Ascension is a gameplay overhaul in the style of Requiem for Skyrim. It aims to revamp Starfield's gameplay by removing all level scaling and adjusting combat for a challenging yet balanced experience. It was previously just available on the Nexus, but is now on Creations for PC and Xbox.
In Ascension, Starfield's gameplay has been completely revamped, changing many aspects such as weapons, armor, enemy scaling, leveling, and perks. The aim is to create a consistent, challenging, and fair game world. The major change is the removal of all level scaling from the game. Regardless of the player's level, the world remains the same. Weapons deal consistent damage from the start to the end of the game, armor always plays a significant role, and enemies don't become stronger just because the player has leveled up. The player character no longer becomes more powerful as they level up, but instead becomes more skilled. This ensures that combat remains engaging from the beginning to the end of the game, regardless of the length of playtime or the number of new game-plus cycles you go through.
- Weapon and Armor quality tiers have been removed.
- All Weapons do higher damage, so unarmored enemies die in one or two shots, as do you.
- Automatic weapons do the same damage per bullet as semi-auto.
- All Armor is more effective, you will now be able to reach the armor cap by the early/mid-game, but your enemies will do so as well.
- Hollow point rounds have been added, doing more damage, but increasing the target's armor.
- EM weapons have been rebalanced so they are a hard, but viable strategy.
- Armors are now categorized as Metal, Kevlar, and Fabric. Metal is 50% weak to EM, Kevlar is 50% weak to Energy, and Fabric is 50% weak to Ballistic.
- Perks that previously increased weapon damage, for both the player character and space combat, now only provide their secondary effects. To compensate for this change, these effects have been doubled.
- The Ballistics perk now allows players to modify the fire mode of their weapons without needing resources. Higher ranks of this perk allow players to research different ammo types.
- Players can now use Boost Packs from the start of the game. The first rank of this perk now allows players to modify their Boost Pack's fire rate without needing any resources.
- The Stealth Meter is always available, and pickpocketing is always unlocked.
- The types of ships you encounter are now not limited by your level. This means that at the beginning of the game, you may face high-tier ships if you are not careful.
These are just a small number of the changes made. Check out the mod pages for more details. Ascension requires a new game, or a NG+ to function correctly.
