Astral Ascent News

So... last time we announced this Update to be ready by May 15 but we are actually ahead of our plannings so the Update is live... now for you to play! Including -

0.44 Steam Patch Notes - https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1280930/view/3699187161343049277



[h2]Elites rework [/h2]
We have reworked all existing elite modifiers and added many new ones for a total of 13 Elite modifiers now including passive elements like Armor and Regeneration too.



Among the reworked elements we improved the rotating lasers as we knew many of you had issues with them and we completely removed the modifiers making nearby enemies invincible.



There are even 2 modifiers happening on Death of enemies so be careful about icons! (Do not worry we made sure these elements could not happen in Eclipse Room so you can enjoy you Eclipse Room victories peacefully!)
The spawn rates and amount of modifiers has changed a little and we hope you will enjoy these new encounters!

[h2]New room type - Eclipse Room[/h2]
Talking about Elites, we created a new room dedicated to them : the Eclipse Room, this room gives you more Keys & more Stars than any Fight Room but it is also a much harder battle.



These rooms have 3 waves and at least 3 Elites in them, they also have traps. It can be very dangerous but you can also take advantage of it by exposing enemies to the traps!



As Eclipse Room is for experienced players, you will need to defeat a world 4 boss (Libra or Aquarius) before being able to get them in your runs.



[h2]Oloon extended[/h2]
As you saw, Oloon is the face of this new update and we made quite a lot of changes there! It used to be very complicated to have style with old colors, they were too flashy, complicated to match and there was not enough of them.
That's why we added many new colors AND a new category of colors.

• Ayla pants
  
• Kiran shoes & belt
  
• Octave boots & belt
  
• Calie pants
  

New colors are way more natural and allow for much more variations. Oloon is pleased of your style and we hope you will be too! It will now require 144 Yalee tickets to get all colors!



[h2]Sun Room Rework[/h2]
Another major rework from this update is about Sun Room. When you arrive you will be asked to choose among all elemental affinities we have in the game.



Then one gambit for each sub category of the elemental affinity will be spawned. These gambits are special, we have created a new type of gambit named Elemental Gambit that allows you to change a spell affinity to the affinity of this gambit.



To sum up how things work : when you go to the Sun room you are guaranteed to have any sub-category Gambit you could want as Myhic quality. If you want to build Sapling you can get a Mythic Sapling gambit there and this gambit will also change your spell affinity to Poison.
What it means is that you can find nice Fire gambits and start equiping them on a spell that is not of Fire affinity and then later change the affinity of this spell to Fire in the Sun room.



Regarding the elemental affinities we have also made a change, Neutrals affinity used to work with any types of gambits but they are now only working with gambits that are not from the 4 main elements.
The bonus damage for having 4 of the same gambits in the right affinity spell has also changed from +100% to +50%.



[h2]Many new Perks for heroes[/h2]
With all the new effects we introduced in last update we did not have time to add perks related to all of them (Ice Swords, Meteors etc).



By adding these new perks we have also reworked and added some other perks for this update. For example, Octave can now summon several Bellators at once but they will be on self-destruction mode.



Heroes Signature Spells should now be a more reliable way to trigger synergies by equipping perks.



[h2]Debug and QoL changes[/h2]
We have also addressed many bugs reports and added some quality of life changes that you requested such as being able to preview Auras upgrade anytime from loots and from inventory.




[h2]What is coming with next update?[/h2]
This update is smaller than Auras update but it is also smaller than next update that will be about Zim-Zim and NG+!
We are going to fully rework the NG+ system, adding way more elements and a different progression system making Destiny Levels a part of global runs experience and giving real incentives to collect Destiny Fragments from Zodiacs.




Everything is designed but there is a lot to do, you can expect this Update to release in second part of June!

As always, thanks a lot for supporting us through this journey and let us know if you enjoy this update or if you want to share the best Oloon color changes outfit you made!

Have a great week,

- The Hibernian Workshop Team

⭐Changes inspired by our community!

