Dev Blog February 2026
[h2]"Worlds Ascension" Update Release Date[/h2][h3] Let's start with what you guys are looking for, Update 1.1 "Worlds Ascension" is getting released on March 13, it'll come with a 2-week-long discount[/h3][h2][/h2][p]Let's go into the dev blogs[/p][p][/p][h2]S-rank world [/h2][p](no new zone added)[/p][p]I hesitated a long time before adding S-rank world, the main reason being that runs of the game are already considered really long for many, and I didn't want S-rank to add YET another zone, especially since the current final zone (Void Plane) has a very "finale" zone atmosphere.
However, S-rank world does provide a seriously new level of difficulty for veteran players that steamroll over A-rank world.
The scaling of enemies is now very slightly more exponential
(to give you a rough idea, default health and damage values of Vampire Queen at A-rank are 30K damage and 500T HP, in S-rank, those values are 1B damage and 500Sx (yeah, that one trillion times more HP).
S-rank also comes with new challenges[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Custom game setting[/h2][p](Unlocked after completing A-rank) [/p][p]Once you have completed A-rank world, instead of having a small "seed" field to enter the seed of your run, you now have a "Custom Game Setting" button[/p][p]
Inside of it, you can still modify the seed as you could before, however there are a lot of additional options, allowing you to enable any of the challenges of your choice, modify your statistics, or even your starting gold.[/p][p]![]()
Modifying most of the settings will disable any achievements and meta-progression rewards (there is a red message that warns you of that), so it's mostly there for the beauty of sport[/p][p]
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(I know this is far from ideal and that some players would have preferred it to keep rewards, but some challenge modifiers can seriously break the game when combined)[/p][p][/p][h2]Dawn Forest Visual Improvements[/h2][p]A bit of work has been put into improving the visuals for Dawn Forest, [/p][p]This is the biome that is the most visited by players, but also the oldest that was made, and it definitely needed a bit of rework and improvement.
You'll now find fields of wheat protected with barriers, flower fields (that often contain a crate), as well as some very large trees that cast shade beneath them[/p][p]![]()
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[/p][h2]A weapon to surpass metal gear all others[/h2][p]Evolution of Evolution, yup, there is finally one in game, and good luck building this weapon, it requires SOO many components that you'll have to really plan out your route and reroll to obtain it, but it is a very powerful weapon.[/p][p]![]()
[/p][p]
It basically slashes the very fabric of reality, pulling enemies into it.
Enemies inside the weapon beam will have the damage inflicted scale multiplicatively over time[/p][p]![]()
[/p][h2]Camera Change[/h2][p]![]()
[/p][p]I'll delve into a bit of technical stuff to explain how we've come to this.
To the surprise of some players, the game has always been a 3D game, and never a 2D game to start with.
The game even has a bit of perspective in its camera (with a very low FoV of 3.5° angle), and the camera is very far from the player, about 200 meters away.
At first I wanted to have a camera without perspective, but for some effects that are dependent on the depth map (like Depth of Field or Volumetric Lighting) I had to put a bit of perspective.
The problem is that many effects I am using from the engine are very effective at close distance, but become more blurry at long distance (I'm speaking here of Volumetric Lighting, but also Cascaded Shadows).
This is due to the game having a space of 200m being unused, but where sampling of volumetric lighting has to be wasted.
This leads to the volumetric lighting having 50% or even 75% of its quality wasted.
Annoyed by this, I tried a... surprisingly simple solution: get the camera twice closer, and double the Field of View. It instantly greatly improved the quality of volumetric lighting (like seriously), similarly for shadows, they are sharper (for the same performance cost).
The "issue" is that it changes the aspect of the game.
(I put "issue" between quotes because I personally prefer the game like this, getting much closer to my initial visual inspiration).
Since I know some players are definitely going to outrage at the change (and I would be the first to do so),
OF COURSE, there is a slider to change these parameters in the options, setting it to 0 resets the camera to how it was, 1 sets it to the new perspective, and values in between... well, stay in between for players who want this very personal touch.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]New Soul-Cards and Artifacts[/h2][p](as well as some card rebalances)[/p][p]Of course, this update comes with a lot of new soul cards.
I was focused on adding soul cards that make more builds viable in late game.
There are also some existing cards that now have very different roles (Ember Dune's cards are now more specialized toward pure Power builds, for example)[/p][p][/p][p]Here are a few of these new cards[/p][p](some of these card sprites are still placeholders/unfinished)[/p][p][/p][p]The 2 biggest changes are Gluttony, which got a complete rework, as it was known to cause issues with Blood Transmutation and leave the player at 1 HP, as well as Blood Transmutation itself, which is now separated into two cards: the initial card that is now limited by your existing Power stats (so it's no longer an instant x10 damage card), and another card that is found later that removes this limitation.
