The Official Ascension FAQ-Rewrite

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Revision as of 23:48, 7 August 2014 by Vorzer (Talk | contribs) (Rephrase a couple of things slightly)

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Q: How is 'ascension' spelled?
A: Just like that.

Q: What does 'ascension' mean?
A: It means that after you defeat the Naughty Sorceress, your character will have the opportunity to 'ascend' to the afterlife, start over as a level 1 player.

Q: Start over?! Why would anyone want to do that?
A: You'll get to play through the game again with new challenges and more variety to gameplay. You'll see oodles of new ascension-only content. You also get the option to change your character class -- each class has its own challenges and special rewards.

Q: This sounds hard.
A: It doesn't have to be! Once you've moved on to the afterlife, you'll be able to choose the type of ascension you want to play. You can ascend casually, and maintain free access to all of your stuff. Or you can opt to go for a more challenging ascension, with limited access to the resources you acquired in your last life.

If you pick the more challenging route, you can also accumulate the skills of different classes over multiple ascensions - imagine being able to conjure dry noodles, make scrumptious reagents, and make your familiar heavier all at the same time!

Q: Do I have to ascend?

Q: What will happen to my familiars?

Q: What happens to my campground?
A: After you ascend, your Closet, Terrarium, Trophy Case, Kitchen, Certificate of Participation, and Quest Log will remain. The contents of your Closet will be put into storage (see below). The contents of your Terrarium will revert to 1 lb (see above). The contents of your Kitchen will be removed, except for your E-Z Cook™ oven and My First Shaker™ (see right here). Also, if you have a Telescope, Mystical Bookshelf, Workshop, or Garden, they will remain. Your housing will reset to The Ground. Everything else will be removed.

Q: If I don't go casual, what will happen to my stuff?
A: All of the non-quest items in your inventory (and closet) will be automatically stored for you at Hagnk's Ancestral Mini-Storage, on the Right Side of the Tracks. Quest items (those items whose descriptions have the "Quest Item" designation) will be removed, so you can gather them and complete the quests again.

A: Not exactly. The first 1,000 turns after ascension you'll be a "ronin," a wandering, lone adventurer. You'll be able to take 20,000 meat or 20 items (or a combination of the two) out of storage per KoL day.

A: "Ronin" just means that you're a loner, a badass who doesn't need help from anybody. You won't be able to receive items or buffs from other players, buy stuff from the Mall or flea market, take anything from your clan stash, or receive any clan benefits (extra calendar turns, meat-tree meat, training or buffs) during that time. You can still visit your clan gym, and you can still send items and buffs to other players, though.


Q: What about my Mall store?
A: You'll get to keep your Mall store. During ronin or hardcore (see below) you can still add items to your store and manage the prices, but you can't take items out of it until you get to a point where you'd be able to receive them from other players.

Any Meat you would normally receive from Mall transactions while you're in ronin or hardcore will go directly into Hagnk's.

Q: And my collection in the Cannon Museum?
A: Same deal. The stuff in your collection will stay there. You'll be able to put stuff into it, but not take stuff out until you're out of ronin or hardcore.

Q: How is PvP affected by ascension?
A: PvP is available as an option during ronin and hardcore. In both cases, you may only attack for (or be attacked for) Fame or Flowers. Additionally, hardcore players may only attack or be attacked by other Hardcore players.

When you ascend, your hippy stone is glued back together and your ranking and win/loss records are reset.

A: Many things will be reset when you ascend, so if there's something specific you were working towards in this life, get them done! This includes buying any skills you want to make permanent, buying trophies for which you will no longer be eligible after ascension, and making use of any Quest Items you have remaining since they will be lost when you ascend. If you have a Garden, make sure you harvest it, and if you have more than one, plant the one you want to have in your new life.


Q: What's this I've heard about 'hardcore' ascension and different 'paths' of ascension?
A: These are ways to make ascension more challenging and interesting, as well as net you more and better rewards when you finish. A 'hardcore' ascension means you will have no access to any items or meat that don't drop while you're fighting monsters and having adventures. No clan stash, no mall, no flea market, no items sent in messages from other players, no buffs from other players. It's a very challenging way to play, but it's also a unique experience for most players and should be a lot of fun.

The 'paths' are other ways to make the ascension more challenging. The Oxygenarian path means you won't be allowed to eat any food or drink any booze through the course of your ascension. Boozetafarian means you can drink booze but can't eat (or drink non-alcoholic beverages), and Teetotaler means you can eat but can't drink any booze. In addition, there are several special Challenge Paths, which have their own rules. You can choose one of these paths, or none of them. You can choose to add one to a hardcore ascension, or just have the 'path' without the hardcore.

If you chose either a hardcore ascension, or a path ascension, or both, you'll get more rewards when you complete the ascension, as well as be eligible for certain leaderboards. And, you'll know deep in your heart that you're cooler than those who didn't take the challenge.

Q: How does the skill retention work?
You'll need to spend karma if you want to keep them.

Q: Well then, what is karma?
A: Each time you ascend, you'll gain 11 karma, and a certain amount of karma based on how challenging your previous ascension was - for example, a normal ascension gives you 100 extra karma, and a hardcore ascension gives you 200 extra karma. While you are in the afterlife, you can spend your karma on making skills "permanent", which will let you use them in all future runs of a particular type. By a totally random and not-intentional coincidence, it costs 100 karma to make a skill permanent for Normal ascensions, 200 karma to make a skill permament for Hardcore ascensions, and 100 karma to upgrade a skill from Normal permanent to Hardcore permanent. You can spend your extra leftover karma on bonus items to give you a head start in your next life, or you can save them up and use them to unlock even more skills in the future.

Q: What if I start a hardcore ascension or a path and don't like it?
A: You can go back to a normal ascension and leave any paths you're on from your account menu. You won't be punished for doing so, but you won't get the rewards the hardcore or path ascenders get. Some paths also have a waiting period before you can drop them.

Q: What happens with Mr. As during hardcore ascension?

Q: Wait, umm, what?
A: It means that you can donate for Mr. As, but you cannot equip a Mr. A, or any equipment which states "This item cannot be equipped while in Hardcore".

Q: What about the Mr. Eh, eh?
A: Take off, ya hoser. No, sorry, those can't be worn during hardcore runs either.


Q: Can I still win radio contests or get birthday presents, etc., during a hardcore ascension?
A: While you're in hardcore (or ronin), people will be able to send you items using the Gift Shop in Market Square. The presents will go into your inventory, but you won't be able to open them until you're out of hardcore (or ronin).

Q: What's up with the zodiac signs?
A: These are moon signs that will subtly alter your destiny in the game. They all have minor effects on gameplay that will be useful for each character class -- mysticality, moxie, and muscle. Each set of three signs comes with its own unique content as well. So go ahead and try all 10.

Q: So what do they all do?

A: The Hall of Records counts the number of rollovers that you have played through, and adds one to determine the number of "days" played for the Ascension Leaderboards. This count started when your character was created (for your first ascension), or when you step through the astral gash (for all subsequent ascensions).

See Also