New player stats: Stone altars and Andromeda's can now provide new player effects: Armor, Critical hit chance and mana.
Big rework on the room spawn options you get after finishing a room. Prepare for very different progression now!
New rooms type: Two new rooms type added: The Forge and Telluric ruins. They should give options to make your spells stronger or new spells to pick
Chameleon: Chameleon has been reworked and now. They're found in intro rooms and offers a option to pick between random quantities of different free loot
New world and Zodiacs: Players can now progress untill reaching the new 4th world, Crimson Highlands! They can also find two band new Zodiacs waiting to be faced there: Libra and Aquarius
New playable character: Calie: Players can unlock now Calie, the Architect! She can shapes her Gems into dangerous weapons. Her basic attacks leave precious stones on the battleground. She can call back the stones with her signature move dealing even more damage!
Small Features
Achievements appear in Death Recap if occured during the run
Astral Spirits are slower, bigger, have a better hitbox but they have more HP and drop more elements
Only one achievement can appear at a time
Easier to open Zodiac chests
Signature Spells damage increase with characters levels now
Zodiacs always look toward players once defeated
Added crystal jumps in the hub
Added explication about Kiran signature spell when unlocking him
Re-enabled Fire Rain spell after its fix
Kiran Giant Fists spell collider is a bit more generous
Freeze effect now deals damage when reaching 10 stacks
Added new text hints for some effects, and changed the name of some old ones
Changed conditions for Zodiacs spawn inside Andromeda's bar
Some currencies like Quartz and Keys are automatically picked after leaving a room
Portals rewards: Some room portals can offer different rewards (like Auras) and some of them can have cooldown to avoid same reward picks too often
New super powerfull gambit tier added, Astral Gambits! They can be found after beating Zodiacs... If you're luck
Amount of life restore by crystal shards is now subtly feedback on life bar
Removed ability from Zim-zim that added aditional loot for rewards found, as most rewards have multiple choices by defaultt now. This ability will be replaced by a new one in future patches
community inspired ⭐ Crystal shards can't be used if player is full life
More elements have been added to the glossary
Hidden Chamaeleon was missing in Telluric Ruins & The Forge - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.2
Aquarius pattern with many projectiles now prevents bullets hit before they are launched - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.2
When your Armor absorbs completely an enemy attack, it now displays ""Absorbed"" and your hurt animation is not triggered - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.2
World 4 flying enemy launching 2 projectiles has been made clearer to read - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.2
World 4 flying enemy electricy wyrm patterns have been improved - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.2
Removing plushies from andromeda's bar when they overlap a Zodiac, so they don't interfeer with the Zodiac interaction - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.3
Added Aquarius Kid sprite spawning alongside with Aquarius Golem sprite inside Andromeda's bar - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.3
community inspired ⭐ Calie Stone of The Ancients now hit in air too - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.4
Key chest now feature both rewards inside each chest - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.4
Aquarius bubble attack is better feedbacked & more precise - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.4
Aquarius ultimate attack zoom out before explosion to better feedback - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.4
Aquarius & Libra had their voice lines missing during battle - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.4
Andromeda drinks cannot be 2 times the same - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.4
Balancing
Merchant itinerant altars are not reset if already bought
Merchant itinerant now have 7 slots
Balanced quartz per exploration room
Increased a bit XP gained by defeating enemies
Invincibility after dash from 0.1 to 0.06 seconds
More HP per Rest Room depending of the world
Increased most enemies/bosses HP
Quartz and experience given by most places
Buffed damage dealt by Combustion effect explosions
Pavo sacrifice cost is higher now
Enemies keep aggro for longer
Salvaging an aura is now worth 4 stars
Reduced Chamaeleon fight room summon rewards
Adjustments made on the following effects : ignition, thunder orb, ice fragments, wisp
Some effects like NPCs/Zodiacs summons and LDI elements like world 1 bouncing mushrooms are not affected by damage buffs anymore
Reduced Ayla's invencibility time after using signature move
Loot found during co-op mode should be more fairly balanced
Kiran's signature move trigger a smaller cooldonwn if he doesn't sucessfully trigger a counter
Decreased Armor stat from 2 to 1 per point - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.2
Minibosses give 10 more quartz everytime - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.2
Slightly buffed Quartz gain from scrapping Spells and Gambits: Spells will now give 20 Quartz + 12
the level of the spell and the number of Gambits. Gambit will now give 12 Quartz + 7
the rarity level of the Gambit. - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.3
