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"What do you desire? Honor and pride? Power and influence? Money and riches? Revenge? Or... To transcend all such things? For what do you risk your life to climb the tower? Whatever you desire, you will find it here. Welcome to the Tower of God."

The boy called Twenty-Fifth Bam is in a strange place. He has just lost his only friend. He is staring at a monster. He is on the lowest Floor of the Tower.

He entered the Tower chasing his best friend, Rachel. But once inside the Tower, everyone must make their own way to the top, and Bam quickly learns that the Tower's inhabitants have a low opinion of "Irregulars" — those who enter the Tower without invitation. Faced with the prospect of a new test on every Floor and many, many, many intrigues and colliding stories and wills in this alien, magical realm, his determination to reunite with Rachel is the only thing keeping him going.

Written and illustrated by Slave.In.Utero, Tower of God (신의 탑) is a Korean Webtoon with over 500 chapters as of the end of 2022.

Chapter 78 served as the end of the first saga and season, the second begins at Chapter 80 with an epilogue and prologue between the two seasons, and consists of three sagas that last up to Chapter 417. The third season begins with Chapter 418.

It is the first officially published story of the Talse Uzer universe; previous privately uploaded stories by S.I.U. have been infokilled by the author.

The webtoon can be seen here (in Korean) and officially translated into English here.

An anime adaptation produced by TMS Entertainment began airing April 1st, 2020, and can be viewed here. A second season was announced on August 6, 2022.

The comic went on a long hiatus due to the author's health problems after chapter 485 in June 2020, resumed in May 2021, and went on hiatus again in August 2022 after chapter 550, only to resume once more in March 2023.


Tower of God contains examples of:

