Astral Ascent News

⭐Changes inspired by our community!

[h2]Major Features[/h2]

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• Damage Meter System: See each element dealing damage in real time for current room and for your whole escape attempt
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• New Exploration Rooms: 10 new Rooms to find in each world
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• New Zim-Zim ability: Small Astral Dragon: You will be able to interact with the Small Astral Dragon in first room and start your run with one of 2 auras (rarity increases with each tier at Zim-Zim)
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• Telluric Yalee: If you defeated the Master the first time, you will be able to interact with the Telluric Yalee in the Telluric Ruins, you can reset your starting spells choices if you want to with sun pieces
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• Japanese Voices: Full implementation of Japanese Voice Over
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• Implementation of Backup system to prevent losing saves if game quits at a very bad moment
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• New Translation: Game translated in Brazilian/Portuguese
  

[h2]Small Features[/h2]

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• Merchants now have 4 gambits altar instead of 3 to make finding your build easier
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• Ayla's signature spell now deals instant damage to avoid canceling by mistake if the player moves
  

[h2]Balancing[/h2]

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• Balanced Armor Stones/Drinks drop chances
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• Echoes: Increased cooldown of multiple Echoes:
  - Sova feather tornado
  - Ikki Regeneration Pack
  - Oloon Secret Recipe
  - Yalee's Warm Aura
  
  - Poetic Pedler's chance: Increased required quartz
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• Auras: Reduced armor on certain auras:
  
  - Igneous Shield II-III
  - Scale Armor I-II-III
  - Iron Armor I-II-III
  - Cetus Secret
  - Pink Pulsar
  
  - Seal of the Storm Lord: Reduced damage for all nimbus active by 20% to 10%
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• Effects: Nimbus: Slight damage reduction
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• Spells: Kiran:
  - Twin Dragon Uppercut: Increased damage
  
  Ayla:
  - Unrelenting Tornado: Increased damage and increased movespeed during the spell
  - Astral Powder: Mana now costs 2 instead of 1 but damage is significantly increased
  
  Calie:
  - Topaz Gladius - Onslaught: Increased movespeed during the spell
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• Void Catalyst: Zodiac's Embleme: Reduced % of charge per tier
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• Prowess: Weakening symbol: reduced damage on the Ayla mark
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• Bapy Achievements: Guardian Angel: The number of encounters with the chosen sign has been reduced
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• Increased the spawn rate for encounter the chosen sign
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• Stars balancing: astral spirit 4 -> 3
  shadow clones 6 -> 0
  minibosses 8 -> 4
  zodiacs
  - w1 10 -> 8
  - w2 12 -> 10
  - w3 14 -> 12
  - w4 24 -> 18
  
  aura salvage
  - common 4 -> 3
  - rare 5 -> 4
  - mythic 6 -> 5
  - astral 12 -> 6
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• Stars balancing: aura salvage
  - astral 6 -> 10 - ☄️ hotfix 1.1.0.2
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• Armor Drinks/Stones: Spawn chances for drink/stones armor back to values from 1.0 release - ☄️ hotfix 1.1.0.2

[h2]Level Design[/h2]

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• You fall from less high in the Elite Rooms
  

[h2]Music & SFX[/h2]

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• Fire Geysers in the Red Barrens volumes is a bit lower now
  

[h2]Interface[/h2]

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• Increased width of many titles (for example it was too small in French for Pavo's title)
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• Added a new settings choice under gameplay option to disable damage texts
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• community inspired ⭐ In Destiny Levels 1 or more, you now have a display of current Destiny Level on interface
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• New launch screen asking you to choose the voice-over language you want - can always be changed in options
  

[h2]Visuals[/h2]

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• Reduced brightness when hitting enemies and reduced opacity of visual FX when hitting enemies for better lisibility
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• Death visual FX on enemies is now behind everything for better lisibility and has some random colors
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• Reduced some spells/ visuals to make them more visible
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• Gambits altars at merchants now show their elemental affinity instead of their rarity to make finding the right elements to build easier and faster
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• Reduced visuals intensity of Ignition on enemies for better lisibility
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• Kiran Spells:
  - Lightspeed Fist: Visuals have been reduced for better lisibility
  
  Common spells:
  -Quicksiler: Visuals have been reduced for better lisibility
  
  Zodiacs summons:
  Virgo: Visuals have been reduced and improved for better lisibility on players basic attacks
  
