v0.15.0: Make It Count

Crab1:

1. Merged the Codex, Achievements, and Legacy into a Records section on the main menu and pause menu,
2. All Achievements have been replaced, there's now 10 and I'll add more with each update,
3. Simplified the Records UI to use tiny tiles which will provide a tooltip explanation for unlocked records.
4. Removed dodge action, added dodge as a chance occurrence during combat,
5. Added player and enemy animations plus some shadows,
6. Added a few NPC's to non-combat encounters, and

Next up I'll be adding some performance indicators (e.g. FPS counter), increasing max enemy counts, and overhauling the meta progression upgrade system.

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Ascend or Die v0.15.0: Make It Count

Hey cultivators!

v0.15.0 is about permanence. Runs end, but what you did in them should not evaporate: this version rebuilds how the game remembers you, gives the world some life while you are at it, and makes every unlock land the moment you earn it.

The Records Hub

Codex, Achievements, and Legacy are no longer three separate menus. They now live together in a single Records hub, reachable from the main menu and the pause menu, fronted by an identity header that gives your save file a face. The whole thing runs on a compact tile grid: locked entries show a silhouette of what is waiting, unlocked ones carry a tooltip explaining exactly what you found or did. Filling that grid in is the long game now.

Achievements That Mean Something

The old achievements are gone. In their place is a fresh set of 10, built to be personal, earnable, and rewarded, with more arriving each update. The important word is personal: in co-op, your achievements track what you did, not what your group did. Land the kill, earn the record. Unlocks pop as toasts mid-run the moment you earn them, and the end-of-run screen now gives your new achievements a hero slot instead of burying them in a list. Steam players get the mirror treatment: achievements earned in game push straight to Steam, and if you started on itch and move to Steam later, your earned records sync over on first boot.

Shared Discoveries

The codex is a team effort now. When a co-op partner discovers something new, it lands in everyone's codex instantly, marked so you can see what is fresh. And completion is not just for completion's sake anymore: filling out sections of the codex feeds back into the achievement system, so the scholars in the group are earning too.

Somebody's Home

The non-combat stops on the map are no longer empty rooms with loot in them. They are towns now: animated squares with keepers who run the services, villagers going about their business, and a service pad you walk up to when you are ready to do business instead of a menu ambushing you at the door. It all works online too, so your whole party sees the same town and the same keeper.

Living Sprites

Every character and every enemy in the game now has proper idle and walk animations, driven by real sprite sheets instead of static frames. Everyone also casts a shadow sized to what is actually above it, which does more for grounding the world than it has any right to.

Combat Feel

The dodge button is gone, and that is a good thing. Dodging is now a passive chance rolled during combat, built from your stats and your build, so your hands stay on movement and attacks where the survivor-like core wants them. To keep the pressure honest, elites got a serious power-up (ten times their old strength) and spawn pressure is up for both solo and co-op runs. If elites used to be speed bumps, they are events now.

Under the Hood

• Smoother world entry: two separate fix passes went into the freeze when entering a new area; the transition now stays fluid even on big maps.
• Lobby quality of life: joining an online lobby auto-assigns you a free character instead of dumping you onto one someone already picked.
• Delete Save Data: finally in the options menu, behind a hard confirmation so nobody fat-fingers away their legacy.
• Test suite: 6,328 automated tests guard the game, all green at ship time.

What's Next

The next cycle turns the difficulty knob and the depth knob at the same time. Expect bigger hordes and a world that pushes back harder, plus a rework of cross-run progression into something that actually feels like cultivation. There may also be a moment, a few runs in, where the game shows you it has been holding something back.

Ascend or Die is a 2D co-op roguelite with xianxia cultivation. 1-4 players, local and online.