Emberward
Give it 5 hours
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 12 reviews are negative (8%); after 10h it's 1 in 40 (3%).
- Fully opens up by hour 10.
- The opening is criticised less than in 92% of games we track.
- 11% of players who start reach the ending.
- The biggest drop-off is between “Sealed Citadel Traveler” (Clear the Sealed Citadel on Casual or higher) and “Void Depths Traveler”: from 34% to 11% of starters.
- Only 55% of owners have even the first achievement — the rest barely played.
When it gets good
Share of positive reviews by how many hours the reviewer had played when writing the review.
before it gets good opening up fully opened up
Based on all 4,576 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 299 reviews: 18.5h for positive, 9.7h for negative. Almost every game is rated lower in the first 2–3 hours: that window includes refunds and quick first impressions. What matters is how deep the dip is and how fast the game recovers.
Where players quit
Share of players who started the game and reached each story milestone. 100% is the most common achievement (55% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
- Started playing 100%
- Misty Forest Traveler Clear the Misty Forest on Casual or higher. 82% −18
- Bone Desert Traveler Clear the Bone Desert on Casual or higher. 65% −17
- Frost Ruins Traveler Clear the Frost Ruins on Casual or higher. 50% −15
- Sealed Citadel Traveler Clear the Sealed Citadel on Casual or higher. 34% −15
- Void Depths Traveler Clear the Void Depths on Casual difficulty or higher. Most players quit here 11% −24
story milestone ending biggest drop-off
Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.
All achievements (100)
story milestone ending side
- Adventure Begins Complete the training stage. 100%
- First Step Learn your first talent. 93%
- Tower Apprentice Build 10 different types of towers. 84%
- Misty Forest Traveler Clear the Misty Forest on Casual or higher. 82%
- Silas the Merchant Unlock Silas the Merchant. 77%
- Misty Forest Explorer Clear the Misty Forest on Normal or higher. 75%
- Chunk the Builder Unlock Chunk the Builder. 71%
- Tiny the Bot Unlock Tiny the Bot. 70%
- Relic Novice Use more than 20 different Relics. 66%
- Bone Desert Traveler Clear the Bone Desert on Casual or higher. 65%
- Tana the Sorcerer Unlock Tana the Sorcerer. 63%
- Bone Desert Explorer Clear the Bone Desert on Normal or higher. 59%
- Tower Specialist Build 30 different types of towers. 56%
- Belloc the Pyroguard Unlock Belloc the Pyroguard. 55%
- Flawless Victory Win a run without taking any damage. 55%
- Frost Ruins Traveler Clear the Frost Ruins on Casual or higher. 50%
- Frost Ruins Explorer Clear the Frost Ruins on Normal or higher. 45%
- Relic Explorer Use more than 40 different Relics. 38%
- Basic Circuitry Clear a stage while activating more than three Ancient Devices at the same time. 36%
- Chrono Traveler Unlock the Chrono Traveler. 35%
- Misty Forest Pioneer Clear the Misty Forest on Heroic difficulty. 35%
- Sealed Citadel Traveler Clear the Sealed Citadel on Casual or higher. 34%
- Astromancer Unlock Estelle the Astromancer. 33%
- Sealed Citadel Explorer Clear the Sealed Citadel on Normal or higher. 30%
- Bone Desert Pioneer Clear the Bone Desert on Heroic difficulty. 25%
- Tower Master Build 45 different types of towers. 24%
- This Isn't Even My Final Form! Build a tower that covers 5 or more tiles, with every tile being a buff tile. 22%
- Challenge Accepted! Start a Daily or Weekly Challenge. 20%
- Lengthen The Corridor! Build a maze that makes monsters walk over 250 tiles before reaching the Fire Source. 20%
- Fully Experienced Learn every talent in the talent tree. 19%