Nerf the power of the lifesteals gambits: Lifesteal on hit nerf to 50% chance on hit Lifesteal on death value nerfed to 2 HP regen (5 before) - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.3
Reduced Aquarius ultimate damage when you cannot avoid it - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.4
community inspired ⭐ Nerfed the damage output of World 2/World 3 and World 4 enemies. - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.4
Nerfed the overall damage output of World 3 boss Scorpio and World 4 bosses Aquarius and Libra. - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.4
Adjusted Leo Phase 2 damage output. (Some buffs and some nerfs) - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.4
Adjusted Aquarius damage output. (Some buffs and some nerfs) - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.4
Level Design
New Treasure room available
Increased Pavo's room width
Music & SFX
Captured yalee now have sound design
various enemy sfx and mix update
worlds ambiance sfx update
Zodiac intros do not interrupt sound as abruptly as before
Replaced SFX for World 3 enemies
Visuals
Merchant itinerant altars visual improvement
Removed Andromeda visual asset when a puzzle wasn't available in an exploration room
Feedback improved
Improved NPC cooldown font
Meteors in the void room will not dissapears and flicker anymore
Embers now spawn with the right angle
Improved rarity feedback on gambits
Bug Fixes
community inspired ⭐ Bapy / Main Menu escape attempts could not be the same
Zodiac summon icon would disappear for current room after summon zodiac tutorial
Bosses & World 2 golem could become invisible in some circumstances
Zodiac Chest input was very big at the start
Yalees in treasure rooms had some gray parts
Cryogenic Sword could explain in side walls or ceiling
Chamaeleon could have wrong cloak colors
Enemies killed without being hit achievement is not reset anymore when loosing an Andromeda's trial
Scorpio could hit 2 times during his ultimate and purple patterns
community inspired ⭐ Invisible platforms in Virgo challenge
Fix an issue where changing window with shortcuts made the game window become black and resulted in softlock
community inspired ⭐ It was possible to get a softlock after getting a Zodiac summon from the bar and triggering it's first time tutorial
community inspired ⭐ It was possible for the game to wrongly trigger timers that could cause unexpected behaviors such as teleporting player outside of game area or spawning Scorpio Zodiac in impossible scenarios.
community inspired ⭐ Healing shards feedback for amount of life restored, on player inventory, could wrongly display float values
community inspired ⭐ Sometimes in coop, spell used to stay open and never close resulting in the player not being able to interact with it anymore
Octave's perks that affected his summon duration could not work correctly
It was possible to get FPS drops after leaving game paused in certain parts of the game
Cooldown from enemies hitting player could not trigger properlly in some situations
Sidescreen tips were not being destroyed after opening the Prowess menu with player 2
Kiran's counter colider, from his signature spell, could wrongly keep attached to the sprite if the attack animation was canceled
The knockback caused on enemies after a attack could push them to the wrong side
Ayla's signature move could teleport player outside of game area
Wooden Guardian minions could sometimes not be instantly killed when Wooden Guardian is killed
Water snakes could get stuck when launching their attacks near walls
Octave revive particles were wrongly placed
Fixing reward loots spawning position in some cases - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.1
Perk UI in player inventory for player 2 had texts seted in wrong position - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.1
Zim-Zim could wrongly display icon notifying new unlocked abilities, even if there were none - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.1
Hidden Chamaeleon was badly placed in Challenge room - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.2
community inspired ⭐ Fixed a bug that could cause portal choices not to spawn at end of a level - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.2
community inspired ⭐ Sometimes portals portals choices for next world could take a unusual long time to spawn - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.2
Fixed wrong icons for Zodiacs summon rewards in challenge room portals - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.5
community inspired ⭐ Leo could be stuck in air during his fight - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.2
During co-op mode if player two takes a Zodiac challenge and wins, player one would lose their summon if they already had one - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.3
Spell icon above player's head could wrongly display as ""disabled"" after a spell refresh - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.3
It was possible to not be able to interact with other objects in game after salvaging loots too quickly - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.3
Aquarius falling after the bullet hell pattern attack was dealing between 1 to 2x the intended damages - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.4
Plushies in bar room interior could interfeer between interactions with Zodiacs - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.5
Aquariu's kid sprite is correctly displayed inside bar interior - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.5
NPCs dialog icons could miss correctly feedbacking important dialogs - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.5
