What TimeMelters is
TimeMelters is a strategy hero-defense game where you play as Teagan, a witch who escapes a witch trial and gains powers tied to time travel. Each run builds a new timeline. The core trick is Time Shift: you rewind time and then fight alongside your past self, which is a real recorded copy of what you did rather than an AI helper. That means you can plan a route, let your earlier self hold a position or draw attention, then jump back in and act on top of it. The result is a hybrid of action and strategy played out in real time, where the plan and the execution happen in the same moment.
Missions vary in shape: puzzle maps, boss fights, escort missions and survival stretches, each with its own objective and its own twist on the time mechanic. You also get a skill tree that changes how your spells upgrade, so builds can lean toward different kinds of magic as you go.
Playing the campaign with friends
The full campaign can be played solo or with one friend online, two players total, using the free Friends Pass. Co-op mechanics like aggro and support are part of the design, and the game notes that you experience those co-op dynamics even when playing alone, since your past self fills that role. The Speedrun Mode is also available with a friend through the Friends Pass.
Playing together suits groups who want to split attention across a fight: one player can hold ground or draw enemies while the other repositions, then both rewind and layer their actions. Since past selves are deterministic, you can agree on a sequence beforehand and know exactly what your earlier run will do when you rejoin it.
Before you start
The campaign carries a story built around time travel, with twists and reveals as its main draw, so going in blind works better than reading ahead. Alongside it sit two extra modes: Challenge Mode, which holds over 40 puzzles built around 4D thinking, and Speedrun Mode with leaderboards for chasing fast clear times.
One thing to know about the team behind it: TimeMelters was made by an indie team of three people who put innovative mechanics ahead of AAA graphics. Expect the systems and the time manipulation to be where the effort went. The game also ships with an original soundtrack covering the campaign's bigger moments.