The Ascent Guide for Beginners

It's a tough world in The Ascent. A dog eat dog world, if you will, full of backstabbing corporations, slimy aliens (both figuratively and literally), and plenty of moral ambiguity. To get an edge in this world, you're going to want to know every trick in the book. Your first day with The Ascent is going to throw you into the thick of it, fighting off enemies with your arsenal of powerful weapons and abilities. You're going to want to know where the loot is to get even stronger, what quests to do, and what all the numbers and stats mean! Don't worry though, we have your back. In The Ascent guide, we should have you covered.

Gaining an Edge With Beginner Loot in The Ascent

There's a bunch of different pieces of loot in The Ascent. While it's not a looter shooter like Borderlands or an ARPG with tsunamis of gear dropping from every enemy à la Diablo, you'll come across different weapons of various types (machine guns, shotguns, pistols, and more), as well as head, chest, and leg pieces. There's a few more things like augmentations that give your character unique combat abilities, but for the most part, the above list is what's going to drop. In most cases, this stuff drops from enemies quite easily from enemies and can also be bought in shops.

More rare loot comprises components used to upgrade weapons, which is essential to progression in The Ascent. Secondly, you can even find skill points to pick up throughout levels. Here's what you need to know about all the loot in The Ascent.

Gaining Money

You're going to need money in The Ascent to buy gear and augment your body later on, and thankfully you can start accruing currency right from the start. Throughout the map, there are dozens of unmarked crates throughout. They are inconspicuous and of a dull color, but if you walk right into them, they will break and more often than not you will gain currency. Remember, don't shoot them, but rather walk into the barrels and watch them shatter apart. Although these crates don't drop a great amount all the time, it all adds up.

Keep an eye out for these crates tucked away virtually anywhere on the maps. But of course, there are plenty of other treasures to find in The Ascent, too, and are much less common than these indistinct crates.

Check Your Map for Treasure

If you check your map, you'll notice a lot of different markers. Among these markers will be a crate or treasure chest symbol and a line pointing to where you can find these caches. Now, many times these crates are just that: boxes filled with loot. You can get things like weapons and weapon skins. It's important to pick these up because you can sell any piece of gear that drops.

More importantly, however, are the skill points and components that can be found via these markers. Skill points go towards upgrading your character. Allocating skill points to certain areas can increase anything from reload speed to overall health. While you do gain three skill points upon level up, it's always nice to have more—which is precisely why you should go out of your way to go after these crate markers!

Components, on the other hand, go towards upgrading your weapons, directly making them more powerful. There's no point in not going to these loot symbols, so check your map often and explore a bit. You won't regret it.

Early Questing in The Ascent

There is a main quest in The Ascent, and you'll want to do this to gain much-needed increases in levels and gain access to other parts of the world. On your way, you'll gain various side quests to complete. You'll find that these are very advantageous to the player by granting useful pieces of loot,tons of experience, and currency.

Gather Up All the Quests

After you complete the introduction scenario for The Ascent, around an hour or so in, you'll be put in the middle of the hustling and bustling hub called Cluster 13. This is a safe area where you cannot use weapons; instead, you'll shop, upgrade items, and gather quests. And gather quests you should, as there are a lot of them. It might be cumbersome to start, listening to every story for every quest in Cluster 13, but you won't have to go back later.

Most of these quests will not be doable from the start, so don't fret. A lot of them vary in level range and will be done later on in the game. It's still important to pick everything up so that when you inevitably arrive in the quest area, you'll be ready. It should be reiterated that you can only track one quest at a time in The Ascent, so tracking one at a time and referencing the map is the best way to know where the quest area is.

Get Balls Deep

I'm not joking when I say there is a quest in The Ascent called "Balls Deep," and it will be important for you to do early on. One of the quest-givers in Cluster 13, Hans, will ask you to get testicles from the enemies you encounter in the introduction scenario of The Ascent. This quest is easy to do early on since you already have access to the quest area. Upon collecting the goods, you'll be rewarded with an augmentation that increases your health! It's a very easy upgrade to get early on, and it will remain useful.

The Ascent Guide - A Brief Rundown of Damage Types and Armor Ratings

The Ascent is a stat heavy game, so every weapon will having fire rates, damage, so on and so forth. Likewise, every piece of armor is going to have individual armor ratings. What does it all mean? Right now, the numbers aren't as important so much as your approach to gear. Here's the gist of what you need to know.

Armor Ratings

With three armor slots—one for head, chest, and legs—each piece comes with four separate armor ratings that defend against a specific type of damage. There's defense against fire, physical, so on and so forth. The stats and armor rating are important, yes, but the philosophy I like to follow is to have a nice balance of each stat. Early on at least, you're not going to find a piece of armor that has excellent stats in every single category, so between your three pieces, try to find a even spread between them. That way, you can rest assured that whatever is thrown your way won't hurt as much as it should.

Damage Types

It is explained to players early on that weapons have different types of damage in The Ascent. Some weapon damage types are more effective on certain enemies than others. This is all well and good, but early on, this does not appear to be very important to progress in The Ascent. Some weapons deal fire damage while others deal physical, but enemies fall quite easily all the same. In fact, most weapons appear to be of the physical variety very early on, so don't fret about weapon types.

Later on you might want to vary your build up and try fighting enemies with a gun that shoots fire-filled projectiles like The Scorcher, for instance. But, it's not the end all be all. Just play with what you think feels good! If anything, The Ascent gives leeway for players who want to experiment.