community inspired ⭐ Game could softlock during co-op if one of the players triggered a heal action just before dying - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.5
community inspired ⭐ Improved players platform behavior to avoid cases on where they could get stuck into walls - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.5
community inspired ⭐ Fixed glitch on hub spawn animation during co-op mode - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.5
Pausing during Libra challenge wouldn't prevent for minigame to register player inputs - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.5
community inspired ⭐ It was possible to avoid a certain special, end game, interaction by triggering actions that makes player ivulnerable - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.5
community inspired ⭐ World 1 enemy could hook player through walls, causing them to be stuck inside level solids - ☄️ hotfix 0.41.5
Octave's signature spell drone is a bit more agressive, but stays in battle for less time
It's easier to trigger jump crystals with Octave
community inspired ⭐ Player can't trigger healing shards while character HP is full anymore
community inspired ⭐ If you have enough healing shards to trigger healing, the player HP bar now shows a feedback of how much HP would be restored
Zim-zim ability to re-roll Prowess now gives all re-roll credits on world 1
Glossary can be navigated using mouse scroll
Kiran's counter hit has bigger coliders now
Ayla's signature spell now target any enemy inside the screen (that can be seen by her)
Ayla is briefly invincible after triggering her signature spell
Camera movement after Zodiac intros is faster
Yalees in Yalee kingdom are now unlocked in a random order within their world
Yalees prisoners of Elites are now always there when you meet elites, except if you already saved/saw one in the same room
Sun & Moon rooms entrance is paid with HP instead of max HP and costs have been changed
Balancing
Increase Dash invincibility by 0.1sec
Changed merchant random spells levels
Level Design
Layouts for Saggitarius and Scorpion challenge have been reworked
Visuals
Telescop in hub: Preparing future feature
Coral Archipelago particles were missing in boss room
Yalees prisoners of Elites had parts with no colors (gray)
Visual asset changed for all Zodiac challenges
Bug Fixes
community inspired ⭐ Sometimes when missing text for certain languages, the game would mistakenly not use the available english text in it's place
community inspired ⭐ It was possible to sometimes spawn in hub with some summon elements triggered by auras
It was possible to wrongly get Astral Tree fruits buffs when entering a room
Players signature spell UI icon could sometimes wrongly display as unable to active
Game light effects from sun could be active on layouts that didn't use it, consuming unecessary CPU
Player's ""magnect auto attacks"" behavior doesn't target invisible enemies anymore
Ayla's signature spell sometimes wouldn't trigger a hit correctly when using many times in a row
It was possible to target enemies through walls with ayla's signature spell, wich could result in case on where Ayla could teleport and get stuck inside walls
Removing ""FIre Rain"" spell for now as we are investigating why it does not do damages
Next Update Sneak Peak - New World, New Hero & Libra ⚡
Hello everyone, Whole Hibernian Workshop team is wishing you a great 2023 ahead! 😊 We are back from holidays and are ready to do our best for this coming year!
On our side 2023 is very promising & exciting, we will have the final release of Astral Ascent with physical and console editions, the 12 Zodiacs & the final boss, Calie, Yamat & even more things coming! We wish Astral Ascent to be one of the best roguelites experience of 2023, count on us to do our absolute best to reach your expectations for the game! ✨
While we released the exporter update in December 2022, we also made great progresses on the World 4 update - The Crimson Highlands, please check below some of the exciting new features coming very soon!
Calie the geomancer!
Calie is the last of the heroes to be released for Final Release and she is coming very soon. She fights with stones that she can shapes into very varied weapons. As Octave she fights from a longer range but her attacks go through all enemies leaving stones there. Her utility spell, calls back the stones to her dealing extra damage and effects on the way back.
We personally really love her gameplay and wish you will like her as much as we do!
The Crimson Highlands
This is the final world of the game, the wind world and the closest to the final boss. The Zodiacs there (Libra, Aquarius & Gemini) are the most dangerous of all. The enemies are also more dangerous and more intense as you can see below -
New traps & new enemies
Deadly Enemy
Libra, the deadliest of all
We are sure you are impatient to fight against Libra, one of the 2 bosses from next Update, we have to tell you she is extremely strong right now and she will be your toughest challenge in the game so far.
This was a quick sneak peak update, this update will be released Q1 2023, hopefully very soon. Also, we wanted to tell you that we are aware of some elements that need polish in the game right now, there is so many things that we want to improve but we decided to start with the world 4 update and do a lot of polish between world 4 and final release.
Having the whole game experience will make things much easier for us to balance the game and have the most appropriate design changes.
Have a great day,
- The Hibernian Workshop Team
Patch Notes - December 2022 - 0.39.0
Happy holidays everyone!
