Little Crusaders (LC) is the Tower Unite (TU) counterpart to the Ultimate Chimera Hunt (UCH) gamemode for Garry's Mod that was featured in GMod Tower (GMT). Added in version 0.2.0.0, Little Crusaders is the first game world added to Tower Unite after it entered Early Access on Steam. The game features a team of knights (or crusaders), who are tasked with disabling the dragon by pressing the button on its back. The dragon on the other hand has to prevent this by using its powerful bite and accompanying abilities to devour the knights. Two people are required to play. A complete match is 20 rounds.


Links:

• LC Balancing Trello Card[trello.com]
  
• Little Crusaders Suggestions[forums.pixeltailgames.com]
  
• General Bug Reports[forums.pixeltailgames.com]
  
• Throne Room Bug Reports[forums.pixeltailgames.com]
  
• Market Bug Reports[forums.pixeltailgames.com]
  
• Amphitheatre Bug Reports[forums.pixeltailgames.com]
  
• Toy Room Bug Reports[forums.pixeltailgames.com]
  
• Knightsend-by-sea Bug Reports[forums.pixeltailgames.com]
  
• Mystic Grove Bug Reports[forums.pixeltailgames.com]
  
• Cardboard Castle Bug Reports[forums.pixeltailgames.com]

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• First rank
  
• Pink outfit

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• Second rank
  
• Green outfit
  
• Gets a bonus pouch
  
• Shares a helmet with esquires

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• Third rank
  
• Blue outfit
  
• Gets a bonus pouch and a sheath
  
• Boxier helmet
  
• Is worthy

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• Fourth and final rank
  
• White outfit with cape
  
• Gets a bonus pouch and a sheath
  
• Gets fancy little shoulder decorations
  
• Helmet with gold trim and thin horizontal eye slit
  
• Unique taunt
  
• Is worthy

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• Might be named Greg
  
• Barn swallow?
  
• Lover, not a fighter

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• His name is Cornelius
  
• Likes to make pancakes
  
• He is looking disrespectfully

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• Dead
  
• Rooting in the afterlife
  
• Holds different items based on your rank before death, see Fancier Ghosts for more information

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Little Crusaders has several maps, mostly following a medieval theme. Due to differences in design some maps may play very different from one another, so switching up which maps you play on can be helpful for improving as a player.

Dragon Payouts:

Knight Payouts:

Max payout from dragon round: 1,600 Units
Max payout from knight round: 1,300 Units (Dragon Slayer and Birb To The Rescue don't stack)

Little Crusaders has eight unlockable milestone items, ranging from condo items to equippable morphs and upgrades.


In Little Crusaders the experience you earn is 1.5x the Units you receive. Following the first table in this section to maximize the Units you earn will help you get the milestone items faster.


Like with other trophies in Tower Unite, Little Crusaders has four trophies ranging from bronze to diamond that are rewarded based on exp earned.

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View Global Achievement Stats

These inputs are assuming you're using the defaults.

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This section will go into more depth on what the different abilities listed above mean. See Timings if you wish to see durations and cooldowns of abilities.

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Jump - You character moves upward, allowing you to navigate vertically. Can be used to traverse up maps or jump over the dragon.

Sprint - Temporarily increases your speed by about two times but requires stamina. Sprint times vary based on rank, see Sprint Times below.

Crouch - Makes you move slower, which can allow for more control, as well as makes your hitbox smaller. This can be used to crouch jump over objects, as crouching brings your collision hitbox up a small amount allowing you to jump over certain objects you may not be able to get over at full size. Crouching can also make your stamina recharge quicker, see Sprint Times below.

Taunt - Taunting puts you into thirdperson mode which can let you temporarily look around corners without exposing yourself with the downside of not being able to move. Also used for the Taunting Death achievement.

Lantern - Improves visibility on Mystic Grove. Works both ways however, while you'll be able to see the map better, the dragon will be able to see you better.

Jump/Fly - Makes the dragon move upward. This extra height can allow the dragon to stomp/pancake the knights. It can also be used to fly, allowing you to clear certain areas of the map quicker while staying out of reach from knights. Uses stamina.

Sprint - Allows the dragon to run approximately 2.9 times faster. Uses stamina.

Bite - Can be used to bite players, Birb, and certain map objects. Physics objects like barrels or baskets can be launched with a bite, and the fences on Mystic Grove can be broken with a bite.

