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ASCENDANT

Coming soon

Planned release: 2026
Platforms
Last updated: 13 Sep 2026, 15:32 GMT

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Updates & announcements

20 posts

20 Feb 2026Developer post
Thank you for playing our Steam PvP Fest Demo!
❤️ Ascendants! We want to take this time to say thank you so much for participating in our recent Steam PvP Fest Demo from February 9 through February 16. The game has received a lot of valuable feedback, a lot of this coming from both the feedback and bug reports channels, which
10 Feb 2026Developer post
Fight the Developers (DEMO EVENT)
🎉 ASCENDANT EVENT - Fight the Developers It's time for everybody to throw their hats in the ring. The community and 30+ ambitious indie devs meeting face to face in the unexpected Steam PvP Fest Demo queues of Harmony. Win the game with us, break the game with us, fix the game w
09 Feb 2026Developer post
🔥 ASCENDANT DEMO LIVE: The Neon-Charged 80s CTF Mayhem is available NOW!
AAAAAND, WE'RE LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ascend for FREE in the Steam PvP Fest Demo from 🗓️ February 9 through February 16 to not only unlock the exclusive community rewards, but to blast through Harmony's competition once again. Every day, we're getting closer and closer to the launch
06 Feb 2026Developer post
ASCENDANT coming to Steam PvP Fest 2026!
Ascendants! The upcoming Demo is right around the corner, and what better way to celebrate that than with the participation of our game, ASCENDANT, in the official Steam PvP Fest 2026? We've come a long way since the very first time our players put their hands on our game. Let's
23 Jan 2026Developer post
🔥 ASCENDANT DEMO (Convoyer Trials) - Lock in for February 9–16!
We’re thrilled to announce that ASCENDANT is running a massive DEMO from 📅 Februay 9-16 – our biggest test yet and the perfect chance to jump back into the 80s biopunk chaos. This new playtest packs a punch with a brand new dedicated sign-up page featuring community milestones –
12 Dec 2025Developer post
CBT Patch Notes | Jump in on Dec 13th/14th
The Closed Beta starts tomorrow – or if you’re reading this on Saturday the 13th, it’s launching today. We’ve packed this build with a number of improvements and bug fixes, and we’re genuinely excited to see what you think. Jump into our Discord to share your feedback, report any
The Closed Beta starts tomorrow – or if you’re reading this on Saturday the 13th, it’s launching today. We’ve packed this build with a number of improvements and bug fixes, and we’re genuinely excited to see what you think. Jump into our Discord to share your feedback, report any issues, or just hang out – we’re listening to every word. Most importantly: have an absolute blast!
Haven't joined yet? It's not too late! Head to our Steam page and hit that 'Request Access' Button.

Patch notes incoming...
Leaderboards
For this weekend’s playtest, another Top Dog event will be running!
You will be able to sign up to a creator clan and earn points for them for the Top Dog leaderboard.
Each Biocore your team secures earns you 100 points and each kill or assist you get earns 1 point.
Your clan’s placement on the leaderboard can also earn you rewards:
There are decals for 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place, top 10, top 50, and top 100.
You must have contributed at least 100 points in order to be eligible for the rewards.
In addition to these decals, you will also get a decal representing the creator you’ve joined.
The event runs for the whole weekend and rewards will be given out when you next come back.
Onboarding and Progression
Daily mission rewards have been changed. Previously, they all awarded 2,000 XP, 50 Unlock Credits, and 1 Biocore. Each of the three missions still give 2,000 XP, but now give different secondary rewards:
One of them gives 3 Biocores.
One gives 250 Cosmetic Credits.
One gives 250 Unlock Credits.
Long story missions now reward 100 Unlock Credits (up from 50).
Large bulk rewards of currency (both Unlock and Cosmetic) are now given out on milestone levels.
More gear paints have been added as level-up rewards for various milestone levels.
The amount of Unlock Credits rewarded based on match duration has been slightly increased.
You now need to unlock the content of a themed tech tree bundle before you can progress to nodes beyond it (to make sure that you own the basic modules required for many of the unlocks that follow).
It should no longer be possible for the custom weapon station to be offline if any players are on the onboarding mission to buy their custom gun (it also won’t show up as a vote option if this is the case).
Events
When you mouse-over an event option on the match event vote screen, some of them now display a short video, showcasing where the event is and/or how it functions.
The airstrike console has received a UX uplift. The console should have an appearance more in line with other events, the interact description will tell you what you need to do, and the instruction screen has been made more prominent.
The toxic gas console has been given a visual uplift to better match how other event consoles look.
Weapons & Consumables
Rapid battle rifle triggers have received a bit of a nerf.
Auto - Rapid: This now adds a little bit more pitch to the recoil, spread builds a bit more from firing, and it's a bit more expensive to equip.
Auto - Ultra Rapid: A bit more pitch and yaw recoil and spread builds more from firing.
Auto - Rapid Stabilizer: A tiny bit more pitch recoil and spread from firing is unaffected (it used to reduce the firing spread, but now remains unaffected, unlike the other Rapid triggers).
The battle rifle Vein-Wrap stock now spawns a spore cloud when it deals damage with melee, on a 6-second cooldown. It has been made a bit more expensive to compensate, and is now of Legendary rarity (up from Rare).
Some of the pre-made weapons that can be found in matches have been buffed:
SLR Vanquisher: Use the 2x Holo Sight (instead of 1.5x).
Onslaught FB-2: Uses the Overheater amp (instead of no amp).
Guardian Angel: Uses the Focus-Burn Mk2 power generator (instead of Flare-Burst).
M19C Ravager: Uses a Standard housing (instead of Small Quick-Load).
The Fire Hog no longer has an amp (it used to have Fuse Cutter).
The flamethrower VFX has been reworked.
You should now see some impact VFX when you hit a friendly player, to avoid that it looks like you can shoot through them.
More weapon modules have been given bespoke visuals.
Abilities & Perks
Floral Senses should now play a sound effect when it causes you to get two items out of one plant.
Shield Upgrader will now play a sound effect when your shield is upgraded.
Creatures
Bots now have a VFX on them while carrying a Biocore.
Improved some bot behaviours around Biocores (when they pick them up and when they try to steal).
Vehicles
The magazine capacity for the machine gun on the three-seater is now 60 (down from 100).
Environment
Improved collision, in particular around the crater and ravine bases, but also a lot of small fixes around the map.
Some more placeholder art has been replaced with real assets.
Base vehicles and myco chambers have been given some ambient audio.
Some minor uplifts have happened to the tutorial maps.
The lobby has received a new lighting pass.
Lobby
You can now access the M1 Energy Bomber from the firing ranges. The pistol has been moved to nearby tables for each firing range.
The screens on the various consoles dotted around the lobby should now be sharper.
There is now music playing in the Thunderdome.
Customization
A lot of new clothing and weapon patterns have been added. Visit Dude to browse them.
The mannequin for clothing items should now use the same body type as the player.
UI
Controller settings are now on a separate tab in the settings menu.
When a teammate is downed, you can now see their bleed-out timer in their panel on the left side of the HUD.
The weapon stats in the weapon customizer will now also show numerical values next to the bars.
You will no longer get the level-up pop-up if you level up in the Thunderdome.
Your own kill and death entries will now be colored differently in the Thunderdome.
You can now see which difficulty category a dawner mission belongs to.
Mission updates now last for longer on the result screen.
The match result screen now separates rewards earned from missions into their own category (as opposed to lumping them in with rewards earned from the match itself).
Items on tech trees that are locked behind missions will now also tell you which vendor gives out the requirement mission.
A sound effect now plays when you receive a new text chat message from your team.
Other Updates
A lot of default controller bindings have been changed following feedback.
You can now choose between different sensitivity curves on controller.
Controller deadzone settings have been improved.
Moving sensitivity sliders in settings with controllers will now let you move in smaller steps.
More performance improvements have gone in.
Electric damage is now less loud.
The jukeboxes in the lobby now display the track name and you can skip songs.
The Exchange station has been given some audio.
The cooldown time for voicelines triggered by spotting different creatures has been increased.
The VFX for shattering windows has been reworked.
Bug Fixes
A lot of (hopefully all) crashes from the previous beta test have been fixed.
Downed icons would sometimes linger on your teammates on the respawn screen’s map, making it unclear if you can respawn on them or not. This issue should now be resolved.
Fixed an issue where you were unable to change your loadout during the event vote sequence on controllers.
If a player changes their loadout during the match event vote, it should now immediately update for their teammates.
Fixed an issue where some hair styles would behave a bit strange during the winners sequence at the end of a match.
If you adjust team colors mid match, they should now immediately update on the minimap and above teammates.
Fixed a variety of collision issues around the map and tutorial where you could wedge in and get stuck (under some stairs in the tutorial and between stairs and a wall in vertical farm to highlight the most obvious ones).
You should no longer be able to shoot through the myco chamber hatches.
A lot of smaller environmental fixes.
‘IMMUNE’ hitmarks should now be visible again (when you shoot a player who is under respawn immunity).
The ‘Downed’ stat on the result screen should now be tracked properly.
Fixed some issues with the inspect animations of pistols and plasma rifles with the female body type.
Fixed some bugs with the green filter in the character customizer.
‘Escape’ should now close the map, as opposed to opening a menu on top of it.
A few nodes in tech trees were not connecting properly and should now be fixed.
A few Biocore costs in the tech trees were incorrectly set up. Rare modules should now consistently cost 3 Biocores to access.
The inventory screen should now automatically close when the match ends, and not overlap the winners and accolade sequences.
Fixed various UI text inconsistencies (when things are in all caps vs not).
You should no longer be able to ping resurrection points while dead and out of lives if the match is in Overtime or Hardcore Mode.
There should no longer be a few pixels lingering at the bottom of a health or shield bar when they’re 0.
Fixed a few issues where fingers would clip with charms on beam gloves.
Fixed the vehicle turret sensitivity being too high on controllers.
Dawner missions that have their durations reduced should now actually be reduced and not just claim to be.
Plants should no longer appear on the map after repeat visits as if you had Floral Senses equipped when you don’t.
Fixed some issues with navigating tech trees on controllers.
The profile stat for ‘claimed events’ should now listen to area controls, reactor meltdown, resurrection points, and the EMP.
You should now get the playstyle select option the first time you ready up even if you’re in a party.
Hopefully, the teammate name plate/health bars should no longer randomly disappear (or lose the shield element) when respawning with beam gloves.
Fixed some bot navigation issues in the Thunderdome.
Grenades should no longer fall through the floor in the molding facility.
A couple of map escapes were fixed.
Fixed issues with bots going into orbit…somehow.
The Pyro - Flame Hurler VFX should be aligned better.
Team member accolades should now be correctly displayed on the result screen.
A couple of out-of-date codex entries have been fixed.
Players should now be properly immune for a few seconds when they spawn in at the start of the match, even when it took someone a long time to load in.
Spore traps from the earthtree maintenance area control should no longer think they are gorlizards in the kill and damage logs.
Respawn timers should now be synced up again. I.e., if you die and another teammate is already waiting for their respawn, your remaining time will be set to match theirs (unless yours is lower, in which case they are sped up to match you instead).
Fixed an issue where the ammo display on your second weapon would display 0 until you have fired it after respawning or reconnecting.
Original post
02 Dec 2025Developer post
Locked & Loaded: Don't Miss the December Beta! 💥
The last playtest absolutely floored us. We’ve been glued to our screens watching your wild clips, dissecting every piece of feedback, and honestly grinning like idiots at how good this is getting with your help. We’re not waiting around - so we’ve locked in the next one already.
19 Nov 2025Developer post
CBT Patch Notes | Jump in on Nov 22nd/23rd
- record scratch - Yeah, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got here. Spoiler: I tried to write a “short” update. Three days until Closed Beta (November 22–23) and this beast of patch notes continues to stare back at me, so I'm posting them in their full glory. If you’re
- record scratch -