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    A - D 
  • Aborted Arc: Readers of Season 1 would expect more to be elaborated on Black March's fickle spirit and relationship with Bam. This is rendered naught when he loses it to Anaak after the Crown Game and Yuri Jahad reclaims it.
  • Abusive Parents: This is rather common in the Ten Great Families.
    • The most notable case would be the Hendo family, whose head made a deal shortening the life span of every single descendant of his blood in order to stay immortal.
    • Khun's mother drove him to excel and be as ruthless and manipulative as she was. Until he'd had enough and used everything he'd learned to run away from home and 'borrow' a lot of expensive items from his father on his way out.
  • Academy of Adventure: The Second Floor — the Floor of Test — is essentially a condensed, accelerated cross between one of these and a Wizarding School, spending a month teaching students the various skills and supernatural arts they will need to climb the Tower.
  • Action Girl: Most of the female cast, especially Princesses of Jahad. Not a surprise, considering that in the Tower there's not much difference between failing the tests and giving up your greatest wish.
  • Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole:
    • An added scene in the anime depicts Bam, in a brief flash of rage, ready to kill Hwaryun after Rachel suffers a cranial strike by her. Later on when Rachel gets stabbed by Hoh, Bam reaction is much more shocked than enraged, without even a hint of anger. (Admittedly, he thought of Hoh as his friend, whereas Hwaryun was just a faceless enemy at that point.)
    • The scene immediately after Bam's attempt to kill Hwaryun shows him unwittingly channeling an enormous amount of Shinsu in clear view of several other characters. Yet none of the other Regulars acknowledge this afterward, in the sense of treating Bam as much more than ordinary — only the test administrators talk about it. In the original, the scene is subtle rather than flashy, with the Shinsu merely slashing at Hwaryun (also better explaining the kind of injury she gets in both versions). As Lero-Ro says, it's not that powerful, but it breaks the rules of the Tower, especially with Bam not having the Administrator's permission to use Shinsu. Thus, it makes sense only for those in the know to suspect Bam is highly anomalous.
  • Aerith and Bob:
    • There are fantasy names like Rak and Anaak, a person is named after his birth date, some characters have Korean, Chinese or Japanese names while there are yet others with names like Serena and Rachel. It all seems weird, but with the Tower being a multicultural focal point, the opposite wouldn't make more sense.
    • There is a character that's a sharp-beaked bipedal mantis-shrimp called Kukaku Rakukakuka.
    • Gas Bill?! That's a name? Um... it seems so: if you have piles of debt, maybe? Regulars do not need to use their real names when climbing the Tower, so they can choose whichever moniker they wish. Another example is Anaak, who goes by her mother's name. But, at least aliases like "Anaak" or "Ja Wangnan" have some thought and style invested.
  • Affably Evil:
    • Headon. He withholds information, makes things more complicated, coerced Yuri into giving away the Black March and seemingly sets up Rachel against Bam, thus bringing pain into his life, but he sincerely welcomes Bam and anyone with enough balls to climb the Tower with a genuine smile. Though his initial politeness to Bam can be seen in a different light when you later realize that it was partly an act to make Rachel feel even worse, and set her on the path to betraying Bam later
    • Ha Jinsung. He actually came to kill the rest of Viole's team, but he ultimately respected Viole's decision to stay with them as he noticed this team came together on the basis of free will. He is always very cheerful and seems to have taken a liking to Wangnan.
  • The Ageless: Those who climb the Tower slowly stop aging due to the effects of Shinsu.
  • Agent Peacock:
    • Jue Viole Grace. In Season 2 his hair is a long ponytail and he wears a fabulous black robe, making him mistaken as a girl by some. He has also gained an infamous reputation as a Slayer candidate and become much more powerful with Shinsu.
    • Yu Hansung is very pretty, very dangerous, and a little bad.
    • Ha Jinsung in all his slightly rumpled glory is unhappy he's been left out particularly as he pushes Viole's clothes at him every season. He's maybe not quite as much of a bad boy as he'd have you believe, but good luck trying to find that out without getting flattened by his sharply shaped shirts.
  • All According to Plan: Augusgus says after the Trustworthy Room Game that all is going as according to FUG's plan.
  • All There in the Manual: S.I.U.'s blog provides a huge amount of detail on the setting and major characters within it. Some translations are available here.
  • Always Someone Better:
    • Explicitly. Each of the Rankers that have climbed to the top of the Tower are given a rank based on how they did during their climb, subject to change based on their influence and power within the Tower. Even then, it is said that there are those outside the Tower who are stronger.
    • This is Nobic's antagonism against Ran. According to Michael the Missionary, Nobic probably joined Aguero's team just so he could have the chance to beat Ran.
  • Amazon Brigade: Jahad's Princesses, including Anaak, Yuri, and Endorsi. They are the highest authority in the Tower, representing their father, and every single Princess (bar Repelista) is a certified and high-performance Action Girl. Naturally, they are Always Female.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: Even the fairly-average looking humanoids can come in alternative colours to the usual selection. Be it a pale slate, taupe, a strange violet shade, white-beyond-albino to other colours altogether, skin can get interesting. And, some Lizard Folk come in green, unsurprisingly. Others in brown, but, hey. Doubt we've seen the last of the colour combos.
  • Anarcho-Tyranny: As long as you don't threaten King Jahad's authority, the Tower's government is extremely tolerant towards crime.
  • Animalistic Abomination: Whatever the canine people are transforming into, it is not any kind of conventional dog. Doom's transformations probably take the cake.
  • Animal Motifs:
    • Rak's verbal tic makes everybody but him (and Anaak, who he just calls Lizard) an example of this trope.
    • Bloodmadder got the nickname Long-Life Sea Turtle for his perseverance in his successful quest for immortality.
  • Applied Phlebotinum: Shinsu, a magical substance replacing air inside the Tower that can be controlled at will. It's more dense the higher the Floor and it can become as thick as water. One character, instructing others on its use, even explicitly states that it can do absolutely anything.
  • Arc Villain:
    • Trustworthy Room: Kim Lurker.
    • Flower of Zigena: Noma.
    • The Workshop: FUG and Beta.
    • Hell Train Saga:
      • Dallars Show: Hoaqin/White and Karaka.
      • Name Hunt Station: Kaiser.
      • The Floor of Death: Hell Joe.
      • The Hidden Floor: Data-Jahad, although he's not as terrible as expected.
    • The Last Station: Kallavan, and a whole squadron of Jahad's military forces.
    • The Cage: Baylord Yama, then Baylord Doom, then Khel Hellam.
    • The Wall of Peaceful Coexistence: Kallavan and Yasratcha.
    • The Nest: Lo Po Bia Traumerei.
  • Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving: At the end of the Untrustworthy Room arc, Augusgus chews Mule Love out for acting independently to get revenge, conducting an unauthorized test and thus indirectly causing a Regular's death. Furthermore, he criticizes him for not being even able to kill another Regular (as a Ranker, Love should outclass any Regularnote ) and giving him great publicity that way. But he still can see the right side of the matter and is glad that first of all, the Regular in question didn't die and even got the teammates he needed through that test. If this sounds a little wonky, that's justified: Augusgus is actually a sleeper agent for the same criminal organization that employed the Regular and killed Love's parents, and Love's independent action contributed greatly to their plans.
  • Art Evolution: There has been a growing degree of consistency and detail in the artwork over the course of the story.
  • Artificial Human: Macseth and Enryu both have the ability to create life. Macseth's son, Lord Flux, is living proof.
  • As You Know: Happens a lot in the story as a narrative tool. People are often explained various bits of myth and history even if the characters themselves have already heard it before.
  • Ascended Meme: "Rakhunbam" was usually just a fan nickname for Bam, Khun, and Rak as a trio of True Companions. By chapter 577, they're given a room that's quite literally described as the "Rakhunbam Room."
  • Ascetic Aesthetic: Many testing areas are big, blank, and white. Makes sense though, given that the fights we've seen are often hard on the testing area and they likely need to replace parts or even the entire arena often.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Jahad and the Ten Great Families originally got their power by fighting their way up the Tower, and modern Rankers get their authority the same way. Defeating your cutthroat competition in a fight is also part of the selection criteria for Jahad princesses.
  • Attack Animal: Many of the pets Animas use, especially Ren and Yu Hansung.
  • Aura Vision:
    • How Bam perceives Anaak's power during Lero-Ro's test.
    • Ha Jinsung is seen for a short moment shrouded in dark clouds, sporting an angry smile, from the perspective of Karaka, so it can be assumed he has aura vision as well.
  • Author Appeal:
    • Aquatic life. This series is chockful of water and aquatic imagery in any and every form. By extension, all things remotely fishy. Water-life and things amphibious seem to be a quirk. Not just monsters and beasts are such: many characters have water or aquatic beast-related sobriquets. Shinsu translates as "Divine Water" and Shinheuh, the creatures that live in the Tower, can be translated as "Divine Fish". Considering everything in the Tower dwells in shinsu, all life can be considered to be 'aquatic'. Not to mention the positions and equipment: "fisherman", "lighthouses", "wave controller".
    • Football. The Khun clan members of importance are all named after famous football stars, their clan color is based off of the real Khun Aguero's, and SIU is noted to love the sport.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: In a sense. Most of the authority figures are Rankers who gained strength by climbing the Tower for several hundred years and who wield the unlimited force that is Shinsu. Those who have authority and have never been Regulars and therefore Rankers are equally incredible, as seen with Repelista Jahad.
  • A World Half Full: For those not at the bottom or middle of the heap, but nearer the apex of the social pyramid, the Tower comes across as something like this: there are perks with the costs and you can probably find some simulacrum of happiness for a time. For everybody else see Crapsack World below.
  • Ax-Crazy: Rachel and Sia Sia, though the latter calms down upon joining the heroes, and may have only been pretending to be crazy in the first place..
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: Rak and Khun Aguero during the crown game. Nobic and Khun Ran against both arms of the Devil.
  • Badass Family: The Ten Great Families are all mighty in their own right. We mainly see members from the Khun, the Ha, and the Arie, but the most powerful come from the Jahad.
  • Badass Normal: It's virtually impossible to actually be a Badass Normal and make it up the Tower. As Lero-Ro points out, anyone who can't at least adapt to Shinsu just doesn't have the qualities needed to rise through the Tower. The Tower has no place for those who aren't "lucky" in that regard.
  • Back Story: While characters like Anaak and Serena have backstories that are dealt with fairly early, the four main characters Bam, Rachel, Khun, and Wangnan all have backstories that only slowly trickle through. Then there's the massive history of the Tower itself which has barely been explained.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: This counts for some races inside the Tower: they have no nipples, as seen by Ja Wangnan in the bath.
  • Baseball Episode: Love's fight with Viole, including two giant pitching gloves and attacks like Straight Ball and Pitch Change-up. The test which frames this fight is designed so that one must catch the MacGuffin that has been pitched before the Ranker gets it. It works with the three-strike system.
  • Batman Gambit: Aguero pulled one relying on Quant trying to spite him for being played with.
  • Battle Discretion Shot: Kang vs Rapdevil, Hatz vs First Emperor.
  • Beast Man: The canine people are a tribe of humans with dog ears and the ability to use various transformations for combat. The original three are brothers who don't know their own origins. Though unable to breed personally, one of them, Lord Doom, had the ability to share his power with others, transforming ordinary humans into new members of the pack. However, this also allowed him to make those he transformed obey his orders, even suicidal ones. When he agreed to fight for FUG, one of his brothers, Lord Yama, disagreed with using mind-controlled soldiers and launched a coup. Lord Yama imprisoned his brother and continues to share that brother's power to continue the tribe. If Lord Doom were to ever die, the power would fade away with each generation and eventually leave the canine people little different from baseline humans. But Lord Yama still considers that better than the alternative if Lord Doom were to ever get free.
  • The Beastmaster: Animas, such as Sunwoo Nare, Ren, and Yu Hansung, control Shinheuh.
  • Beauty Is Bad: Many of the crueler characters featured in the story are as beautiful as they are powerful. Hoaqin was noted for his attractive looks but is a bloodthirsty psychopath, the elites of the Ten Great Families care not for the plights of everyone underneath them, many of Jahad's Princesses were cultivated to be ruthless and gorgeous, and Ha Yura uses her charm to her advantage during the Floor of Death, making people fight for her and step aside for her.
  • Beneath the Earth: Where Bam grew up. He was trapped for years inside an underground cavern before the plot started.
  • The Bet: Several throughout the series.
    • First a small bet between Lero Ro and Twenty-Fifth Bam on who will pass a barrier first. The winner got to ask the loser some questions.
    • Anaak and Endorsi made a competition out of who would beat the bull first. The former wagered her weapon, the latter herself.
    • Prince wagered Yeon to whoever would win the Shinsu Competition, thinking it would be him. He came in second, his score topped by a sixfold by Viole.
  • Beware the Nice Ones:
    • Kang Horyang, who is very kind, very caring, and very polite, is coincidentally very strong.
    • Bam himself is a really Nice Guy, but he really does know to how to hurt people, especially later on. Gods help you if you step on his Berserk Button.
    • Lero-Ro and any other kind Ranker that crosses the way of the cast.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Hell Joe really is incredibly powerful, but as Urek Mazino points out, the guy's not even close to powerful enough to achieve his ambitions of conquering the entire Tower.
  • Big Damn Heroes:
    • Most satisfyingly, Yuri Jahad saving Endorsi and Anaak from Ren in the nick of time. And then doing awesome stuff.
    • Also, Viole and Kang Horyang double-teaming in season two.
  • Big Guy: Rak Wraithraiser even when he gets magically chibified, Kurdan, Ghost, and Kang Horyang. Sir Aka appears to have been this for the train survivors from six hundred years ago.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Jahads, given what Endorsi had to do to be adopted. Also the Khuns, who at the age of ten fight each other to remain a part of the family. They are so spread out that when two of them meet each other one of them suggests they could be brothers, but who knows?
  • Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: The Mangdol Madame is VERY different from the males.
  • The Blacksmith: Edwaru and Macseth. Also, there's an entire research organization known as the Blacksmiths, though they are more scientists.
  • Bland-Name Product: Macksim, Yu Hansung's favorite instant coffee, spoofs the Koreans' most famous instant coffee, Maxim.
  • "Blind Idiot" Translation: The English dub of the anime has Khun saying that Quant has unlimited Shinsu during the Hide and Seek test. The webtoon as well as the English subtitles of the Japanese version say his use of Shinsu has been limited. That's exactly what happens in context too: instead of flying and throwing fireballs or whatever, he has to do with the Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Super-Reflexes and Super-Toughness he has anyway, and can only use Shinsu to do a couple of tricks, giving the Regulars a remote chance to beat him.
  • Blue Blood: The Ten Great Families, including Khun Aguero Agnes, Yeon Ehwa, Phonsekal Lauroe, and Jahad's Princesses. They are indeed special, since only they are by birth able to wield Shinsu immediately, as their families have special ties to the power-granting Guardians.
  • Bodyguard Babes: Jahad's Princesses, a group of beautiful young women given pieces of his power to act as his Praetorian Guard.
  • Book Dumb: Rak, all the way. And not just him, the Hell Train arc reveals that many Regulars focused on combat training at the cost of more mundane skills, to the point where one of the strongest D-ranked teams was nearly stopped by a simple math puzzle.
  • Book Ends:
    • The first volume begins with Headon telling Bam that the answer to all things lies at the top of the Tower, and ends with Hwaryun repeating it to Bam.
    • Volume 2's first major saga, the 20th Floor, ends with Wangnan lamenting the death of Nia, long after he'd gotten killed. Volume 2 ends with Bam mourning the apparent "loss" of Ha Jinsung.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall:
    • After the deaths of Moontari, Hongjo, Akraptor, and Prince, we come to a scene on the Floor of Death with Sachi gleefully telling Boro that no one would care if he died since he's a side character. Rich coming from a side character himself.
    • Khun comments on the rare moment when Yuri and Mazino are seen together at once — on the same panel.