This allows Blood Transmutation builds to still be very viable, without overshadowing other builds
(of course, other builds got cards and artifacts added so they are much stronger than before)[/p][p][/p][p]In addition to all that, the update also brings a couple of extra defense-oriented artifacts (which were seriously missing for builds)[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Forge Menu Improvement[/h2][p]![]()
[/p][p] The forge menu now directly displays your equipment window, allowing you to more easily upgrade items that are currently equipped to your character[/p][p][/p][h2]Rework to "Infinite" Tier Equipment[/h2][p]This is another big change to the equipment system.
Materials used for Infinite items have now got a major rework to be used over multiple tiers.[/p][p]
Infinite material tiers are now set up in 4 tiers,
Tier 1 is used for equipment from Infinite +1 to Infinite +99
Tier 2 is used for equipment from Infinite +100 to +499 (these can only be obtained in Expert mode)
Tier 3 is used for equipment from Infinite +500 to +999 (only obtained in Mythic mode)
Finally, the last tier is used for equipment above Infinite +1000 (only obtained in Ascended mode)[/p][p]
The reason for this change is that to upgrade a piece of equipment to a high Infinite tier, you needed EVERY tier of material before, and it led to some weird situations where you had Infinite +150 material, but couldn't upgrade your item because you were missing Infinite +32, +37, and +75 materials.
This doesn't mean you can easily upgrade your equipment from +1 to +99.
While it costs the same resources, the cost doubles for each tier (the amount of material you get from disassembling equipment also doubles for each tier), so while you can maybe push a tier by +1/+2/+3, it'll become more efficient to simply farm higher-tier items.[/p][p]This also pushes end-game players toward harder difficulty modes that will reward them for doing so.[/p][p][/p][p]Already owned materials would be converted similarly to the scaling of cost (so players who had one +80 material and +105 material would now have about 10^24 Infinite +1 materials, and 16 Infinite +2 materials)[/p][p][/p][p]There has also been a rework to Infinite equipment colors, so they are easily identifiable from each other (using a gradient system)[/p][p][/p][h2]Mythic and Ascended Difficulty[/h2][p]Speaking of additional run difficulties, in addition to Expert Mode that was talked about in the previous dev blog,
Mythic and Ascended modes have now been added into the game.[/p]
Nothing much, nothing less.
There have also been a few tweaks to make it possible (that can be adjusted in the options)[/p][p]![]()
[/p][p][/p][h3]New Stats[/h3][p]This update also introduces a few additional stats[/p]
However, S-rank world does provide a seriously new level of difficulty for veteran players that steamroll over A-rank world.
The scaling of enemies is now very slightly more exponential
(to give you a rough idea, default health and damage values of Vampire Queen at A-rank are 30K damage and 500T HP, in S-rank, those values are 1B damage and 500Sx (yeah, that one trillion times more HP).
S-rank also comes with new challenges[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Custom game setting[/h2][p](Unlocked after completing A-rank) [/p][p]Once you have completed A-rank world, instead of having a small "seed" field to enter the seed of your run, you now have a "Custom Game Setting" button[/p][p]
Inside of it, you can still modify the seed as you could before, however there are a lot of additional options, allowing you to enable any of the challenges of your choice, modify your statistics, or even your starting gold.[/p][p]
You'll now find fields of wheat protected with barriers, flower fields (that often contain a crate), as well as some very large trees that cast shade beneath them[/p][p]
It basically slashes the very fabric of reality, pulling enemies into it.
Enemies inside the weapon beam will have the damage inflicted scale multiplicatively over time[/p][p]
To the surprise of some players, the game has always been a 3D game, and never a 2D game to start with.
The game even has a bit of perspective in its camera (with a very low FoV of 3.5° angle), and the camera is very far from the player, about 200 meters away.
At first I wanted to have a camera without perspective, but for some effects that are dependent on the depth map (like Depth of Field or Volumetric Lighting) I had to put a bit of perspective.
The problem is that many effects I am using from the engine are very effective at close distance, but become more blurry at long distance (I'm speaking here of Volumetric Lighting, but also Cascaded Shadows).
This is due to the game having a space of 200m being unused, but where sampling of volumetric lighting has to be wasted.
This leads to the volumetric lighting having 50% or even 75% of its quality wasted.
Annoyed by this, I tried a... surprisingly simple solution: get the camera twice closer, and double the Field of View. It instantly greatly improved the quality of volumetric lighting (like seriously), similarly for shadows, they are sharper (for the same performance cost).
The "issue" is that it changes the aspect of the game.
(I put "issue" between quotes because I personally prefer the game like this, getting much closer to my initial visual inspiration).