[freeze frame on me drowning in a mountain of patch notes]

Yeah, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got here.
Spoiler: I tried to write a “short” update. Three days until Closed Beta (November 22–23) and this beast of patch notes continues to stare back at me, so I'm posting them in their full glory.
If you’re already in: congratulations, you’re about to have a religious experience.
If you’re not in yet: there’s still time, legend.
Sign up to the CBT before spots run dry: Closed Beta Test - Sign Up
But enough yapping - you didn’t come here for my life story. You came here for the goods. So strap in, grab a drink, and maybe kiss your loved ones goodbye, because here comes the patch notes:
Onboarding and Progression
All save files from previous beta playtests have been mostly cleared as a lot of large systems have been completely reworked. Any cosmetics you had previously earned will still be there!
The tutorial has been completely reworked.
The initial ‘wake-up’ experience has been completely reworked.
New players will now be prompted to pick a preferred playstyle based around our different weapon types. The playstyle determines initial perks and starter weapon selections. It does NOT restrict access to anything (all starter perks for other weapons are also granted to them) but is simply used to better guide them towards content they may be interested in.
The onboarding missions have been completely reworked.
Reputation and vendor factions are no longer a thing. Any shop items previously locked behind Reputation levels can now be bought at any time.
The progression for modules, perks, and abilities (and also some vehicle skins) has been completely reworked. Instead of being bought from individual vendors in the lobby, they are now unlocked from tech trees.
There are a number of different tech trees to explore; each weapon type has its own tech tree, but there is also one for all support staff as well as the special vendors found in the Side Quest (Flo and Samantha). Tech trees can be accessed by speaking to vendors around the lobby (you can identify key representatives by an icon above their heads, but anyone belonging to their “group” can also provide access if you talk to them).
To explore a tech tree, you need to unlock nodes by spending Biocores. You can then spend Upgrade Credits to purchase the item associated with the new node. However, you do NOT need to purchase the item in order to carry on; if you have a specific upgrade in mind, you can simply just use Biocores to race straight to it and save your Upgrade Credits.
You can no longer donate Biocores to vendors. As such, Biocores also don’t directly provide Upgrade Credits. An option to exchange Biocores for Upgrade Credits has instead been added to the Exchange stations in the lobby.
Daily missions now also reward 50 Upgrade Credits.
A variety of story missions have been removed or reworked alongside changes to systems they interact with.
Game Mode & Match Rules
The game has a brand new win condition: first to 2 Biocores wins!
The game now starts with four Biocores in play (A, B, C, and D).
As before, A is active from the start and subsequent Biocores become active after a time delay or when the previous Biocore is secured (e.g., if A is secured before B is ready, B becomes ready immediately and the wait time for C and D is reduced by the same amount that was skipped for B).
The half-hour time limit has been removed.
The game will still time out after 1 hour, but it should be well beyond the duration of a normal match.
If all four Biocores are secured by different teams, a fifth Biocore, E, will spawn in the map and the game goes into Overtime.
In overtime, Biocore secure times are cut in half and resurrection points are disabled. If a Biocore was in the process of being secured when overtime starts, it immediately cuts its remaining time in half, but to no less than 30 seconds.
The game also goes into overtime when 25 minutes have passed, regardless of how many Biocores have been secured at that time.
The remaining time to secure a Biocore is now remembered if it is stolen, meaning it resumes where you left off if you put it back in.
It can’t start at less than 30 seconds, or 10 if the game is in overtime.
When a base is sabotaged, it does not “save” the time if a Biocore is stolen. This applies if the base is sabotaged when a Biocore is stolen or if it’s sabotaged after it was stolen (even if the base is repaired before putting the Biocore back in). This does not apply during overtime.
The four teams are no longer just teams 1 to 4, but instead have been given their own team names: Vipers, Mavericks, Thunderbolts, and Ravens. Each team also has an associated color (you can change them in settings).
The team names and colors are also propagated over any assets related to team ownership or individuals (team bases, forward camps, events, enemy highlights, etc.).
Shops are now completely UI driven (as opposed to having buttons and weapons in the physical world).
As a side effect, we’ve been able to improve the visuals and usability of the shop to be easier and quicker to read when using it.
You no longer need to deposit Power before you buy (if you hold enough Power to afford an item, you will automatically deposit as much as was needed).
You no longer need to hold the interaction button to purchase an item.
You can no longer purchase the same weapon or shield multiple times.
The UI automatically closes if you take damage (not counting damage from DOTs).
Forward camps now have shops in them!
These shops contain basic consumables, a tier 1 and tier 2 weapon, and a tier 2 shield.
While the weapons are random, they are always the same for all teams.
The previous shield unlock in the forward camp has been removed in favor of the shop.
Non-forward camp shops now always sell large med kits and large shield repairers (since the forward camp shops always sell the small variants).
The infirmary shop can also have small variants, as all three consumable slots are defensive items.
The armory shop only carries one of the large ones since it only sells one defensive item.
Non-forward camp shops no longer sell smoke bombs, as they are always sold by forward camp shops.
The armory shop now always sells HE grenades (for 75 Power each).
The infirmary shop now has a 33% chance to sell resurrectors (up from 10%).
The hangar shop now has a 33% chance to sell hacking devices (for 30 Power each).
The labs shop now always sells EMP grenades.
The roadway shop now always sells sticky bombs.
Killing a Biocore guardian now rewards 350 score (up from 50).
The objective marker for a carried Biocore now updates every 2 seconds (down from 3.5).
If you crawl over a Biocore while downed, you will pick it up and be instantly revived on full health.
The event vote line-up at the start of the match should now always include at least one location specific event, where possible (as opposed to sometimes only including match rule modifiers).
Events
New Events
Area Control - A lot of low tier events have been removed or reworked in favor of a brand new area control system. A lot of interior spaces now have an area control station in them, which will usually be active if the area is available in a match (but not always). A player can interact with this station to claim the area for their team. If another player interacts with it, they take it for their team. Each area comes with different benefits and they are provided to the whole team, not just the player who claimed it. The benefits are lost if another team claims the area.
As part of adding this system, the following events have been removed:
All boost stations
All team upgrades
Base finder
Shop uplinks
Upgrade uplinks
This is a complete list of all areas that can be claimed and what their benefits are:
Admin Offices - Every 4 minutes, it adds 250 Power to the team that controls it.
Apartments - Enemies that contest your base are highlighted after 20 seconds instead of 30.
Armory - If you down an enemy player, you get the Berzerk Boost effect for 20 seconds.
Biostasis - 500 seconds after being claimed, it will reward everyone on the team an extra life. If it is stolen, the progress drops by 25% to allow the first team to come back and fight for it. Once a life has been rewarded, the station can no longer be claimed.
Canteen - Reduces the team’s respawn time by 10 seconds.
Creature Lab - Your team doesn’t get aggroed by wildlife unless you attack it and you take 50% less damage from them (this includes damage from player controlled gorlizards).
If the gorlizard control event is active, this station is guaranteed to also be active.
Earthtree Maintenance - When you kill an enemy player, a spore trap spawns on their corpse.
Factory - Automatically claims another area for your team every 3 minutes.
Hangar Controls - Allows the team to summon a three-seater from their forward camp (without a cooldown, unlike the team upgrade that used to provide a similar benefit).
Harbor Controls - All consumables (e.g. grenades and med kits) from shops are free for your team.
Harbor Overlook - Your shields are disabled for 50% less time when hit by an EMP.
Hydroponics, Reactor Controls, Water Treatment - The team can’t be affected by spores or fire effects and are immune to gas and the reactor meltdown.
Only one of these locations can be active in the same match.
Infirmary - Your team gets improved health regeneration, meaning it regenerates faster and maintains the fast regeneration all the way up to 100% (as opposed to slowing down after 50%).
Labs - Your team’s shields regenerate slowly when out of combat.
Molding Facility - Your team respawns with 2 large shield repairers. The player who claims the station gets 2 large shield repairers immediately, as well.
Security Tower - You cannot be highlighted by enemies (except from contesting bases) or surveillance drones.
Thermal Transfer - Reduce damage received from explosions and fire by 20%.
Vehicle Bay - Your team can summon quads at will.
Vertical Farm - Your team respawns with 2 rejuvenation fruits. The player who claims the station gets 2 rejuvenation fruits immediately.
Warehouse - Your team respawns with 2 frag grenades. The player who claims the station gets 2 frag grenades immediately.
West Garage - Your team’s vehicles and home base take 50% reduced damage.
This effect stacks multiplicatively with the Stunt Driver perk.
The map screen shows a list of all areas under your team’s control and what benefits they give you.
Ballistic Missiles - A few small pods have been added around the map. When active, you can enter these to launch a ballistic missile. This is a fly-by-wire missile you directly control and can detonate at will. While controlling a missile, your pod is locked but you can be killed if someone unlocks the door. The doors cost 99 power to unlock and cannot be destroyed; they automatically unlock when you’re done piloting the missile.
Myco Chambers - Dotted around the forest are entrances to underground bunkers where the citizens of Harmony used to keep their infected, in hopes of a future cure. These bunkers aren’t always open but, when they are, you can fight small waves of mycos to earn high tier loot, including some weapons that can’t be accessed from anywhere else. If one bunker is open, they all are.
Extra Lives - Everyone starts with 5 extra lives. This event can only be activated via the match vote.
Lights Out - A small puzzle station can be active inside the supply transfer building. There are two puzzles to solve, each one rewarding three weapons and three tier 3 shields respectively.
Event Changes
A lot of events have had visuals updated to be consistent between each other, so that interactable events are easier to recognize.
Resurrection stations are no longer active during Hardcore Mode.
Resurrection stations are now free to use but have a long interaction instead. The interaction will resurrect all teammates who are out of lives in one go.
Reactor Meltdown has been reworked:
As before, it opens and breaks all doors around the map, and all Biocore points are discovered and kick-started to 50% progress.
It now also causes an unstable sphere to grow across the map. Anyone inside the sphere take periodic damage straight to health (but doesn’t damage below 50% remaining health) but also deal 20% more damage.
It no longer highlights any enemies.
The burrower horde event should now be less common.
When sniper rifles are banned, the hyper rifle also can’t spawn.
Three-seaters on cargo trucks now take 5 minutes to respawn (up from 1).
The custom weapon station can now sometimes be offline.
If No Custom Weapons wins the event vote, it also disables any weapon replicators.
Wind vortices in the deadyard are now a bit less likely to be active in a match.
Three-seaters are now a bit less common on flatbed trucks.
Surveillance drones in the wilderness have been converted to area control stations. When launched, the drones now patrol automatically. If another team claims the station, they also claim control of the drone.
If a surveillance drone is destroyed, it respawns after 30 seconds.
A fourth surveillance drone has been added to the west caves so that there is one in each cardinal direction.
The detection cone and timings of surveillance drones has been shrunk to more accurately fit to the visual shape of the light. The tracking effect has also been made faster to respond, so you’ll become untracked more quickly when you break line of sight to the drone.
Item printers are now free to use but instead take time to interact with.
The EMP now has a 120-second cooldown (down from 180). If a deployed EMP finds it is highlighting players who seem to be able to get to it, it will eventually self-destruct.
The Factory event has been given some uplifts to make its states a bit clearer:
The consoles and buttons should stand out more.
Smoke comes out of the silos on the roof when the event is active.
If a team has interacted with it, the smoke is tinted by that team’s color (the last team to interact with it).
When you interact with one stage of it, the next part you need to interact with becomes outlined.
When one reward has been delivered, the stripes at the top of the factory are tinted to the color of the team that triggered it.
Lightning strikes have been given a visual uplift.
Weapons & Consumables
The Biocore weapon has been reworked. It no longer fires projectiles but instead a close range vapor jet that deals rapid damage to anyone caught in it.
Energy bombers can now be custom built and come with a wide suite of perks and modules. We won’t list every single one in here, so please check them out in the energy bomber tech tree or at the weapon customization and loadout consoles.
Energy bombers can also be chosen as starter weapons.
The base fuse time for energy bomber grenades is now 1.2 seconds (down from 1.5).
Healing energy bombers have been given a +25% Fuse Time mod to counteract this reduction (as it’s intended to make aggressive energy bombers more powerful, not the defensive ones).
Energy bomber base damage is now 56 (down from 65).
The Fuse Charge effect on the Delayed Destruction energy bomber housing now increases damage by 20% per second of fuse time (up from 15%).
The alt-fire on beam gloves (the healing sphere) now consumed 2 ammo per tick (down from 3). All beam glove magazines that had odd max values have been changed to even numbers to better align with the alt-fire.
The damage and ramp-up stats for beam glove modules now scale a bit more generously. So modules that increase or decrease these stats now do so by more than before. The damage modifiers have been increased by 50% (e.g., a module that previously increased damage by 4% now does so by 6%) and the ramp-up stat has been increased by 10% (so a module that previously increased ramp-up by 20% now does so by 22%).
Some new battle rifle modules have been added:
Light - Slicer - Ammo - This module is designed to be a cheap option for those looking to keep their weapon cost down. It increases bullet velocity and damage over distance but at the cost of worse recoil.
Light - Infuser - Magazine - A mid-cost option for light magazines which slightly increases damage done but increases reload times and adds more movement spread.
Heavy battle rifle ammo has had its bonus damage relative to light ammo increased by 10%.
The Auto - Redistributor battle rifle trigger now increases damage done by 25% (up from 20%).
Self-heal modules for battle rifles have been nerfed slightly:
Leech I now heals for 15% of damage done (down from 17%).
Leech II now heals for 22% of damage done (down from 25%).
Bio-Monitor is now more expensive.
The Blast Charger battle rifle trigger now also increases fall-off damage by 10%.
Some new plasma rifle modules have been added:
Destabilizer - Ammo - This is a high-cost ammo type that only consumes 1 energy per shot (most existing high-cost ammo modules also consume more energy per shot, so this is an option for those who want to be able to carry more ammo). It increases damage output but increases recoil.
Pyro - Heater - Trigger - This one increases the damage of your fire DOTs as well as impact damage, but reduces the fire rate.
The Pyro - Heat Inductor plasma rifle nozzle now increases burn damage by 60% (up from 30%) but is also a bit more expensive.
A new sniper rifle magazine module has been added:
Heavy - Quick-Swap - A 3-round mag that is faster to reload.
Heavy sniper rifles now have more sway than other sniper variants.
The Energy - Surge Rounds shotgun ammo has been renamed to Energy - Diffuse Rounds to avoid confusion with plasma surge mechanics.
Base bullet velocities have been increased for a lot of weapons:
Battle rifles: 800 m/s (up from 600).
Pistols: 500 m/s (up from 300).
Sniper rifles: 1,000 m/s (up from 750).
Hyper rifle: 1,225 m/s (up from 920).
Melee damage has been reduced across the board.
Pistols now do 35 melee damage (down from 50).
Sniper rifles now do 45 melee damage (down from 70).
All other weapons now do 40 melee damage (down from 60).
The changes to melee damage have had a number of knock-on effects:
Modules that increase melee damage have had their costs or melee modifiers adjusted.
Beam glove modules that increase shield repairs from melee have had their values adjusted.
Doors now take 1.5x damage from melee.
Many more weapon modules have been given unique graphics.
The surge beam has been given a VFX pass.
Health domes, shield domes, and lightning rods can now be damaged by AoEs but incoming damage from explosives is reduced and capped to avoid that they are destroyed too quickly.
Hacking devices no longer “skip” a chunk of Biocore stabilization time, but instead speeds up the stabilization process.
Standard hacking devices speed it up by about 30% (so saves 40 seconds if used at the start of a stabilization). With the Saboteur perk, they speed it up by about 40% (so saves 60 seconds if used at the start).
Large med kits now take 3 seconds to apply (down from 4).
