Ascension

Ascension

The act of rising; the way by which one rises; a slope; a way up. New Webster's Dictionary

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Excerpts from Scyld's forum post on Ascension:

When the last sixth of the Naughty Sorceress quest is available to players. You will be given the opportunity to Ascend.
You start over as a new character, with access to a bunch of new content, and a number of still to-be-determined benefits.

The idea of ascension is to ascend (continue the game) so there will be minimal (possibly only restructuring of) content added for non-ascended players.

Ascension is not the end, new content will continually be added after this. You will never be forced into ascension. You might feel pressured to join it, but that's only because of the true awesomeness that is ascension.

You choose 1 of 6 classes, keeping one skill from your current list of skills, most likely iron liver and things like that you'll have to get again.

According to broccolisoup:

You finish a softcore ascension, you get one permanent softcore skill that will stay with you always. You can use it on any further softcore ascensions. You finish a hardcore ascension, you get one permanent hardcore skill that will stay with you always. You can use it on any hard OR soft-core ascension. If you choose a skill in hardcore that you already own for softcore, the skill will simply be marked as hardcore, and can then be used for any ascension.

• Your current "life" will be considered a softcore ascension.
• You can not keep a skill, and re-learn it to acquire a more powerful one.
• You only get the extra 5lb affect of empathy if you are a turtle tamer.
  • Acquiring both Fat Leon's Phat Loot Lyric and Mad Looting Skillz would result in a higher drop rate of items.
    

=== Familiars ===
For familiars, you get to keep your current familiar with it's weight and kills, the rest remain in your terrarium and are reset to 0 kills (1 lb.) Also, your pet's accessory will be put into your long-term storage and treated like any other item there.
Note:
There is still some arguement as to whether hardcore players will get to keep a familiar w/current weight/kills, especially with regards to Mr. Store familiars.
=== Items ===

• During normal ascensions, you'll be allowed to pull 20 items or 20,000 Meat per day out of long-term storage. 1,000 Meat = 1 item. During Hardcore ascensions (which will be rewarded via leaderboards and other goodies) will allow no access to long-term storage until the next non-hardcore ascension.
• If you ascend again with stuff already in storage, your carried (and closeted) stuff just gets dumped into storage together.
• All on hand items, closeted and storage items remain during ascension. Except Quest Items, shown in item description.
• All kept items are placed into storage. (See Ronin)
• Campground equipment, with the exception of the terranium, needs to be acquired again.
  • There was a question as to whether the campground items go into storage or disappear.
• You can not receive items in anyway during ronin phase or throughout a hardcore ascension path.
  • This means kmail "attactments", trade, the mall, flea market, your clan stash, pvp, your display case, and chatbot. Again, there is still a question concerning how the reception of Mr. Accesories recieved from donating and their possible use in aquiring Mr. Store items will be handled. Also, concerns have come up considering prizes won from radio contests.
• Counters will remain, e.g. Herb Brownie consumption and White Canadian consumption.
• The shore trip counter is, from current information, reset.
• Gear you are currently wearing goes into your storage.
• Many currently unused items will attain a purpose, the which ones that do Riff does not say.

=== Ronin Phase: ===
After reincarnating, all of your inventory and closet items are placed into long-term storage, and you enter a 1000-turn 'ronin' phase. During this phase, you can't receive items from other players, by any means.

• During normal ascensions, you'll be allowed to pull 20 items or 20,000 Meat per day out of long-term storage. 1,000 Meat = 1 item.
• During ronin phase, you may only PvP for dignity.
• You won't be able to take out of your clan stash in the 'ronin' phase. You might be able to donate to it; it's not certain yet.
• You can not receive items in anyway during ronin phase.
  

=== Hardcore: ===
In addition to the hardcore option, there are also 'paths,' or voluntary restrictions on your game play to make it more challenging. Ascending on these paths will also be rewarded in various ways.
During Hardcore ascensions (which will be rewarded via leader boards and other goodies) will allow no access to long-term storage until the next non-hardcore ascension.
Mr. Store items obtained in prior ascension will not be ‘kept’ during your hardcore path. They will be deposited, only ones you donate for that round can be used for the duration of you hardcore period. Not confirmed
You can turn hardcore ascension off midway if you decide you dislike it. But you won't get any of the bonuses, and you can't elect to turn it back on until you ascend again.

• You can not receive any items, or buffs from another player. All trading options are closed - mall, flea market, trade.
• During hardcore, you may only PvP for dignity.
  

=== Other: ===
Your name, ID #, and turns played, will all stay. As will Tattoos and Trophies. And yes, you'll accumulate the normal class tattoos from every class you ascend into, so it'll now be possible to collect all the custom tattoos on one character.

• All quest statuses are reset on ascension.
• You can only ascend on completion of all Council of Loathing quests. Sorceress quest does not open up otherwise.
• Stats, of course, will be reset to the normal level 1's stats for when you start the game. There will probably be a 'lifetime' stat sort of thing, to keep track of the past achievements, in the Hall of Records. And the Hall will probably be more random and split up. It may vary more from day to day, trying to make it interesting in all aspects of the game. Most likely there will be separate sections for normal and hardcore ascenders, a great emphasis will be put on ascension for power gamers. Those who don't ascend will most likely be left behind on the boards. The board will be dominated by the rich at the beginning, but give a few months and it will settle out, unless you have unlimited time, the board will not be yours to keep. There are so many more players then when the original board came out.
• Your PvP stone is reset along with ranking, and win/loss ratio.
• Your trophy consumption counts (food and booze) will not be reset/Counters will remain, e.g. Herb Brownie consumption and White Canadian consumption.
• Clan leaders now remain the clan leader upon ascension.
• Your store does not carry through to ascension; in fact you have to sell it before you can ascend.
• When you finish the final quest, the mechanics for ascension open up. It's your call when or if you use them.
• If for some reason you chose not to ascend on completion of the sorceress quest you can return there and ascend.
• After ascension is implemented though, pretty much anything that goes up as you level in gains (like the shore) will max out at level 15. After level 15, you don't continue to get more and more benefits, so levelling is not as worth it anyways.
• You can still chat normally. As well as send clan messages & kmail too, as long as there aren't meat/items attached.
• Clan Karma stays.
• If you ascend on day x, you will then be able to play your next reincarnation with the original 80 adv’s straight away.
• A multitude of new content has been added for ascended players. Things like leader boards and new content will be focusing lots on ascenders, you're more likely to lose out if you don't ascend then anything else.

Please note that this is just to give an idea of what ascension will be like and not necessarily exact

Tuffy