  • Break the Cutie:
    • The three-stage plan that transforms Bam into Viole: Having to see people who don't hate each other fight and sacrifice each other. Being used and betrayed by a friend who blames him for his misery and then commits suicide, leaving a strong pang of guilt. Being betrayed by the person that he calls his light in the darkness.
    • Miseng and Prince had to choose which one of them would be eaten by Hoaquin. After Prince sacrifices himself Miseng is completely broken, and that's before Wangnan joins up with Rachel.
  • Broken Heel: Happens to Endorsi twice during fights. She hasn't been wearing high-heels since.
  • Building of Adventure: The Tower is practically a world inside a building. Each floor has space the size of a continent, each with its own culture, hazards, organizations, and tests. Any person climbing has to pass through all 135 known floors in order to be officially recognized as a Ranker, but that doesn't mean they can't explore to their heart's content.
  • By the Power of Grayskull!: The activation phrases for Ignition Weapons, e.g. "Narumadanote , ignite!"
  • Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": For starters, bulls are male, relatively docile herbivores, not bipedal, super-intelligent female amphibians that eat almost anything that gets near them.
  • Call-Back:
    • In the first volume, a random unimportant character tries to use a secret attack they call "First Emperor's Scorching Fist of Death", but gets beaten before they can finish charging it up (and it's played for laughs.) Much, much later, later Urek Mazino, the most powerful Ranker currently active in the Tower, uses an identical attack with a nearly-identical name, "Supreme King's Scorching Fist of Death."
    • "Hey Lizard, when this is all over, let's eat together."
    • "I am not interested in your body, Ms. Yeon."
    • "A guide only shows the path to those who can walk it."
  • Calling Your Attacks: Especially in the second season.
    • Though it's implied that some of these appear to be the Author telling us what we're seeing, not the character out-right naming the attack. Other times it's played hilariously straight.
    • Lampshaded with the "Supreme King's Scorching Fist of Death" which, in an author's note, is joked as having a name too embarrassing to use.
  • Can't Catch Up: A major theme in Tower of God; one Ranker even gives a speech about it near the beginning, saying that "those who are not worthy should fuck off." Many regulars are overshadowed by Bam, Endorsi, Khun, Anaak, Lauroe, Rak, and Hatz (amongst others), and Hoh tries to kill Rachel to stop Bam from climbing the Tower, as he is a fellow Wave Controller and therefore a direct rival. When Bam rescues her and proves that he is indeed a genius, Hoh loses all hope to reach the top, and drowns his sorrow with suicide. But it's also subverted; some people, like Shibisu, manage to be useful through their intelligence or personality even without any significant personal power.
  • Character Name Alias: Bam is renamed as Jyu Viole Grace and Rachel is suddenly Michelle Light. It is implied that Ja Wangnan's name is also just an alias. Finally, there is Wave Controller instructor Yuga, who's real name and identity is the Royal Assassin agent Lo Po Bia Ren. In fact many Regulars use aliases when entering the Inner Tower.
  • The Chase: Bam's entire journey is focused on tracking down Rachel. As conflicted as he is about her once he sees her nasty sides, he still presses on, not primarily because of her anymore but to find out more about his past and reason for being stuck underground.
  • Chaste Hero: Bam, who later becomes a Celibate Hero.
  • Cheaters Never Prosper: Subverted, because it is more of a matter of how good you cheat. It breaks down to whether you are a good bluffer like Aguero or if you can't even bother like Paracule.
  • Chekhov's Gag:
    • In order to get the then-broke/starving Endorsi to sign Hatz's friendship list, Bam provides an eel bowl placed on a platform connected to a pulley, that's dangled just out of her reach; if she signs the paper, she gets to have it. This setup holds despite the fact that there aren't any places in the room to hang a pulley and rope from. But that's fine since the pulley is made of pure suspendium and will float in even ambient shinsu, as Quant later finds out after jumping off a ledge with Khun no longer in tow.
    • After Yuri and Evan semi-illegally board the Hell Train, get a rough idea of what's going on, and then make a bet with the conductor regarding the outcome of the match between Bam and Hoaqin, they sit back and watch the plot unfold on a screen with a bag of popcorn, cup of soda, and pair of retro 3D Glasses. This is despite the fact that the screen does not display red-blue layered 3D. But that's fine, since the glasses are actually recorders connected to Repellista's Opera Lighthouse, allowing them to report what's going on, and also preventing the FUG Ranker from just using his rights as the conductor to kick them out of the train.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • The pendant Anaak gave her mother before she got taken away was held by Ren to provoke her when trying to get back Green April. It's implied that he had a hand in killing Anaak's mother.
    • The rings Yu Hansung gives the Regulars.
    • Multiple times throughout the Floor of Death arc; the Floor's residents mention that they can never leave due to the spell cast on their souls. White, who didn't hear any of it, spends his time with Karaka going to the Spirit Room to amass more power—and as a result, he gets his strength but is unable to actually leave until Gustang takes the souls back.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Headon, Hwaryun, the pair of eyes in the shadows you see briefly in the first chapter.
  • The Chessmaster:
    • The Light Bearers. Special mention to Aguero who is possibly the most competent Chessmaster in the series so far if he just had the information or resources of a Ranker carries.
    • Yu Hansung, though there are indications that someone else was the real Chessmaster and he was merely the visible actor.
  • The Chosen Many: All the Regulars and most of the Rankers have been chosen to enter the Inner Tower and climb it. It is the unchosen ones (who are there nevertheless) who are special.
  • The Clan: Families get pretty big in the Tower since people have a tendency to live a long time.
  • Code Name: Yuri's group uses these when they interfere with one of the tests. The bubbly red-head is known as Ice Strawberry, Khun Hachuling is known as Mr. Blueberry, Evan is Mr. Yeongji Mushroom and Kurdan is Kurdan.
  • Comm Links: The Pockets, which allow among many other things, long-range communication and the ability to translate other languages.
  • Common Character Classes: The basic five positions fit neatly into these classes.
    • Warrior: The Fisherman is a team's frontline combatant as the most durable and physically powerful member.
    • Ranger: The Spearbearer is the team's long-range fighter who depends on their top-tier accuracy to provide backup in battle.
    • Support: The Lightbearer acts as the Mission Control of a team, using their Lighthouses for exploration and information-gathering.
    • Rogue: The Scout uses speed and cunning to assist either the Fisherman with close combat or the Lightbearer with reconnaissance.
    • Nuker: The Wave Controller uses their mastery of Shinsu for large-scale destruction, effectively operating as the team mage.
  • Complete Immortality: Jahad and the 10 Warriors per contract with the Tower's Guardians. Well, except for Bloodmadder, as explained somewhere else on this page. It turns out that only Irregulars, who are exempted from the Tower's contracts, are able to kill Jahad. That's why FUG is so interested in Viole and may be the real reason why the government prosecutes Irregulars.
  • Conflict: Two predominant kinds: Man vs. Man, with all the Regulars clashing, and Man vs. Society, with people like Bam and Anaak being regarded as dangerous elements to the Tower. Then there is the theme of Man vs. Fate, or as it is described here, Luck, exemplified in Lero-Ro's test and Hoh's struggle and attempt at Bam's life. This conflict turns interestingly enough into a conflict of Man vs. Man again. According to the author, the Tower itself started as Man vs Nature (all the existing positions were originally invented to fight the aquatic monsters of the Tower), but eventually became largely Man vs. Man.
  • Constructed World: No relation to the real world as far as we know, anyway.
  • Cool Boat: The Archimedes, one of Workshop's five flying ships that also serves as the sight of the Workshop Battle, just looks plain awesome. The insides aren't bad either, being a luxury-class ship with high-quality food and entertainment.
  • Cool Sword: Black March and the other weapons of the 13 Month Series. Hong Chunhwa's, and for a while Endorsi's, Narumada and Hong Danhwa's Krishna.
  • Costume Copycat: After Viole gets famous, robbers try impersonating him to scare people into giving them their money. It doesn't work out that well. Bonus points for having a crappy t-shirt with FUG on it, and beneath that the words Foot Ball Club.
  • Crapsack World: This never really is spoken out loud, but in the outer part of the Tower, life is an unfair dog-eat-dog society, even in the royal families. In the center of the Tower, where the exams are held… well, at least the food's good therenote . Fact is, everyone has a damn good reason to abandon everything to risk their life for the tiny chance of reaching the top, but even that path isn't surefire if you weren't blessed with power, brains, or luck.
  • Crossover: A Oneshot with Tower of God characters fighting the MapleStory heroes.
  • Cross-Popping Veins: Characters get them when they're agitated sometimes.
  • Cue the Sun: After the Trustworthy Room Game, Viole just stares at the morning sun.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Constantly:
    • In part 1: Khun Aguero, Hatz, Lauroe, Levin and Anaak vs the Regulars in the preliminaries; Ghost and Endorsi vs 197 Regulars; Hwaryun vs all the participants of the final round of the crown game (bar Endorsi and Bam); Endorsi and Anaak vs all other Regulars in the Fishermen test; Quant vs all the Regulars; Endorsi vs most of the Regulars Quant didn't get; Ren vs Endorsi and Anaak; Yuri vs Ren; Bam oneshotting the Bull.
    • In just the first arc of part 2: Viole dominating the 20th Floor with ease; Urek vs Team Sweet and Sour; Baragav vs Amaguta; Viole and Horyang vs Lurker, Rapdevil and mind-controlled Ehwa; Viole vs Ran and Nobic; Viole vs Quatro Blitz.
    • In Part 3: Bam vs Varagarv; Bam vs Akryung; Khun vs Michael; Baylord Paul vs Culden and Khun; Baylord Yama vs Paul and Baylord Doom; Yasratcha vs a weakened Yama; Kallavan and Khane vs guards and Tonki; Bam vs guards of the wall; White vs Bam and Aria first round; Traumerei vs Nen Neya.
    • Phantaminum vs. the world according to SIU.
  • Curb Stomp Cushion: Part 3 seems to start to display this more and more, especially with Bam, who has been steadily growing in power but still has a long way to go.
    • Bam does defeat normal Rankers handily but they are still able to more or less give him a challenge and land hits on him.
    • Although Kallavan is clearly superior to White, White is still able to fend off Kallavan for some time and even manage to cut him with Spinel, forcing him to get more serious.
    • Bam and Karaka vs Kallavan. While they are obviously outmatched, they did manage to inflict some noteworthy damage on him by working together and defending themselves from most of his attacks, ultimately delaying him enough for White to arrive.
    • Lo Po Bia Yorayo, a division commander of the new Fourth Army Corp, manages to block White's sword due to having abnormal experiments backing him up and deflects a decent amount of White's attacks before White gets serious and his swordplay overwhelms him. White even admits Yorayo was a pretty decent challenge.
    • Bam vs the monsters of Gakjadosaeng. Although he defeats them without suffering too much damage, he did get pushed back a few times and had to resort to using a homing arrow to defeat a particularly fast monster.
    • Yasratcha vs Yama. Yama is able to force Yasratcha to seriously defend himself and resort to using awesome moves but ultimately Yasratcha proves the stronger one in this fight.
    • Bam vs White. Bam is clearly outclassed by White, but he is still able to give a pretty decent fight, dodging and countering White's attacks along with catching him by surprise and forcing him to defend, and even manages to break his normal sword, forcing White to go all-out and use a particularly powerful sword to defeat him. The tides later turn with Bam inflicting this on White, near-entirely pushing White into the defensive but still having to take his attacks seriously.
  • Cute Monster: The Mangdol whales. At least the males.
  • Cutting the Knot: Rak's solution to the Door Game: There are no more clues and he didn't get them anyway. He chooses to kick a door open and see what happens, which turns out to be the correct choice.
  • Cyberspace: The Hidden Floor arc takes place in one of these. At the end of the Train lies a portal to an entire digital world used to copy the data of previous Rankers who cleared all the Train's challenges. By itself, it serves as an RPG-esque bonus challenge where Rankers need to clear various quests in order to advance. Bam and crew need to obtain a bracelet from the data copy of Jahad, but that comes with its own problems.
  • Darkest Hour: The end of Season 2 does not bode well for the main crew. Khun is taken out of commission on account of Rachel's explosion spell, all of the main characters are wanted dead or alive by Jahad's forces and are now fugitives, and Bam seemingly loses his mentor figure Jinsung at the battle at the last station. While they strive to pick themselves up from these problems, this is the lowest Bam has felt since Rachel's betrayal.
  • Dead Guy on Display: During the funeral scene, it is apparent that people in the Tower receive individual water graves (coffin-sized pits filled with water or another clear liquid).
  • Decadent Court: The Ten Great Families are saturated with intrigue.
  • Defense Mechanism Superpower:
    • The Flame of Yeon is a power only the direct, female descendants of the family have. Normally not even they can activate it until they become powerful enough, but Ewha's activated to shield her from the periphery of Yuri's Storm of Roses attack for a few moments, saving her life.
    • When Bam's fate is at risk, the Thorn will react to protect it and him, in one case outright evacuating him when King Jahad is about to kill him.
  • Did You Actually Believe...?:
    • Hoh can't believe Bam actually thought they were friends.
    • Hwaryun to Wangnan after she told him how FUG got Viole to become a Slayer.
      "Why are you so shocked? Did you really think we were nice guys?"
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Enryu killed the 43rd Floor's Guardian, proving that even Physical Gods can die.
  • Difficulty Spike: invoked
    • According to Evan, Headon did one for Bam's test, which was set about 20 levels higher than expected. Although it should be noted that Guardian's tests are said to be much harder than normal tests since only Irregulars can ask to undertake a Guardian's test.
    • The top of the Tower has one, as none of the top High Rankers has cleared the 135th Floor's test (not even The Great Jahad, King of the Tower) and there are implied to be many more Floors after that. Although they were only unable to pass due to hostility from the Guardian, so it's not so much the Tower having a massive difficulty spike as it is the Guardian of the 135th Floor. See Dismantled MacGuffin for the real reason no one's gotten far in the 135th Floor.
    • The 2nd and 20th Floors are where most Regulars drop out because the difficulty rises immensely.
  • Dirty Business: Climbing the Tower. Betrayal and ruining people's lives is usual, but many don't like it. Then again, most of them also don't want to stop climbing. Bam is explicitly stated to be different in his attitude toward the Tower and other climbers by several characters.
  • Dirty Coward:
    • The only thing Paracule is a paragon of.
    • Wangnan shows examples of this for comedic effect.
    • The people living at the Wall of Peaceful Coexistence are Ungrateful Bastards towards the people that made their way of life possible, and have no reluctance scheming against, betraying, and sacrificing others to keep it.
  • Dismantled MacGuffin:
    • Enryu used an extremely powerful weapon called the Thorn to kill the guardian of the 43rd floor. He then split it into four pieces and left it behind for The Chosen One to find so that said chosen one can use it to slit King Jahad's throat.
    • What the 13 Month series turns out to be. All of the weapons were forged from the key Jahad used to lock off the 135th floor, so progressing past the 134th floor of the tower requires collecting all of them.
  • Distinctive Appearances: Hard to confuse anyone with anybody.
  • Doorstopper: The whole second Season, capping off at 337 chapters, is over six times the length of Season 1. Even the entire Hell Train saga takes up most of this Season's meat, starting from Chapter 111 all the way to Chapter 315—this makes its length about two-thirds of the overall content.
  • Dramatic Chase Opening: The series begins with Bam chasing Rachel, who has decided to leave him to climb the Tower. He soon follows suit to go find her, kicking off the plot.
  • Driven by Envy: Hoh and Rachel, both partially.
  • Dub Name Change: The Japanese translation changes quite a few names around from their original Korean. As a group, the Ha are collectively renamed the Sanada, but many other changes can be found in the Character index.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady:
    • Hoh and Yu Hansung, the Second Floor's test director. The fans and translators thought for a long time that they were womennote . Done again with Nya Nia, with the author referencing his disposition to confuse the readers ("Huh? You're really a guy? Well, that was confusing." — Wangnan to Nia). And then Bam stole Yuri's hairstyle and got assigned to be roommates with Yeon, who fully expected him to be a girl... until he walks into the male showers. Even the official translation sometimes has people who would logically know better refer to Yu Hansung with female pronouns.
    • And now we have Quaetro Blitz. SIU has outright lampshaded the past couple ones and it seems this is outright becoming a Running Gag.