EMP grenades can now one-shot every type of drone.
Movement & Animations
The slowdown from attacking no longer stacks with the slowdown from getting shot.
Updated a lot of movement and firing animations.
When sliding into a wall at an angle, you should now bounce off it instead of getting stuck grinding it.
Thrown consumables should now respond slightly faster when you press a button to throw them.
Abilities & Perks
New Combat Perks
Arsonist - Each enemy you've set on fire--while they are on fire--increases all your damage dealt by 3%, up to a maximum of 15%.
Dome Fighter - Allies (including yourself) inside your healing and shielding domes do 15% more damage.
Grenadier - Explosions from consumable grenades (i.e., not grenades from energy bombers) deal 10% more damage and repair your shields by 50% of the damage dealt.
Numbing Spores - Reduce damage received by 1.5% per plant picked since your last death, up to 15%.
Scrapper - Shielding restored from melee attacks is doubled.
Stunt Driver - Your vehicles do double ramming damage and, while in a vehicle, you and the vehicle take 50% less damage.
Superior Fortitude - Reduce the time it takes to douse negative effects by 1 second and you remain immune to such effects for an additional 5 seconds. Getting a kill or assist against an enemy player also removes these effects immediately.
Trapper - Your trap detonations do 150% increased damage and, if triggered from an enemy stepping on them, you also restore 30 shields. With this perk, you can also have an extra 2 utility consumables active at any one time (you are usually limited to 5 traps per category at any one time).
Brains Over Brawn - Battle rifle perk - Landing a critical hit against an enemy with a battle rifle increases the damage of the next battle rifle shot by 10%.
Drive-By Brutalizer - Battle rifle perk - Your battle rifles do 15% more damage when fired from a vehicle and for 10 seconds after getting out of a vehicle. This also affects the mounted machine gun in the three-seater vehicle.
Mending Spores - Battle rifle perk - Hitting an ally with a battle rifle spore bullet heals them for 20% of its damage. This value is reduced to 10% when healing shields.
Emergency Overload - Beam glove perk - If you are using the beam glove primary fire to heal an ally who drops below 50% health, they take 25% less damage for 3 seconds. This effect can only trigger once every 30 seconds.
Empowering Beam - Beam glove perk - While healing an ally with the primary fire of beam gloves, they deal 7% more damage.
Sphere Shock - Beam glove perk - Exhausting a magazine by using the sphere heal on beam gloves causes a detonation that deals 25 energy damage to all enemies within the radius of the sphere.
Array Hacker - Plasma rifle perk - While wielding a plasma rifle, you can consume a Hacking Device to increase its damage output by 15% for 30 seconds.
Nerve Gas - Plasma rifle perk - Enemies affected by toxic gas from one of your plasma rifles deal 15% less damage for 6 seconds.
Pumped Reloader - Shotgun perk - If you start a shotgun reload within 5 seconds of having taken damage, reduce the time of that reload by 25%.
Glass Cannon - Shotgun perk - Your shotguns deal 10% more damage, but you take 5% more damage.
Rampage - Shotgun perk - If you use a shotgun to down or kill an enemy player (including assists), gain the Berzerk Boost effect for 20 seconds and restore 25 health.
Determination - Sniper rifle perk - While in ADS with a sniper rifle, you take 20% less damage.
Seeker Rounds - Sniper rifle perk - For 6 seconds after hitting an enemy with an energy or cluster sniper, increase your energy and cluster snipers' bullet velocity by 100%.
Unseen Threat - Sniper rifle perk - Sniper rifle damage from behind deals 15% increased damage.
New Utility Perks
Intruder - Interaction times with consoles and levers is reduced by 75% and you do triple damage to doors and windows.
Return on Investment - After you have supplied a total of 1,000 Power to shops, an additional 300 is added to all team members’ shops and you are granted an extra life (the life is just for the user who triggered the effect).
Sneaky - Doors make less sound when you open or close them. Your ladder climb speed and crouch move speed are increased by 20%. Your movement makes less sound (including climbing).
Territorial - When you claim control of an area, you gain ‘improved health regeneration’ (your health regenerates quickly to 100% instead of slowing down at 50%) and 20 Power.
New Abilities
Blast Wave: Cone - A higher damage version of the spherical Blast Waves with a 60-second cooldown, but only deals damage in a forward facing cone.
Plasma Shot: Assault - Fires a giant projectile that travels through terrain and damages any enemy it comes in contact with. 90s cooldown and a 1s charge time.
Plasma Shot: Scan - A weaker version of ‘Plasma Shot: Assault’ that also highlights any player it hits for 6 seconds. 60s cooldown and a 1s charge time.
Regenerative Aura: Recovery - Rapidly heals yourself and nearby allies, restoring both health and shields over its duration. 90s cooldown and a 4s duration.
Regenerative Aura: Fury - Heals for less than its Recovery counterpart, but also increases affected teammates’ damage output by 20% for its duration.
Scale Shield: Group - This behaves similarly to the existing Scale Shield ability, but has a longer cooldown and also provides a 40% damage reduction to nearby teammates.
Perk and Ability Changes
Second Wind no longer gives an extra life in Hardcore Mode.
The speed increase from Hail Rush now lasts for 3 seconds (up from 2).
Dismantler now also causes drones you kill to drop a frag grenade.
Shield Charger now restores shields when damaging from 30m or further away (down from 40m).
The trail from the Tracker perk is now tinted by the team color of the player that left it.
Scatter Break now increases damage from the next shotgun shot by 25% (up from 20%).
Energy Extractor now also restores 20 health when it triggers.
Power Efficiency now reduces costs to open doors and repair the base by 75% (up from 50%).
Both Threat Scanner abilities will now tell you how many enemies were highlighted.
The damage range of Blast Wave: Sphere has been brought down to 20m (from 30). The amount of damage it does within its range is the same as before, just cuts out sooner.
The Taste For Blood perk has been renamed to Hail Rush.
A lot of perks and abilities have received audio and visual uplifts.
The following perks have been removed
One With Nature
Run and Gun
Weaponized Spores
Creatures
When a toxic mycotic is killed, their toxic cloud now immediately dissipates.
Mycotics are now a bit more resistant to explosives and fire (but still very vulnerable to them, just not as vulnerable) and take more damage from melee to make up for the melee reduction on weapons.
If a creature picks up a Biocore, they now receive a visual effect and become a bit tougher to kill.
The gorlizard now makes a sound as it charges up a ranged attack.
Vehicles
You can now swap consumables while in a vehicle.
When you get into a vehicle or swap seats, you should no longer go into empty passenger seats unless they are the only one available. I.e., you should cycle between driver and gunner positions when possible.
While riding pillion on a quad, you can now use your weapons.
The deathbringer now has 2,000 health (up from 1,500).
All vehicles except the quad have been sped up (with the biggest change applied to the deathbringer which moves more than twice as fast as before, when not carrying a Biocore).
The damage potential from a vehicle reversing into an enemy has been cut in half.
The damage from being rammed by a deathbringer now scales with its velocity instead of just being a fixed value. (Other vehicles already worked this way.)
The three-seater machine gun’s damage has been reduced to 19.5 per hit (down from 21).
Improved the collision around the back of the deathbringer. It should now be significantly more straightforward to interact with the Biocore extractor.
Environment
A lot of areas around Harmony have had visual uplifts. Perhaps most notably, the earthtree.
Most player collision around the map has been completely rebuilt in order to improve performance and also smooth out movement.
Tidied up a lot of areas to reduce visual noise.
A lot of paths around the map have been made wider to allow the deathbringer to get through.
The stairs section around the canteen entrance has been reworked to make it easier to drive around/over.
Some of the contest areas for Biocore capture points have been rejigged:
You can no longer contest the vertical farm and harbor overlook areas from the diagonal ceiling windows (you have to drop down).
You can no longer contest molding facility from the side room.
You can no longer contest warehouse hall from deep storage, the control room, or the balcony next to the control room.
You can no longer contest exec quarters or raised walkway from just outside the windows.
Windows now take triple damage from explosives (up from double).
Wind vortices should now be easier to spot from a distance.
The thermal transfer office has been updated to be a bit less cramped.
Lobby
Players are now assigned a personal dawner; a guide in this new world who will help you learn the ropes. This feature is still a heavy work in progress but with some aspects ready:
Your dawner will provide you with your onboarding missions.
You can have your dawner help you by sending them off on different missions to earn you rewards.
Keep your dawner in a good mood by completing daily missions for the shade. The better their mood, the faster they can complete tasks and the more likely they are to do so successfully.
All clothing items can now be bought from a centralized shop instead of scattered between lobby groups. The clothing vendors can be found at the back of Curl Up & Dye.
You can now play in third person in the lobby (while not wielding a weapon). You can also holster your weapon while in first person.
All placeholder interaction stations have been replaced with the appropriate models and some also feature player interaction animations (so others can see when you’re using a console).
Interactable mission consoles should now stand out a bit more.
You can now send friend requests via the player inspect menu and match result screen.
The Rocky Road time trial has temporarily been disabled as we’re in the process of reworking a lot of collision around the lobby.
Customization
The female character model has been updated. (Hit boxes are still the same for all body types.)
More vehicle skins have been added, which can be unlocked from tech trees and vendors. To access any vehicle skins in a given tech tree, you must first have spent a pre-requisite amount of Biocores in that tree first. For example, you can unlock the Battle Rifle vehicle skin after having spent 50 Biocores in the Battle Rifle tech tree.
Gear paint no longer exists in different rarities. There is now only one gear paint item and changing the color on any item consumes one of them.
Beauty dyes no longer exist; anything they were previously used for (e.g. hair) can now be changed to any color at any time.
All color selection (for items or the character) is now done via a free-form color picker instead of from a pre-selected list of colors.
More clothing items and decals have been added.
UI
The objective UI on the HUD has undergone a complete rework alongside the new win condition.
The HUD now shows which team is in control of a Biocore (carrying, securing, or have secured).
If a team already has a Biocore secured and are in control of a second one, that objective icon will be on fire to show that the team will win the match if that Biocore is secured.
The item inspect interface has been completely reworked. It is now smaller and should present the information a bit more clearly. The strength comparison between weapons is no longer a number but instead generalised into buckets to make it quicker and easier to tell if a weapon is a notable upgrade or downgrade.
The weapon strength display has been rolled out to many other interfaces, as well.
You can opt in for an even more compact view as well as transparent inspect interfaces in settings.
The map images have been reworked to be clearer.
When you ping an enemy player, the ping will be tinted by their team color.
A breadcrumb system has been added to highlight new items in your inventories.
The loadout UI has been redesigned.
A lot of screens have received visual uplifts.
The results screen after a match has been reworked.
What reward comes from where has been made clearer.
You can now see up-coming level-up rewards.
Improved score and stat breakdowns for the team and yourself, including comparisons to your historical stats.
Improved readability of the scoreboard.
Weapons in the customizer are now auto-saved whenever you change modules to avoid needing a bunch of save/cancel pop-ups.
The custom weapon station now has an icon on the map.
The ‘boss healthbar’ for Biocore carrying gorlizards has been removed to reduce HUD clutter.
Other Updates
Controller support has been improved.
There have been a lot of performance improvements and optimizations to remove hitches.
A lot of achievements have been updated, removed, or added alongside the changes.
You can now respawn on teammates in vehicles. Doing so places you in a spare seat in said vehicle (assuming there is one; otherwise you end up next to it).
More character voice lines have been added.
Enemy footsteps can now be heard from further away.
The sound that plays when an enemy is stealing a Biocore from your base can now be heard from further away.
You can now have 50 items in the wishlist.
New celebrations have been added for the winning team at the end of a match.
Sabotaging a team base now has audio.
You are now immune for a longer time when a game starts, in case there are gorlizards around and they start attacking you right as the match starts.
Sound effects for taking damage have been updated and the cooldown for being hit by area effects (e.g. running through toxic gas) has been increased.
Gunfire from the Thunderdome shouldn’t be so loud in other parts of the lobby.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a lot of minor collision issues where you could get snagged on rock protrusions or other geometry.
The velocity at the end of a climb has been adjusted to not launch you upwards when a climb ends (so how high you can free-climb doesn’t get distorted).
You can now crawl into vents while downed.
ADS sensitivity settings for different zoom levels were accidentally applied twice. They are now only applied once, as they should’ve always been, but you may want to adjust your settings if you have been tweaking these.
You can now enter vehicles while crouched.
Stopped a model issue in the weapon customizer when swapping rapidly back and forth between tabs.
Fixed some audio issues when climbing ladders and vines.
The UI indicators for which panels have taken damage on your vehicle should now work properly again.
Fixed a bunch of consistency issues with door heights. Mostly noticeable when you’re controlling a gorlizard, for which kind of doors you can walk under and which you need to crawl under.
Fixed some offset and recoil issues with scopes on plasma and sniper rifles.
Moving while crouched should no longer make you differently tall depending on which direction you’re travelling or which body type you’re using.
Fixed various typos.
Fixed an issue where the map and loadouts could sometimes be missing from the respawn UI.
Fixed a few lifts that would leave you behind if you didn’t move as they started moving.
You can no longer drive through lootboxes.
Teammates should no longer appear as dead while they are controlling a gorlizard.
Fixed various issues that could lead to audio distortions on some systems.
You can now ping on the world map again.
The interaction volume around surge beams and hyper cannons should now align better with the meshes.
The correct voice lines should now be playing when a teammate runs out of lives.
Fixed some issues where certain VFX and sound effects could become stuck if you got overkilled while they were playing.
Fixed some issues where pockets of the underground would have muffled audio.
Your movement should no longer end up stuttery if you use a gorlizard leap while on a launch pad.
Beam glove targeting could sometimes toggle on and off rapidly as the client and server disagrees on what can be seen. Some leeway has been added to avoid these issues.
We have split the values for ‘step-up’ and ‘step-down’ height, so you should no longer be snapping down to the floor when moving off certain objects.
Juvenile burrowers shouldn’t be as difficult to move around anymore.
Fixed some issues with certain doors that stopped them from closing.
The distance display at the firing range should now display the distance from the player’s side of the bench instead of being relative to the target’s own starting position.
Fixed an issue that caused most burrowers to spawn too early in a match.
Fixed various issues to do with reconnecting to a game.
You can no longer interrupt a teammate’s interaction by pulling a lever they are already pulling.
Dirt mounds from the burrower should no longer block or be able to spawn on top of characters.
Spore traps should no longer be able to spawn banned weapons.
Vehicle weapons should no longer start automatically firing if you try to ADS with them.
Securing a Biocore in the deathbringer can now also be blocked by the EMP.
You should no longer move at weird speeds after respawning if you get overkilling mid wind vortex jump.
Stealing Biocores will now be interrupted if you get knocked away.
You should no longer stutter when sliding at really high speeds.
Fixed various issues with some UI not anchoring properly on ultra wide displays.
Fixed a lot of surfaces that had the wrong footstep audio.
Events that are set to only become available after a certain amount of time now properly start counting from when the match starts and not when the voting starts.
Fixed some issues with hair highlights in the character customizer.
Fixed a lot of clipping issues with clothing.
The quad will no longer sound like it’s accelerating if you don’t try to accelerate while in the air.
The description of the heavy sniper magazine should no longer lie about how many rounds it can hold (it holds 5, but was bragging about being able to hold 6).
You will no longer claim to be on fire when shot by a regular plasma rifle.
Rapidly opening and closing the map should no longer mess up the objective icons.
Drones should once again try to contest players securing Biocores if there are no enemy teams around.
A few levers that didn’t have audio when pulled now do (airstrike, EMP, and toxic gas).
The lightning strike event should now properly activate if voted for by new players.
Bioscan Tracker can once again be used in enemy base camps.
TL;DR: Game go brrrr now.

