikes or a fire-breathing emblem, traps will certainly kill you if you are not paying attention. The tricky part is that you cannot change directions once you are already falling. That means if you jump off a ledge without checking what is directly beneath you, then you are doomed as soon as you jump. You can avoid this by always checking out where you will land before you mine or jump downwards.
The only way you can avoid getting impaled while falling is if you have equipped the Parachute power up. Naturally, this will allow you to adjust the direction of your fall and you will be able to maneuver yourself to safety. Just keep in mind that the adjustment is gradual so if the fall is too short, you still might not make it in time.

2. Attack In Midair

Button-mashing isn’t normally rewarded in games but when you are a sheltered princess with no combat training, there isn’t really much you can do but wave your hammer around and hope you hit someone. This is especially true when you are falling. A lot of your enemies will be difficult to reach without putting yourself at risk. You can avoid this risk by attacking repeatedly as you fall. You will be surprised how many enemies you can accidentally take out by doing this.

Of course, you still need to pay attention while you flail your hammer around. The direction of your swipe will make a big difference between just falling and actually getting things done. You need to swipe towards the enemy you want to attack. If you are about to fall on a spike, swipe downwards to destroy it. If you have a fire-breathing emblem on your right, swipe towards it to swat away any of the fireballs. Pay attention to your surroundings and be ready to react any second. Your reflexes will save you.

3. How To Earn Points

To put it simply, you need to collect fireflies or kill enemies to earn points. However, if you want to know how many points you earn and how it affects your final score, then you need to know the math. Each firefly you pick up is worth 50 points. Needless to say, you need to prioritize them if you want major points. Each enemy you kill is worth 10 points. There will be times that an enemy will eat up a nearby firefly. If you whack the enemy after it has eaten a firefly, you will earn a total of 60 points. That’s like hitting two birds with one hammer!

Now, what does all this mean for your final score? In earlier stages, the amount of points you have at the end of your run will be your final score. Later stages, however, will multiply the number of points you have depending on your challenge level. Your challenge level increases every time you complete three challenges. So, if your current challenge level is three and you end a run with 500 points, then your final score would be 1500. This is important because your final score will be the one recorded for the leaderboards, not your points.

4. When To Buy Power Ups

Buying power ups in this game can be a bit of a gamble. Instead of using in-game currency, you will be spending whatever points you earned on your current run. The power up will only be useful during the run it was purchased. It will not carry over to the next run. That means if you buy a power up then immediately fail, your purchase would be wasted and you end up with an even lower score.

Of course, that does not mean power ups aren’t worth buying. In fact, if you use them strategically, you stand to gain even more points than you spend. The best power ups in the game are the Fire Hammer and the Hard Boots. The Fire Hammer extends the hammer’s range by one tile. This may not sound impressive but given the limited space inside the tower, that extra tile is all you need. The Hard Boots, on the other hand, give you immunity to spikes. You can fall on spikes and spiked enemies without worries.

The great thing about these power ups is that they do not expire throughout your entire run. You are free to step on as many spikes as you want during your run once you have equipped your Hard Boots. Keep in mind, though, that power ups get more expensive the further you progress in a run. Make sure you make your purchases early to get the most out of each power up.

5. Take The Chicken With You

If you have played the game’s Wheel of Fortune a few times, you have probably encountered the Chicken and are wondering what to do with it. If you are the type who likes to complete all achievements in a game, then the Chicken is the star of the most difficult one in the game. The condition for the achievement is to escape the tower with a live Chicken. You would think it’s an easy task but that thing has a death wish. Practically anything inside the tower can, and will, kill the bird.

On the other hand, if you don’t care much about that particular achievement, there is still reason to bring the Chicken. It serves as a nice little meat shield if you aren’t too squeamish about watching it die repeatedly. Depending on where the chicken is in relation to the princess, it will take one hit coming from that direction. For example, if it is on your head and an enemy falls on you, it will get hit by the enemy and die in your stead. As a side note, Princess Muffin always starts each game with a Chicken so you may want to use her if you are aiming for the achievement.

6. No One Is Safe In The Tower

For some reason, everyone is hostile towards each other in the tower. Spikes and traps will hurt both the princess and the monsters. Your enemies will also take a swing at each other if they are near enough. You can use this to your advantage and just push them towards each other. Also, the dragon itself is a threat to everyone. It will fly by the tower from time to time, which means it is about to breath fire into the tower. When it comes back around, it will peek into one of the windows and blow fire through an entire row. It will incinerate any enemy and push down any wheelbarrows through gaps on the floor. You can easily avoid this attack by dropping down to a row with no windows. Just make sure you don’t have a wheelbarrow above you as well.

Another trick you can take advantage of is to literally fight fire with fire. The totems that spit out fire balls are actually vulnerable to fire as well. If you are very good at timing your hits, you can deflect the fireball back towards the totem. You will need to hit the fireball when it is on the tile right next to you. Your timing will have to be perfect or you will end up getting burnt. If you are able to deflect it back to the totem, it will destroy the totem. If there is another fireball coming at you, it will diffuse the fireball instead.

7. The Tower Is Not Endless

It may seem to take you forever to reach the bottom of the tower but there is a bottom. In fact, there are two achievements for reaching the bottom. The first one is when you reach the bottom once, with any princess. The second achievement is for when you are able to reach the bottom of the tower with every princess. It takes a lot of work but you will get there eventually!

It’s time to show these heroes how princesses get things done! Make sure you follow our Once Upon a Tower tips and tricks above and you will be free from the dragon’s tower in no time!