  Effects:
  Thunder dash: Visuals have been reduced for better lisibility
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• Combustions explosion visuals have been reduced for better lisibility
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• Poison ticks on enemies visuals have been improved and are better for lisibility
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• Particles on spells for : lifesteal / burn / poison / electrify / pacification and vulnerability have been visually improved and are now always behind everything for better lisibility
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• Color of critical drink on Andromeda's bar color has been improved
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• Increased transparency for the all Hit Fx to improve lisibility
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• Visuals change in the background of ""outline choice"" layout
  

[h2]Narrative Design[/h2]

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• community inspired ⭐ Many differences between text and dialogs fixed
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• community inspired ⭐ Many typos fixed
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• community inspired ⭐ Improvement of Simplified and Traditional Chinese translations
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

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• In Coop, player 1 would always have priority when being over stone altars
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• In Coop, player 2 interacting with a stone altar while player 1 was also on stone altar would equip the stone to player 1
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• community inspired ⭐ Softlock possible when double interact on Papa Yalee's interface
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• community inspired ⭐ You could get stuck by dashing at the beginning of an Elite Room
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• community inspired ⭐ Void Catalyst descriptions had codes elements in Russian
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• community inspired ⭐ Lava Scorpios in the red barrens red feedback would not disappear if they were interrupted before launching their attacks
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• community inspired ⭐ Aries could get stuck in the ceiling if player was too high during her grab attack
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• community inspired ⭐ Brazilian/Portuguese didn't have last version update - ☄️ hotfix 1.1.0.1
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• community inspired ⭐ Re-increased Armor Stones/Drinks chances a little - ☄️ hotfix 1.1.0.1
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• community inspired ⭐ Using the Small Astral Dragon could make you loose all your Sun Pieces - ☄️ hotfix 1.1.0.1
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• community inspired ⭐ Removed Sun Pieces counter when being near Small Astral Dragon - ☄️ hotfix 1.1.0.1

- The Hibernian Workshop Team

• Discord Server
• Twitter Account
• Official Store

Hello everyone!

Today we celebrate our 1 month anniversary since the 1.0 release ːzimzimSmileː

We are still overwhelmed by all the positive feedback we receive, thanks so much for that!

This reception motivated us to keep improving Astral Ascent so we decided to publish our 2024 Roadmap that was influenced by the answers we received from a poll we made on our Discord server.



The Roadmap can still change but will remain similar to this. But before all this new content we would like to focus a bit more on what is coming up next week, on December 21st - the Damage Meter Update!

• A new Damage Meter system so you will know exactly what deals what damage at anytime.
  
• Full Japanese Voice-Over, "anime roguelite" is becoming real
  
• Translation of the game in PT/BR
• 10 new exploration rooms per worlds
• A mini dragon in first Intro Room giving an Aura choice right away to orient your build (Zim-Zim upgrade)
  
• Possibility to reset Telluric Ruins spells with Sun Pieces
  
• A lot of debug and balancing
  

Complete damage meter menu

Small damage overlay of either global damage / current room damage or turned off.

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We think this system is something very interesting to implement for people enjoying making builds. We are having tons of fun playing with it to see what is making damage and how synergies/builds work together but of course this is also going to show what is too weak or too strong so you can expect a lot of balancing to happen after this update!

We are reading all your feedback about the game, we saw a lot of feedback about lisibility and we improved a lot of things regarding it (including a new option to turn off the damage numbers) and the difficulty to create coherent builds (we added some elements above but we have also added one more gambit altar at the Merchant for example)

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Thanks a lot and have a fantastic day!


- The Hibernian Workshop Team

⭐Changes inspired by our community!