Surprise update 0.39 to celebrate holidays season, we hope you like our little gifts! ːtaffyː
13 New Common Spells
All elementals, all nice to use and satisfying! More Signature Spells will be added before final release!
New Visual Area for Zim-Zim
She deserves a nice and cozy place, we hope you like it as much as we do!
Visuals Improvements of some Signature spells from Ayla & Kiran
GROUND POUND Before
After
N°249 UNRELENTING TORNADO Before
After
ENERGY PROJECTILES Before
After
Game is now playable on MacOS & Linux!
This includes Steamdeck with very stable performances, first loading can take a while and you should not use Proton Experimental for now.
That's it for the 2022 updates, we have a lot of very exciting updates coming for 2023, thanks so much for the great reception of the game! ːzagplsː
You can check the more detailed version of the update below -
⭐Changes inspired by our community!
Major Features
Linux & MacOs: Game is now available for Linux & MacOS
New Common Spells!: 13 New spells already unlocked for you to play with!
Small Features
Itinerant Merchant: Itinerant merchant resets now also reset already bought slots
Itinerant Merchant: Itinerant merchant resets are now possible when all elements have been bought
Players will now dodge damages when autoclimbing for 0.3sec
Some of Kiran & Ayla signature spells behavior changed a bit
Balancing
Kiran Signature spell Buff: Buffed Kiran Signature spell damage and Reduced its cooldown
Fire Portals: Now instantly reset your dash for better mobility
Octave small drone spell: Drone is now more aggressive, attacks more frequently and from longer ranger
Spells level: Random spells in worlds start level 0 instead of level 1
Spells level: Sun Room spells are 1 level higher
Itinerant Merchant: Itinerant merchant reset cost slightly more than before
Itinerant Merchant: Itinerant merchant spells are of higher quality
Sagittarius giant boomerang attack has more cooldown between hits on players
Level Design
Removed the W4 LDI that appeared in some exploration room when they were not supposed to.
Visuals
Pisces summon visual polish
Zim-Zim new Area: New botanist area in the Garden
Improved visual feedback of flying world 2 enemy
Reduced particles quantity in Pantheon for performances
More yalees in the hub!
Updated spells previews for previous spells
Some of Kiran & Ayla signature spells have been visually improved
Bug Fixes
Wrong ground visuals in certain special Rooms
Random Damages of enemies were not counted in some cases
Spells level was incorrect
Flying world 2 enemy would rarely launch melee attack if player was on ground
In Andromeda's Trials, sometimes there was undesired lasers between laser sources
Fixed an issue with small chest not opening in one of the secret rooms.
Sun/Moon room cost adjustement: We changed the way sun and moon rooms work, now both the Sun and the Moon room will cost you MAX HP to enter, the only difference between the two rooms will be the spell pool. In future updates, we intend to split the zodiac spells pool in two to have some zodiac spells exclusive to sun room and the others exclusive to moon room. We also adjusted the cost to enter the moon room from 100 in every world to: -50 HP in World 1 -75 HP in World 2 -100 HP inWorld 3
Signature spells - Replace the Utility spells: Each hero will now start the game with a unique Signature spell, this system completely replace the old utility spell system that we removed from the game.
Level Up system: This new system will allow you to make use of the XP gained during a run, it will now improve your character, every level granting an additional 20 HP and 15% more damage on your basics attacks. Every level will also give you a new perk choice that will improve your basic attacks and signature spell giving it new unique properties.
Andromeda's trials - New puzzle rooms!: Added new Andromeda's trials, they are unique puzzle room focus entirely on platforming skills instead of combat as it was something missing in the game until now! Completing those trials will grant you one of the famous rainbow drinks from Andromeda!
Small Features
Affinty gambit context tutorial: Added a small tutorial the first time you equip a gambit with an affinity.
Ayla/Kiran summon trigger on Signature spell cast: With the new signature spell system, we made it so Ayla and Kiran summon are triggered on signature spell cast like Octave summon.
Zim-Zim ability change: We removed the Zim-Zim ""Bonus loot on intro room"" ability and replaced it with a new ability that gives you reroll possibility for the new level up perks!
community inspired ⭐ Sounds now work for the second player in Remote play together.
Balancing
Enemies Power and HP balancing: The power of and HP of Enemies of the red barrens and the coral archipelago have been readjusted to overal be weaker.
XP Gain from enemies has been buffed: You will now gain more Xp from defeating enemies overall, this change was made to make the progression of the new level up system smoother
XP required to level up Hub levels has been adjusted: The price per level has been adjusted, you will now need more XP BUT Xp gain in run has been improved so overall progression shouldn't feel too different than before.