Thanks for reading this far. You are contractually obligated to join the beta.

22nd. Be there or be skill-issued.

<3 from the ASCENDANT Team
Original post
18 Nov 2025Developer post
Closed Beta Reminder - November 22nd and 23rd!
Just a quick reminder that there's only a few days left until you can all dive into ASCENDANT. Sign-ups for the Closed Beta are still open, but not for long, we’ll be sending out keys to our testers soon, so make sure your name’s on the list before it’s too late! There’s lots of
23 Oct 2025Developer post
Closed Beta Incoming, You’re Invited! - November 22nd and 23rd
We're inviting you to take part in our Closed Beta Test. This is taking place on the 22nd and 23rd of November! After months of development, testing, and your relentless support, we’re thrilled to invite you into Harmony one final time to showcase everything we’ve been working on
We're inviting you to take part in our Closed Beta Test. This is taking place on the 22nd and 23rd of November! After months of development, testing, and your relentless support, we’re thrilled to invite you into Harmony one final time to showcase everything we’ve been working on.
📋 Sign-Up Here: https://bit.ly/4qiFhYx
Watch on YouTube
There’s lots of exciting new content and exclusive rewards to be earned during this closed beta test that will carry over into launch, both from taking part in the CBT and from Twitch Drops via content creators!
Earn exclusive rewards that carry into launch:
Unlock exclusive Twitch Drops by watching streamers during the Closed Beta Test:
What's New & Exciting🔥

