System mechanic — not covered elsewhere

The Spire of Years

A physical tower you build course by course, funded by levels earned in absolutely any skill — and it has no ceiling

The Spire of Years is a single fixed structure standing in the world — approach it and press [E] to work on it. It's a monument you build yourself, one stone course at a time, and the currency that pays for each course is levels: every skill in the game feeds the same ladder, so a character who's spread their time across mining, magic, and melee equally is building the Spire just as fast as one who specialised in only one of them.

Rungs: every 25 levels, in any skill

Every 25 levels gained in any single skill cuts one more "rung" into the Spire's ladder, and each rung banks one seal. There's no limit on which skill — a rung comes just as readily from 25 more levels of Woodcutting as from 25 more levels of Attack, and there's no cap on how many rungs a single skill can keep contributing as it climbs higher and higher.

Courses: what seals actually buy

Seals are spent raising the Spire's physical courses — each one taller than the last, and each one costing exactly as many seals as its own course number (the 5th course costs 5 seals, the 10th costs 10), on top of a real materials cost. Raising a course also updates your standing on a ten-title rank ladder tied directly to how many courses you've built: Founder, Mason of the Spire, Keeper of the Spire, Warden of the Spire, Steward of Years, Elder of Years, Archivist of Years, Chronicler of Years, Yearwright, Spiremaster — and past the tenth course, the title simply becomes "Spiremaster of the Nth Course," counting upward with no hard stop at all.

The Reliquary: bring one of everything rare

Separately from rungs and courses, the Spire holds a Reliquary with sixteen empty niches, each one wanting a single specific rare material carried there in person — a Cinder Core "carried up out of Hell," a Corelight Ingot "cast under the hollow moon," a Void Shard "from where the light stops," and thirteen others in the same vein, each drawn from a different corner of the world. Filling every niche is its own quiet declaration: "there is nothing left in this world you have not brought here."

Two of the sixteen relics — the Vulcanite Ingot and the Magma Core — can currently only be obtained on Vulcanis, one of the worlds presently switched off. Until that world returns, the Reliquary can be filled to at most 14 of 16.

Version history

• The in-game guidebook explained the mastery ladder without ever explaining what the Spire is for. The help panel had described "every 25 levels in any skill is a rung" since the system shipped, and separately named "the Spire and its relics" elsewhere — but nowhere actually said what building it accomplishes. Fixed by reading the Spire's own live rank and step directly into the guidebook, rather than leaving two separate documents free to quietly disagree with each other.

Trivia

• The Spire is one of a small number of systems in the game with genuinely no maximum — courses keep costing one more seal than the last forever, and the title ladder keeps counting upward past its own named list rather than capping out.
• Because any skill's levels count equally toward rungs, the Spire is one of the only endgame goals in the game that doesn't implicitly reward specialising in combat over gathering, crafting, or any other skill.
• "The spire" is one of the twenty-four things an apprentice at The Prentice Step can ask to be shown.