Game guide · updated October 2026
Stake Towers: rules, difficulty levels and odds
Stake Towers asks you to climb a tower one level at a time, picking a safe tile on each row while avoiding the hidden bomb. Every level raises your multiplier and you can cash out whenever you like. Here are the difficulty levels, the maths and the controls.
What is Stake Towers?
Stake Towers, listed on Stake as Dragon Tower, is a climbing game in the Stake Originals range. A tower has several levels, and each level has a row of tiles. Some of the tiles on each row are safe and the rest hide a bomb. You choose one tile per row, starting at the bottom. A safe tile moves you up and raises your multiplier. A bomb ends the round and loses the bet.
You may cash out after any safe pick. The decision to stop or climb is yours alone, and that is the game's entire strategy. It sits between Mines, where you choose how many mines exist on one grid, and Hilo, where you choose when to stop a chain of guesses.
How a round works
- Set your bet amount.
- Choose a difficulty: Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert or Master.
- Press Bet. The tower appears, with the bottom row active.
- Click a tile on the active row. A safe tile reveals and the next row unlocks; a bomb ends the round.
- Cash out at any point after a safe pick, or keep climbing to the top.
A Random Pick button chooses a tile for you. The choice makes no difference to the odds: the bomb positions are set by the provably fair draw, and every tile on a row has the same chance of being safe.
Stake Towers at a glance
- Levels
- Nine rows (maximum multipliers published for each difficulty match nine levels)
- Difficulties
- Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert, Master
- Safe tiles per row
- Easy 3 of 4, Medium 2 of 3, Hard 1 of 2, Expert 1 of 3, Master 1 of 4
- House edge
- About 2% (98% RTP) — stated on Stake's Dragon Tower page; the other Originals are 99%
- Cash out
- After any safe pick
- Modes
- Manual and Auto
- Bet limits
- Minimum, maximum and maximum profit per bet are shown in the game
- Fairness
- Provably fair: bomb positions come from server seed, client seed and nonce
The maths of each difficulty
Each row is an independent chance, so your chance of reaching level n is the single-row chance raised to the power n. The multiplier is about 0.98 divided by that chance. The table below shows the maths for the first levels and for a full nine-level climb:
| Difficulty | Safe chance per row | Multiplier after 3 levels | Chance and multiplier at level 9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 75% | about 2.3× | 7.5%, 13.05× |
| Medium | 66.7% | about 3.3× | 2.6%, 37.67× |
| Hard | 50% | about 7.8× | 0.2%, 501.76× |
| Expert | 33.3% | about 26.5× | 0.005%, 19,289.34× |
| Master | 25% | about 62.7× | 0.0004%, 256,901.12× |
The level-9 multipliers are the maximums published for each difficulty. The level-3 figures are calculated from the row odds, so the game can differ slightly in rounding, and a maximum profit per bet always limits what you can collect. The pattern is what matters. Harder difficulties shrink the survival chance per row sharply, and the multiplier grows to match, so the long-run return is the same 98%.
On Easy, one in four rows is a bomb, so a nine-row climb succeeds only about 7.5% of the time. Even "easy" does not mean likely to reach the top.
When to cash out
Cash-out is the only choice Towers gives you, so it is worth making it on purpose.
Fix your exit before you start
Pick a target level, such as three rows on Medium, and cash out when you reach it. This avoids deciding on feeling, which usually means pushing one level too far after a good run.
Remember that each row resets the choice
After a safe pick your next pick has exactly the same chance as the first. A run of safe tiles does not make a bomb "due" and does not make you "lucky". Cashing out after a safe pick and continuing have equal expected value, since every level is priced at the same 98% return.
Match the difficulty to your session
Easy and Medium suit shorter, steadier sessions with a typical exit of two to four levels. Expert and Master are close to lottery tickets: most rounds end at the first or second row.
Auto-bet in Towers
In the Auto tab you pre-select tiles per level and a number of levels to climb, then choose how many rounds to run. The usual On Win and On Loss controls and Stop on Profit and Stop on Loss limits apply.
Because a round that reaches your chosen level counts as a win, set the climb depth carefully: a high target on Hard or above fails most rounds. Use a finite number of bets and a stop-on-loss. The wider guidance in the glossary covers turnover and variance.
Strategies people try, and why none beats the edge
Always taking the left tile
Tile position is irrelevant. Bomb positions are independent for every row.
Climbing to the top on Easy
The chance is about 7.5% by the maths above. The 13.05× payout compensates for that, not more.
Doubling after a bomb
A bomb on row one is a normal event on harder levels. Doubling the stake after it only enlarges the loss when the streak continues.
Cashing out early every time
This gives many small wins, which feels productive, but the 2% edge still grinds the balance down over many rounds. The Mines strategy guide explains the same trade-off for the grid game.
How to verify a Towers round
Towers is provably fair. Before you play, Stake shows the hash of a server seed it has already chosen. You can set your client seed, and a nonce increases each round. A published HMAC-SHA256 process turns these into the bomb positions on every row. After rotating seeds you see the old server seed and can recompute the whole tower, including the rows you never reached, from an independent verifier. See the provably fair guide.
Pros and cons
- You control when to stop
- Five difficulties scale the volatility widely
- Safe-pick odds are knowable from the difficulty
- Bomb positions can be verified with provably fair seeds
- One bomb loses the entire bet
- The big multipliers need extremely rare climbs
- The 2% edge applies at every level and difficulty
- Round after round of quick climbs adds up in turnover
FAQ
How do you play Towers on Stake?
Choose a difficulty and bet, then click one tile per row going up the tower. Safe tiles raise your multiplier and a bomb ends the round. You can cash out after any safe pick.
What is the RTP of Stake Towers?
Stake's Dragon Tower page states 98% RTP, a 2% house edge, on every difficulty. Confirm in the game.
What is the best difficulty in Stake Towers?
None improves the return. Easy and Medium lose more slowly, Hard and above lose often but pay far more on a successful climb. Choose the one that fits your budget and session.
How many levels are there in Stake Towers?
Nine rows, which is consistent with the maximum multipliers published for each difficulty. The version shown in the game is the one to rely on.
What are the odds of reaching the top of the tower?
They follow from the safe-tile chance per row: about 7.5% on Easy, 2.6% on Medium, 0.2% on Hard, and far below that on Expert and Master.
Does the tile I choose matter?
No. The bomb positions are fixed by the provably fair calculation, and each tile on a row is equally likely to be safe.
Is Stake Towers fair?
It is provably fair. After rotating your seeds you can recompute the bomb positions of any past tower from the server seed, client seed and nonce.
What is the maximum win in Stake Towers?
The multiplier grows with every level and difficulty, but a maximum profit per bet limits the payout. The figure for your currency is shown in the game.
How does Towers compare with Mines?
Both let you cash out after each safe pick. Mines gives you a free grid and a mine count, Towers gives a fixed row structure with five difficulty settings. See the [Mines guide](/stake-mines) for the comparison.