The Tower of Time is the tenth area of The Messenger. The Tower challenges Messengers to see if they are worthy, and if a Messenger passes the trials, the Tower sends them to "when" they are most needed. The Tower of Time was created by the Order of the Blue Robes, and it floats around in The Void. The Shop's true location is within the Tower of Time. While a person is inside the Tower of Time, it automatically takes that person forward to the next important moment in time.
Ninja first enters the Tower of Time from Glacial Peak after he summons the tower by holding the scroll aloft. When he leaves the tower for the first time, he finds himself in Cloud Ruins. Later, Ninja can return to the Tower of Time challenge by talking to The Artificer in the Tower of Time HQ.
The Tower of Time is blue in color scheme with intricately-shaped crystal design patterns that give it a mystical feel. The tower is fitted with blue crystal switches, pink lasers, and pink spikes. The background is a black sky filled with stars, resembling outer space. In various places in the tower are Blue Robes statues, larger statues of important figures, and dead bodies.
In the room before the first non-shop checkpoint, there is a breakable block in the lower-left corner of the room next to a Power Seal symbol. Break the block and travel through a couple of rooms, one of which is a long horizontal room filled with crystal teleportation switches. In the Power Seal room, Rope Dart the metal rings, Cloudstep the lanterns, and hit the crystal teleportation switch to reach the Power Seal.
Power Seal #2[]
In a room with a checkpoint and a dozen horizontal laser beams that get blocked by vertical spike platforms, break the three breakable blocks in the lower-right corner of the room next to a Power Seal symbol. Enter the next room, Cloudstep the pulley lanterns upward while avoiding horizontally-moving sawblades, and hit the crystal teleportation switches at the top of the room to reach the Power Seal.
Power Seal #3[]
There is a room with a crystal teleportation switch in the upper-left corner, next to a Power Seal symbol. Hit the switch to enter the Power Seal room. Three moving platforms and a ring of pink energy balls rotate around one of the lanterns in the room. Avoid the pink energy balls, the nearby spikes, and falling to death, while attacking the lanterns to reach the Power Seal.
The Shopkeeper's Dialogue[]
Initial Dialogue, First Shop[]
Ninja
I'm sorry what?
Shopkeeper
Ah yes, the big reveal! Indeed my dear adventurer, you had been teleporting into this very room all along.
Ninja
So, where are we?
Shopkeeper
In the Tower of Time!
Ninja
And where is that?
Shopkeeper
Surely you mean WHEN? To be honest I don't really know, the tower is a device that travels through time. It manifests to test Messengers who are deemed worthy, in order to relocate them as needed.
Ninja
Where will it take me?
Shopkeeper
WHEN! It will take you to the time most in need of a Messenger. That is, if the tower doesn't kill you, of course.
Of course, here's one for you. There once was a land filled with bogs. And these bogs, they were filled with evil monsters. Sleeping underwater during the day, they were kept at bay by the Moon during nighttime. Well, when she was kind enough to be around. After all, the Moon was free to travel through space, and often felt like shining her light on other realms. One day the Moon got bored, and decided to visit the bog land in human form. Wearing a cloak so that her light wouldn't shine through, she hoped to catch a glance of the evil creatures. Getting more than people wandering haphazardly in cursed lands usually bargain for, she encountered a man fleeing from a small pack of monsters. Confident in her power, she removed her cloak, creating a glittering aura of protection to help the man escape. Escape he did, but as he looked back, he could see that his savior had put her cloak back on a little too soon. She was captured by the creatures, who then buried her under a rock so that her light would never shine again. They would rule the night. But our survivor was quick to gather a group of peasants, who went to remove the big rock and set the Moon free. A strong bond was formed on that day, and she decided to become their guardian. To this day the Moon is there to guide human travelers through the night. The end.
Ninja
Oh I liked that one, I guess it speaks to the power of cooperation?
Shopkeeper
Maybe. To be honest I only wanted to use the word "haphazardly" in a story.
Initial Dialogue, Second Shop[]
Ninja
Wait I thought the shop was physically behind that other door earlier.
Shopkeeper
Oh, so THIS is the moment that got you?
Ninja
???
Shopkeeper
My shop is connected all over the world and that's totally fine, but somehow it can't be in the same building twice?
Ninja
...
Shopkeeper
I can't believe you.
Trivia[]
8-bit lanterns from the Tower of Time, seen in time rifts in the Corrupted Future.
Thierry Boulanger, the main writer and director of The Messenger, has revealed additional information about the Tower of Time.[1]
The Tower of Time is aware of all past, present, and future events.
The bodies lying on the floor of the Tower of Time are the actual dead bodies of Messengers who failed to make it through the Tower of Time challenge.
The Tower of Time decides "when" to send a Messenger, treating the "timeless battle" as a rubix cube of potential timelines that it's trying to solve.
The Tower of Time is like a time machine. Ninja enters the Tower of Time at every checkpoint. It briefly appears to grab Ninja and fly him to where (when) he is needed.
The Tower of Time goes to the scroll.
The Tower of Time showcases important figures specifically for that Messenger. Which means that the statues of The Bowman, The Creator, Queen of Quills, and The Iron Hood, are all figures of people who play an important role in Ninja's journey.
The Tower of Time challenge pushes a Messenger to their limit and kills them if they are unworthy, to prevent the scroll being lost to the demons later.
The canon Tower of Time challenge runthrough would involve no Quarble + permadeath. Quarble's presence in the Tower of Time for gameplay purposes should be disregarded.
The Void is a big thing to fathom, so the Tower of Time protects the sanity of Messengers as they travel through the Tower. It provides a frame and familiarity that helps Messengers make it through the challenge relatively undisturbed.
The Tower of Time only appears for who it's meant to appear for. The Order does their best to react to the Tower of Time's instinct and to pass on the scroll to the one who's meant to have it.
Sixteen dead bodies are strewn throughout the Tower of Time.
If you leave the second shop while flying with the Wingsuit, you will be suspended in midair outside the shop. The only ways to get out of this are to re-enter the shop or jump.
Gallery[]
General[]
The Tower of Time, being assembled by the Order of the Blue Robes in the Music Box cutscene.
Ninja
Shopkeeper
