Card Masteries are a late-game upgrade layer for your cards in The Tower: Idle Tower Defense. Once unlocked, each mastery adds an extra effect to a specific card, but only while that card is equipped in your loadout.
Card Mastery
Card Masteries become available once you have maxed 30 cards and reached the Card Mastery Milestone at Tier 16, Wave 100. From that point you can unlock masteries individually on the cards page.
Each mastery costs a varying amount of stones to unlock. Unlocking it also opens that card's Mastery Labs, where the effect can be levelled further. Keep in mind that a mastery only applies while the card it belongs to is in your active loadout — unequip the card and you lose the effect.
Card Mastery Lab Time and Coins
Every card mastery lab shares the same lab costs and research times, regardless of which card it belongs to. The full breakdown of times and coin costs is shown in the table below.
| Level | Time | Coins |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20d 20h 0m 0s | 1.10q |
| 2 | 31d 6h 0m 0s | 1.30q |
| 3 | 41d 16h 0m 0s | 2.00q |
| 4 | 52d 2h 0m 0s | 3.40q |
| 5 | 62d 12h 0m 0s | 5.60q |
| 6 | 72d 22h 0m 0s | 7.70q |
| 7 | 83d 8h 0m 0s | 9.10q |
| 8 | 93d 18h 0m 0s | 9.80q |
| 9 | 104d 4h 0m 0s | 10.00q |
Card Mastery Overview
The table below lists each Card Mastery, its stone cost to unlock, and how its effect scales as you level it through the mastery labs. For a deeper look at how each mastery performs in practice and which ones are worth prioritising, see the Advanced Analysis page.
| Card | Mastery Description | Stone Cost | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damage | Increases card stat multiplier | 750 | x1.4 | x1.8 | x2.2 | x2.6 | x3 | x3.4 | x3.8 | x4.2 | x4.6 | x5 |
| Attack Speed | Increases card stat multiplier | 750 | x1.03 | x1.06 | x1.09 | x1.12 | x1.15 | x1.18 | x1.21 | x1.24 | x1.27 | x1.3 |
| Health | Increases card stat multiplier | 750 | x1.2 | x1.4 | x1.6 | x1.8 | x2 | x2.2 | x2.4 | x2.6 | x2.8 | x3 |
| Health Regen | Increases card stat multiplier | 750 | x1.4 | x1.8 | x2.2 | x2.6 | x3 | x3.4 | x3.8 | x4.2 | x4.6 | x5 |
| Range | Adds damage per meter bonus multiplier | 750 | x1.2 | x1.4 | x1.6 | x1.8 | x2 | x2.2 | x2.4 | x2.6 | x2.8 | x3 |
| Cash | Adds chance for elites to drop reroll dice | 500 | 0.4% | 0.8% | 1.2% | 1.6% | 2% | 2.4% | 2.8% | 3.2% | 3.6% | 4% |
| Coins | Increases card stat multiplier | 1250 | x1.03 | x1.06 | x1.09 | x1.12 | x1.15 | x1.18 | x1.21 | x1.24 | x1.27 | x1.3 |
| Slow Aura | Reduces enemy attack speed | 1000 | x1.05 | x1.1 | x1.15 | x1.2 | x1.25 | x1.3 | x1.35 | x1.4 | x1.45 | x1.5 |
| Critical Chance | Bonus to Crit Chance, super Crit chance, and Super Crit Factor | 750 | +1% | +2% | +3% | +4% | +5% | +6% | +7% | +8% | +9% | +10% |
| Enemy Balance | Chance for double elite spawn | 1000 | 6% | 12% | 18% | 24% | 30% | 36% | 42% | 48% | 54% | 60% |