Since I know some players are definitely going to outrage at the change (and I would be the first to do so),
OF COURSE, there is a slider to change these parameters in the options, setting it to 0 resets the camera to how it was, 1 sets it to the new perspective, and values in between... well, stay in between for players who want this very personal touch.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]New Soul-Cards and Artifacts[/h2][p](as well as some card rebalances)[/p][p]Of course, this update comes with a lot of new soul cards.
I was focused on adding soul cards that make more builds viable in late game.
There are also some existing cards that now have very different roles (Ember Dune's cards are now more specialized toward pure Power builds, for example)[/p][p][/p][p]Here are a few of these new cards[/p][p](some of these card sprites are still placeholders/unfinished)[/p][p][/p][p]The 2 biggest changes are Gluttony, which got a complete rework, as it was known to cause issues with Blood Transmutation and leave the player at 1 HP, as well as Blood Transmutation itself, which is now separated into two cards: the initial card that is now limited by your existing Power stats (so it's no longer an instant x10 damage card), and another card that is found later that removes this limitation.
This allows Blood Transmutation builds to still be very viable, without overshadowing other builds
(of course, other builds got cards and artifacts added so they are much stronger than before)[/p][p][/p][p]In addition to all that, the update also brings a couple of extra defense-oriented artifacts (which were seriously missing for builds)[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Forge Menu Improvement[/h2][p]
Materials used for Infinite items have now got a major rework to be used over multiple tiers.[/p][p]
Infinite material tiers are now set up in 4 tiers,
Tier 1 is used for equipment from Infinite +1 to Infinite +99
Tier 2 is used for equipment from Infinite +100 to +499 (these can only be obtained in Expert mode)
Tier 3 is used for equipment from Infinite +500 to +999 (only obtained in Mythic mode)
Finally, the last tier is used for equipment above Infinite +1000 (only obtained in Ascended mode)[/p][p]
The reason for this change is that to upgrade a piece of equipment to a high Infinite tier, you needed EVERY tier of material before, and it led to some weird situations where you had Infinite +150 material, but couldn't upgrade your item because you were missing Infinite +32, +37, and +75 materials.
This doesn't mean you can easily upgrade your equipment from +1 to +99.
While it costs the same resources, the cost doubles for each tier (the amount of material you get from disassembling equipment also doubles for each tier), so while you can maybe push a tier by +1/+2/+3, it'll become more efficient to simply farm higher-tier items.[/p][p]This also pushes end-game players toward harder difficulty modes that will reward them for doing so.[/p][p][/p][p]Already owned materials would be converted similarly to the scaling of cost (so players who had one +80 material and +105 material would now have about 10^24 Infinite +1 materials, and 16 Infinite +2 materials)[/p][p][/p][p]There has also been a rework to Infinite equipment colors, so they are easily identifiable from each other (using a gradient system)[/p][p][/p][h2]Mythic and Ascended Difficulty[/h2][p]Speaking of additional run difficulties, in addition to Expert Mode that was talked about in the previous dev blog,
Mythic and Ascended modes have now been added into the game.[/p]
- [p]Mythic Mode is the third level of difficulty, unlocked by completing an A-rank challenge in Expert mode.
This mode introduces the concept of "Death Prevention Overkill", in the sense that taking damage that is SOO high above your max health simply skips all cards that would prevent death.
This type of overkill only happens when damage you receive is 10^30 times higher than your max health, so it forces players to start investing a bit into increasing their maximum health.
It is a serious step-up from Expert mode and I don't expect even 1% of players to be able to seriously look into it[/p][p]For curious players, here are all the changes introduced by Ascended mode[/p][p][/p]
- [p]Ascended Mode is yet another serious step-up in difficulty, it takes everything Mythic Mode does, and cranks it up. It also borrows some of the changes from the Rooted Cubed challenge.[/p][p]To unlock it, you're going to need to complete a few achievements:[/p]
- [p]Complete all Hardmode A-rank challenges[/p]
- [p]Have all of your equipment at Infinite Tier[/p]
- [p]Have Mythic Mode unlocked[/p]
[/p]
Nothing much, nothing less.
There have also been a few tweaks to make it possible (that can be adjusted in the options)[/p][p]
- [p]DoT Damage[/p][p]Increases the damage of all DoT effects applied to enemies[/p]
- [p]DoT Duration[/p][p]Increases the duration of all DoT effects applied to enemies[/p]
- [p]Talent Power[/p][p]This one increases the effect of your active talents.
It first of all multiplies the damage of your active talent by the square root of your Talent Power, but beyond that, other effects scale off its log value, it is very talent-dependent[/p] - [p]Player Scale[/p][p]This one got requested a lot, and it was always in the backlog of things to do, it is now part of the game.
Player Scale affects the size of the player and its hitbox (so it's easier to dodge enemies' attacks).
There has also been a BIG change to the pick-up that makes you invincible.
It now increases your scale a lot, and any non-elite enemies will get stomped and insta-killed[/p][p][/p]