For the latest version of release notes visit: https://zenithmmo.com/blogs/news/ascension-update

Patch Number: 1.3.4
Alpha Date: September 14, 2023
Beta Date: September 22, 2023

We're excited to announce the Ascension update featuring an epic new encounter of Sae Jiko, a revamped introductory experience, and various godstone fixes.

• Added the new Ascended Sae Jiko Raid Boss:

Barely escaping death, Sae Jiko, leader of the Skyland Exiled forces, mounts her final defense against the Zenithean Agents inside the Essotech Citadel. The hopes and dreams of The Exiled rest on her shoulders, but the ambition of The Last City knows no bounds. Rise to the occasion, defeat the Ascended Sae Jiko!

• Accept the new "True Citadel" quest from the "Ascended" NPC in the Skyland Citadel Courtyard area to unlock the "Essotech Citadel" Raid!
  
  
• Added new Essotech armor sets for all classes that accompany the weapons introduced in 1.3.3

• Added a revamped introductory experience that's much shorter and highlights important basics like gliding, grappling hook and basic combat. Note: At launch only a portion of users will get the revamped introductory experience. During Alpha/Beta the new experience will be enabled for everyone
  
• Rearranged points of interest in the Skyland base camp and added late game crafting stations
  
• Invulnerability/unstaggerability is readable on enemy nameplates now
  
• Damage numbers on invulnerable enemies show 0 now
  
• Removed Sae Jiko's VO repeating on hit
  
• Changed the base body outfit style to athletic wear
  
• Made Sae Jiko hookshot projectile face direction of travel
  
• Reduced infusion costs for Essotech Weapon

In preparation of the godstone revamp, the team made various fixes to existing godstones to better match their descriptions and intended effects.

• Fixed Ghost Step status effect so it matches its description
  
• Fixed Rip and Tear upgrade on Sunder godstone never giving a multistrike
  
• Fixed Protectors Vow giving incorrect amount of shield
  
• Fixed Pillar Of Earth godstone not knocking back enemies
  
• Fixed Foe Seeker threat effect to apply 40% as described
  
• Wither and Rot - Changed description from "drain" to "slow"
  
• Divine Favors - Changed the description of the modifier on Divine Blade to accurately reflect what is going on
  
• Aether Spark - Removed overtime effect from charge 2 effects and removed self modifier from charge 3 heal
  
• Amara's Radiance - Changed description to say 16m radius instead of 6m
  
• Cleave - Changed description from deal 100% to 130%
  
• Siphonic Arrows - Changed normal arrow effect from armor debuff to 2% heal
  
• Armbreaker - Attack speed was reduced by 0%, changed to 30%
  
• Divine Shift - Changed description from 5% to 15%
  
• Glacial Orb - Changed description from 150% to 180%
  
• Inevitable Demise - Changed stagger amount from 90% to 100%
  
• Massive Icicle - Changed lower attack effect from 10% to 25%
  
• Changed modifier max updates to be calculated more accurately

• Performance, memory and networking improvements
  
• Fixed food tooltip calculations to more accurately reflect the actual behavior of eating the food.
  
• Fixed Sae Jiko music persisting outside the arena
  
• Fixed blown out lighting on training dummies and cooking stations
  
• Fixed players loading in crouched sometimes
  
• Fixed Essotech Weapon quest not being repeatable
  
• Fixed issues with some users not being able to claim the Essotech Weapon and Kojika pet quest rewards. The quests are now abandonable so if you were impacted by this bug, please abandon and re-accept the quests
  
• Reduced infusion costs for Essotech Weapon
  
• Fixed the bug where inventory items randomly disappeared for some users
  
• Fixed status effects randomly disappearing

• Adjusted some attack signal patterns of base mode enemies. Enemies that move along with the attack motion will be indicated by an arrow pattern inside the signal, while enemies that will not move will have a solid color. It's a work in progress, so enemy patterns will receive more holistic and consistent signals in later updates.
  
• Auto-casting will be disabled after clearing the level in the base mode. Spell sounds were disrupting to some players and may have caused some issues when the spell was cast right as the elevator finished ascending and unloading the scene.
  
• Added a blue outline indicator on the weapon spell slot. It will provide a better visual indication that your weapon spell is ready compared to the previous transparent vs. full-colored icon. The indicator will have a fast fade duration to minimize flashing images.
  
• Off-screen enemy indicators will now reflect their current color instead of their base color. Elite enemies with different coloring will have their color appearing on their respective off-screen enemy indicator.
  
• The Survivor mode boss at the 15-minute mark will drop a chest upon defeat in the endless mode.
  