    E - H 
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The character designs of early Season 1 come off a lot more creative where it seems like people could appear as anything from humans, to monstrous humanoids and animals, or even gooey blobs. As the series continued on, however, the vast majority of newly introduced characters are just human-like designs. So much so that the more animal-like original characters like Rak and Anak start looking really out-of-place.
  • Eat Me: The solution for both the Ball test as well as the Submerged Fish Hunt. In one, you had to attack from inside. In the other, you had to become… excremented.
  • Empathic Weapon: Again, Black March, which has a female spirit and has taken a shine to Bam, and probably the rest of the 13 Month series.
  • Enclosed Space: You wouldn't think that a place which is overall roughly six and a half timesnote  the size of planet Earth is enclosed, but it's nearly impossible to get out of the Tower, and once you're in the Inner Section, you only get out by failing, winning or giving up.
  • Enemy Mine: Mulitple examples of this:
    • After Khun's epic trolling of the other regulars during the Crown Game, every participant there resolves to take out his team first before resuming fighting each other. Except for one of them... which Khun already planned for.
    • After a Mêlée à Trois between Viole, Akraptor, and Kang Horyang seemed to have no end, Akraptor and Horyang decided to team up against Viole. It didn't work.
    • During the end of the Hidden Floor arc, a major one occurs between the saved data of Jahad and Khun Eduan when they were D-Rank Regulars, against the data of current Jahad in order to save Bam so he can give the current Jahad a real challenge later on. While it doesn't do jack, current Jahad lampshades how unexpected it is.
    • Season Three is basically a massive chain of Enemy Mines, to the point that before the hiatus, almost every single antagonistic force introduced that season, as well as some old ones from last Season, are fighting on the same side!
  • Enigmatic Empowering Entity: The Guardians who empower every Regular by making contracts with them. Nobody knows what's going on in their heads, especially not in Headon's.
  • Ensemble Cast: While the story mainly focuses on Bam, Rachel, Aguero, and Wangnan, there are dozens of other characters, all with great characterization and well-fleshed out backstories.
  • Entertainingly Wrong: Bam's opponents keep calling him a "mere Regular", which becomes more frequent the further he goes. The main thing about Bam, which readers and select few people learn early, is that he's not a Regular. Aside unique power-ups and training he gets along the way that make him way stronger than his alleged Rank, Jahad's Rankers smugly make assumptions regarding power limitations Bam doesn't have and get Shinsu-blasted in the face.
  • Equivalent Exchange: Averted. Shinsu exists everywhere inside the Tower, even in closed-off spaces, and anyone with the skill (and contract) can manipulate shinsu.
  • Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: The Family Crests, Yeongsook's rings and, most importantly, Zigena's Flower.
  • Evil Tower of Ominousness: Maybe, but we haven't actually seen the outside of the Tower. Given what we've seen of the doors though it's a decent bet that if the Tower has a physical outside it's going to be pretty ominous.
  • Extra Eyes: The Da'an have eyes all around their head.
  • Eyedscreen: Best way to frame glares and suspicious gazes, after all.
  • Fanservice: Interesting case of mainly the male cast being sexy with their clothes off. The only sexy shots you get to see of the ladies are Yuri's Proper Tights with a Skirt, Yeon's shoulders and Endorsi in shorts and t-shirts. The guys don't only flash their abs, they sparkle!
  • Fantastic Lightsource: Shinsu can be made to shine brightly. Also the Lighthouses themselves that are used by Light Bearers.
  • Financial Abuse: Big time: Both Ja Wangnan and Yeon Ehwa are on the bad end of it, one being forced to sell his organs and the other being Prince's "playmate", as well as Nia and Kim Lurker.
  • Final Solution:
    • Jahad has done (or threatened to do) this to his enemies more than once. People said to have turned on Jahad were made to do so gradually via a Curse that among other things made them have difficulty reproducing, which is slowly causing their species to die out. After the Ten Great Families got sick of the great war, Jahad gave his enemies a choice between surrender or watching him annihilate their home countries.
    • Since the leaders of the canine people are affiliated with FUG, Jahad orders one of his commanders, Yasratcha, to fight them. Yasratcha uses his Mind Manipulation powers to make the entire tribe commit Psychic-Assisted Suicide and succeeds in killing half of them.
  • Flash Back: They are generally kept short, with the notable exception of Rachel's. Justified as she is the Deuteragonist of the story.
  • Flexible Tourney Rules: Bar Guardian's tests, the administrators can change test rules at will.
  • Flight: Flying fish, floating castles and levitation. There is a material called Suspendium that has levitational abilities when imbued with Shinsu.
  • Floating Continent: Many flying cities, castles, and testing areas making for absolutely wonderful Scenery Porn. Most notably Evankhell's testing center, Repelista's castle, the Sea of Clouds on the 25th, and the Winged Cities of the 21st Floor.
  • Flying Seafood Special: Giant eels float through the sky. A partial justification is the fact that the surrogate for air in the Tower is Shinsu, something that can concentrate in certain areas, especially on higher levels of the Tower, giving everything some buoyancy.
  • Forbidden Zone: The 43rd Floor, also known as the "Floor of Death", a Floor whose Guardian was murdered by Enryu. Doubles somewhat as an Anti-Magic zone since all contracts and spells are nullified on this Floor due to there being no Floor Guardian to uphold them.
  • Forced Prize Fight: The tournaments of the Khun Family. Arguably the climbing of the Tower is this as well as many tests are designed to pit Regulars against Regulars.
  • Full-Contact Magic: Several complex Shinsu techniques require this, for instance, Quant's freezing technique, usually only work on full contact.
  • Functional Magic: Shinsu is life, it runs the world, it fuels the world, it shapes the world and it is for all intents and purposes the world. Through Shinsu, anything is possible, amazing feats, destructive powers even the creation of life. The people of the tower live and literally breathe Shinsu, since it makes up their atmosphere instead of air. A powerful Shinsu user can create something from nothing and turn something into nothing. The use of it can either tear your body apart and kill you, or it can make you immortal. Anything is possible with it.
  • The Fundamentalist:
    • FUG. Religious zealots who wish for the destruction of Jahad's Empire and who revere Luslec and his Slayers as gods. By far the most fanatic to date is Sia Sia (although she's calmed down now).
    • Several members of the Jahad regime can be seen similarly, first and foremost Ren.
  • Furo Scene: The 'Bath' chapters. Only Manservice and plot development, guys, no cheesecake like Goseng or Yeon in the bath.
  • Gadget Watches: Though Pockets are more like gadgets with watches.
  • Gambit Pileup: The entire 30F story-line with Aguero, FUG (both sub-groups), Viole, and an un-named group affiliated with the Workshop all trying to out-gambit each other. May have evolved into Xanatos Speed Chess in the Team Finals with the number of Chessmasters currently in-play and how quickly the various plots are bumping into each other and coming undone.
  • Gender-Blender Name: Probably an accident as the author is Korean and the strip is written in that language and the names are later Romanized, but Khun Aguero Agnes and Jue Viole Grace, despite their third names, are both male. "Viole" itself isn't the most masculine-sounding name in English.
    • According to Wordof God, "Agnes" is the surname of Khun's mother and not one of his given names. "Grace" is also the surname of Viole's mother.
  • Genius Loci: The Tower. It is not Headon that chooses the Regulars, he merely approaches them and sees if they are worthy of proceeding.
  • Genocide Backfire: Yasratcha tries to make the entire canine people commit Psychic-Assisted Suicide, figuring that any survivors will be too terrified and traumatized to continue posing any threat to Jahad. Instead, the survivors are enraged and rally to try to figure out a counter to his control over them and get revenge against the Jahad Empire.
  • The Ghost: Influential and often referred to characters who never appear: Jahad, Phantaminum, Evankhell, and Enryu.
    • By the end of Part II, you can remove Evankhell and Jahad from that list.
  • Giant Flyer: The White Steel Eels and several other beings, like the Air Whale on the 25th floor.
  • Girl in the Tower: Played With. This trope is essentially the catalyst for the entire plot. Headon even spells it out. Subverted in that she entered the Tower on purpose to reach the top.
    Headon: "The answer is always at the top."
  • A God Am I: The Slayers are declared the de facto gods of FUG.
  • God-Emperor: King Jahad, an existence that is like a god to the residents of the Tower.
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: Wingtree (Wolhaiksong) as the good, the Empire of Jahad as the bad, and FUG as the evil. Though as more information is revealed about Jahad, and as Bam starts to reform FUG from the inside, the Empire of Jahad and FUG's positions start to look the other way around.
  • Grappling-Hook Pistol: The fishing reels. They are, however, designed to retrieve small things and hold enemies down.
  • Gratuitous Foreign Language: SIU admits that he uses Google Translate to write English and Spanish in his works. Notably, the Khun Family's skills are all set in Spanish since SIU based their colour scheme on the Argentinian flag.
  • Grey-and-Gray Morality: Sure, one could say that the people who betray and manipulate are the worst guys, but every single one of them has reasons that make them similar. At the same time, the protagonists have to constantly crush the dreams of other people to advance. One could say that the black would be the system with its inherent injustice, but then one would have to concede that the great conspiracy in the background has a noble cause. Also, the system has increased the chances of achieving one's dreams by several powers of ten, and many of its members are pretty nice guys.
  • Groin Attack:
    Rak: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING?! MY PREY ISN'T WILLING TO CLIMB BECAUSE OF SOME FEMALE?! THE RUTTING SEASON MUST'VE STARTED ALREADY!! BRING HIM HERE NOW!! I'M GONNA YANK OUT HIS BANANA!!
    • Shibisu tries this against the Bull. It was a she. The effect is as you might have imagined.
    • Bloomer guardian suffered one against Daniel Hatchid after Hwaryun pointed it out to be his weak spot. Everyone flinched except Hwaryun.
  • Guilt-Induced Nightmare: This comic has Ja Wangnan wake up from one of these in the middle of Season 2. His high threshold for damage absorption and Healing Factor allowed him to survive many offscreen desperate situations, but at the cost of his traveling partners dying or getting left behind instead. Wangnan, unfortunately, thinks about every companion he failed to save, including his companion Nia and his Sweet and Sour teammates Prince and Hon Arkraptor.
  • Hammerspace:
    • The invisible inventories and fishing reels always make it seem like the fighters are pulling weapons out of nowhere.
    • A straighter example of this trope is wherever Ren and Yu Hansung keep their giant monsters.
    • Animas store their Shinheuh in Bowls.
  • Hidden Depths: Several characters, especially Rak and Akraptor. Aguero even points out that Rak is unexpectedly perceptive when he sees through Aguero's trick to get the other to help Bam in the final Second Floor test. Also one of the first characters to figure out that Viole is Bam and immediately upon hearing that Aguero is supposedly dead declares that Aguero is scheming again and doesn't believe he's dead. He's right.
  • Hidden Purpose Test: The Doors. In order to pass the test, one must open any door within 5 minutes. The purpose of this test was to not determine whether the hints that were given were correct or not, but rather who would make a decision and take action.
  • Hold the Line: The Crown Game consists of getting on the throne, wearing the crown, and then defending it from all the other trios. It is set in five rounds of ten minutes with new contestants being able to enter each new round and the crown holder being the only ones who entered who are allowed to proceed to the next round, where they had to defend the crown. This leads to such moments as Khun's glorious trolling, Hwaryun's Curb-Stomp Battle against everyone, the (re)introduction of several characters and a glimpse of the main character's potential.
  • Homeless Hero: The Regulars have no home they could speak of, mostly renting rooms, cottages, or entire buildings on each Floor while they train, rest, or take the tests.
  • Hostage Situation: Knowing that what Bam values most is his friends, taking them hostage is one of his enemies' most common ways of manipulating him, particularly by Karaka's faction of FUG.
  • Humans Are White: Only three named human characters in the first arc (Quant, Kurdan, and Shibisu- who's varying shades of tan) of a rather large cast are not light-skinned. Granted, the light skin in question is up against an Amazing Technicolor Population, which includes shades of gray, yellow, and purple at times.
    • This becomes downplayed later on with the notable additions Michael, Quaetro, Traveler, Arie Inieta, and Evankhell, although the vast majority of human designs are light-skinned.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Literally; Arms Inventories allow people in the Tower to store weapons in strange floating racks that can be summoned or dismissed at will.

