Tears of Metal combines fast-paced hack-and-slash combat with roguelike progression systems. Players control a playable hero and cut through hordes of enemies across large battlefields, making strategic decisions about artifact combinations and soldier management between each run.
Combat
Each playable hero has a distinct combat style with a set of escalating attacks. Combat takes place across vast battlefields filled with waves of enemies. Players can chain attacks, utilize hero abilities, and leverage artifact bonuses to overcome increasingly difficult encounters. The game supports both solo play and online co-op with up to three additional players.
Campaign Structure
Each Early Access campaign run is divided into three Acts. Every Act features its own set of enemies, tougher Elite foes, and a Boss encounter at its conclusion, so the difficulty and enemy variety escalate as players advance from one Act to the next. The first Act culminates in the boss Gilles the Hog. Paper Cult describes the Early Access build as fully playable from beginning to end, with the complete progression loop available at launch.
Artifacts and Builds
The artifact system is central to Tears of Metal's roguelike structure. Players discover and collect more than 100 artifacts throughout each run, combining them with upgrades to create distinctive builds. Since artifacts are acquired differently from run to run, each campaign offers a different combination of powers and synergies. Finding strong artifact combinations is key to surviving the later stages of each run.
Soldiers and Permanent Progression
Players recruit soldiers to form their Scottish battalion and can grant them permanent skill upgrades as they survive campaigns and gain experience. Soldiers who fall in battle are lost permanently, so protecting experienced troops matters across multiple runs. Between campaigns, players return to their settlement to manage their battalion, equip upgrades, and prepare for the next assault.
Settlement
The settlement serves as the home base between campaigns. By investing in settlement expansion, players unlock new shops offering permanent upgrades, additional challenge modes, and other gameplay options. The settlement grows over time as players complete runs and meet special objectives, providing a persistent layer of progression that carries across individual roguelike runs. Alongside the battalion, players manage companions, a roster of allies confirmed as one of the core systems available in the Early Access build.
Emblems and Charms
Players wield power from clan-based Emblem families. The public demo featured four incomplete families, while the full game is planned to include eight base Emblem families, each with tiers from 1 to 3 plus unique Emblems that create synergies between families. Completing in-game challenges unlocks more than 30 Charms, which are purchased with challenge rewards and provide additional bonuses and customization options. Paper Cult has indicated that more Emblems and Charms will be added during the Early Access period.
Challenge Shop
After defeating a boss, players can access the Challenge Shop, which provides high-risk, high-reward scenarios for solo or co-op play. This mode is designed to test player skill and offer greater rewards than standard campaign runs.
Special Objectives
Throughout each campaign, players encounter special objectives beyond defeating enemies. Completing these objectives reveals new secrets about the Dragon Stone Meteor, unlocks new playable characters, grants artifacts, and rewards cosmetics. These objectives provide additional replayability and discovery across multiple runs.
Environments
The game features over 45 handcrafted locations, each with varied objectives, enemy compositions, and secrets to uncover. Environments range across the Scottish island setting and grow increasingly difficult as players advance deeper into the campaign.