- Frost Ruins Pioneer Clear the Frost Ruins on Heroic difficulty. 19%
- Monopoly As Silas the Merchant, carry 150 gold into the next stage. 18%
- Relic Collector Use more than 60 different Relics. 15%
- Rolling In The Deep Have the Rolling Log Trap crush more than 50 enemies at once. 14%
- Sealed Citadel Pioneer Clear the Sealed Citadel on Heroic difficulty. 14%
- Skilled Challenger Survive through wave 10 in any Endless mode Daily or Weekly Challenge. 11%
- Void Depths Traveler Clear the Void Depths on Casual difficulty or higher. 11%
- Spawn Camping On Normal difficulty or higher, kill a large monster within 3 seconds of its appearance. 10%
- Proven Challenger Survive through wave 15 in any Endless mode Daily or Weekly Challenge. 9.8%
- Void Depths Explorer Clear the Void Depths on Normal difficulty or higher. 9.5%
- S.C.R.A.B. Master Pilot an S.C.R.A.B. that has reached level 35. 7.1%
- Veteran Challenger Survive through wave 20 in any Endless mode Daily or Weekly Challenge. 5.8%
- Chivalry As Belloc the Pyroguard, complete at least seven quests in a single run and clear the boss stage. 5.1%
- Gambler Use Gambler's Tokens to reroll more than 150 times. 4.9%
- Misty Forest Conqueror Without using an event character, clear the Misty Forest on Heroic difficulty with Infernal Shard Level 5 or above. 4.4%
- Void Depths Pioneer Clear the Void Depths on Heroic difficulty. 4.4%
- Purifier Clear 100 Corrupted or Anomaly stages. 3.5%
- The Chosen One Obtain the ultimate Giant Dice Tower. 3.5%
- Mining Time Collect a total of 2,000 gold from enemies turned into gold. 3.5%
- The Floor Is Lava Have more than 150 tiles of lava on the field at the same time. 2.9%
- Block Harvester As the Joker, win a run on Normal difficulty or higher without spending any gold to build towers. 2.5%
- Companion Block On Normal difficulty or higher, clear any stage with only 1x1 blocks in your backpack. 2.4%
- Labyrinth Designer Build a maze that makes monsters walk over 500 tiles before reaching the Fire Source. 2.4%
- Pumpkin Defender In the Misty Graveyard, survive through wave 20. 2.2%
- That's Not How You Play This Game... On Normal difficulty or higher, clear a stage without building any blocks. 2.2%
- All You Can Eat Fully upgrade a Scrap Tank while holding all "Scrap Master" relics. 2.2%
- Bone Desert Conqueror Without using an event character, clear the Bone Desert on Heroic difficulty with Infernal Shard Level 12 or above. 2.2%
- All In Defeat the Eye of the Void before the end of round 8 on Heroic difficulty. 2.0%
- System Optimization As Tiny the Bot, build an elemental 3×3 tower, with all buff tiles beneath it providing that same element bonus. 2.0%
- Soul Harvester Grow the Soul Flame to level 30. 2.0%
- It's Over 9000! Complete a trial in the Enigma Sanctum with a score over 9000. 2.0%
- Swift Victory On Heroic difficulty, defeat a boss with at least half the rounds remaining. 2.0%
- Seriously, That's Not How You Play This Game... On Normal difficulty or higher, clear a stage without building any towers. 2.0%
- Car Wash Tactics Build over 15 Poison Towers consecutively on a straight monster path. 1.8%
- Elementalist Complete a game on Normal difficulty or higher with only one element of towers (Fire, Ice, Electric, Poison, or Arcane) on the field for the entire run, and clear the boss level. 1.8%
- I'll Take Them All! Buy out every item in the shop in a single visit. 1.6%
- Solo Leveling As the Scrap Master, win a run on Normal difficulty or higher while building towers only on an S.C.R.A.B. 1.5%
- XXXXL As Chunk the Builder, clear any boss stage while every block in your backpack has a Mega Rune. 1.3%
- No Need For This Clear the Misty Forest on Heroic difficulty without using any talents. 1.3%