    I - L 
  • I Believe I Can Fly: Phonsekal Lauroe and Phonsekal Iruroe can both use their masterful Shinsu control to allow themselves to fly. Lero-Ro, Urek and many other Rankers have also been seen flying and levitating — it might be a standard power for Rankers, with their superior ability to use Shinsu. Bam learns to use a blue disc to surf through the air, and later, this upgrades into energy wings.
  • If I Do Not Return: The condition Bam makes with the Guardian: If he happens to die during the test and Rachel survives, the Regulars can advance to the next Floor.
  • If We Get Through This…: Endorsi, twice. One of her promises was to go on a date with Bam after the Submerged Fish test, the other was the promise with Anaak to eat together after they defeated Ren.
  • I Have Your Wife:
    • The reason Viole works for FUG: the rings Yu Hansung gave the Regulars as they left for the Third Floor are tracking devices. Viole HAS to become a Slayer, or else FUG will kill every friend Bam ever had.
    • Lauroe's blanket and pillow are constantly stolen and used by his teammates to have him help out for comedic effect.
  • In the Back:
    • Hoh stabs Rachel in the back as he takes her hostage.
    • The Lamia Man shot Khun through the back.
    • Cassano punches through Horyang from behind.
  • In the Hood: Endorsi's team before they got formally introduced Rachel's group on the Hell Train.
  • Indy Ploy: Hoh is holding Rachel hostage, Paracule and Mauchi are trying to profit from this and attack Quant, and Bam has been blackmailed into fighting him. What does Quant do? Hit the little genius with a paralyzing technique and tell him to use it on Hoh, allowing Bam to save Rachel, while Quant takes care of the others. He even never expected it to work.
  • Inherent in the System: A major theme in Tower of God. The current climbing system allows those who reach the top to fulfill their wish, but on the way up, many suffer, die or drop out. The main problem is that there are set limits of how many Regulars per batch can pass. This increases competition between Regulars who go out of their way to play mind games with each other, lie, trick and deceive each other and often abandon friends and fight innocent people.
  • Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: When Lero-ro quits, he rips off Evankhell's Badge and puts it on Yu Hansung's table. Quant follows suit and gets his insignia plucked off by the Yu Hansung.
  • Instant-Win Condition: Almost every test has one of these.
    • The Crown Game: If you take the Crown and sit on the Throne in less than five minutes, your teams wins the round.
    • Hide-And-Seek: Tap the Seeker's badge and you auto pass into the final examination. Also, your team wins.
    • Trustworthy Room: When Viole captures Yeon's room, he instantly wins.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Tons of these due to the different life spans of the races and the life-prolonging characteristics of Shinsu.
    • Regulars like Khun and Hatz are in their late teens while their good friend Shibisu is in his mid-20s and Bam is several thousand years old.
    • Anaak has an Odd Friendship going on with her adoptive aunt Endorsi, who is actually much younger than her.
  • Internal Reveal: It is known from the beginning that Bam is an Irregular, i.e. somebody who entered the Tower uninvited and thus is a terrifying existence to most. But when he boldly announces that during an assembly of most of his generation's Regulars, jaws will still drop.
  • It's All Upstairs From Here: The plot. The characters climbing the Tower of God want to reach its top since whatever it is they desire will be there.
  • I Will Find You:
    • Bam's vow to Rachel. It has changed its meaning a bit over the course of the series, but still is the creed of Bam's main driving force.
    • Also counts as Yuri's driving motivation for the series, as in both seasons all she wants is to meet up with Bam again.
  • I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: The threat that made Bam become Viole and work for FUG. They threatened to kill his friends if he refuses or screws up.
  • Is That a Threat?:
    Lo Po Bia Ren: If King Jahad were to find out about this… I can't imagine how disappointed he would be…
    Ha Yuri Jahad: Oy, RED newbie, are you threatening me right now?
    Lo Po Bia Ren: Th- Threaten? Of course not. I'm simply worried about the future of Jahad…
    Ha Yuri Jahad: Ah, really? Everything seems to be solved for you when you just add Jahad's name. That's really convenient! Using Jahad's name to threaten one of Jahad's Princesses… you must be out of your mind.
    Know this, the strength of Jahad isn't the kind that can be called upon so conveniently. Though, there's no need bothering to explain this to somebody who just uses Jahad's name as he pleases… Get out of here or I will kill you!
  • Javelin Thrower: Common among the Spear Bearers. Rak is a notable examplenote . Subverted somewhat by Nobic who throws boomerang-like weapons instead of traditional spears.
  • Kansas City Shuffle:
    • Khun himself falls victim to an inversion to this in the door game: he was made to that he was being conned, when that wasn't the case at all. The information given to him was spot-on.
    • Khun makes Quant think he's been toying with him to get to Rachel so that Quant protects her.
    • Yu Hansung knows that some people suspect he is up to something. And that's as right as they get, because they are all thinking in the wrong direction.
  • Ki Manipulation: Some Shinsu-based attacks function that way.
  • Killed Off for Real: Hoh, Nia, and Gyetang. Other than that, a lot of Regulars die in the first few chapters, approximately 200 in the first test of the Second Floor.
  • Knight, Knave, and Squire: Rak is the Knight, proud, optimistic and strangely idealistic. Aguero is the Knave, a pragmatic loner with great skill. Bam is the Squire, a Naïve Newcomer with ideals that will very soon be tested and whose optimism shines brightly.
  • Knuckle Cracking: The Bull does this when it wakes up with its neck, as does Rapdevil with his hands before he punches the Shinsu meter.
  • Kraken and Leviathan: The really big species of Flying Seafood Special.
  • Kung-Fu Wizard: The more combative Wave Controllers.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: After Bam has secured victory and ensured that everyone involved in the Hell Train arc survived, Yuri catches him and tells him to take a break. This is said at the end of the chapter, where SIU announced his two-week break from the series.
  • Legally Dead: Bam, after Rachel tried to kill him and never was found. Anaak, who took the name of her dead mother. Khun who never bothers to remind his teammates.
  • Let's Split Up, Gang!: Aguero suggests doing this after Bam's 'death' to cover up that Rachel has tricked them all and so that he can keep an eye on her.
  • Libation for the Dead: At Hoh's funeral, wine is poured into his grave.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Shibisu and his sweatsuit(s). Regulars in general, which comes from the fact almost all of them come into the Tower with basically nothing but the clothes on their back.
  • Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: The "wizards" in this case are the Shinsu users, who still can focus on physical combat as Magic Knights. The difference in power growth and a lack of Shinsu resistance causes most warriors (those not capable of using or resisting Shinsu) to drop out at the latest at the Second Floor.
  • Loads and Loads of Races: Besides normal humans there are the Red Witches and Silver-Haired Dwarves, the Da'an tribe, which are a docile tribe of giants with eight eyeballs around their head, at least 3 kinds of Horned Humanoids, 3 kinds of Winged Humanoids, 3 kinds of Lizard Folk, several races with eggheads and varying numbers of eyes, shapeshifters, shrimp people, all kinds of Amazing Technicolor Population, Monstrous Humanoids in general, giant slimes, dog people, Puppeteer Parasites, lava eaters, and many more.
  • Lost in Translation: The metaphor and punnyness of Bam's name (Bam either means night or chestnut).
  • Long Runner: It's up to 400+ chapters as of this moment and there are many, MANY Floors still to pass.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me:
    • Endorsi's shield, as well as Kang Horyang's body shield, which is so strong that even Viole has to catch him off guard.
    • Kaiser and Karaka are both automatically defended by armory shields in the Name Hunter arc, and in both cases, their opponent is able to easily smash through them.