[h2]Small Features[/h2]

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• Added brief tutorial explaining the intent of Gemini challenge
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• Tutorial loot spell cannot have a gambit anymore now
  

[h2]Balancing[/h2]

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• Gemini time between attack has been slightly increased
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• Heroes dialogs played while sitting on a bench are triggered more often
  

[h2]Music & SFX[/h2]

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• Reduce Spirit Sword spawn sound
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• Shadow Clones death SFX was saturated
  

[h2]Interface[/h2]

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• Increased window size for Key Chests
  

[h2]Visuals[/h2]

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• Gemini falling clones attack visual for the right clone has been increased
  

[h2]Narrative Design[/h2]

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• Typo of ""damages"" instead of ""damage"" fixed in several cases
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• ""Shooting Star"" at Aura Refiner was not translated in several languages
  

[h2]Miscellaneous[/h2]

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• Wrong description for steam achievement ""Beyond Horizon - Success an escape at Destiny Level 15+""
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• Japanese is now displayed 日本語 instead of 日本 in Main Menu
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• Updated Credits for backers names
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

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• Steam achievement ""Multi-Classed"" would not trigger correctly when buying Andromeda's drinks
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• Aquarius hit ground fury attack FX were not well positioned
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• Bellators would incorrectly target Ophiuchus during their special attack
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• During specific actions players could get locked outside of the fight arena in the last boss fight
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• Octave's shadow clone Bellator could follow the player during Andromeda's challenge.
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• Kiran's ""Double Whammy!"" perk, which cause it's counter to play twice, would trigger the effect incorrectly when being casted as player 2 during co-op
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• Steam achievement ""Pushing Limits"" would not unlock after upgrading a spell to level 15.
  

- The Hibernian Workshop Team

• Discord Server
• Twitter Account
• Official Store

⭐Changes inspired by our community!

[h2]Small Features[/h2]

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• Added ambient SFX on The Void room
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• Readjusted tutorial about NG+ content to hint the player what should be done after finishing a run
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• Increased number of Auras loot in Exploration Rooms
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• Removed Steam Achievement : Stubborn Prisoner because it was forcing to play not in Destiny Levels to get it and was unfair for good players
  

[h2]Balancing[/h2]

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• Auras balancing: Guardian Shield I: Reduced duration of shield by 3 to 2 seconds and increased CD by 17 to 25 seconds
  Guardian Shield II: Reduced duration of shield by 3 to 2 seconds and increased CD by 15 to 23 seconds
  Guardian Shield III: Reduced duration of shield by 3 to 2 seconds and increased CD by 12 to 20 seconds
  
  Advanced Wizardry III: Reduced Attack speed buff by 6 to 4 seconds
  
  Nimbus Revenge III: Reduced Attack speed buff for each Nimbus by 5 to 3%
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• Increased HP for Astral Spirits
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• community inspired ⭐ Wooden Guardian in World 1 can spawn maximum 2 Black Seeds (instead of 3 maximum) when launching crystals while in Destiny Level 1+
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• Cancer has now 2 invulnerability moments and recharge his Ultimate faster from 55 seconds to 45 seconds
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• Balanced Sculptor that was too hard compared to other Star Guardians
  

[h2]Level Design[/h2]

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• Modified Level Design in end of Areas
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• community inspired ⭐ Modified level design of one Exploration Room where you could get stuck when spawning and dashing very fast.
  

[h2]Music & SFX[/h2]

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• Balanced sound volume for ""Thousand Knives"" and some Taurus attacks
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• Oloon first dialog with Kiran had an unmixed line of dialog
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• Polished sound of Heroes Clones defeat
  

[h2]Interface[/h2]

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• Polish of some Auras descriptions
  

[h2]Narrative Design[/h2]

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• community inspired ⭐ Aries had sentences not matching voice acting
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

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• Following Steam Achievements were not unlocking correctly: Guardian Angel, Maximized Friendship and Perseverance.
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• community inspired ⭐ Several texts fixed in Simplified Chinese
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• Game could mistakenly save multiple times in Andromeda's bar while entering and exiting the interior multiple times
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• Libra challenge would not work correctly while playing as Player 2
  

- The Hibernian Workshop Team

• Discord Server
• Twitter Account
• Official Store

After more than 4.5 years of work with 18 months of Early Access, we are very proud to share with you all the 1.0 version of Astral Ascent! We gave our very best during the whole development and you witnessed the evolution of the game that changed so much from Kickstarter demo to 1.0!

We truly hope you will enjoy this version as much as we do (we play the game a lot as we are having so much fun on it!). The more success the game will have the more updates we will make (we have many ideas already!) so do not hesitate to share the game around if you enjoy it!

