Ascend

Ascend is a soulslike RPG progression mod inspired by Deepwoken and Elden Ring.

Ascend works as a standalone mod, with optional integrations for Iron’s Spells ’n Spellbooks and Mind & Motion.

Progression

Combat, crafting, mining, and exploration award Ascend XP. Gaining an Ascend Level grants attribute points that can be invested through the Ascend Stats screen.

By default:

• The maximum Ascend Level is 20.
• Each level grants 15 attribute points.
• Attributes can be raised to 100.
  • (Higher attribute investments provide diminishing returns)

Press V to open the Ascend Stats screen. The key can be changed under Controls → Keybinds → Inventory.

Attributes

Build your character using eight attributes:

Attribute	Effects
Vigor	Increases maximum health.
Mind	Increases mana capacity and mana regeneration with Iron’s Spells ’n Spellbooks.
Strength	Improves Strength-scaling weapons, attack knockback, and armor penetration.
Agility	Improves agile and ranged weapons while increasing movement speed.
Intelligence	Increases spell power and reduces spell cooldowns with Iron’s Spells ’n Spellbooks.
Willpower	Reduces spell cast time with Iron’s Spells ’n Spellbooks and improves Sanity and Tempo capacity with Mind & Motion.
Charisma	Improves villager prices and reputation while strengthening nearby tamed allies. With Iron’s Spells ’n Spellbooks, it also improves holy magic and summons.
Arcane	Extends beneficial effects on yourself and harmful effects you inflict on enemies.

Weapon Scaling

Weapons have attribute-scaling grades ranging from E to S. A weapon’s tooltip shows which attributes improve its damage and how strongly it scales with each one.

Heavy weapons generally favor Strength, while faster and ranged weapons tend to favor Agility. Some weapons benefit from both, allowing you to create specialized or hybrid builds.

Strength-scaling weapons can also penetrate part of an enemy’s armor.

Knowledge

Knowledge is a rare progression currency.

You can earn it by:

• Gaining Ascend Levels.
• Defeating creatures with 150 health or more.
• Reading a Moonseye Tome, which grants a large amount of Knowledge.

Shrine of Remembrance

Rare Shrines of Remembrance can be discovered throughout the world. Spend Knowledge at a shrine to reset your invested attribute points and create a new build.

When Mind & Motion is installed, the shrine also offers special interactions involving Sanity and Knowledge.

Optional Mod Compatibility

Iron’s Spells ’n Spellbooks

Adds mana, spell power, mana regeneration, cooldown reduction, cast-time reduction, holy magic, and summon bonuses to the relevant Ascend attributes.

Mind & Motion

Connects Willpower to its mental resources and adds additional choices to the Shrine of Remembrance.

Neither mod is required to play Ascend.

Configuration

Progression speed, level limits, points per level, attribute caps, bonuses, weapon-scaling grades, soft caps, and many other gameplay values can be customized in:

config/ascend-common.toml