Nerf damage output of Octave spell ""Laceratio"".
Reduced Capricorn ultimate Cooldown time to 40 seconds instead of 60.
Life stone nerf: Reduce Max HP given by lifestone to 15 instead of 25.
Life Boost aura nerf: Reduce mMax HP given by the life boost aura from 100 to 50.
Virgo summon nerf: Nerfed the damage output of Virgo summon to match the rest of the Zodiacs summon
Reduced the chances for elites to get the gravity orb effect as it is quiet deadly compared to other effects.
Sun/Moon room spawn rate changes: We made it so every run you'll get at least 1 Sun or Moon room spawn to give you a better access to the unique zodiacs spells.
Overall effects nerf: We nerfed the overall effects in the game, they won't always add 1 stack of a set effect on hit but instead has a % chance to add the stack on hit.
Nerfed damages of several Zodiac spells: -Capricorn meteor rain -Virgo light sword -Scorpio trident
Level Design
Special exploration room visual reworks: We reworked the visuals of the special exploration rooms to instead look like Yalee nomad villages, enjoy your yalee friends company!
Music & SFX
Unique SFX plays when you equip a gambit on a spell with the same affinity.
Interface
The Main menu option will no longer display the ""Back to main menu"" and ""Glossary"" options - ☄️ hotfix 0.38.4
Add a new desc for the ""Thunder Dash"" effect in glossary. - ☄️ hotfix 0.38.4
Visuals
Added an additional feedback to pegasus bubble attack.
Removed the Legacy portraits: We decided to remove the legacy portrait as it became an hindrance for the future character visuals yet to be done and we will now fully commit to pixel art portrait instead.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed Hint text in merchant room. - ☄️ hotfix 0.38.1
community inspired ⭐ Fixed the issue with the new zim-zim perks where the title wasn't fully displaying. - ☄️ hotfix 0.38.1
Fixed a small artefact issue in the hub. - ☄️ hotfix 0.38.1
community inspired ⭐ Fixed the Sun appearing green in World 2 and other context. - ☄️ hotfix 0.38.4
Narrative Design
community inspired ⭐ Fixed Ayla and Kiran Echo description to fit their new effect.
Bug Fixes
community inspired ⭐ Softlock coop revive: Fixed an issue where if one player died the moment another was revived, the other player would losce control of it's character resulting in softlock.
Fixed an issue with the order of display of Player 2 aura that sometimes appeared behind the aura background.
Fixed several issues where some of the auras didn't work for Player 2.
community inspired ⭐ Scorpio start of combat bug: Fixed the issue where Scorpio would sometime start the combat by doing 2 attack at once resulting in a very weird behavior where he'd be flying in the air.
Capricorn Ulimate bug: Fixed an issue where Capricorn could still launch his ultimate when he was killed while casting it.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue where ordan summon could go the wrong way if player is not facing the target direction.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue in coop play where Player 2 get stucks in the vine spawning in fights rooms.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue where Ikki summon could create softlock during boss fights.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue where frame rate would drop whenever you interact with an NPC.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue where you could change the animation of your character when defeated and waiting to be revived.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue where it would display NaN when you try to buy an upgrade.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue where Player 2 could trigger basic attacks aura of Player 1 instead of the one he got.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue where you could enter the 4th world wich is not yet suppose to be available.
Some saves could be lost being of wrong naming convention. - ☄️ hotfix 0.38.2
community inspired ⭐ Game could display a D3D window and prevent loading. - ☄️ hotfix 0.38.2
community inspired ⭐ Players using legacy portraits option would not see dialog portraits. - ☄️ hotfix 0.38.2
community inspired ⭐ Level-up interface could show 999999 when being level 4. - ☄️ hotfix 0.38.2
Sun/Moon room cost adjustement: We changed the way sun and moon rooms work, now both the Sun and the Moon room will cost you MAX HP to enter, the only difference between the two rooms will be the spell pool. In future updates, we intend to split the zodiac spells pool in two to have some zodiac spells exclusive to sun room and the others exclusive to moon room. We also adjusted the cost to enter the moon room from 100 in every world to: -50 HP in World 1 -75 HP in World 2 -100 HP inWorld 3
Signature spells - Replace the Utility spells: Each hero will now start the game with a unique Signature spell, this system completely replace the old utility spell system that we removed from the game.
Level Up system: This new system will allow you to make use of the XP gained during a run, it will now improve your character, every level granting an additional 20 HP and 15% more damage on your basics attacks. Every level will also give you a new perk choice that will improve your basic attacks and signature spell giving it new unique properties.