[h2]Major Features[/h2]

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• New room type - Eclipse Room: We added a brand new room type that should make runs more challenging. Eclipse Rooms are a harder version of fight rooms with extra obstacles, but it'll offer big rewards for the risk taken
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• Reworked room - The Sun: The Sun room content has been reworked. It now offers a pick for a new loot added in game, Elemental Gambits. This is a rare room that should show as a option alongside other bonus rooms
  [hr][/hr]
• New loot - Elemental Gambits: New type of Gambit that can be equipped into spells to change their elemental affinity. You should be able to find this new loot in the reworked Sun room
  [hr][/hr]
• Rework spell Neutral element: Spells with neutral element type should get a damage boost from equipping only neutral gambits. It should make neutral spells work in the same way as other elemental spells, instead of receiving a smaller damage boost for any gambit
  [hr][/hr]
• community inspired ⭐ Added/Reworked elite enemy modifiers: We reworked the enemy elite modifiers system polishing old modifiers, removing some of them and adding new ones. You should be able to look into the reworked effects accessing the in-game glossary
  [hr][/hr]
• Added/Rework perks for heroes: We reworked and added some perks for each playable character to follow up the recent updates that added new auras and effects in the game. The heroes Signature Move should now be a more reliable way to trigger synergies by equipping perks into it
  [hr][/hr]
• community inspired ⭐ Kiran's Signature Move balance and fixes: • Reduced cooldown
  • Increased range of the hit area to trigger the counter
  • Fixed a bug that could cause the counter not to trigger after defending a attack
  [hr][/hr]
• Oloon new category & new colors: One new color type at Oloon's and many new colors, update Bapy's achievement accordingly
  

[h2]Small Features[/h2]

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• Players are briefly invulnerable right after finishing a fight room
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• Camera changes for better readability in Yalee Kingdom, Sun & Moon rooms
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• Common spells are now linked to their affinity (example, fireball will always have fire affinity), on the opposite all hero spells can now have any affinity so they can all work with your target builds
  [hr][/hr]
• community inspired ⭐ Portals found on end of rooms are now displaying on increasing order of difficulty - ☄️ hotfix 0.44.1
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• Small changes on camera zone around end of level portals to make it feel more smooth and responsive - ☄️ hotfix 0.44.1
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• Hitting a Crystal jumper with a basic attack prevents basic attack spam by holding the attack button. This should give players more control about when to trigger Crystal jump behavior - ☄️ hotfix 0.44.1

[h2]Balancing[/h2]

[hr][/hr]
• Balanced the spell damage boost gained from elemental affinity of equipped gambits
  [hr][/hr]
• Re-balanced several Auras
  [hr][/hr]
• Complete re-balance of all spells depending of their mana cost and number of hits
  [hr][/hr]
• Calie base attack speed has been slightly increased
  [hr][/hr]
• Balance Perks of Kiran:
  - Life Fist of Cool: increased life restored from 2 to 4
  - Cheerful Fist: increased Yalee from 1 to 3
  - Mana Fist: increased Mana restored from 1 to 3
  - Fairy Fist: increased Whisp summons from 1 to 3
  - Nimbus Fist: increased Nimbus summons from 1 to 3
  - Flaky Punch: increased Snowflakes number from 2 to 6
  - Sharp Ice Punch: increased Ice Sword number from 3 to 4
  - Light Orb Knuckle: increased Thunder Orb number from 2 to 3
  - Sparkling Punch: increased Spark number from 3 to 8
  - Meteor Punch: increased Meteor number from 2 to 5
  - Mind Sword Palm: increased Spirit sword summons from 1 to 2
  - Terra Fist: increased Sapling summons from 3 to 7
  - Col, Col Fist: increased Ice Fragment number from 3 to 5
  - Blob Fist: increased Slime number from 3 to 5
  - Sharp Ice Punch: increased Ice Sword from 4 to 6
  - Ember Fist: increased Ember number from 4 to 6
  - Icecraft punch: increased Ice Idole number from 2 to 3
  - Thunder Jab: increased Thunder Strike number from 1 to 3
  - Light Orb Knuckle: increased Lightning Orb number from 3 to 5
  - Mush Punch: increased Toxic Gas number from 1 to 2
  - Pew Pew Punch: increased Missiles number from 4 to 8
  - Brut Fist of Doom: increase % Damage from 25 to 50
  - Crazy Pumping Fist: increase % Damage from 50 to 75
  - Double Whammy: increased CD from 3 to 5 seconds - ☄️ hotfix 0.44.1
  [hr][/hr]
• Balance Perks of Ayla:
  - Shadow mastery: Reduce Signature Spell CD from 99 to 4 seconds and the cd increase has been removed
  - Eagle instinct: reduction of cd increase from 6 to 3 seconds - ☄️ hotfix 0.44.1
  [hr][/hr]
• Elite modifier increasing strength of enemies has been greatly reduced - ☄️ hotfix 0.44.1

