

Take this into account when picking your Augments, and when choosing your armor pieces. This shows which Attribute scales the effectiveness of the Augment, as well as the effect it has. If you go to the Augmentation menu and hover over one, you’ll see some text at the bottom of the box. It’s very unclear what these do just from looking at the character screen, but Attributes increase the effectiveness of your Augments. You can also gain points in these Attributes from pieces of armor as well. When you spend points on Skills in The Ascent, you gain points in 4 Attributes too: Cybernetics, Motorics, Frame, and Biometrics. This greatly increases your survivability in late-game areas, giving you space to reposition and heal. If you’re playing solo, then you can use Augments to summon friendly NPCs to take the heat off your character. It’s easy to forget about Augmentation abilities, but if you spend some points in Body Battery, they can be very strong. The Ascent is tough at times, and brute forcing your way through difficult set-pieces with a large health pool is a very viable strategy. No questions asked, you’ll want 20 points in Vital Signs by the end of the game. This is especially useful in boss fights when you’re constantly put under pressure, so it’s worth adding around 10 points into Evasion for most characters. However, if you’re more into a run-and-gun style of game, more like a traditional twin-stick-shooter, then put a few points into Evasion.

The Ascent has an underratedly powerful cover system, which you can use tactically to pick off ranged enemies. Towards the end of the campaign, if you’re moving too slowly, you’ll just get overwhelmed. This is because it buffs your movement speed while firing heavy weapons, which is massively important as you reach the end-game. If you’re using a heavy weapon of any kind like a mini-gun or rocket launcher, then you need to invest in Balance. In personal playthroughs I quite happily spammed assault rifles with no negative effects with 0 Aiming.īut if you’re finding your sniper shots start to go AWOL under pressure, then this is what you need to pour points into. If there’s any of the Skills I’m not sure about, then it’s Aiming. But again, if you’re using a rocket launcher or other heavy weapon with a slow reload, then you can invest more heavily here.

While your weapon reload speed is very important, I’ve found that placing it around 10 for much of the game is solid enough. Weapon Handling is important for every type of character in The Ascent, but it’s not a Skill you’ll need to max out. However, if you’re prioritising a slower-firing rocket launcher, shotgun, or handcannon, then you can look to invest your points elsewhere. In fact, this is one of the Skills I’d recommend raising to 20 by the end of the game.Īt its strongest, a critical hit chance of 20% makes the most out of every clip of ammo you fire out and massively increases your DPS, especially if you’re playing solo. If you’re using an assault rifle, SMG, or any other fast-firing weapon then buffing your Critical Hit Rate is a fantastic choice. Otherwise, you can safely leave this Skill on 0. If you fancy building a character that can freeze enemies in place with stasis, regenerate health with a rejuvenation field, or call down a mini-gun wielding mech suit, then invest in Tactical Sense. Mini-gun, rocket launcher, and other heavy weapon charactersĭetermines how quickly your dodge cools downĭetermines your basic energy capacity for using augment powers Here’s a quick run-down of all the Skills in The Ascent and which kinds of characters they’re best for.ĭetermines how quickly your grenades rechargeĭetermines how often you score a critical hitĪssault rifle, SMG, mini-gun wielding charactersĭetermines how quickly you reload and switch between weaponsĭetermines how quickly your reticle bloom recoversĭetermines stun resistance and how quickly you move with heavy weapons
#The ascent guide how to
Here’s how to spend your skill points to make the best character builds in The Ascent. Next, we’ll touch on how the skill points you invest affect your more general attributes, before finishing with a look at an example from one end-game character.

How skill points affect your character is one of the least well communicated parts of The Ascent, so we’ve broken down each part of the system so you can make the most of the levels you gain.įirst we’ll discuss what each skill does and what kind of playstyle it benefits. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. As you begin The Ascent your character’s attributes start at nothing, but as you build your way to the top, your skills will rival the best.Ĭrafting the best character build from the dizzying array of stats, points, skills and attributes can be a confusing task.