Andromeda's trials - New puzzle rooms!: Added new Andromeda's trials, they are unique puzzle room focus entirely on platforming skills instead of combat as it was something missing in the game until now! Completing those trials will grant you one of the famous rainbow drinks from Andromeda!
Small Features
Affinty gambit context tutorial: Added a small tutorial the first time you equip a gambit with an affinity.
Ayla/Kiran summon trigger on Signature spell cast: With the new signature spell system, we made it so Ayla and Kiran summon are triggered on signature spell cast like Octave summon.
Zim-Zim ability change: We removed the Zim-Zim ""Bonus loot on intro room"" ability and replaced it with a new ability that gives you reroll possibility for the new level up perks!
community inspired ⭐ Sounds now work for the second player in Remove play together.
Balancing
Enemies Power and HP balancing: The power of and HP of Enemies of the red barrens and the coral archipelago have been readjusted to overal be weaker.
XP Gain from enemies has been buffed: You will now gain more Xp from defeating enemies overall, this change was made to make the progression of the new level up system smoother
XP required to level up Hub levels has been adjusted: The price per level has been adjusted, you will now need more XP BUT Xp gain in run has been improved so overall progression shouldn't feel too different than before.
Nerf damage output of Octave spell ""Laceratio"".
Reduced Capricorn ultimate Cooldown time to 40 seconds instead of 60.
Life stone nerf: Reduce Max HP given by lifestone to 15 instead of 25.
Life Boost aura nerf: Reduce mMax HP given by the life boost aura from 100 to 50.
Virgo summon nerf: Nerfed the damage output of Virgo summon to match the rest of the Zodiacs summon
Reduced the chances for elites to get the gravity orb effect as it is quiet deadly compared to other effects.
Sun/Moon room spawn rate changes: We made it so every run you'll get at least 1 Sun or Moon room spawn to give you a better access to the unique zodiacs spells.
Overall effects nerf: We nerfed the overall effects in the game, they won't always add 1 stack of a set effect on hit but instead has a % chance to add the stack on hit.
Level Design
Special exploration room visual reworks: We reworked the visuals of the special exploration rooms to instead look like Yalee nomad villages, enjoy your yalee friends company!
Music & SFX
Unique SFX plays when you equip a gambit on a spell with the same affinity.
Visuals
Added an additional feedback to pegasus bubble attack.
Removed the Legacy portraits: We decided to remove the legacy portrait as it became an hindrance for the future character visuals yet to be done and we will now fully commit to pixel art portrait instead.
Narrative Design
community inspired ⭐ Fixed Ayla and Kiran Echo description to fit their new effect.
Bug Fixes
community inspired ⭐ Softlock coop revive: Fixed an issue where if one player died the moment another was revived, the other player would losce control of it's character resulting in softlock.
Fixed an issue with the order of display of Player 2 aura that sometimes appeared behind the aura background.
Fixed several issues where some of the auras didn't work for Player 2.
community inspired ⭐ Scorpio start of combat bug: Fixed the issue where Scorpio would sometime start the combat by doing 2 attack at once resulting in a very weird behavior where he'd be flying in the air.
Capricorn Ulimate bug: Fixed an issue where Capricorn could still launch his ultimate when he was killed while casting it.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue where ordan summon could go the wrong way if player is not facing the target direction.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue in coop play where Player 2 get stucks in the vine spawning in fights rooms.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue where Ikki summon could create softlock during boss fights.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue where frame rate would drop whenever you interact with an NPC.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue where you could change the animation of your character when defeated and waiting to be revived.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue where it would display NaN when you try to buy an upgrade.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue where Player 2 could trigger basic attacks aura of Player 1 instead of the one he got.
community inspired ⭐ Fixed an issue where you could enter the 4th world wich is not yet suppose to be available.
After the launch of the Coral Archipelago Update we immediatly started working on the next major one: the Crimson Highlands Update. This upcoming one will make possible to visit the 4th world with the most dangerous Zodiacs as long as playing Calie, the Geomancer.
We have already made great progress on this update and we should be able to release it early Q1 2023. But do not worry, we will take our time to polish it as much as we did for all previous updates. We will share more about the Crimson Highlands Update in next newsletter as we have exciting news to share in this one!
New Exporter & new Systems available!💪
Once again we had ambitious & promising new features ideas for the next upate but instead of releasing everything at once as we did for the Coral Archipelago Update, we decided to release part of it for you to play right now on Steam!