We also want to take this opportunity to tell you once more how important was all your support during the Early Access, it gave us a lot of motivation and inspiration, thanks for that
You can see below the Launch Trailer to celebrate the Release on PC / PS4 / PS5 and Nintendo Switch!
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[h2]Main Game + OST + Artbook Bundle[/h2]
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/36431/Astral_Ascent__OST__Artbook_Bundle/

[h2]Original Soundtrack[/h2]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2455290/Astral_Ascent_Original_Game_Soundtrack/

[h2]Digital Artbook[/h2]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2633220/Astral_Ascent_Artbook/



If you were already playing the game on Early Access, the 1.0 comes with a lot of changes! More than 1000 lines of change to read in our 1.0 Patch Notes.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1280930/view/3776891376332040308


[h2]The Master[/h2]
You will finally be able to face The Master, a final confrontation to escape from the astral prison! We do not want to spoil anything about it but there is a lot about this final boss, it took us as much time as the 3 other Zodiacs combined.





Beating The Master will also lead you to the 17 different Endings of the game!

[h2]Aries[/h2]
Aries is super friendly but she will not hold her attacks on you!








[h2]Cancer[/h2]
Cancer is the leader of the Orphnées family, he fights with a bird named Basileus.








[h2]Gemini[/h2]
Gemini are special, expect an intense fight facing multiple threats!








[h2]Star Guardians - Monoceros and Sculptor[/h2]
Monoceros and Sculptor are joining Pegasus, Lupus, Draco and Hydra as minibosses you can encounter during your escape attempts!

We think it's important for these Fights to not feel too repetitive. You can only face 3 of them maximum per escape attempt. They hit hard but we want you to pick these fights only if you feel comfortable during your run!


Monoceros is based on ice attacks!


Sculptor creates weapons to attack you!


[h2]Animated Cinematic[/h2]
We now have a traditional cinematic introduction when launching the game, giving a mood and first impression we absolutely love. The animations of Tokkun Studio fit perfectly the music of Dale North for an epic introduction to the Astral Ascent universe.




[h2]Reworked Introduction and Tutorial[/h2]
We think the game introduction was not exposing the story and universe enough, we have created a new introduction cinematic!
It is also an introduction to Ayla who did not have a proper pixel-art cinematic yet, it comes with a complete change of Ayla personality and backstory!



For the tutorial itself, we thought the previous one was too static and frustrating because we created a game focused on aerial movement and the tutorial was forcing you to not move much. The new tutorial gives you a total control over your movements from the very start now!






[h2]Event Horizon[/h2]
You will not be automatically killed when accessing the Event Horizon (5th world), instead you will have many elements to prepare before the final confrontation!








[h2]Mid-run Saves[/h2]
This might be the most requested features from the 18 months of Early Access, everytime the icon below appears, you can open your options and safely quit to main menu and resume later.



Combined to Steam cloud you can even do a run on your PC and continue your run on your Steamdeck for example!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]Beyond level 8[/h2]
Maximum level you can reach per escape attempt is 12, once level 8 reached you have 4 perks for your Signature spell and 4 for your Basic attacks but now each level above level 8 allows you to replace one perk to optimize your build even more at the end of your runs.




[h2]Stats Window
[/h2] It was not easy to know how your current build is impacting your base stats, now you will be able to see the stats anytime when opening your inventory or all the time by activating an option in the Gameplay menu.




[h2]Itinerant Peddlers[/h2]
We have made the itinerant peddlers much more interesting. As the spells did not have much and no gambits on them, in late-game it felt not right to pick new spells.

Now prices are much more varied and spells can have gambits on them, impacting their prices up to 2000+ Quartz a spell. You can also find and buy astral Gambits there making Quartz currency much more interesting that it was!

We have also changed the altars to see the elements of spells and the rarity of gambits for a better lisibility.




[h2]Storytelling Elements[/h2]
Narration has been extended and reworked a lot, there is a lot of changed dialogs and many new types of dialogues. For example you can now have self conversations on benches and heroes talk to each others.





Most Memory Fragment have been modified too to give a more complete story of every characters.




[h2]Co-op icons[/h2]
We have given a lot of attention to co-op, one example is these icons that have been requested a lot by the community! But there is many other changes making the co-op experience more enjoyable!




If you want to interact with the community, report bugs or make suggestions, you can join our Discord Server!



Thanks for supporting us through this journey and have fun playing the 1.0 version of the game!

- The Hibernian Workshop Team