[h2]Interface[/h2]

[hr][/hr]
• Added a option to preview upgraded versions of auras. This should be possible to do either in player's inventory and on Aura's altar
  [hr][/hr]
• Reworked all Perks, Gambits and most Auras descriptions to be clearer
  [hr][/hr]
• The cooldown time displayed in Signature Spell interface, on inventory, display real cooldown value affected by other equipped abilities - ☄️ hotfix 0.44.1

[h2]Visuals[/h2]

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• Sylvanian thorn attack feedbacks are now behind players
  [hr][/hr]
• Improved feedback of NG+ missile
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

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• community inspired ⭐ Triggering an action that could heal player while it was dead could cause gameover not to trigger, resulting in a softlock
  [hr][/hr]
• community inspired ⭐ It was possible to kill the dummy in Leo's challenge if you dealt enough damage
  [hr][/hr]
• community inspired ⭐ It was possible to exploit unfinished refresh of itinerant merchant altars on andromeda's bar by entering and leaving the bar's inside
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• community inspired ⭐ It was possible to spawn multiple of the same aura in Yalee's kingdom room
  [hr][/hr]
• Fixed a small glitch that could happen with camera when finishing a fight room while too close to camera limit borders
  [hr][/hr]
• The text from equipped stats stones could display with the wrong color
  [hr][/hr]
• Enemies could prevent you from climbing small walls by pushing out while you climb
  [hr][/hr]
• Ice spell 38 was sometimes dealing twice its damage
  [hr][/hr]
• Octave base spell could hit NG+ phantom enemies
  [hr][/hr]
• Some enemies attack were not reduced by Pacification
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• Aura effect that would trigger embers om Wisps hit would not work after stacking other auras modifiers on Wisp attacks. - ☄️ hotfix 0.44.1
  [hr][/hr]
• community inspired ⭐ Possible crash when leaving Andromeda's bar after spamming the action input there - ☄️ hotfix 0.44.1
  [hr][/hr]
• Formatting issues could cause Gambits descriptions to have adicional spaces between words - ☄️ hotfix 0.44.1
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• The elite modifiers that buffs enemy damage didn't scale with the modifier level correctly - ☄️ hotfix 0.44.1
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• community inspired ⭐ Fixed issues on system to prevent spawn of repeated Auras in the same layout - ☄️ hotfix 0.44.1
  [hr][/hr]
• Zodiacs would sometimes not trigger real time dialogs during fights - ☄️ hotfix 0.44.1
  [hr][/hr]
• community inspired ⭐ It was possible to softlock intro tutorial about healing life by spam killing dummies and fully restoring life without using heal from Crystal shards - ☄️ hotfix 0.44.1

- The Hibernian Workshop Team

• Discord Server
• Twitter Account
• Official Store

Time flies! That's right, we released Astral Ascent exactly 365 days ago! So, as Kiran says, it's our One Year Anniversary! 🎉

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Yes, Kiran & Ayla will have an introduction cinematic as we did for Octave & Calie!