Roar - An area of effect ability that puts knights and Birb in the scared state (see Birb Scared Time). Does not go through walls, is iffy on different elevations.

Tail Whip - A way to swat people away from your back. The hitbox is a bit jank, so sometimes it might not hit someone right behind you, sometimes it might hit someone in front of you. It's pretty inconsistent—so don't rely on it too much. Rapidly spinning in place is arguably a better strategy for getting people away from you.

When walking normally, knights move around 33% faster than the dragon when walking. While sprinting, the dragon moves about the same speed as the knigths, just slightly faster. Using the chart below you can compare the knights and dragons in terms of their land speed. These approximations are relative to the knights base walking speed.

The main gameplay loop of Little Crusaders revolves around the knights trying to press the dragons button, and the dragon trying to eat the knights. It has up to eight players, with one dragon and seven knights. It is a simple concept, but over the years it has evolved into a game that is heavily movement-based, unlike its Garry's Mod counterpart which had more of a focus on both high accuracy and high precision aiming. Because it is simple enough of a concept, in this section I will try to go over some basic stuff and some of the more nuanced mechanics that are not spoken of anywhere in the game.

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To rank up you need to turn off the dragon and survive into the next round. For every time you slay the dragon without dying you will move up one position, so pressing the dragons button will make you go from an Esquire to a Knight, and from a Knight to a Baron. However, if the dragon eats you, you will lose your rank. Upon the start of the next round your rank will be reset to an Esquire, along with bonuses that come along with higher ranks. Note: Loss of rank by dying does not mean that you lose exp-based ranks

If you get eaten at higher ranks your ghost will have various food and drink in the afterlife. As a Knight you get a mug, Baron gets a mug and a turkey leg, and Count gets a chalice, turkey leg, and crown.


The maps have various objects that you can approach and press either E or Left Click on to pick up and throw. Among these are swords, shields, axes, and books, none of which do damage to the dragon. Throwing them serves no functional purpose other than possibly distracting the dragon. Mystic Grove also has fences that can be broken, which could allow for easier traversal of the map. They can be broken by the dragons bite, or by being pressed by the knights a few times.


When there's about a minute left into a round, Birb will spawn. Birb will wander around the map making tweeting/chirping noises that are audible to both knights and the dragon. The knights will have a visual indicator to locate Birb more easily through the map. Like the objects mentioned above, E or Left Click can be used to pick up Birb, who can be thrown at the dragon.

When thrown at the dragon, the dragon will be in a stunned/dizzy state for five seconds. While in this state the dragon loses all of its abilities other than the ability to bite. While in this vulnerable state it is probably best for the dragon to retreat as a missed bite nearly guarantees defeat.

After that stun ends and the dizzy effect is gone from the dragons head, Birb can be thrown a second time. Upon a second hit, Birb will turn off the dragon instantly. If thrown before the dizzy effect is gone, it will do nothing. Defeating the dragon this way will grant you a bonus 50 Units. Note: Throwing Birb directly at the button is not necessary. Birb will have the same effect on the dragon no matter where it hits.

The dragon has a few ways to counter Birb.

The first way is to get to the Birb and eat it before the knights are able to reach and use it. Biting Birb will notify players that Birb has been eaten, and it will no longer be able to be picked up and used against you. Eating Birb grants you the "Ending a Legacy" bonus, giving you 50 Units at the end of the round.

The second way is to roar. If Birb is near, roar and Birb will get scared and start to fly upwards. You can use this time to finish off any nearby knights or to get into a better position. If a knight is holding Birb, it will remain in the knight's hand until the knight throws it. If the roar is still active however, Birb will immediately get scared and begin to fly. See Birb Scared Time for more timings.

You can also just eat all the knights before Birb gets a chance to spawn, that works too.

The special sword in the center of Mystic Grove acts as Birb does on a second hit, immediately defeating the dragon on impact. The sword can only be picked up by players who are either a Baron or Count. Because it is so closely related to Birb in its function, it can also be used to get the Home Run achievement and the Birb To The Rescue bonus.

When it is pulled from the stone it won't return during a match. At the end of a round, if the sword was pulled but not used, it will immediately return to its resting place at the beginning of the next round. If the sword is used against the dragon, it will be out of service for a few rounds before returning.



Note: This sword is thrown and is not a slashing melee weapon. It can be thrown from quite a far distance, so getting up close to the dragon is not necessary.

Side strafe around the person who has it to hopefully avoid getting hit by it. Prioritize Barons and Counts. Rush mid.