This new content is getting available alongside the long awaited New Exporter version provided by our partner MP2 Games and we would like to thank them again for the tremendous work porting the whole Astral Ascent game from our game engine to C++ for the best possible performances!
This new exporter fixes a lot of crashes and issues (like Steam Remote sound issue) & massively improves FPS allowing you to play at constant frame rate with almost no loadtimes.
This new version will change your game experience by making it much more comfortable and fluid, in particular for smaller settings. The game is also now playable for Steamdeck with very stable 60fps, you can even do Remote Play co-op with 2 Steamdecks without issues.
However expect some inconsistencies (badly oriented elements, small visual glitches etc.) as this build is very close but is not yet the same as the main build, we are still working on it! If you see anything wrong please let us know on our Discord Server in the #bugs-report channel.
Level up system is the answer!✨
Basic attacks issue - Basic attacks do not become more powerful with time unlike your spells with levels & gambits so the more you progress the weaker your basic attacks feel and are. Also, getting Auras for your basic attacks was preventing you to have Auras for other purposes so you would sometimes sacrifice interesting builds to get them.
Utility Spells issue - Utility spells were very inconsistent as it was rare (and occasionally too frequent) to get one. Sometimes they were strong, sometimes they were too weak and it was easy to forget to use them as they were not really part of our build.
From these questions emerged new systems
Signature spells - They completely replace the Utility Spells that we removed from the game, they are new and unique spells based on cooldown different for each Hero. You will have many synergies to discover and play with from one run to another as you can improve them with the Level up system! Kiran signature spell is "Parry then Punch!", making you temporary invincible!
Level up system - Defeating enemies will now grant you experience points, filling an experience bar above your HP, when it reaches a certain threshold, your character will level up gaining maximum Health, Basic attacks damage and the possibility to claim a Prowess. Octave, level 7 with 9/40 xp points to level 8
The Prowesses - They are a set of passive skills that can be claimed in intro rooms of each world, including first world, when interacting with the giants there. Every level, you will be able to claim 1 additional prowess to a max of 8 in a run. These prowesses are of two kinds: Basic attack (right) & Signature Spell (left)
The Prowesses for Signature spells are unique to each hero, there is a lot to try out! Also, Zim-Zim now has an ability to make you reset the choices of Prowesses.
Ayla's signature spell "Shadow Mark" (teleports behind enemies) with reset on kill Prowess
Andromeda's trials! 🧩
Another fun addition to the game are the Andromeda's trials!
In the exploration rooms, sometimes you will find a purple altar, interacting with them will teleport you to a new room where you will have to face a platforming challenge without being hit to get one of the famous rainbow drinks poured by Andromeda herself!
Do not worry, if you get hit you are simply teleported outside but you will not lose HP so feel free to try them as many times as you want! We personally love them and we hope you will too!
Discord trading card game!🃏
A smaller addition has been made to the Discord server, the Astral Ascent Digital Trading Card game!
Every day Barbecue offers you a new card from his fine collection! You can trade them with everyone or merge them to gain rarer cards (4 rarities for the 39 existing cards) and get the greatest collection!
Hop on our discord to get a card whenever you want!
There was no newsletter last month but be sure we are working our hardest to make the game the best it can be and we are still active on the Discord Server for any of your suggestions and feedback!
Oh, and here are some extra elements!
We added a Glossary that you can check anytime while ingame!
Merchants culture is ancient and not very well known but they remember it through these statues
Oloon wanted her place to feel more precious as you can imagine
More improvements are coming later!
Don't forget our Backerkit shop and our Discord Server to speak with the community and give us feedbacks on the game!
Have an excellent week ahead and next time we will share about the upcoming world 4!
The Hibernian Workshop Team
Patch Notes - September 2022 - 0.37.7
⭐Changes inspired by our community!
Major Features
Sun&Moon room: Sun/Moon portals are announced a few rooms before they appear - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.1
Small Features
Spells on sun room can have a minimum of 2 gambits on it
Octave unlocking condition: Octave is unlocked after meeting with any world 2 zodiac instead of beating them.