    M - P 
  • Mage Species: Hwaryun belongs to the Red Witch clan, a people that tend to give birth to the supernaturally gifted Guides.
  • Magic Bullets: In the Workshop arc, all participating hopefuls are made to play the One Shot, One Opportunity game in order to secure tickets for the Archimedes. In this game, everyone is given a magic, non-lethal gun that they use to either shoot a person to get on the ship, or shoot a person to take them up.
  • Magic Enhancement: Shinsu Boost, which uses the individual flow of Shinsu that's present in every living thing within the Tower to gain superhuman physical ability.
  • Magic Knight: The Fishermen, originating from the practice of slaying gigantic aquatic beasts. They mainly use Shinsu in reinforcement techniques or short blasts, as opposed to the Wave Controllers (who use all kinds of Shinsu techniques) and Spear Bearers (who specialize in ranged combat).
  • Magical Land: The world inside the Tower. The Second Floor is a giant field under a blue sky with a floating island city above and the 21st Floor has floating wing-like buildings. The landscapes and environments of each Floor vary immensely and are subject to each Guardian's whims.
  • The Man Is Keeping Us Down: Jahad's regime as king of the Tower. He created the system by which Regulars can climb the Tower to obtain their greatest desire and is actually the cause of a lot of the death and conflict in the upper echelons of the Rankers.
  • Mechanically Unusual Class: The Lightbearer is a unique position insofar as the Aquatic-themed classes of the Tower go, not really having an RPG equivalent like the Fisherman (Fighter), Spearbearer (Archer), Scout (Rogue), or Wave Controller (Mage). Moreover, its easily the most complicated position, as Lighthouses effectively function as a combination of surveillance supercomputer, Amplifier Artifact, and box of holding.
  • Mega Dungeon: The Tower is on such a scale that it comes close to breaking the trope. Each level is a world unto itself, with its own ecosystem and the ability to support a large population. There are still plenty of dungeon-like activities for those who wish to ascend the Tower.
  • Mentor Occupational Hazard: Subverted twice; the first time near the end of Part II, with Jinsung Ha who actually survives, despite being bloodied, impaled, and having of his arms destroyed, although he gets captured and becomes a Badass in Distress, and the second time in the Nest- the place where Jinsung Ha is captured, with Evankhell who survives being shot in the head specifically with bullets that can kill High Rankers; all it does is piss her off. Needless to say, mentors come really tough in the Tower.
  • Missed the Call: Inverted. At first, it seemed like Rachel was the one invited to the Tower, but it turns out she was not invited either.
  • Mission Control: The Light Bearers. Their main job is to send floating sources of light out to the fighting forces, communicate with all team members and relay information.
  • The Mole: Traitors pretty much grow on trees in the Tower. Hwaryun, Yu Hansung, Augusgus, Apple and Michael all belong to FUG. Rachel qualifies as well. Not to mention Ren for the Jahad empire.
  • Monochrome Past: Most of the Flashbacks in season 1.
  • Monster Is a Mommy: White Steel Eels are very protective of their young.
  • Morph Weapon: Green April, a hook-like baton that can grow into a giant whip and also splits into several sub-branches. This applies to compression weapons in general.
  • Muscles Are Meaningless: It's all about the wielding of Shinsu and the application of braincells.
  • My Greatest Failure:
    • Akraptor failed to save his daughter, Hoh was too weak to save his friends.
    • Kaiser's is ruining her chances of becoming a princess by falling for a boy, and Alphine's is failing to stop Kaiser from doing so.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
    • For starters, Rak Wraithraiser (or alternatively, Wreckraiser), and Akryung, meaning evil ghost. In series, the title Irregular instills fear into everybody due to guys like Phantaminum and Urek Mazino. Also, carrying the name of Jahad certifies that you are a really dangerous person.
    • Rapdevil was probably meant to be threatening as well.
  • Naming Conventions: The naming order in the Tower seems to be quite unique, because if you become part of another family (adoption happens a lot here), it gets integrated into your name. The east-Asian naming order, surnames first, given names second is preserved, as with Phonsekal Lauroe, Ha Jinsung, and Yu Hansungnote . If someone gets taken in, they tack the name of the foster parent at the end, as it is with all of Jahad's Princesses: Ha Yuri Jahad, Khun Maria Jahad, Khun Maschenny Jahad.
  • N.G.O.: The Wolhaiksong, Winged Tree under the Moon, or simply the Winged Tree. It is an organization that seeks to leave the Tower instead of climbing or residing in it and has as much influence as the Ten Great Families.
  • N.G.O. Superpower:
    • Wolhaiksong can rival Jahad's government in strength and influence, especially since two of the strongest active residents, Urek Mazino and Baek Ryun are its founders and leaders, but they are on good terms with both the government as well as the terrorist group F.U.G.
    • The Workshop holds an unparalleled mastery of science and engineering that they carefully guard. They are theoretically strong enough to take on the Jahad Empire. However, the Workshop is completely indifferent to politics and is seen as a neutral party.
    • The terrorist group F.U.G. is comprised of Jahad's strongest enemies. They hold far less power than Wolhaiksong and The Workshop and after they were utterly defeated during the war, the Jahad Empire stopped taking them seriously. But they still have great resources and a lot of people with grudges against Jahad backing them. The arrival of Bam, an irregular with the potential to kill King Jahad, is enough to provoke Jahad into declaring war on them.
  • No-Dialogue Episode: Chapter 59 (Last Examination (3)), with the Meaningful Funeral and the Training Montage.
  • No, Except Yes: As Bam is told the origin of Jahad and the circumstances of his own birth, he asks if Arlene Grace is his mother. He gets told that she's not exactly a mother, and on top of that had her baby slain, but then told that she left the child to the whims of God outside the Tower. A long speech just to reveal that yes, Bam is Arlene's son.
  • Non-Malicious Monster:
    • The giant shinheuh from the 21st Floor. It's ultimately docile, but causes freak waves when it lies down on it's back.
    • The White Steel Eels when they are not breeding.
  • Not in This for Your Revolution: Some Regulars aren't ascending the Tower to reach the top to fulfill their strongest desire. Rak Wraithraiser just does it to fight people. Anaak Jahad climbs because the only way she can exact her revenge on the Jahad family is to enter the Inner Tower, which is where everybody climbs.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: Headon follows his duties as they are outlined, but forgets some of the inconvenient niceties. Furthermore, Evankhell's Hell is set up to get rid of all that may threaten the Tower.
  • Obstructive Code of Conduct: No official, not even the ruthless King Jahad, can easily ignore the rules of the Tower, lest they anger the godlike Administrators. Only the Irregulars can ignore the rules, but even they tend to play along, if only to avoid unnecessary problems.
  • Odd Name Out: Baylord Yama, Baylord Doom, and Baylord... Paul. Evidently, the family ran out of their supply of badass names.
  • An Offer You Can't Refuse: The reason why Bam is in the FUG. Either he joins and trains to become a Slayer, or they'll kill all his friends from the 2nd Floor.
  • Offing the Offspring: Hendrock Bloodmadder, in a rather roundabout way. When the 10 Great Warriors received immortality from the 100th Floor Guardian, Hendo Bloodmadder was the only one to be left out. He somehow managed to convince the Guardian to grant him immortality, but it came at a cost: Bloodmadder's children would have to be extremely short-lived, as it was their lives that sustained his from then on. After debating on this for a while, Bloodmadder's fear of his mortality finally won out, so thereafter the Hendo Family was cursed.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Several.
    • First there is Hatz beating First Emperor's team completely alone.
    • Then there is Kang Horyang curbstomping Rapdevil.
  • Oh, Crap!: Yu Hansung has this pretty early.
    Hansung (jokingly): Did a Princess of Jahad or an Irregular come in?
    Quant: Uh… Well… it seems… there are both.
    Hansung: WHAT THE FUCK?
    • When the water buffalo turned on it's back, the part of Sweet and Sour that stayed behind gave this response. Yes, including Viole and Horyang.
    • Quaetro Blitz gives a hilarious one when he saw how good Viole was with Shinsu.
    Quaetro: I'll bet you've never encountered someone who can manipulate three baangs of Shinsu before... *beat with a silent Viole brandishing FIVE baangs* Ara. Two short...
    • During Viole's Curb-Stomp Battle on Nobic and Ran, the latter two got hit with this thrice within the course of a few panels. Ouch!
  • Older Than They Look: Yuri is over 600 years old and Anaak is 300 years as well as being older than Endorsi. Every single Ranker is this as well; being in the Tower and having constant contact with Shinsu can either kill you or give you a long life with no aging. Some people who start handling Shinsu at a young age have their physical growth stunted leaving them with the body of a child. Case in point, Ms. Ice Strawberry.
  • Ominous Multiple Screens: The Lighthouses, which are a Light Bearers base of operations, are basically a bunch of floating screens. Pretty harmless by itself but then Repelista's 'Opera' gets revealed.
  • Once More, with Clarity: Bam's first test is shown in another light at the end of season one.
  • One-Man Army: Phantaminum, who effortlessly defeated the High Rankers of Jahad all by himself. Hell, pretty much most High Rankers. Ha Jinsung proves this when he effortlessly storms Karaka's hideout.
  • Only I Can Kill Him: Only an Irregular can kill Jahad, which is why the FUG wants Bam in their organization and will stoop to anything to make it happen. Funnily enough, Rachel is an Irregular too.
  • Only a Flesh Wound: Several characters have survived and made complete recoveries from being impaled through the chest.
  • Only Smart People May Pass: One of the four solutions to the Door Test. Though that makes the "only" part a little inaccurate considering the other options were apathy, faith, and gambling.
  • Only the Worthy May Pass: The concept of the Tower. What constitutes one's worth is never explained (and may not even be understood), the one thing that all Regulars and Irregulars have in common is their exceptional desire to reach the top, at least at first.
  • Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Evan and Alumik are Silver Dwarves, who are known for their short stature, silver hair, and being Guides.
  • Our Monsters Are Weird: From the giant flying eels to the giant bipedal amphibious predator that is the Bull to the worm-keeping Barnacle Goblins, there are a lot of strange beasts inside the Tower.
  • Outlaw: Irregulars, whose mere existence violates the rules of the Tower.
  • Paradox Person: Irregulars, whose mere existence violates the rules of the Tower — the metaphysical ones as well.
  • Parental Abandonment: All over the place. Especially Bam, who never knew his parents, and many children born in the middle section of the Tower, where childbirth is prohibited. Many of them end up being lab specimen for unpleasant experiments.
  • Parental Substitute: Rachel for Bam, Sophia Amae for Cassano and Horyang, Akraptor for Miseng (with Miseng acting as a Replacement Goldfish for his missing daughter), and Garam Jahad for Anaak, if you think of it that way.
  • People of Hair Color: All of the Ten Great Families act on this principle. Being clans with members that are immortal leads to thousands of direct descendants inheriting the hair colors of the clan leaders (i.e Arie family members are white/silver-haired, the Khun clan has powder blue hair and eyes, etc.), although there are rare exceptions. The races known for Guiding are also noted for their distinct hair colors, with Hwaryun's family being nicknamed "Red Witches" and Evan's people being nicknamed "Silver Dwarves".
  • Physical God:
    • The Guardians of the Tower, as well as the Axes.
    • The Rankers (particularly the High Rankers) also qualify, and they're even revered as such throughout the Tower.
  • Pillar of Light: Occurs when people are transported between Floors.
  • Place of Power: The Tower. Headon suggests that gaining magical abilities is a natural byproduct of climbing the Tower.
  • Playing Both Sides: Done multiple times, but the most prevalent example is White: he mass murdered a billion people and ate their souls by setting himself up as the god of two countries over the centuries, then used dogma to incite the masses and murdered their heroes whenever they tried to forge peace. Bam and company are NOT amused.
  • Playing with Fire: The Yeon and Blitz Families are renowned for their fire-based powers, especially the latter.
  • Plot Coupon: The Hell Train tickets. With only 100 of them in existence, the tickets are a hot issue item for any seasoned Regular and the subject of bloody battles just to have the opportunity to get on the train. The Revolution Road mini arc details Bam and friends trying to fight and keep their tickets.
  • Police Are Useless: The Tower very much operates under Might Makes Right, and the Tower's government will pretty much let you do what you like so long as you don't personally tick off someone with influence. This even extends to their biggest enemies, FUG. The FUG Slayers' job is to kill the king and the nobility. You'd think they'd work at hiding their identity, but instead FUG announces official "Slayer Nominees". The Slayer Nominees are tougher than their classifications suggest, but the ones we've seen so far were declared when they were at the floor 20-40 (out of 134) range. FUG seems to be practically daring the rankers (who have been all the way up to floor 134 and back) and the government (the King and the heads of the Ten Great Families are all rankers themselves, and several families have multiple rankers) to do something about it. This finally changes when King Jahad notices Bam and declares a massive war.
  • Powered by a Forsaken Child:
    • The Workshops that make all the wonderful toys in Tower use experiments on literal forsaken children to produce them (one we were shown had a survival rate of 0.2%); it's implied that creating an Ignition Weapon in particular requires using a human soul.
    • The 13 Month Series weapons are outright stated and shown to have a soul sealed within them.
    • Emily the chat simulator appears to be this, and indeed is, being another product of the workshop ignition experiments mentioned above.
  • The Power of Blood: Jahad's Princesses receive their immense power through the blood of Jahad.
  • Power Levels: As the names suggest, Rankers have a ranking based in theory on how well they did climbing the Tower (but, in practice, based on how powerful they are) as well as the influence they have in the Tower. Exact numbers are rarely bandied about, though, aside from a listing the author provided of the top ten and a general distinction between the (top thousand) 'High Rankers' and the rest. Regulars are rated according to how far they've gotten, and given letter grades rating them within that based on how promising they are in their current group.
  • Praetorian Guard: Jahad's Princesses, on a more representative level. Then there's the guards of the Princesses themselves.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: The mainstream members of FUG oppose Karaka's agenda of killing Viole and turning him into a weapon, but mainly because they believe he's more valuable as a living ally and that as long as they hold up their end of the deal to spare his friends, Viole has little reason to defy the organization. They're probably right because Viole didn't make any moves to leave FUG until after Karaka's faction nearly killed Aguero.
  • Precision F-Strike: Lero-Ro delivers one early on when he gives a speech saying that "those who are not worthy should FUCK OFF", made all the more shocking because he's one of the kindest and most soft-spoken characters in the story.
  • Punny Name: Bam can mean Night or Chestnut, indicating either how nightmarish he can appear to others or how cute he is that you'd want to eat him right up.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: These kinds of victories are handed out like candy — or, just murky ones where you wind up unsure if a clear "loss" or "gain" was ever possible from the start. Every last win has a price (even the apparently easy-looking ones), and many of them are steep to the point of only looking like a win on paper, particularly if you don't scrutinize either the build-up, the background shenanigans or the long-term practical or psychological effects on the "winners". It even manages to hand out the inverse, of course: Pyrrhic Losses happen to major or majorish characters where, although they technically lost, they won the mid-game (Ran and Nobic) or got a surprise prize from it (Lurker — although it's unlikely to do him much practical good; Serena is a better example — she's no longer in the game, but what she learned may give her a better life than she had before). Bam manages to practically be the Anthropomorphic Personification of "Pyrrhic Victory", though.