Controller support is now in!
Biopunk visual overhaul.
A brand new Tech Tree to grab all your perks and modules.
All new events, from piloting a ballistic missile to fighting hordes of Mycotics.
& much more (patch notes coming soon)!
Timings
EU Matchmaking Starts: 4PM GMT / 8AM PST / 11AM EST
NA Matchmaking Starts: 2PM PST / 5PM EST / 10PM GMT
*To see these times converted to your local timezone please join our Discord and check the announcements channel. Note - servers will open 1 hour before the above times though matchmaking will not yet be active.
As this is a Closed Beta Test we stress the importance of leaving us feedback on your gameplay experience, please use the ⁠Game Feedback and Bug Report channels of our Discord to do so. Emails will also be sent out to participants after the CBT to gather feedback!
We can’t wait for you to jump into the action - whether you're hunting monsters, testing new weapons, or voting for chaotic events, your presence makes the mayhem (and game) even better.
Spots are limited, so don’t miss out - and most importantly, have fun!
📋 Sign-Up Here: https://bit.ly/4qiFhYx
We’ll see you on the battlefield! 💥
FAQ:
I already have Ascendant Playtest in my Steam library, do I still need to sign-up?
Yes, we need to know how many people will possibly be on our servers. The form will ask you if you already have a game key and will streamline the sign-up for you.
Can I stream and make content during the CBT?
Yes, feel free to stream and post clips, we’d love to see your gameplay. Let us know in the Community Streams channel of our Discord when you go live and we might even pop in to say hello!
Will there be controller support?
YES, we finally have controller support - please let us know your feedback!
Why aren’t the servers open for the whole weekend?
To be able to best support players we decided to have set server times so our team can be on stand-by for any potential issues.
Original post
01 Sep 2025Developer post
Winners Announced for the ASCENDANT JAM 🏆
The ASCENDANT Jam has reached its chaotic finale. 80 wild, brilliant, biocore-fuelled entries fought their way across four categories - each with a $7,500 prize, plus bonus loot bringing the total pool to $50,000. Judging? Absolute madness. We argued, we laughed, we survived muta
Watch on YouTube
The ASCENDANT Jam has reached its chaotic finale. 80 wild, brilliant, biocore-fuelled entries fought their way across four categories - each with a $7,500 prize, plus bonus loot bringing the total pool to $50,000.
Judging? Absolute madness. We argued, we laughed, we survived mutant-sized debates, and yes - someone dramatically read a questionable fanfic aloud in a boardroom. But after all the chaos, the biocores have been captured, and the winners stand tall.
Without further ado...
*drumroll*
BEST CINEMATIC
Using our assets, create an animation set in the world of Ascendant. We’re looking for quality, originality, and an understanding of the game lore.
🥇1st Place - $7,500
WINNER: Nexen - 'The Last Biocore' Cinematic Video
Watch on YouTube
🥈2nd Place - $2,500
WINNER: HydranGaiaDev - 'Ascendant 2D Cinematic'
Watch on YouTube
🥉3rd Place - $1,000
WINNER: Dev_Jha - 'Ascendant Animated Cinematic'
Watch on YouTube
BEST GAMEPLAY
Make a stream, edit, fan trailer, in-game machinima, etc. It just has to be a video that incorporates game footage in some way.
🥇1st Place - $7,500
WINNER: ValleyOfLillies - 'Ascendant Training Video'
Watch on YouTube
🥈2nd Place - $2,500
WINNER: Knut78- 'Ascendant Gameplay Video Edit'
Watch on YouTube
🥉3rd Place - $1,000
WINNER: LastSaiyanPrince - 'Ascendant Lore Video with OST'
Watch on YouTube
BEST NEW TAKE
Bring Ascendant to life in a new medium. Create a game of your own, write a story, draw a webcomic, do whatever. Bonus points for creativity.
🥇1st Place - $7,500
WINNER: HugBug - 'Spore Storm' Game
Play Here: Spore Storm by HugBug
🥈2nd Place - $2,500
WINNER: Trenchfootdev- 'Ascendant Marble Run'
Click here to watch it in action!
🥉3rd Place - $1,000
WINNER: SoraTheSyke- '3D-Printed Battle Rifle Prop'
BEST FILTH
Shock us. Seriously.
Note: Due to platform policies (booo) we'll link to the submissions.
🥇1st Place - $7,500
WINNER: fathergascoignee - 'Pay-Per-View Beneath the Earthtree'
🥈2nd Place - $2,500
WINNER: ORANGE SKULL - 'Thunder Babes' Short Erotic Novel
🥉3rd Place - $1,000
WINNER: HydranGaiaDev - 'Horror Ascendant 2D Cinematic'
BEST IN SHOW
Deemed the best entry in the ASCENDANT Jam by our judging panel, the winner of this category gets a trip to the UK with a +1 to come to our studio in Cambridge to meet the team and see how we operate, before partying with us at the pub we own - The Side Quest!
WINNER: Nexen - 'The Last Biocore' Cinematic Video
Watch on YouTube
Here's what our Principal Animator, Michael, had to say:

Great suspense introducing the protagonist main character and antagonist Gorlizard.
Use of animation on the main character is nice for the shots.
Detail on the finger movement as the camera focus shifts past it was a really nice touch.
Gun handing scene looked suspenseful.
The Gorlizard appearing the way it did from behind was reminiscing of films such as Alien.
Use of VFX for the drool, and lighting were very good!
Biocore effect and animation of it landing on the floor has great detail.
Death animation showed great control of the character falling to the ground and flopping a little on the rebound.
BONUS POTS
But we didn’t stop at the big wins. Bonus prizes were unleashed across categories like Best Music and Best 80s Tribute (because big hair deserves big respect). You’ll find the full breakdown in this X/Twitter article - and in the coming weeks, we’ll be spotlighting some of the wildest, weirdest, and most brilliant submissions. Stay tuned - chaos deserves its encore.
Whether entrants were a seasoned Jam pro or joining us for the first time, their creativity and enthusiasm made this event unforgettable.
Keep an eye on our announcements for future events and opportunities to showcase your talents.
Until then, keep creating and inspiring!
With neon love and a touch of lycra,
The ASCENDANT Team <3
Original post
08 Jun 2025Developer post
ASCENDANT Unleashed at the PC Gaming Show!
A trailer for ASCENDANT just dropped at the PC Gaming Show , giving players a taste of the chaos coming later this year. If you missed it live, we’ve got it right here. You’ll see why ASCENDANT isn’t just a twist on capture-the-flag - it’s a complete system overload. Matches go f
08 Jun 2025PC Gamer
Ascendant is a 'neon-drenched PvPvE fever dream' multiplayer shooter, that's like 'capture the flag if it were raised by wolves'
PlayFusion's newest trailer for Ascendant has arrived at the PC Gaming Show 2025 , and it gives us a quick look at what we can expect from the chaotic multiplayer shooter—with tanks, weapons, and some funky hairdos all making an appearance... Read more.
07 Jun 2025Developer post
ASCENDANT Crashes Into Future Games Show!
This isn’t your average capture-the-flag - this is ASCENDANT . Set in a post-apocalyptic, biopunk hellscape drenched in neon, synths, and mutant blood, this game drops you into savage firefights for control of Biocores : precious energy cores keeping your decaying Shade barely al
02 May 2025Developer post
The Biggest ASCENDANT Closed Beta Yet! - May 10th & 11th
What's New & Exciting🔥 New Match May-hem: Vote for epic events in a wild raffle-style showdown! Brand-new weapon type to unleash! Fresh events and creatures to battle! And a ton more surprises! View the ⁠patch notes here for the full breakdown. Timings 🌍 EU Servers: Server
What's New & Exciting🔥

New Match May-hem: Vote for epic events in a wild raffle-style showdown!
Brand-new weapon type to unleash!
Fresh events and creatures to battle!
And a ton more surprises! View the ⁠patch notes here for the full breakdown.
Timings
🌍 EU Servers:

Server opens: 14:00 BST / 08:00 CST / 06:00 PST
Matchmaking opens: 15:00 BST / 09:00 CST / 07:00 CST
Server closes: 19:00 BST / 13:00 CST / 11:00 CST
🌎 NA Servers:

Server opens: 22:00 BST / 16:00 CST / 14:00 PST
Matchmaking opens: 23:00 BST / 17:00 CST / 15:00 PST
Server closes: 03:00 BST / 21:00 CST / 19:00 PST
📋 Sign-Up Here: https://forms.gle/V6L6211aqBQqRkwK9
As this is a Closed Beta Test we stress the importance of leaving us feedback on your gameplay experience, please use the ⁠Game Feedback and Bug Report channels of our Discord to do so. Emails will also be sent out to participants after the CBT to gather feedback!
We can’t wait for you to jump into the action - whether you're hunting monsters, testing new weapons, or voting for chaotic events, your presence makes the mayhem (and game) even better.
Spots are limited, so don’t miss out - and most importantly, have fun!
We’ll see you on the battlefield! 💥
FAQ:
I already have Ascendant Playtest in my Steam library, do I still need to sign-up?
Yes, we need to know how many people will possibly be on our servers. The form will ask you if you already have a game key and will streamline the sign-up for you.
Can I stream and make content during the CBT?
Yes, feel free to stream and post clips, we’d love to see your gameplay. Let us know in the Community Streams channel of our Discord when you go live and we might even pop in to say hello!
Will there be controller support?
Not this time, however this is actively in development and will be in future tests soon!
Why aren’t the servers open for the whole weekend?
To be able to best support players we decided to have set server times so our team can be on stand-by for any potential issues.
Original post
02 May 2025Developer post
CBT Patch Notes | 2nd of May, 2025
Strap in, this is going to be a long one with a lot of exciting updates, new features, and fixes across the board. It's a huge testament to the incredible work that the devs have been pouring into this game and dear reader, I'm in AWE. Better yet, these changes will be present wi
Strap in, this is going to be a long one with a lot of exciting updates, new features, and fixes across the board. It's a huge testament to the incredible work that the devs have been pouring into this game and dear reader, I'm in AWE. Better yet, these changes will be present within our upcoming Closed Beta on the 10th and 11th of May! Find out more HERE about how to take part in the CBT.
Match Rules

When you pick up the Biocore, you can now wield it as a weapon. While carried, it replaces your pistol. Fueling you with power, its primary attack lets you fire large projectiles which detonate in an area effect. It also has a secondary attack which launches large ‘bubbles’ into the world. They linger in the world for an amount of time or until they collide with something (the environment or a player). When they burst, they deal heavy damage to whoever popped it, and also damage in an area.
A new match intro has been added, with a brand new event voting system.