Voice Over: Integrating missing lines of Sagittarius
The Garden: Adding a teleporter to navigate faster in the hub
Enemies: W3 small snake attack feedback improved
community inspired ⭐ It's not possible anymore to start runs through NG+ menu by pressing ""down"" when the start button is selected. - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.1
Malice cost increased by 1 (total of 3) per level - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.1
Ember effect spreads itself in a smaller area - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.1
Added cooldown to auras that had triggers related to player taking damage - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.1
Zodiac lines during battle are played a little bit louder - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.1
Spell cycle is reseted after respawning on hub - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.1
Smoother autoclimb - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.6
Zodiacs on bar: - Zodiacs found on bar has a bigger minimum chance to join you - Zodiacs found on bar has now 50% increased chance to join you if they have zodiac affinity - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.6
Interface
LB/RB Navigation in menus of hub
Changed Collect All input for Achievement UI
Added a Collect ALl input for Papa Yalee UI
Narrative Design
Typos fixed
Extended translations for Russian & Korean
Bug Fixes
Malice that spawn extra enemies on zodiacs fight wasn't working in world 3
It was possible to unlock memory fragments of undefeated zodiacs
Old save files would get player to be stuck into the loading screen
Name of worlds could be wrongly displayed in the level progress UI
During coop mode it was necessary to press inputs twice to move through relics in the inventory
Starpiece multiplier could wrongly be enabled for save files prior to the ""The Coral Archipelago"" update - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.1
community inspired ⭐ Zodiac lines during battle are played a little bit louder - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.1
Oloon reset input would not always be displayed - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.2
community inspired ⭐ Virgo Electric orbs could remain on ground - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.2
community inspired ⭐ Virgo electricity particles could remain after defeat - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.2
Draco could have a wrong behavior during meteor attack if ultimate comes up - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.2
community inspired ⭐ The game could not save game progress properlly in some users computer - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.3
Fix on game save files path in computers with unusual setup - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.5
community inspired ⭐ Basic attack icon wouldn't change after swaping characters in the hub - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.6
community inspired ⭐ Players could get stuck during some bosses fight (Scorpio and Sagittarius) after being revived by Ikki summon - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.7
community inspired ⭐ It was possible for players to get stuck into fight room walls during co-op mode - ☄️ hotfix 0.37.7
Play a new Character, explore a new World, fight new Zodiacs and much more!
Thanks a lot everyone for your patience regarding this Update, we created so much more elements than we originally anticipated in order to create the best and most complete experience possible for this first Major Update (several more to come!).
This version sadly does not contain the new exporter that will solve many crashes and increase performances by a lot (if you have performances issue, don't hesitate to check this guide). We have made huge progress on it but this new exporter still contains issues so we thought it would be better to release it once it is totally ready but you can expect it to be released Q4 2022, take a look at our Roadmap iff you want more precisions about it. This version also does not have a complete localization to supported languages yet, when translations are missing it should be replaced by English for now, we will update when we have receive the texts.
For the next weeks we will be working on solving the main bugs/balancing issues that you will encounter so do not hesitate to report these on our Discord Server where we have dedicated channels for that. We will also start preparing the mid W3-W4 Update.
If you want a complete list of what is new, here is our complete Patch Notes link and the main features listed below - https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1280930/view/5009714462577553599
Major Features
New Playable Character - Octave: New range hero with 11 unique spells to unlock
New World to Explore - The Coral Archipelago: New assets, new traps and new enemies
New Zodiacs Battles: Scorpio & Pisces. Face these 2 members of the Orphnée family
Scorpio & Pisces challenges: Get their summons through their challenges
Sun Room: Exchange your quartz to access powerful spells
Moon Room: Exchange your maximum life to access Zodiac unique powers
Zodiac Spells: Find and use 7 news powerful zodiac spells: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn, Sagittarius, Leo, Pisces and Scorpio
Echo Isles Room & Summon your Friends: Pick among 15 different summons of your friends so they can help you during your run
New Miniboss - Draco: Fight a dangerous new Miniboss
community inspired ⭐ Andromeda's bar interior: Visit the Zodiacs there and the more victory you have against them, the more likely they are to join you
Affinity Zodiac: Your Constellation sign can now randomly help you (once you met at least once) and will more easily join you in Andromeda's bar
community inspired ⭐ Pixel Art Animated Portraits: Legacy Portraits will still be accessible through game options but default portraits will now be Pixel Art and hand-animated
Fight Rooms Rework: Complete rework in order to have waves / difficulty depending of level of the room
New Affinity System: Spells now have elemental affinities (fire/ice/thunder/poison and neutral) and they gain power with related elemental gambits attached (up to 100% bonus damage)
New Synergy System: Rework - Many Auras has been reworked and a DOZEN additional new auras have been added
New Synergy System: Rework - Many Gambits has been reworked and a THIRTY additional new Gambits have been added
We would also like to thank our community and Play Testers for the great support provided to our small team, we are doing our absolute best to create this game we love.