    Q - T 
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits:
    • The Regulars in Season 1. The strong-willed girl in a wheelchair. The distrustful outlawed royal. The kind-hearted blood-thirsty alligator. The butt-monkey, boastful, goofy strategist. The anti-social girl on a revenge-trip. The mysterious silent giant. The loyal dual-wielding swordsman. The Knight in Shining Armor. His animal-controlling admirer. The power-house that powernaps. Permanently. The cold-blooded princess that came from rags to riches. The sneaky, arrogant coward. The reptilian sniper. And that Russian-Mexican muscle-devil. Weird bunch.
    • Sweet and Sour is a mismash of people with strength all over the scale, and intentionally so, since they only formed as a means of getting up the 20th floor and stuck around each other ever since. Akraptor even lampshades this, saying that no one on the team would kick Yeon out or make fun of her since everybody damn well knows they are all a trashy group of Regulars. This is also a bit of danger for them, since several FUG members think the team is not suitable for Viole and want them dead.
  • Razor Wind: Any cutting Shinsu attack is basically this, since Shinsu is the surrogate for air in the Tower. The only difference: It gets denser the higher you climb the Tower. And the denser it gets, the more it becomes like water.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Anaak is 300, Yuri twice her age. All Rankers are an extreme case of Older Than They Look, up to Time Abyss levels in some cases. Meanwhile, Bam is later suggested to be over 10,000 years old.
  • Red Baron: High Rankers have sobriquets that are officially issued out by the Ranking Administration Office, and the titles in question are usually in reference to the High Ranker's battle Position or other aspects. Some, like Khun Eduan and Baek Ryun, turn the names down, though.
  • Red Herring: For a while, you are to think that either Hwaryun, Aguero, or Endorsi is manipulating Hoh. This is a rather common ploy of SIU.
  • Revenge: Anaak is driven by revenge for her parents, Ja Wangnan wants to kill Lurker for brutally murdering Nia and Love has a grudge with Viole, because FUG killed his parents before he started climbing. Viole is still pending on the thought of having his sweet revenge on Rachel. Hand in hand with the revenge theme however is a theme of forgiveness (Anaak befriends Endorsi Jahad, Ja Wangnan forgives Lurker for killing Nia because the three of them were the same, Love says his desire for revenge has made him unfit to be an administrator and he wants to see Viole grow, and Viole/Bam keeps not-killing Rachel long after it would be perfectly justified on his behalf.).
  • Revolving Door Casting: Don't get too attached to anyone who's not named Bam, Aguero, Hwaryun, or Rachel. The overall team lineup changes from arc to arc, with only a handful staying as consistently recurring characters.
  • The Right Hand of Doom: Rapdevil and Horyang. Both have taken the title Devil of the Right Arm. Also First Emperor, but we never got to see what his hand could really do.
  • Role-Playing Game 'Verse:
    • Positions = Classes.
    • There exist Stat Cards (although they're now defunct).
    • Passing the Floor's test = completing a level.
    • The Rankings = High Score.
    • The Hidden Floor is just this trope at its most basic. While it is a fully functional world with data people that live their own lives, the whole floor runs on RPG logic and is expected to follow a set script for any Hell Train challengers who reach it.
  • Royal Blood:
    • All Princesses are not Jahad's blood children—they receive Jahad's blood when they are chosen for their skills. As compensation for all that power and authority, they are forbidden under the threat of death to not have lovers or children.
    • The children outside of Jahad's watch—his bastard sons—make up a whole slew of problem seemingly separated from the Princess crisis. They are only identified by their rings, all of which need to be collected for a yet unknown reason.
  • Royal Rapier: Needles. Black March actually belongs to a princess.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something:
    • Every member of the Ten Great Families (which includes Khun Aguero Agnes), Jahad's Princesses (Yuri, Endorsi and by heritage, Anaak. As for leaders, Poe Bidau Gustang takes an active interest in the goings on of the series, fully endorsing Rachel and helping create the Princess system.
    • Jahad used to do something (long before the start of the story, he conquered Tower up to the 134th Floor with his 10 companions, who founded the Ten Great Families), but now he's resting. Until he starts to become active once more.
  • Rule of Symbolism: Many, with the most obvious being:
    • Rachel's obsession with the outside and a true starry sky, contrasting with her confessed fear of Bam.note 
    • A story told by Rachel to Bam regarding the origin of the Tower, in which a man fell in love with a star and built the Tower to ascend to heaven and be with her mirrors Bam's own story from his childhood, in which he would stack rocks in his dark cave, trying to reach the only light up above, only to inevitably fail and fall and weep for hours, up until the day Rachel came down from that same light/opening. Cue her leaving, and him ascending the Tower to be with her again.
  • Running Gag:
    • There is one featuring Quant repeatedly endorsing the weirdest and greatly varying products in some of the most befuddling ways.
      Oppa is now in Times New Roman, Baby!
    • There's also the repeated references to Bam's name being "tasty" (Joke on how Bam means both "night" and "chestnut" in Korean)
    • Bit of a meta example, but the fact that a character wearing tights (Ehwa, Hwaryun, Sia Sia) will in a later panel lose them happens a tad too often to be a drawing mistake.
  • Schizo Tech: There's guns, modern video games, and eventually a full-blown AI (or maybe not?), existing alongside spear throwers. Justified by the way Shinsu affects weapons and by the nature of the Tower — with little trade or communication between Floors beyond what Rankers enable (which mostly goes towards their own swag), tech levels can vary wildly from place to place.
  • Sealed Badass in a Can:
    • Bam, a potential badass, in his cave.
    • After the Ten Great Families got sick of the war, King Jahad gave his enemies a choice between surrender or genocide. As a condition for letting their families live, most of Jahad's strongest enemies were sealed inside The Wall of Peaceful Coexistence, which now stands as a symbol of the truce between Jahad and those who opposed his rule. When FUG and Jahad prepare for a new open war, Jahad decides to set things off by destroying the wall and his sleeping enemies with it, forcing FUG to try to set them free before he succeeds.
  • Secret Identity: Rachel takes on the alias of Michelle Light, Anaak Jahad pretends to be her mother and Bam himself is known as Jue Viole Grace in season 2.
  • Secret Police: The Royal Enforcement Division is an Internal Affairs Agency that overlooks the loyalty of Jahad's followers from the shadows, especially his princesses. Ren, the youngest member, is strong enough to wipe the floor with the two strongest fighters of Bam's friends (though since it's a Ranker against Regulars, that's automatic).
  • Seers: The Guides. Sia Sia appears as a Fortune Teller, but she more likely uses her Lighthouse and street wits to gain and dispense knowledge before she gave up that job and became a fanatic.
  • Series Goal: Reaching the top of the Tower.
  • Shirtless Scene: Several, especially in the baths.
  • Shout-Out:
    • One of the 13 Month weapons is called Red October.
    • When Quant still thinks he can win, Endorsi asks him if he picked up "seven magical balls." SIU seems to like Dragon Ball Z, as earlier Rak can be seen comically performing a Genki Dama (as well as an energy blast) in the background. The second test uses a punching machine to determine Shinsu strength, much like the one in Dragon Ball Z.
    • Bam thinks the shrunk Rak is a new Digimon.
    • Rayquaza and Pikachu are seen in the background when Khun and Hatz clash.
    • After Rak, Aguero and Bam agree to stand together as a true team, the background briefly becomes a peach garden.
    • Wangnan uses Shinsu bombs that look like Pokéballs. Later on when Shibisu uses one, he states that he has it because he "wants to become a Pokémon GO Master."
    • Repelista Jahad has Fus Roh Da written over her doorway.
    • Khun Ran comes across as a straightforward Expy of Killua.
    • The Mysterious Arcade chapter references various games, one of which was blatantly StarCraft. The same chapter also brought us a literal Death Star straight from Star Wars.
    • The musical guests playing at the Workshop party are dead ringers for Random Access Memories-era Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams. There's even an excerpt of "Get Lucky", just in case you didn't get it before.
    • During the hidden floor arc, Endorsi teleports in a manner similar to Goku's Instant Transmission. When she mimics his pose again in Season 3 and asked why she's doing that, she replies that she feels it will help.
    • Full Black's outfit in the anime resembles Roronoa Zoro's. They even acknowledge it post-episode, as the character designer completes the set by drawing his teammates cosplaying Luffy and Chopper.
  • Shrouded in Myth: Phantaminum and Enryu, as well as several other famed Rankers and Irregulars of the Tower.
  • Signature Move:
    • Hwajeop Gongpasul (or Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique) for Viole and FUG, Fast Skip for Viole/Bam specifically.
    • Quant's Black Fish.
  • Sinister Surveillance: The Regulars on Evankhell's Floor have little to no privacy and don't even know it.
  • Sleepyhead: Phonsekal Lauroe, who can and will sleep at every opportunity, even during fights. Especially during fights. Later revealed to be a family trait of the Phonsekal Family. Baylord Yama takes this up to eleven, having once destroyed half the building along with nearly all of his servants inside whilst sleep-walking after someone tried to wake him up.
  • Smoke Shield: After Lauroe hits Anaak with a huge Shinsu Blast during the Crown game; after Hong Chunhwa hit Endorsi with a Sword Beam during the Second Floor test; and after Ja Wangnan bombards Viole with Shinsu Bombs.
  • Smug Snake:
    • Ren, the Wave Controller instructor and member of the Royal Enforcement Division is a good schemer, but a foul bastard, clearly enjoying pushing several of Jahad's Princesses into a corner and trying to make them go at each other.
    • Paracule isn't even a good schemer, he's just an arrogant backstabbing whiney jerkass.
  • Soul Jar: Some Ignition Weapons, which are literally powered by the soul of an abandoned child.
  • Space Whale: The Guardian of the Second Floor, the White Steel Eel on the First Floor, and we expect to see many others.
  • Spectacular Spinning: Circle techniques, which are set around the premise of spinning shinsu into circles or spheres.
  • Spell My Name With An S:
    • Several, though most notable are Shinsu/Shinsoo/Sinsu, Jahad/Zahard (they changed it, then changed it back) and Lahel/Rachel. The Official English translation doesn't help things either, since it regularly flips between all of these spellings.
    • There's also Khun Aguero Agnes/Koon Aguero Agnis. It was changed to Khun Aguero after the author confirmed his name's origin. The official translation seems to mostly be using Khun Aguero Agnes, though.
    • Technically, the official Korean spelling of Endorsi/Androssi's name is Andorthy Jahad. Don't expect to see it in any English translations though.
  • Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Many examples of this crop up:
  • Squishy Wizard: The Light Bearers. Averted by Lero-Ro and Khun Aguero Agnes.
  • Star Scraper: The Tower is big. Insanely big. Touching the heavens big. Every Floor is several kilometers high and most have flying landmasses inside them, that's how big it is.
  • The Straight and Arrow Path: Subverted in that Levin and his sniper rifle take down the only bowman of the series, and double subverted in that the Spear Bearers overpower his rifle quickly because, while the strength of an arm can grow, a gun's firepower can't. Moreover, in higher Floors, the shinsu is too viscous for normal ranged weaponry.
  • Story-Breaker Power: Phantaminum. According to Word of God, his power as an Axis would allow him to "destroy [Tower of God's] story." Given the terminology SIU sometimes uses for Axes, this may actually be literal.
  • The Summation: Aguero delivers one after the Hide-And-Seek Test to explain his schemes and conclusions to Lero-Ro.
  • Summon Bigger Fish: Yu Hansung, literally, when fighting Ren, who was controlling a giant serpent, Hansung calls out an even larger Shinheuh (God-Fish) called the Submerged Fish to devour the serpent.
  • Super-Deformed: Sometimes the act of compression does this to characters, in efforts to make the body adjust to the Shinsu pressure of higher floors. Most prominently, Rak is able to do so get shrunk after an unlucky encounter with Yu Hansung and later has the ability to switch between sizes to fit into normal-sized places. Other than that, it's often used for comedic effect.
  • Superpowered Evil Side: Why Baylord Paul doesn't use his transformation powers; he goes berserk whenever he does. He still gives it a try when fighting a Family branch leader.
  • Super-Senses:
    • Lero-Ro has some good ears.
    • Some characters have the ability to feel and read the flow of Shinsu and can safely navigate in complete darkness.
    • And Bam himself ends up developing this in order to combat Kaiser's invisible weapons.
  • Sword Almighty: Explicitly subverted. While a few people use them, swords become increasingly useless in the higher reaches of the Tower due to high concentrations of dense water-like Shinsu, which replaces air in the Tower and makes broad-bladed weapons unwieldy. Instead, the default weapon type of the Tower is the needle. That said, the only S+ Rank weapon in the entire Tower, the White Oar, is still a sword. Justified however in that it belongs to the strongest Family Head, Arie Hon.
  • Take Away Their Name: The Name Hunt Station runs on this principle. If somebody touches another's back and holds it for ten seconds, the former "steals" the other's name. The Nameless are then made subservient to everyone else with names, and they lose most of their regular rights until they obtain a name again. These rules will still hold even after they get off the station.
  • Teach Him Anger
    • Bam, for the life of him, could not conceive any reason why people would fight. Then Rachel asked him what he'd do if somebody hurt her. He then understands he'd be angry enough to hurt somebody.
    • Headon takes this to the next level when he tells Bam that he won't see Rachel ever again if he doesn't take that test. This is more a case of evoking Bam's greatest fear. Headon being Headon, he doesn't mention that Rachel is in an adjacent cavern watching them.
  • The Team: The normal makeup of a team in the Tower, with the Positions being Fisherman, Light Bearer, Spear Bearer, Wave Controller, and Scout. There is flexibility here as any or all of the Positions could have multiple members and one person can have the ability to fill multiple positions.
  • Teen Genius: Yeon, Aguero, and Hatz are not even 20 before gaining reputations among Regulars in the Tower.
  • Temporal Theme Naming: Twenty-Fifth Bam is named after his birthday. Black March is one of twelve (plus one) legendary weapons named after the English months.
  • They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason: Shibisu knows that Anaak has a lot to sort out, but refuses to pry into her past before she is willing to share it with him, so he just keeps encouraging her.
  • The Thunderdome: All of the testing areas and by extension the Inner Tower itself, including the Wineglass, the Crown Game Room, the Hide And Seek Arena, and the dormitory on the 20th Floor.
  • Thwarted Coup de Grâce: When Bam's Defense Mechanism Superpower activates during the Crown Game, the attacking Hwaryun is screwed, even losing an eye.
  • Time Abyss: The Tower and its Guardians. It has been stated that the Tower was conquered and civilized 5000 years ago, though.
  • Time Skip: Five years have passed between Season 1 and Season 2, around Chapter 78. Two more pass from then to the Workshop Battle, and another year passes from that to the Hell Train arc.
  • To Serve Man: Many of the beasts encountered have a special appetite for the meat of intelligent species.
  • Tournament Arc: The Workshop arc functions as this.
  • The Tower: The entire point, setting and Series Goal. The Tower is a semi-sentient, self-contained Place of Power built god knows when, housing billions of people and creatures on 134 conquered and even more wild floors, each the size of North America and several kilometers high. It has been said that everything and anything people have ever wished for can be found at the top of the Tower. Therefore, many people wish to climb it, giving up everything they have to obtain their one desire or having only their desires and dreams left. The lucky ones that get chosen to climb, the Regulars, must pass cruel, hard and strongly varying tests, which used to be held by the Guardians, but ever since King Jahad conquered the greatest part of the Tower, the inhabitants of the place took the Guardians' place. The Tower is a fantastical realm, as it contains a force known as Shinsu, which can be breathed instead of air and enables those who know how wield it properly to do the impossible.
  • Toxic Phlebotinum: Shinsu, the absolute baseline of power inside the Tower, is not always agreeable with the human body. Without a certain resistance, people can die in the denser higher levels. It can be corrosive to the human body and cause pressure sickness.
  • Trademark Favorite Food:
    • Yu Hansung loves everything that is instantly prepared. Especially coffee.
    • Rak loves bananas.
    • Augusgus likes fried chicken, whereas Love prefers saucy chicken.
    • Ja Wangnan likes to order fried pork with his friends. This ends up being the name of his team.
  • Tracking Device:
    • The rings Yu Hansung gave to Aguero's team after Bam's 'death'.
    • Mutually registered Pockets can track each other as well.
  • Translator Microbes: The Pockets. They have a translator function so that everybody in the tower can understand each other. Since it's altogether several billion people, that is quite necessary.
  • Trapped in Another World: Very likely applies to Bam. No sign of the door through which he came in, and the environment of the Second Floor strongly suggests that the Tower doesn't follow the rules of a normal world.
  • Tricked-Out Gloves:
    • Blarouse's weapon.
    • Love's giant, hovering baseball gloves.
  • Troubled Backstory Flashback:
    • Anaak flashes back to her childhood and the assassination/execution of her mother who was guilty of having relations with a man and giving birth to Anaak despite being a Princess of Jahad.
    • Also, the short snippets of Aguero's past are rather uncomfortable.
    • Same goes for Hoh, who regretted his past, Serena who accepted her past and Endorsi, who grew stronger and colder through her past.
    • Also Bam, in a way, though the things he goes through after he enters the tower are, to him at least, worse. After all, before he didn't know he had anything to lose and now that he does he'll do anything to protect it.
    • We get to see Kaiser's as well during the Name Hunter arc, revealing how she failed to becom a princess and was condemned to the Name Hunter station until she could pay back the damage her actions caused.
  • True Companions: Despite the harsh circumstances, even the anti-social Anaak and the cynical, manipulative Endorsi help Bam and Rachel take the Guardian's exam, even though they had no personal gain from it and it's supposed to be ungodly hard.