Running into the fire on various maps will put you into the scared state, as well as giving you flame particles. When on fire you will emit light, which means you will be more visible to the dragon, especially on Mystic Grove. Speaking of Mystic Grove, running into the water on this map will extinguish the fire. This will remove the particles and light but keep you in the scared state for the usual duration. Maps that include fire are Throne Room (by the thrones), Mystic Grove (next to tents at spawn and the hill), and Amphitheatre (on the outer raised sections of the map).

If you jump quickly after landing, you can maintain some of your speed. This can be useful for helping you get a little extra speed out of your sprint. It can also be used to carry speed from surfing off of map objects, getting tail whipped, or getting flung by the dragon. By jumping to carry momentum from tail whips or flings you can travel the full distance of a map in a few seconds without needing to use any stamina.

The scared state for the knights does not stack. This means that if you are scared (by fire for example) and then you're scared by the dragon, you won't be scared for an extra seven seconds, instead, when your current scare ends (from the fire) you will immediately be able to regenerate stamina and press the button. You can use this to your advantage by predicting when a dragon will roar, jumping into fire to scare yourself, and then approach the dragon. If you time it right, you can fully avoid the dragons roar and press the button as soon as it finishes roaring.

In 0.14.4.0 they made it so that when scared you will run full speed, this means that you can now sprint at full speed for over 17 seconds by getting scared by sprinting as a Count, getting scared by the dragon, and igniting yourself with fire on one of the maps mentioned above.

Little Crusaders has two Steam leaderboards, Top Total Button Presses and Top Total Kills as Dragon. The despite the Top Total Kills as Dragon leaderboard not specifically stating knights eaten, it only counts knights eaten and knights that are stomped/pancaked do not count towards this leaderboard. The Top Total Button Presses leaderboard is named correctly, so turning off the dragon with Birb or Thyne Sword does not count towards this leaderboard.

If the timer runs out and knights failed to disable the dragon, and the dragon hasn't eaten the knights, it will result in a draw. A round draw will reward the "Thanks For Playing" payout, giving 200 units to both sides. The "Dead Knight Bonus" as well, so they'll get 200 units plus 150 units per knight eaten in the round.

While the button on the dragons back may look small, the hitbox for it is actually quite large. This can be very apparent if you're above the dragon and move your cursor around it and listen for the clicking noise. Because the button hitbox is so easy to hit from above and how hard it is for the dragon to bite knights on a different elevation, being in a position where you are above the dragon is ideal. Furthermore, a good position to be in is one where the dragon has to fly to get to you, giving you the chance to get on the dragons back midair. While airborne the dragon is unable to bite or roar, meaning if you get on top of it, you should have a pretty good chance of pressing the button. So whether you're the dragon or one of the knights, trying to keep the high ground is generally a good strategy.

While bunnyhopping is no longer a thing you can do, there is still a way to maintain stamina while moving quickly as dragon. If you sprint and then jump, both the sprint and jump will use stamina, but after you leave the ground your stamina should stop draining. Once you land, depending on your timing and connection to the host, you can land and jump again and have your stamina start to recharge while you're still moving at a decent speed from doing continuous sprint jumps. Unlike a bunnyhop where you want as little time on the ground as possible, here you do want to make some decent contact so the game will begin recharging your stamina.

Disclaimer: Timings shown are taken from a 60 FPS recording as host. May not be 100% accurate.


The round timer begins at 2 minutes, with 10 seconds being added for every knight killed. After the round ends there is 8 seconds of intermission.

As you rank up, your ability to sprint will gradually improve. While the time it takes for your stamina meter to fully recharge remains the same regardless of rank, the duration of time that you can sprint does improve. Also, crouching while your stamina is regenerating will cause it to recharge quicker.


When roared at, Knights will be in the scared state for 6.5 to 8.66 seconds depending on rank and what put them into the scared state. It takes 3 seconds for all ranks to get back up to full stamina after they exit the scared state.


Taunting lasts for 2.75 seconds, during which you cannot move or press the dragons button. While the Count has a unique taunt, it takes the same amount of time.

The first time Birb is thrown at the dragon it will stun the dragon for 5 seconds. A second throw will disable the dragon no matter where it hits.

If the dragon roars near Birb, balloons will appear for 5 seconds, during which Birb will float into the air. Birb takes about 2 seconds to fall from the top of the map to the lowest point on Amphitheatre.

This section will go over various updates that had notable changes to Little Crusaders.

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