At the start of each match, you will see a brief overview of all events that have been activated (well, except events that are so common that they’re pretty much always on somewhere on the map, to avoid cluttering).
Additionally, you will be presented with three large impact events and you will be able to place a vote for which one of them you want to turn on (as opposed to the game choosing which one should be on, which is how it used to work).
Each vote is effectively one “ticket in a raffle”. In other words, the events with most votes is not guaranteed to win, but is more likely to win.
During the vote, you can access your team’s information and change your loadout on a secondary tab.
Cargo trucks close to team bases can now have enemy scanners on them.
The aiming abilities and reaction times of bots across all difficulties have been adjusted.
You can no longer take shields from the Biocore station if its contested.
Events

High value drop pods can now spawn around the wilderness, in unused base locations. When they appear, they will appear fairly around the forest, so all teams have equal distances to one.
Large parts of the forest can now be covered in permanent smoke or spore clouds. These clouds will have additional plants (e.g. toxic smoke bombs or rejuvenation fruits) growing in or around them.
More events can now spawn around the wilderness, and additional locations have been added to the interior of buildings in the wilderness.
You no longer need to pull a lever on the wilderness launch pads to activate them; standing on them will now automatically start them and launch you a couple of seconds later.
The player controlled gorlizard has suffered a bit after we increased player movement speeds, so its melee damage is now 50 (up from 45) and the cooldown for its spit attack is 1.5 seconds (down from 2).
More sound effects have been added to the player controlled gorlizard.
A number of new events have been added that can only turn on if they are voted on (they will never be on automatically without player input):

Weapon banning - A chosen type of weapon will be banned from the match. They will not appear as loot, in shops (including the custom weapon shop), or be able to be printed from the weapon replicator.
No Custom Weapons - If this is chosen, players will be unable to buy any custom weapons in the match (or use any weapon replicators).
Mycopocalypse - See the ‘Creatures’ update below for the new mycotic. If this event is on, most NPCs around the whole map are replaced by mycotics (except burrowers and resource carrying gorlizards). Additionally, during this event, two other mycotic types can appear: the toxic and the large.
Hardcore Mode - All players start with 0 lives, and there is only one Biocore. In the future, we also plan to remove resurrection stations during this event and disable the extra life gained from the Second Wind perk. As there are fewer Biocores to claim, victory bonuses from this event are instead increased.
The owner of a weapon (and their teammates) now has a 2-second grace period during which other players can’t steal them from the weapon replicator. So if you happen to be at one replicator and an enemy at another one, waiting for your gun, you should be able to take it before they have a chance to steal it.
The ‘loot pods’ from the Power-ful Forest event now have 20 health (down from 50).
The EMP pulse VFX should now more accurately represent its full range.
Boost stations have received new VFX and audio.
Added some VO for if a lightning rod spawns nearby.
Weapons & Consumables

Fire damage now uses the same hit zone damage multipliers against players as regular energy damage. It used to deal less damage to shields than other damage types, but now does more damage to shields (same as energy ammo). In other words, the Flamethrower, pyro plasma rifles, the X3 Incendiary pistol (see below), and the burn from the Fire Hog energy bomber now all do more damage overall.
The burst damage and damage variation (based on where you hit) has been lowered for most weapons. This is primarily driven by lower headshot bonuses (but not for sniper rifles) and lower shotgun damage, but the exact details are as follows:

Headshot multipliers with physical non-sniper and non-shotgun weapons is now 1.4 (down from 1.75).
Headshot multipliers with physical shotguns is now 1.25 (down from 1.5).
Headshot multipliers with energy non-sniper weapons is now 1.2 (down from 1.4).
Headshot damage from energy sniper rifles is now 1.7 (up from 1.6). For comparison, physical snipers have a multiplier of 2.
Upper arm multipliers from energy weapons is now 0.72 (down from 0.81), which is the same as lower arms and upper legs.
Lower leg multipliers from energy weapons is now 0.64 (up from 0.56).
The overall lowered multipliers for energy damage types also means that explosions and other energy AoE effects (e.g. popped spore traps) now do slightly less damage.
Shotgun damage has been lowered by 5% across the board.
Small shotgun magazines have been given damage bonuses to make up for the overall reduced shotgun damage (and lower reload flexibility):

Light - Double now increases damage by 5% but is also a bit more expensive to equip.
Heavy - Double now increases damage by 6%.
Heavy - Single now increases damage by 12%.
The Hex-7 Jawbreaker shotgun now uses a Disruptor Amp (instead of a Damage Amp) to compensate for the cost change to its magazine.
Base damage from plasma rifles is now 18 (down from 19). Surge plasmas are unaffected.
All plasma rifles now deal 40% of their base damage at point blank (down from 70% for standard plasmas and 50% for surge plasmas).

This means that modules that adjust close range damage are now more impactful, so all of them have been updated in some way; either reducing their modifiers and/or adjusting the costs of equipping them.
Plasma rifles now have slightly more recoil and spread.
The X3 Incendiary pistol now does fire damage with its bullets, as opposed to physical damage that just happens to set things on fire.
The base damage of the X3 Incendiary pistol is now 30 (up from 22), has 12 rounds in the magazine (up from 8), and damage fall-off begins at 15m (up from 7.5).
The ‘Dancing Flames’ effect of the Pyro - Fire-Starter plasma rifle ammo now has a 3m radius (up from 2m).
The ‘Heat Wave’ effect of the Pyro - Inferno plasma rifle barrel now has a 3m radius (up from 2) and also has a new VFX to visualise the effect.
Plasma rifle pyro ammo now have bespoke VFX to differentiate them from regular plasma rifles.
The Flame Hurler plasma rifle stock now has some VFX to visualise its flame hurling.
The Unstable Energy plasma rifle ammo now has VFX to show their area of effect.
The ‘Siphon’ effect of the Leecher beam glove module now heals for 35% of damage done (up from 25%).
The Leech I effect from battle rifles and plasma rifles now heals for 17% of damage done (down from 20%). Shotgun Leech I is unaffected.
The Leech II effect from battle rifles and plasma rifles now heals for 25% of damage done (down from 30%). Shotgun Leech II is unaffected.
The Cluster - Shock-Bombs sniper rifle ammo now slows for 2s (down from 3), reduces cluster bomb damage by 30% (up from 9%), and the projectile damage has been slightly increased.
Modules that provide large melee damage bonuses have been made more expensive to equip. The unlock cost has also gone up for the Talon stock for battle rifles, plasma rifles, and sniper rifles, the Talon Fist beam glove module, and the Cutthroat shotgun module.
An update to semi-automatic battle rifle triggers’ damage bonuses that was meant to go into the game a few months ago never made it in, but now it’s here. Along with that, a few other changes have been made to them:
Semi-Standard now has a damage bonus of 38% (down from 43%).
Semi-Resetter now has a damage bonus of 28% (down from 33%).
Semi - Blast Charger now has a damage bonus of 50% (down from 58%).
Semi-Corruptor now has a damage bonus of 73% (down from 88%).
The effective range (the point where damage starts dropping off) for the above triggers has been extended by 5m and they have gained an additional 10% bullet velocity.
The above changes are meant to make them a bit less effective in close quarter combat without harming their longer range capabilities too much.
Sniper rifle bullets now despawn after 700m (up from 500m) and their base bullet velocity is now 750 m/s (up from 700).
The value of changing the base pitch and yaw of battle rifle recoil has swapped around (for modules that make recoil better or worse in various ways). Pitch used to be more expensive, but now yaw is. In other words, modules that reduce the yaw impact of recoil are now more expensive whereas modules that reduce the pitch are a bit cheaper. A lot of battle rifle modules have had minor adjustments to their costs as a result.
Different weapons now equip at slightly different times. They all used to equip in 0.5 seconds (well, a long time ago, they did what is listed below, but then it changed back to 0.5 for unknown reasons…someone did it by mistake), but some weapons are now faster or slower than this:
Beam gloves, flamethrower, pistol, and shotguns now equip in 0.3 seconds.
Hyper cannon and hyper rifle now equip in 0.7 seconds.
The Surge - Energy Transfer plasma rifle magazine now specifies how long its speed increase lasts for (2 seconds).
Scaled up a few muzzle flash VFX slightly.
More modules for battle rifles, beam gloves, plasma rifles, shotguns, and sniper rifles have received unique appearances.
The pistol now has an ammo counter.
Berzerk Boosts now reduce incoming damage by 35% (down from 50%).
Healing Domes and Shield Repair Domes now restore 10 health or shield (down from 15) every 0.5 seconds. The Healing Dome has 60 health (down from 100) and the Shield Repair Dome has 40 health (down from 60).
Lightning Rods (that can spawn from lightning strikes) now have loot beams to make them easier to notice.
Movement & Animations

You now get slowed down by 25% when you get shot (down from 30%). This is to avoid that this kick pushes a player below the velocity threshold required to start a slide.
‘Heavy landing’ from tall falls has been removed; you can now land from any height without getting slowed down.
The sprint animations for pistols and beam gloves have been updated.
Slowdown effects from perks and firing your weapon no longer stack; only the strongest effect will apply at any given time.
The first time you pick up a weapon of a category in a match, a bespoke pick-up animation now plays. This animation can be instantly interrupted.
The weapon inspect animations from the previous playtest have had an audio pass and further animation polish. The pistol and hyper cannon have been given new inspect animations.
Third person firing animations have been updated.
You now slow down by 20% for 0.7 seconds after performing a melee attack. The slowdown for pistols is only 10% and lasts 0.5 seconds.
The third person movement animations now have a bespoke transition between run and sprint to look less weird when blending.
Vehicle weapons should now have some recoil animations when fired.
Abilities & Perks

The Improvised Artisan perk now drops 10 power from a melee kill (up from 5).
The Long-Ranged Reinforcer perk now triggers from 20m (down from 40m).
The Dome Tinkerer perk now increases the radius Health and Shield Domes by 50% instead of increasing their effects by 25%.
The footprints from the Tracker perk now last 20 seconds (down from 30).
Acidic Tracker now highlights enemies for 2 seconds (down from 5) but increases damage done to them by 5% (up from 3%).
Cheat Death now, once again, only triggers if you are above 20 health.
Endurance Runner is now disabled for 5 seconds after taking damage (down from 10).
The Shield Upgrader perk now upgrades shields every 4 kills/assists (up from 3).
The Shield Surge perk now has a more obvious VFX for when it triggers.
The shader used for the Bunker Dome ability has been updated to more clearly show the ‘windows’ and the mesh is a full sphere instead of a dome, to avoid gaps on slopes.
Resilience now only lets you self-revive for free once per life.
Creatures

A new creature has been added: Mycotics. In this playtest, they are using an out-of-date appearance and will receive a visual update later.
A mycotic is a human who has been ‘claimed’ by the invasive fungal species of the world surrounding the shades. Some of them are lost convoyers, others unlucky souls whose Earthtrees have fallen. Now, they are slowly progressing through a slow death, with their bodies slowly consumed by the mycelium.
Mycotics are mostly aggressive, but also quite mindless. Their bodies are relatively resistant to damage (except against explosions, shotguns, fire, and beam gloves), but their head is very vulnerable and their arms can be shot off.
They have replaced cattermaws and drones around various events in the wilderness.
During the mycopocalypse event, a toxic and large variant can also appear. The toxic mycotic is surrounded by a toxic cloud that damages nearby players. The large mycotic is just more damage resistant.
A lot of creatures now despawn more quickly after dying, to avoid that they obscure the loot they may have dropped.
Creatures can now pick up dropped Biocores. To get the Biocore back, you have to kill them (which isn’t much to ask for if it’s a cattermaw, but perhaps if it’s a burrower).
Vehicles

The vehicle machine gun turret now uses heavy ammo that deals more damage per shot, fires much faster, has tighter spread, and has a longer effective range. In other words, it is much stronger than it used to be.
Where you end up when you exit a vehicle in motion should now be less…wrong.
If you enter a vehicle from the passenger side when the driver’s seat is empty, you will just go into the driver’s seat (you’re welcome, left-side-of-the-road drivers).
If you swap seats in a vehicle, you will skip passenger seats if there are available weapon- or driver seats to move into. You will only go into the passenger seat if all other slots are occupied.
The armour panels for the turret vehicle and murder wagon have more health.
The murder wagon now has more torque and a faster reverse speed.
The AoE from murder wagon grenades now has a 10m radius (up from 8m) and the magazine size is now 12 (up from 5).
Environment