  • Twist Ending: Season 1. Rachel tries to kill Bam, since she thinks Bam took her place as a Regular, this puts Ghost's and Bam's Irregular status in question. It seems as if Rachel also held some kind of fear of Bam. Furthermore, Headon is a mastermind that seemingly plans to change the Tower with the support of Yu Hansung, Ghost and Hwaryun, and Bam as a central figure must vanish from the public eye, so his death must be staged. Since Bam was apparently chosen by the Tower, it also means that the Tower is apparently trying to change the system of Jahad.

    U - Z 
  • The Unchosen One: A Downplayed case near the beginning, when all the candidates to climb the Tower have to pass a test to show they can tolerate the higher concentrations of Shinsu in the upper levels. Lero Ro puts it by saying that some people are "chosen" and some are not. Shibisu and Serena Linnen, who have been unable to pass through the Shinsu curtain so far, say something to the effect "screw being chosen" and push through with all their might, getting through even though they injure themselves in the process. Of course, they presumably wouldn't have been able to regardless if they hadn't been at least borderline suitable to begin with.
  • The Unfought: Jahad and Phantaminum never fought, even though they faced each other directly and the latter stormed the castle of the former.
  • Unholy Holy Sword: The 13 Month Series is continuously getting a worse rep as information is trickling through that these weapons might have a damaging effect on the wielders psyche, causing one of the strongest Princesses in the history of the Tower to go berserk along with her weapon.
  • Unlimited Wardrobe: Not much in Season 1, unlike the second. Some even wonder where Viole puts all his clothes. And for those curious... 
  • Unobtainium: Suspendium, the main material to create Lighthouses and other items. The purer, the better, and naturally they are very expensive.
  • Unwitting Pawn:
    • Everybody. That's why Yu Hansung and Headon are such good chess masters. The main pawns are Hoh, Rachel, Bam, and Aguero.
    • Prince is also Kim Lurker's unwitting pawn.
  • Upgrade Artifact: The weapons of the 13 Month Series, especially Black March, who was given to complete newcomer Bam.
  • Uriah Gambit:
    • The test on the 21st Floor was set in a manner that Sweet and Sour would face off against Urek Mazino, who was protecting the MacGuffin for his own personal reasons, and hopefully die.
    • Crosses with Morton's Fork: The bet with the factions of FUG. Except, Karaka's side was deliberately playing for a "heads they die; tails, they die" situation from the start: the most that Bam could hope for was to fend.
  • Vitriolic Best Buddies:
    • The weirdest relationship Anaak has by far is the one she has with her aunt Endorsi.
    • There is rarely a pair that understands each other like Aguero and Rak. They are also the guys that constantly butt heads about which way to do things.
  • Vasquez Always Dies: One of Boro's two disciples, Felix, a very boyish-looking woman, was taken out almost as soon as she gets into a serious fight and is dropped off to heal. The only other woman with them, Yu Hana the train attendant, survives the attack and travels with them. Downplayed with the rest of the female fighters during this arc, as they're all more feminine than Felix in appearance but a few are tomboyish in personality.
  • Waif-Fu: Most of the Action Girl characters in the series. Because Shinsu can give characters superhuman physicality, Muscles Are Meaningless in the Tower.
  • Waking Up Elsewhere: Bam after he'd been knocked out for several days. Edin after Aguero kidnapped him. Khun Aguero Agnes himself after he survived the Hand of Arlene's destruction.
  • Walking Spoiler:
    • Rachel. The most important things she does change the series drastically and come as a great surprise.
    • Arlene. It is impossible to mention so much as her existence without mentioning she is one of the original Unperson'd companions of Jahad, Bam's mother, and the main reason the Tower is such a Crapsack World today.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: Jahad keeps 10 superweapons called Cannon Salutes. His empire officially declares war on FUG by using one to fire a massive beam at one of their highest-ranking members.
  • We ARE Struggling Together: All of FUG basically agrees that King Jahad needs to die for the good of everyone else, but there is no shortage of factional infighting. While mainstream FUG members support Bam, there are plenty that would prefer to kill and melt him down into a weapon so they can kill King Jahad themselves instead of relying on him. There are also some FUG members that are uneasy with Hoaqin's revival due to him being monstrous even by their standards.
  • We Have Reserves: A Jahad commander expresses this opinion, saying that the Jahad Empire's military should only be comprised of completely disposable fanatics. He orders Kallavan to detonate one of his ships in order to take out the canine peoples' flying city. While this would be sufficient to drive the canine people into extinction, it would also take out Kallavan's soldiers. Kallavan is reluctant to sacrifice all of his men, but the commander considers them expendable because their loyalty is to Kallavan personally rather than Jahad. It is also a loyalty test for Kallavan, because as fanatical as Kallavan is, they worry that he is too much A Father to His Men.
  • We Used to Be Friends: Bam and Rachel. In her quest for the skies, she left Bam behind, but he followed her and, from her perspective, stole her place in the story, resulting in her growing resentment for him. So she follows Yu Hansung's plan and kills him.
  • Wham Episode: Many times. See trope page for examples.
  • Wham Line:
    • "Sorry, Bam. You have to die here."
    • You're not it. You're not the One the Tower has Chosen.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Some of the group gives Mazino an earful for just giving the Red Thryssa away to Joe, especially after seeing what they've become after it.
  • "What Now?" Ending: At the end of Season 1 Bam is presumed dead and the group carries on, unknowingly supporting the person that betrayed him. He is left despairing at the bottom of a lake.
  • Winged Humanoid: Amigochaz and a few other Regulars. As one of them falls from a pillar, Endorsi notes that his wings were obviously not meant for flying.
  • Womb Level: The test where Sweet and Sour has to retrieve a flower of the insides of Zigena. If you want to stretch it, The Floor of Death counts as one too, since everyone lives inside the previous Administrator's corpse.
  • The Worf Barrage: Chances are, if something is described as "being able to take down a High Ranker", it's going to fail.
  • Worldbuilding: Tower of God is the first part in a series of stories set in the Talse Uzer universe.
  • World of Badass: The Tower is filled with strong opponents trying to make their way up, and teeming with monsters to fight and opponents to test their strength against. You'll rarely find someone who isn't willing to fight here.
  • The X of Y: The Tower of God.
  • Yellow Brick Road: The only way up the Tower is by climbing it Floor by Floor.
  • Yin-Yang Bomb: FUG's signature move, Hwajeop Gongpasul/Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique, which applies the simultaneous use of Flow Control and Reverse Control, making an extremely devastating close-range attack that doesn't harm the wielder if performed properly.
  • You Are Number 6:
    • Twenty-Fifth Bam. He was named after his birthday.
    • Before they got their names, Cassano and Horyang were #99 and #21 respectively.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: Part of Urek Mazino's problem, one cannot simply exit the Tower. He followed Phantaminum into the Tower, but discovered he could not get out of it anymore.
  • You Get What You Pay For: The food in Evankhell's cafeteria is bought with test points, hence, people get the cheapest available.
  • You Won't Like How I Taste: Shibisu says the exact opposite to the Bull to get its attention, but is ignored. Bam also says this to Rak on their first meeting.


Alternative Title(s): Tower Of God

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