• Fixed the spin sound of Warrior Captain boss not disappearing upon defeat. Also, fixed enemy pattern sounds that were not receiving distance volume (fire wizard's fire and red knight spinning).
  
• Fixed the worm caller minion spell. They will no longer rotate in strange directions upon being summoned. Also, they will no longer receive negative modifier effects (heal nearby enemies on death, explode for damage on death).
  
• Being slowed from affliction or traps will no longer also slow down the hammer's charge attack marker movement speed. You can no longer 'flick' the hammer's charge attack marker off the wall. That was an unintended behavior from checking for wall colliders.
  
• Fixed an issue where the first dialogue sound was generating an unnecessary log.
  
• Fixed some typos and other outdated descriptions in certain languages.

Build 2.0.0.83 Includes:
-Updated Keyboard Control Page
-Press button prompt addition to the Pause Menu
-Subtle design adjustments for both the North Tower & the South Tower
-Adjustments to the five Mini Boss Battles to make them easier

Our friends at Alienware are running a Steam Community event where participants collectively earn milestone rewards by playing Path of Exile. The rewards include Arena Rewards Points, Badges and Borders.

Check out the event here!

A playable demo is now available to play! If you have previously played this demo on itch.io then there are no differences than an updated patron list. If you have a mac then unfortunately the release for that will still only be on itch.io for now as I had some issues with the depot for that here, but I will keep things updated on that build!

Otherwise though, please give the demo a try and let me know if you run into any issues!
Also if you want to be more involved with the development of this game, please feel free to drop by at my Patreon where you can get sneak peek contents like below , playable betas, and more!

In the development version, the options menu is now accessible from the game pause menu. Also, the Enter key is now hardcoded to activate the selected menu item. If you assigned any game action to Enter, you may want to reassign it.

Hello folks! Sorry it's been a HOT minute since the last Dev Diary update. Things ramped up hard and were progressing really well, I wanted to carry on momentum through with the code base as much as possible. Shu and I have been working hard here to get things at least into internal testing -- and today I’m pleased to announce that has finally started!

So far, internal testing only contains the Hidden. This is intentional, just to stress test some of the main systems and keep scope contained. So far, besides one minor issue that is now resolved, things have gone really well! Performance has increased substantially for testers so far, and support for smaller resolutions and lower end machines is much better! The Profile conversion process has also proceeded without a hitch, which is a huge relief!

The plan here right now is to wait until all Classes are ready, then push into Public Beta. This will properly still have the Daily Draft locked out at first. The one thing it will have, however, is the Daughter of the Void update. The plan is to launch the 2.0 version on PC with the (long awaited) Daughter of the Void update bundled in. I’m targeting November/December for all this still, as I’m still committed to get things out before the end of the year.

Whilst the systems are currently in place, we’re going to be putting together some documentation and scripts to better support this, however it will be after the 2.0 launch. We’ll also hold a few “workshops” to sit down with players and ensure that everything they want to do, they can do.

Once the PC Steam version is fully up-to-date, I'll provide more details on Mobile testing. This has been something we’ve been mindful of throughout this re-write, so any bugs fixed on PC are going to flow right down. Pretty much all screens so far have a Mobile/Small Screen version ready to go, so this process should be smooth! I think the end of the year is still a possibility for Mobile, however that may bleed into January if something unforeseen shows up! Switch will then begin testing after that!

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Having such a long period of silence is never easy, and I apologize yet again for this! It's such a relief to finally have people playing this version, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you. Throughout this process, I’m so thankful for the continued support, and a huge welcome to all the new players! We’ll be back on track with constant content updates again before too long!

Also, a huge shoutout to everyone who has left reviews recently! It helps immensely for us, and has been the driving force for keeping things positive as we push through this rewrite.
All for now -- more soon!
Josh

Aside from last week being kind of a wash due to IRL stuff, progress has been going along pretty well. Aspasia is definitely the big beneficiary of this update, going from whospasia to more content than several other girls, but Sarah is getting some love too. And other girls, but those are the two I've been working on most lately.

This week I'm gonna try to wrap up them and do some CG scenes (not sure which yet - likely Ashley and Maya), aiming for a 0.27 release sometime next week. Not confident in an exact date yet, but I can't just keep working on .27 forever lol.

Also got Cassiel's finished art from my man jfc, who has mastered the art of ahoge-to-ahoge communication, and I forgor if I mentioned but Aspasia's CG came out REALLY damn well so I may try to sneak it into this update too lmao. I didn't know how bad I needed smugspasia until now.

Hi

We invite you to our second Steam Next Fest livestream!

• Colosseum system enabled for testing