A somewhat more involved proposal

[MTaur]

A glance at the leaderboard has proved time and again that MTaur plays very slowly. 25 minute or so per win, thereabouts. (I resigned on my very first DERP after I derped and took a punishment early. I didn't realize that there were no redos of the daily, so whoops! Should've stuck with it...)

Anyway, I was thinking that a time pressure mode would be useful. This could force players to learn how to think fast. Playing well and playing fast are two different things that can be hard to simultaneously optimize.

Scheme 1: X seconds allowed between hostile actions. If you don't do something, you automatically attack the lowest-level enemy you can reach, like it or not!

Scheme 2: An initial time reserve Z increases by Delta each time you commit a hostile action.

Scheme 3: Like one of the above, except you take HP/MP damage when the timer goes out.

Scheme 4 (Wizard Needs Exploration Tiles Badly): No timer resets at all. You are dying slowly. Win while you can.

[Tinker]

A lot of players are already playing fast, doing what they can to win at the Completion Time metric. If this is important for you, you can do the same, without prescribing it for anyone else (just like how now you are permitted to play slow without any repercussions, aside of falling behind in the Completion Time metric). Furthermore, the whole population of players each day has something like 35% win rate, based on a cursory glance, would you really propose to introduce something that makes winning even more difficult? If anything, most players would probably welcome things that make winning easier...

[MTaur]

[fall_ark]

[MTaur]

[Darvin]

While these are interesting challenges, I doubt they would help people learn how to play fast. Playing fast isn't about moving quickly, it's about thinking quickly. The reason I'm so fast isn't because I'm clicking like a maniac, but rather because I'm always thinking about my next move before I'm finished my current one. Putting time pressures like a depleting life bar or timer is just going to stress people out and prevent them from getting in that calm analytical mindset you need to do this. The mistake people make is that they try to be the proverbial hare, when in fact you want to be the proverbial tortoise.

What you need to practice isn't rushing yourself, but rather pacing yourself. If you find yourself sitting idle doing nothing then the damage is already done. You need to be thinking and planning ahead at all times, and by honing that technique speed will come naturally. That's not to say you'll never stop moving. If you uncover a game-changing boss like Frank then it's understandable that would change your plans a bit. However, the same principles apply; figure out what you're going to do first, start doing it, but keep thinking ahead as to what your next moves are going to be.

[MTaur]

At the moment, I'm thinking more along the lines that when you unlock Golem Clockworker, you unlock the Tower of Time vicious dungeon.

Golem Clockworker: Not a clockwork golem, this golem is actually made out of stone, wood, and a little bit of flesh here and there. But no gears, at least not anyplace anyone has been permitted to look. This golem works on clocks.

Conversion: One tile of exploration does not heal monsters per 15 CP. (I have no idea how to balance this, compared to Goatperson, for example) (Cost could be A + BN for the (N+1)th bonus, if the cost is better off scaling)

Thymewalk - The spices of time favor you. When you consume a Death Protection, you take no damage from the attack (instead of dropping to 1hp). Starts with Cydstep.
Merlin's Sickness - You strike before equal-level or higher-level monsters, and monsters of lower level strike before you. (Overridden by First Strike the same as before)
Economancy - Gold is integer-valued (i.e., can be negative). You may purchase items that cost more than your gold total as long as your gold total is non-negative.

[MTaur]

[Tinker]