First thing first, I would really like to fully appreciate how much the game changed since April 12 2022, the amount of changes is really big including -

• 2 new worlds
  
• 2 new playable heroes
  
• Many new rooms
  
• Major reworks like Auras' one
  
• Countless iterations and polish all around
  

All these changes contributed making the game much better than it used to be and, honestly, much better than what we imagined! We hope it's better thanks to all the great feedback we receive daily but also because everyone in the team is having so much fun playing Astral Ascent.

All the updates we made improved the game and even if we initially announced a final release to be Q3-Q4 2023, we think we should aim a Q1 2024 final release in order to have enough time to properly polish every elements.

We hope you will understand this change of plans but be sure that this is for the best of the game. Whole team is working their absolutely best to deliver the best possible game but we are a small team and we do not want to compromise game's quality or push ourselves too hard to release later this year.

This is actually great news because it will allow us to improve everything you are waiting for and even more. So, what is next?

Next month - May 15 - we will be releasing an update including -

• Rework of Sun Room - you will be able to change your spells affinity there now
  
• Re-balancing of spells and new Perks
• Bug Fixing
• Elite modifiers polish
• Red Fight Rooms - a new type of challenges during runs
  
• Oloon will have one more category and many new colors for better customisation

Then the next month - end of June - we will be releasing a major Update, this one will be focused on NG+ and Zim-Zim experience.

We do not want to spoil too much but Zim-Zim should have a second version where you will be able to pay new upgrades with Destiny Fragments so farming NG+ will now have a purpose and you will also become stronger by farming NG+.

Each level of NG+ will now be unlocked by completing the previous one instead of having to collect enough Destiny fragments and we will change NG+ structure, levels and elements.

We have many more things planned but we prefer not giving a too precise roadmap and being able to adjust things if needed but you will have an update every 1.5 months approximatively. And we also have really exciting plans for post 1.0 Updates!


Thanks again for supporting us in this amazing journey and have a great day!

- The Hibernian Workshop Team

⭐Changes inspired by our community!

[h2]Balancing[/h2]

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• Ice fragments: Balanced ice fragments so it can bounce less times on screen before vanishing.
  [hr][/hr]
• community inspired ⭐ Dash attack exploit: It was possible to be fully invincible with a bug exploit related to dash.
  [hr][/hr]
• Aura Adjustment: We balanced some of the auras using the following effects: Wisp, Fireshield, Ice fragments, Ice sword, Spark, nimbus, thunder strike, slime, meteor, max mana, missiles, spirit sword
  [hr][/hr]
• Gambit Adjustment: We balanced some of the gambits using the following effects: Slime, Ember, Wisp, Nimbus, Ice Fragment, Missiles, Spirit sword, Yalee
  [hr][/hr]
• Ayla perks: Re-balanced some Ayla perks
  [hr][/hr]
• Slot unlocker price: Slot unlocker price on itinerant merchant is now balanced with current worlds
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

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• community inspired ⭐ Scorpio could launch multiple different attacks when starting a fight, causing weird behaviors
  [hr][/hr]
• Scorpio's Zodiac spell, found on moon room, would not carry effects from equipped gambits
  

- The Hibernian Workshop Team

• Discord Server
• Twitter Account
• Official Store

First of all, thanks for the great reception of the World 4 Update! It has been by far the most appreciated of our updates since we launched Early Access back in April 2022. Everyone has enjoyed playing Calie, fighting the new Zodiacs and the new direction for game progression that felt more coherent and less chaotic.

It feels like everything is nicely coming together but we are not done yet! Today we release a new update, one of many planned before the Final Release of the game anticipated to be Q4 2023.

These upcoming updates, as well as today's one, are focusing on what is feeling to be the most urgent elements to work on at a specific state of the game. In this case we received a lot of feedback about how complicated it felt to make meaningful & varied builds in the game, so let's discover together what are the changes we made to improve this.

Complete Patch Notes to read -
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1280930/view/3691300790688811125


We have added a rarity system for Auras, similar to what is already in place for Gambits. We made it so you will find rarer Auras in each new world, this way you always improve your build through the runs instead of having always the same possible elements in each worlds.