Consoles for doors and other interactable items around the world have received a facelift.
Large crates have had a visual update pass (replacing the placeholder meshes from the previous playtest).
The map has undergone more lighting changes both for the sake of brightening up some overly dark areas but also to improve performance.
The thermal transfer office has had its layout changed to be less cramped.
Signage across the whole map has been updated. Redundant signs have been removed, more important signs should now be more noticeable and consistent in appearance. Signs leading into areas will also be ‘turned off’ if the area is not available in that match.
The VFX for wind vortices has been updated to make them more visible from a distance.
The ‘cryostasis’ area of the map is now called ‘biostasis’ (to actually be lore accurate).
If a ‘team spawn point’ in the map is not in use, a lot of its associated assets (e.g. lights and barricades) are removed. So if you see barricades in the distance, you will now know for sure there is a base there.
The consumables in forward camps now spawn immediately when the match starts, instead of after a semi-random delay.
A lot of cover items around the main corridor of the vaults have been updated.
Lobby

You can now keep donating Biocores to a vendor you already have Rep 5 with.
Some of the interactable stations around the lobby (e.g. loadout editor) have had their placeholder assets replaced.
The first bounce pad for the Tree Top time trial has been raised a bit to make it easier to land on it while sprinting.
Customization

Increased the contrast in a few patterns.
UI

Critical hit markers have been adjusted following feedback from our previous playtest, to obstruct the target less.
How hitmark positions relate to players at different distances has also been updated so that they don’t overlap with characters far away.
The reload spinner now moves with the crosshair during camera animations (e.g. when reloading or jumping).
Various parts of the UI have been updated to better fit the new style of the new HUD and menus from the previous playtest.
The effect when using shield repairers has been amped up a bit.
Different body types now have different idle animations on various screens.
The hyper cannon now has its own icon (instead of looking like an energy bomber).
The ‘consumable use’ interface should now tell you how to cancel the use.
If you hit a player who is immune to damage (e.g. just after they have respawned), the hitmark will say ‘Immune’ (instead of not getting one at all).
The vignette colour for when you’re affected by spores has been updated to match the colours used in the spore VFX.
A lot of screens in the game have been updated from their placeholder appearances (good bye grey boxes with white default text).
The main menu screen has been updated.
The ‘Fire Rate’ bar for plasma rifles (the metric showing you how fast they fire in the weapon customiser) has a smaller scope to more clearly show differences from modules.
The ‘Melee Damage’ bar for all weapons in the weapon customiser has had its scope reduced as no weapon could get close to the top anyway.
Event icons have been updated.
Other Updates

How the ‘first person graphics’ are rendered has been partially reworked to get rid of some weird “wobbling” artefacts as you get further from the centre of the map.
As a side effect, how weapons are positioned in ADS has also been updated. This is a recent and large update, so there may be some weapon-and-module combination that behave a bit strangely.
A lot more work towards optimising performance and reducing hitches has gone in.
The new lockboxes now have audio.
The loot drill event now has audio.
Climbing ladders is now less loud.
A new sound effect has been added for when you get hit by melee; it should be more noticeable than the previous one (to make it more obvious when you’re getting punched in the back).
Windows will now visibly shatter when broken, as opposed to just popping out of existence.
New VFX have been added for impact at longer distances, where they were previously not rendered at all. So now you see something but it’s less expensive than the close range effects.
Footstep and foley sounds for enemy players should now stand out more.
A new down and kill VFX has been added, but it’s a bit of a placeholder in preparation for a new system.
The ‘change page’ button the custom weapon station should now be bigger.
When you change weapons, the HUD immediately highlights the weapon you will be arriving at even while you are still in the process of unequipping. This part is not new. However, if you pick up a new weapon during the ‘unequip’ part of the change, you will now also swap out the weapon you are moving to (unless it’s the pistol), to avoid confusions where it feels like the wrong weapon has been replaced.
New audio has been added for the launch pads.
You can now swap your selected consumable item while driving.
All healing effects now play the ‘healing shader’ on the recipient.
Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where you couldn’t quickly move between multiple ‘pages’ in the custom weapon shop (for those who have four or more weapon slots).
Fixed an issue with the landing sound from the Rocket Jump ability playing out of sync if you landed weirdly.
Fixed some blending issues with the sniper rifle and shotgun inspect animations.
Removed duplicate and overlapping tooltip messaging from shops.
Impact VFX should now appear when spectating.
Fixed some visual issues with the new loot crates.
The vehicle engine sounds should now play properly based on if you hold forwards in the air or not.
Fixed an issue where energy bomber tracers were “shagged” (to quote the commit) at the start.
Fixed an issue where initial content spawns around team bases could be somewhat unfair.
Loot chests with a single item in them could display the incorrect rarity colour in their glow/paint. (Basically, it was influenced by what the non-existent second item would’ve been.)
The Shield Generator effect on the Shield Charger sniper rifle stock no longer triggers three times for tri-shot ammo.
Custom weapon names should now appear correctly on the HUD again.
Vehicles should no longer respawn on trucks if the previous vehicle was occupied and then left on the truck.
Forward camp lights should no longer disappear if you disconnect and reconnect.
You can now shoot through the wire mesh surrounding enemy scanners on trucks.
Some muzzle flash particles followed the player when moving when they shouldn’t have.
The crosshair when spectating should now be positioned correctly again.
ADS transition animations for the pistol will no longer override recoil animations if you fire during the transition.
Juvenile burrowers should no longer stretch when they die.
Ammo counters on certain weapons should no longer flicker out of existence when viewed from certain angles.
Fixed an issue where you could get stuck in some of the pods at the start of the game (and having to restart to get in).
Your character will no longer call out spore trap events if they have all been destroyed already.
Fixed some issues with lighting going weird if you move between different interfaces.
The Biocore carrier HUD recolour should now also work when spectating.
Walking in water in the cave should now sound like you’re walking in water.
The text on lift consoles should now be visible again to properly display their status.
The shimmering effect on life plants should disappear if the life has been picked up even if you were really far away when it happened.
Fixed various visual issues with the central extraction unit.
Fixed various collision issues and floating asset issues around the map.
Cattermaws should move properly while in combat as opposed to just standing still and staring or shooting at you.
Fixed some issues with bot hit zone multipliers not matching players’.
Jittery collision on the large greentech vines has been fixed.
Loot items can no longer land on NPCs and end up floating in the air.
The keycard symbol on the active vault door should be back.
The drill should no longer be animating if you disconnect while it’s in progress and reconnect when it’s done.
Fixed some issues that could cause relatively quick NPCs (e.g. drones and bots) to move in a stuttery fashion and occasionally be immune to damage during the start of said stutters.
If you change colour to a clothing item, it should once again be represented in that item’s icon.
The kill log should now accurately show what damage was received from the Thundercall: Rapid ability.
Fixed a variety of issues that could result in vehicles rubber banding or the camera stuttering when a passenger got out as you’re driving.
Fixed some map escapes in the lobby.
Player characters will no longer call out the deathbringer when passing through the vaults under it.
The voice line for taking control of extraction uplinks should no longer claim you have faster extractions after only claiming one of them.
Fixed an issue where the weapon signs in the lobby would occasionally disappear.
If you had a respawn point that has since been stolen, it should no longer show up as greyed out on the respawn screen.
Fixed various typos and changed British spellings to American English.
Player voice lines will no longer warn for incoming airstrikes if they are underground (but happen to be under where the airstrike is landing).
Your weapon will no longer be tilted at a weird angle if you ADS while looking sideways during a slide.
Cattermaws should no longer be able to push through closed doors.
The ‘Boulder’ collectible in the lobby should now be accessible again.
Fixed a few events that started their “when should I be active?” timers when the map was done loading instead of when the match had started.
The Upgrade Uplink colours should now update as it changes from friendly to enemy (or vice versa) even if you’re far away.
The needle on the plasma rifle ammo counter should no longer float in the air during reloads.
Fixed various issues with the Thunderdome UI lingering when you went back to the “normal” lobby.
You will no longer be interrupted if you are in process of claiming an extraction uplink and a teammate also tries to pull the lever.
Small med kits should no longer appear as large med kits while applying them.
The rejuvenation fruit should now also show a progress bar as it’s being applied.
Fixed an issue where it looked like bullets collided with certain player blocking volumes (even though they didn’t).
You should no longer sometimes wield a weapon when you get downed or not wield one when you get up from being revived.
The window in the home base should no longer be one-way blocking (you could previously shoot through it from the inside but not from the outside).
You can no longer contest the canteen Biocore by pushing up against the doors.
Hitmarkers from the past should no longer show up when you first attack someone after respawning if you had hitmarks on screen when you died.
You should now be able to claim the forward camp shield even after changing forward camps.
Overlaps when spawning into the lobby should now be less common.
Fixed an issue where you sometimes spawned into a crate when leaving a duel.
The custom weapon slots in the map should no longer show as ‘Purchased’ if the same slot on a different page had been unlocked.
Doors should no longer appear as sealed but open if they were destroyed while you were disconnected and you loaded into the map really far away from said door.
The surveillance drones should now be in the right position if you disconnect and reconnect while they are in motion.
You will no longer appear as still being on fire if you died to fire in a duel.
Nameplates should now be visible in the lobby after you die in a duel.
You can now respawn on a teammate who is carrying a Biocore.
The ability cooldown should now appear correctly when spectating another player.
Fixed an issue where you sometimes had invisible arms when picking up a Biocore.
Original post
01 Apr 2025Developer post
Our MEATIEST Update Yet | ASCENDANT Dev Update
We've been hard at work bringing a handful of updates into our game including exciting new items, tweaks to the much-loved Gorlizard Mind Link, and more! Watch the video and read the full patch notes below: Full Patch Notes New Features Earthtree’s Drunk Karaoke Hour – Every so o
Watch on YouTube
We've been hard at work bringing a handful of updates into our game including exciting new items, tweaks to the much-loved Gorlizard Mind Link, and more!
Watch the video and read the full patch notes below:
Full Patch Notes
New Features

Earthtree’s Drunk Karaoke Hour – Every so often, your Earthtree will start belting out karaoke hits from the ‘80s and ‘90s, and there’s no way to turn this feature off. The good news? You’ll learn every word to ‘The Final Countdown’ whether you like it or not.
NPCs That Judge You – NPCs no longer give advice - they give attitude, such as: “We both know you’ll never win with THAT strategy.” and “Is that… your loadout? Wow, good luck. I’m embarrassed for you.” Emotional trauma is guaranteed, but it’s good for toughening you up.
Gorlizard Mating Ritual – The Gorlizard Mind Link event now has a much-requested feature: mating. Lock eyes with another Gorlizard, press interact, and boom - one bonus Biocore (and psychological damage!).
Weapon Updates

Screaming Bazooka – Every time you fire this bad-boy, the bazooka will scream louder than your mom calling you down for dinner. The scream is both blood-curdling and embarrassingly high-pitched. There’s no tactical advantage - it’s just really, really loud and off-putting.
Hot Potato Gun – The clue’s in the name. This one fires steaming hot potato bullets. Not “hot” in a useful way, though. They’re just overcooked, limp potato lumps. Are they good for damage stats? No. But do they give you the street cred you so desperately need? Also no.
The ‘Yo Mama’ Grenades – Grenades that explode on impact with loud “Yo Mama” jokes: “Yo mama's like a hardware store: open 24/7, and everyone gets a free screw.” Jokes get louder and more intolerable with every use.
Sneak Peak – A new melee consumable. It increases melee damage by 75%, and suspicion by 100% - it also looks...questionable, see it for yourself in the video!
Gameplay Adjustments

