While there is often nothing cooler than pulling off a stylish, brutal combination with a powerful weapon, sometimes it’s better as a team effort. Upcoming side-scrolling ARPG Towerborne knows this, and has placed exciting, team-based combat at the very heart of its gameplay.

As you adventure through Towerborne’s rich fantasy world taking on foes and hunting for treasures, you’ll not only be presented with a suite of super fun and approachable weapons to wield alone, but also ways that you can benefit from the loadouts of other players. Whether you’re playing with friends or hopping into a lobby with strangers, the emphasis on collaboration between weapon types makes for tons of memorable cooperative moments in Towerborne. Game Director Daniel McLaren and Lead Combat Designer Isaac Torres stopped by to share more about the unique synergy between Towerborne’s arsenal.

In Towerborne, you’ll initially have the option to choose from four different classes: Sentinel (Sword and Shield), Shadowstriker (Dual Daggers), Pyroclast (Warclub) and Rockbreaker (Gauntlets), each of them offering a different playstyle. Sword and Shield is your trusty combination of damage and defence, Dual Daggers make for swift, evasive slashing, Warclub is a slow but hard hitter, and Gauntlets are all about meticulous melee combos.

Each one is designed with approachability in mind – they’re easy to pick up, fun to play, while granting the ability to do stuff that looks cool with ease. Lead Combat Designer Isaac Torres emphasizes the need for “minimal friction” on the combat side, meaning players of all skill levels can get stuck in straight away. However, offering depth within the combat to ensure for consistently entertaining play at higher levels also remained important.

“The best way to think about this is having a low skill floor but a high skill ceiling,” Torres explains. “There are always new ways to optimize and new things to discover. Players using the same weapon can still have different Focus Skills equipped. You could have three players on one team all using Sword and Shield that all provide drastically different experiences.”

Collaborative Chaos

While every weapon in Towerborne is designed to feel consistently cool when used on its own, they shine even brighter in a team-based environment. One of the most exciting aspects of the brawler is the ability to mix and match new playstyles that were never possible on your own, unlocking even more creative attacks and combos.

Game Director Daniel McLaren shares an example of this in practice: “Gauntlets players can charge up their fist to do a devastating attack. If you pair that up with a Sword and Shield player who has a Focus Skill that stuns enemies, now you’re creating a co-op moment that is on the fly that can play off of each other. It feels awesome and there’s tons of that in this game.”

“As a Warclub player myself, one of my favorite interactions is when a Gauntlets player knocks an enemy back and I’m able to hit the enemy back towards them, and they close out the chain with a wicked elbow drop. Makes me laugh every time!”

What’s even better is that approachability that Stoic has led with also applies to multiplayer action – you’ll not need to rely on meticulous voice communication to pull off incredible moves, there’s a level of intuitiveness to online play, designed so that everyone can get involved with ease.

“This mentality naturally lends itself towards cooperative play,” Torres says. “It does not matter if you’re playing with friends or playing with a group for the first time. The combat is designed in such a way where there will be tons of opportunities to share the fun and do cool things. See a character launched into the air? Jump up and attack! If someone on your team Breaks an enemy, they go into a stunned state that is shared across the entire team. This is everyone’s moment to shine, and that can happen with direct collaboration or by happenstance.”

A Worthy Challenge

Even with approachability and teamwork at its core, Towerborne still has enough grit to offer a significant challenge as you progress. Every weapon has pitfalls nestled alongside its strengths, so you’ll need to make informed decisions about those bigger challenges. Torres adds that there’s a “risk/reward factor,” at play, and part of the fun of Towerborne’s action is figuring out how to minimize risk as best you can.

“The weapons are all designed in a way that allows for players to either discover or unlock ways to optimize their abilities,” Torres explains. “Warclub, for example, allows players to manually charge up their Heat Gauge. This may not be a very safe option in the middle of a battlefield. However, you can also cancel the recovery frames of your attacks to charge up your Heat Gauge, which significantly minimizes that risk.

“There are other ways to temporarily protect yourself from danger in times of need as well, but the most important thing is that the player has options. It was extremely important to the combat team to allow players to experience the game in the way that is most fun to them. It really is up to you!”