Apprentice Ascending

You are an Apprentice Wizard, inexperienced, curious, slightly out of your depth and newly assigned to a Tower full of rooms and secrets. Perhaps you seek arcane mastery and Apotheosis. Perhaps you just want to afford your rent.

Apprentice Ascending is a single-player, real-time card game played on a virtual tabletop. Every part of your life is a card: your health, your mood, your money, your problems. Drag cards to interact, combine them to act, and watch the timers tick down. Outcomes resolve. The table gets slowly, interestingly worse.


The Chapel pays you to pray for the townsfolk. The flock looks up to you for help. Meanwhile, the Clocktower ticks. Pray, pay and meditate. That is the life of an apprentice. But you intend to be more. The Tower promises something greater.

Combine ingredients to discover powerful spells. Translate foreign books. Meet new people and trade for tools. Arm yourself with magic and iron. Build an ever expanding arsenal to take on the Tower and the dangers within.

The Stairwell goes up, the problems come down. Explore floor by floor to uncover loot, traps, escalating encounters, bosses, and things best left undescribed. Perform rituals in the Chamber to craft, transmute, and rank yourself up from Apprentice to something more worthy.


Time is never on your side. Cards decay. Hunger grows. And somewhere below, someone has started asking questions about you. The stronger you become the more traces you leave behind. The Gate appears when the Hunters catch your scent. Three clues and they find you.

Every ending is earned, and most are regrettable. Your runs will end when you:
Be slain

Go broke

Get hunted

Lose your mind

Drown in gold

Or climb all six floors and earn the Apotheosis your school deserves

Death may come. But knowledge endures. Every attempt teaches you something new, and every lesson brings you one step closer to the top.

Will you reach the top?

Dare to try?