There are 4 rarities for the Auras -

• Common - white
  
• Rare - blue
  
• Mythic - orange
  
• Astral - purple
  

Common, Rare and Mythics exist with better and additional effects depending of their rarities.




On the other side Astral Auras are extremeley rare but have very unique effects that can litteraly change your runs. You can even find them in World 1 if you are lucky but your chances increase when you go to next worlds.






The Common and Rare auras can be upgraded through a new system called the Aura Upgrader.





This new element allows you to upgrade -

• a Common aura into a Rare aura
  
• a Rare aura into a Mythic aura
  

It does not pick a random higher rarity Aura, it is the same Aura that evolves into a better version. It is free to use in Andromeda's bar but you can only use it 2 times in a run (or 4 times in co-oop). We did that so when you find a Common aura that you like in World 1, you are guaranteed to be able to have its Mythic version at the end of your run and be able to build around it if you wish to.
But you are also free to keep it to upgrade new ones later or even salvage it to get a drink from Andromeda.
In addition to that, we have created more effects for each elemental families -

• Poison Meteors
  
• Poison Explosions
  
• Ice Swords
  
• Lightning Strike
  
• Fire Shield
  

There is also some new non-elemental effects unique to certain Astral Auras.










We have also improved existing ones visually and on their gameplay. Most of them now have possible new synergies like an Aura spawning Ice Sword when breaking Targets or the possibility to create Fire slimes or Giant slimes (or both!)














We had about 40 Auras that had little to no synergy with other elements, we removed most of them to create 250 new Auras. They are meant to create fun builds that will use your gambits & prowesses as much as possible. To us, this is the progression element that was missing to link every systems together in a coherent way!











Oh and yes we have made new Gambits for all the new effects that we implemented! Speaking of gambits we have made their icons and spells icons visible even when they are closed so you can know about them even before opening them, it made building much faster and game needed to be faster now that you need time to think to make your builds.




We have increased the number of spells to 20 unique spells per hero, Kiran & Ayla in particular really deserved more attention as their spells were created a long time ago.










We kept as much as possible what makes each hero unique -

• Ayla low mana costs spells & high mobility,
  
• Kiran's raw power,
  
• Octave's mobility, long range & speed
  
• Calie's versatility
  

That being said, we have tried to give a bit of everything to each hero!










These new spells make us reach more than 130 spells in the game right now as you can see with the icons -






A lot of things have changed in the progression as you can see right there!





That's right, merchants will now be in Andromeda's bar! Why? Because it allows you to build all at once and it prevents breaking the flow of the run when starting a new world. It also allows you to better prepare for boss fights! (They are no longer there at the start of each new world)

Removing one room per world allows us to have 2 special rooms per world instead of one (Cetus, Pavo, Yalee Kingdom, Forge etc.) so you will now meet more special rooms.

Speaking of special rooms, the Echo Isles (where you get NPC summons) are no longer linked to Minibosses rooms because it was complicated to understand and many players would not do these fights and miss the Echo Isles room that is crucial for progression.

The new synergies and more special rooms make you stronger than before and we had to increase enemies health points to balance the game - Building is now an important part of the game progression so we expect players to feel weak if they did not build correctly or on the opposite strong if they found good synergies!

Additionally, Gambits and Auras now become rarer with each new world and the rarest can be found in Minibosses instead of Zodiacs as Zodiacs will now give a choice of rarer Auras.


We hope you will enjoy all this new content coming for Astral Ascent, there is still a lot more that we would like to take time to improve before final release including Zim-Zim, Minibosses, Echoes, Elites, Andromeda challenges and much more!

The very next update might be lighter than this one because we also need to make progress on the final release content including missing Zodiacs, final boss and reworked narration (a lot of changes are moving for narration!)

We hope you will have fun in the game with this update and as always do not hesitate to share the game if you like it, it is extremely appreciated!

Have a great day,

- The Hibernian Workshop Team