Compulsory Nap Times – After 10 minutes of play, all players will pass out on the ground to take a compulsory power nap. No more explanation needed. We just care, ya know?
Hallucinogenic Map Glitches –The map occasionally warps into a psychedelic mess of flashing colors and unsettling laughter. This is NOT a bug. It’s just an attempt to keep things fresh for you guys. Also, everyone’s faces randomly disappear.
Bug Fixes

Infinite Hiccups – Fixed an issue where players would start hiccupping in-game and couldn’t stop. (We still left a 10% chance for random hiccups because you guys just loved it so much.)
“Ex Summoning” Audio Glitch –Turns out, random voices saying “WYD?”, “Had a dream about you last night”, and “You up?” wasn’t a glitch. Still working on removing this, but, honestly, who doesn’t want to hear from their ex?
Known Issues

Mandatory "Therapy Breaks" – The game will randomly stop mid-match, forcing you into an unsolicited therapy session where you’re asked uncomfortable questions like, “Do you think your Biocore dependency affects your personality?”, “Why do you think your Dad has never been proud of you?”, “Do you think it’s your face…?”, and “Why does your Mom not love you?” Refusal to answer will lock you out of the game for 24 hours.
Original post
01 Mar 2025Developer post
Patch Notes
Match Rules There are now more crates scattered around the wilderness. Small crates can also be found around the centre of the map (read more about them under ‘Events’). The buildings in the wilderness now contain a bit more loot. More systems have been added to make sure that al
Match Rules

There are now more crates scattered around the wilderness. Small crates can also be found around the centre of the map (read more about them under ‘Events’).
The buildings in the wilderness now contain a bit more loot.
More systems have been added to make sure that all teams have a minimum amount of content in the immediate areas around their base. Exactly how much, what the content is, or exactly where it is mixed up each game.
Events

Loot chests around the map have been reworked. In this build, they are just using a placeholder mesh but will be given a proper update in the next update, but their behaviour has already changed.
There are now small crates scattered around the map (mostly in the forest). They can be opened with an instant interaction or by shooting out the two lights on the front.
The larger crates now have two levers that need to be pulled to open them, instead of a timer. The total time is less than what the timers used to be, but they obviously require you to stand still for a short while.
The drop pods from the earthtree have been given a new appearance but are still timed.
Pulse generators have been added around the forest. If you activate them and stand on the platform, they will launch you through the air.
Some of the flatbed trucks that can be found around the map can now contain different types of cargo match-on-match. They can carry loot chests, enemy threat scanners, shield regeneration boosts, quads, turret vehicles, and pulse generators.
A new drill event can appear in the deadyard. If you activate the drill, it will spew forth various loot over a period of time. However, it may break down, in which case you need to restart it.
Weapons & Consumables

Weapons now have a gentle sway in ADS.
The hyper cannon projectile audio has been slightly tweaked but should retain its signature sound even in the new mix.
Small med kits now restore 35 health (up from 25).
The pistol appearance has been given a complete rework.
The pistol ADS zoom amount has been reduced.
The tracers from sniper rifles have been made a bit thicker and the initial yellow streak behind the bullet lasts a bit longer.
The ‘Hex Blaster’ shotgun has been renamed to ‘Hex-7 Jawbreaker’.
The ‘Nano-Arc’ and ‘Nano-Destroyer’ energy bombers have been renamed to ‘M3S Mender’ and ‘HM5 Mender’; names that more clearly convey that they can be used for healing.
Battle rifles, plasma rifles, and shotguns have had a visual uplift to their ammo counters. (The pistol will get one later.) We are aware of a few outstanding issues with these during certain animations.
The ‘Toxic II’ plasma rifle ammo’s residue cloud now has a diameter of 6 metres (up from 5). It (as well as the cloud from ‘Toxic I’) now also spawns a few more particles to make it clearer how big the area is.
The ‘Heat Absorber’ sniper rifle barrel now adds 5% damage per shot (up from 3%), still to a cap of 15%.
Movement & Animations

Sprinting with a pistol and beam gloves is once again faster than with other weapons.
The overall max sprint speed has been increased as a result. Most weapons sprint at 6.9 m/s but pistols and beam gloves sprint at 7.6 m/s.
Regular walking speed has been increased to 5 m/s, up from 4.4.
While shooting, you now slow down by 20% (except pistols which only slow by 10%).
The time this lingers for is different on different weapons (where heavier weapons such as shotguns have the slow linger for a bit longer). These slows don’t apply if you’re crouched or sliding.
The slowdown from getting shot (as opposed to doing the shooting) has been increased to 30% (up from 20%).
Sliding speeds have been increased and you now accelerate faster while sliding down hills.
Letting go of W (or whichever key you have bound to ‘forwards’) now instantly stops you sprinting, instead of having to wait for the character to come to a full stop first.
The player deceleration has been reduced a bit to make stopping less sudden.
Crouching and uncrouching is now a bit slower to make crouch spamming less good of an ‘avoidance tactic’.
Weapon recoil feedback has been adjusted further to fix some issues with how it felt to fire guns while crouched or close to detailed objects.
Weapon inspect animations have been updated.
Different weapons now react differently when landing from a jump to avoid that they all feel like they weigh the same.
A lot of ‘impact effects’ (explosions, gorlizard slams, chests blowing open, lightning strikes, etc.) have been given subtle camera feedback to improve the visceral feel of action.
Movement animations have been tweaked; the character should now take faster steps to generate a better sense of urgency in movement.
Abilities & Perks

‘Thundercall: Rapid’ now summons its lightning strike 10m in front of the user instead of right on top of them.
Creatures

Cattermaws now take increased damage from electricity.
The Biocore gorlizard now has 8,000 health (up from 5,000).
Cattermaws, gorlizards, burrowers, and juvenile burrowers now take more damage from the player controlled gorlizard’s melee attacks.
Vehicles

Vehicles now benefit from the same ‘burst protection’ against cluster ammo that players do; after being hit by one cluster bomb, they are immune to further ones for a short time.
The engine sound for quads has been completely reworked.
The turret vehicle is now a bit faster.
Vehicle explosions now reach further and do more damage.
Environment

The game map has undergone more lighting adjustments.
Simplified a few cliffs that were annoying to climb.
If a door fails to close due to something being in the way, it will keep on trying automatically (to make it easier to close doors as you’re running through them).
Open doors have been given larger interaction areas to make them quicker and easier to close in a hurry.
Lobby

The lobby has undergone more lighting adjustments.
UI

It wouldn’t be another update without a completely new HUD. As such, the HUD has been reworked again. (This is a much bigger change than what this single bullet point may imply, and it’s not quite finished yet.)
The HUD has been made smaller.
Multikill celebrations have had a visual uplift. They also trigger on ‘down’ instead of just ‘kill’ (to avoid the bleedout delay detracting from the satisfaction), including when assisting a down. They now also come with audio callouts.
Killstreaks have had some visual uplifts and now also get called out in matches (not just in the Thunderdome). Like multikills, killstreaks also trigger on ‘down’ and includes assists.
There is now a little dot at the base of a ping so you can see where to move the aim to if you want to cancel or confirm a ping.
The lobby menu, character customizer, and vendor screens have been given a new camera treatment to present the character more nicely.
Other Updates

The Biocore now has an amber loot beam.
The hangar lift unlock cost has been reduced to 20 power (down from 50).

Bug Fixes

Fixed some layout and sorting issues with the Biocore Streak column on the scoreboard.
Fixed a few places where old currency icons were still used.
Destroyed doors will no longer appear as sealed but open if you disconnect and rejoin.
Firing animations will now play if firing mid-jump in ADS.
Made the ‘down’ VFX flourish play more reliably if you get lots of downs in quick succession.
The voice call-outs from pinging doors ‘that aren’t double doors’ were wrong and have been corrected.
Fixed a variety of IK issues that caused players and NPCs to sometimes clip through the ground.
During a Firesale event, you no longer need to have the original cost of a custom weapon in order to pick them up for free.
Changed a few instances of British spelling into American spelling.
Fixed a few assets that had collisions notably larger than the visual appearance.
Fixed some issues that caused hit indicators to sometimes play the wrong sounds.
The interaction prompt should now disappear when you take control of the gorlizard.
If a player is overkilled while pulling a lever, the lever will no longer carry on on its own.
Enemy bots should now be able to be highlighted if they block a base for too long.
The ‘Pyro - Standard’ plasma rifle ammo module now sits next to the other Pyro modules in the crafting list.
Using a hacking device on a Biocore capture point should no longer trigger a VO clip saying it’s ready for collection.
Original post
25 Feb 2025Developer post
Come Break Our Game
We’ve been busy. Like, ‘forgot what sunlight looks like’ busy. The new ASCENDANT isn’t just a fresh coat of paint, it’s a full-blown, biopunk glow-up. We’re talking a darker, sharper aesthetic that finally matches the game’s brutal energy, tighter gunplay that makes every shot hi
We’ve been busy. Like, ‘forgot what sunlight looks like’ busy. The new ASCENDANT isn’t just a fresh coat of paint, it’s a full-blown, biopunk glow-up. We’re talking a darker, sharper aesthetic that finally matches the game’s brutal energy, tighter gunplay that makes every shot hit harder, and more dynamic events designed to obliterate your best-laid plans.
And now, we’re giving you a shot at it.
What’s New?
If you’ve played ASCENDANT before, you’re in for a hell of a surprise. If you haven’t? Well… Buckle up.

A whole new vibe – Candy-colored chaos is dead. ASCENDANT now oozes dystopian 80s sci-fi. Think Total Recall meets RoboCop.
Gunplay that slaps – Every shot, every reload, every kill, is crisp, brutal, and way more satisfying.
Tactical chaos dialed up to 11 – Events like Gorlizard Mindlink, Deathbringer drops, and environmental hazards mean no two matches play the same.
Better everything – From movement speed to UI tweaks, we’ve tuned, tightened, and polished the hell out of this game since our last CTT, and while there’s still plenty that needs some dev love, the improvements are definitely noticeable.
How to Get In?
The Closed Technical Test is happening SOON™ (no, really). Join our Discord, sign up, and prepare for four teams of three battling it out in the most unpredictable capture-the-flag experience ever.
📅 EU servers: Saturday 1st March, 6pm - 10pm (GMT) / 12pm - 4pm (CST) / 10am - 2pm (PST)
📅 NA servers: Saturday 1st March, 7pm - 11pm (CST) / 5pm - 9pm (PST) / Sunday 2nd March, 1am - 5am (GMT)
Want a Free Key?
We’re giving away 6 keys over on our X account. Hit follow, stay tuned, and if you win, congrats - you get to play and roast us for free.
Spots are limited, and we’re looking for players who want to jump in, break stuff, and tell us exactly how much we suck (constructively, please). Sign up now, grab your squad, and we’ll see you on the battlefield.
(If the servers catch fire, no they didn’t. Capiche?)
Original post
14 Feb 2025Developer post
Love, Lies, and Loadouts: Picking Your Perfect ASCENDANT Squad
Ah, February, the month of love, heartbreak, and regrettable late-night texts to your ex. But in ASCENDANT, the only relationships that matter are the ones forged in strategy (and the occasional accidental team kill). Whether you're a well-oiled team or a lone wolf trying to prov