- Block Mesa Make a 13x13 platform with your block cards, then clear the stage. 1.1%
- Professional Mercenary Successfully complete over 50 quests. 1.1%
- Frost Ruins Conqueror Without using an event character, clear the Frost Ruins on Heroic difficulty with Infernal Shard Level 18 or above. 1.1%
- Ancient Blessing Using the Ancient Flame, clear Chaos Realm on Normal difficulty or higher without breaking any tower seals early. 0.9%
- Welcome To My Backyard On Heroic difficulty, defeat the Inferno Hydra behind the fire source. 0.9%
- Just Want To Watch The World Burn Have three Flamethrower Towers with a range of over 17 on the field at the same time. 0.9%
- It's Super Effective! With a single shot from a Lightning Ball Tower, trigger 15 other Lightning Ball Towers to fire. 0.9%
- ...What Tower? On Normal difficulty or higher, without using an event character, win a run without spending any gold on building towers. 0.9%
- Save It For The Sequel Clear the Bone Desert on Heroic difficulty without using any talents. 0.9%
- Skill Issue Clear the Frost Ruins on Heroic difficulty without using any talents. 0.9%
- Oathkeeper On Heroic difficulty, forge a pact with every element at the Altar at the same time, then successfully fulfill the pact. 0.7%
- Back And Forth And Back And Forth On Heroic difficulty, make the Steelrail Overlord cross between carts 9 times. 0.7%
- Pattern Obsession On Heroic difficulty, in the battle against the Skeleton King, place all blocks only on tiles of the same color and complete the trial. 0.7%
- All Your Base Belong To Me On Heroic difficulty, defeat the Grand Artificer without activating any Weather Simulators and without letting any Ancient Towers activate. 0.7%
- Final Exam As Estelle the Astromancer, clear a stage while having at least 25 different types of towers on the field. 0.7%
- Wait, That's Illegal As Tana the Sorcerer, have at least five towers on the field simultaneously with the Overcharge buff. 0.7%
- The Perfect Toolbox Clear any boss stage with eight towers in your loadout, each of a unique shape. 0.7%
- Monster Express Let more than 10000 monsters pass through the portal in the Void Depths. 0.7%
- Frontier Guardian Survive through wave 20 at the Wyrmfell Bridge. 0.7%
- Sealed Citadel Conqueror Without using an event character, clear the Sealed Citadel on Heroic difficulty with Infernal Shard Level 24. 0.7%
- Naturally Talented Clear the Sealed Citadel on Heroic difficulty without using any talents. 0.7%
- Through The Darkness Clear 30 Darkness stages. 0.5%
- Advanced Circuitry In the boss stage of the Sealed Citadel, link all Ancient Devices on the map before the end of round 1. 0.5%
- Thinking with Portals Clear the Chaos Realm on Heroic difficulty using the Void Flame. 0.5%
- The Big Five On Normal difficulty or higher, clear a stage while the Volcano Tower, Froststorm Tower, Thunder Tower, Starfall Tower, and Cauldron Tower are all on the field at the same time. 0.4%
- World Wonder Build a maze that makes monsters walk over 1,000 tiles before reaching the Fire Source. 0.4%
- Void Depths Conqueror Without using an event character, clear the Void Depths on Heroic difficulty with Infernal Shard Level 24. 0.4%
- Gift Defender Survive through wave 20 at the Snowridge Outpost. 0.4%
- Abyssal Foodie Enjoy the full Academy Course Meal during an adventure in the Void Depths. 0.2%
- Emberwarder Without using an event character, clear the Misty Forest, Bone Desert, Frost Ruins, Sealed Citadel and Void Depths on Heroic difficulty with Infernal Shard Level 24. 0.2%
- Mad Genius Clear the Void Depths on Heroic difficulty without using any talents. 0.2%
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