The Soulsborne genre is known for its brutal difficulty and unforgiving boss fights. Amongst these games, Dark Souls if often credited with being the first to really push FromSoftware's work into the spotlight. For new players, the game can be extremely difficulty, having caused many people to stop playing out of pure frustration. For veteran players, Dark Souls is nothing more than a slightly chaotic field trip. If the game wasn't hard enough already, the Ascension Mod brings a whole new level of brutality to the title.
The Ascension Mod was created by Van Buinen in 2018 and had its last major update in 2019. The mod is designed to up the standard Dark Souls difficulty while transforming the game into a more RPG oriented title. Armors and weapons now have different effects which can aid or hold back the player depending on how the items are used. Enemies spawn in completely different places (often making fights more difficult) while bosses have gained a substantial amount of health. The Ascension Mod takes the brutality of Dark Souls and bumps it up a notch while introducing new game mechanics.
The mod comes in three difficulties: Easy, Default, and Extreme. Be warned that even easy mode introduces additional difficulty to the base game. In fact, the description of the mod explicitly states that it's extremely hard and should not be played if the player doesn't like unfair fights. The mod is not one to be reckoned with by any means and even veteran players will struggle through it. If Dark Souls by itself is a big challenge, then unfortunately this mod will be locked behind a skills barrier for many players. However, for those who can brave its difficulty, the mod has a lot to offer.
Dark Souls Becomes A RPG With The Ascension Mod
There are all new leveling systems in place which encourage exploration while weapon and armor upgrading is now critical to success. Even base equipment features additional skills that were otherwise obsolete in Dark Souls. For example, the "shadow" gear grants players the ability to sneak around silently while increases their poise and decreasing detection. Leveling up the armor boosts these abilities while also increases defense by an enormous amount. Weapons now have effects like Life Steal and Permanent Resin which can be used in different combat encounters.
The biggest challenge comes from enemy behavior. Enemy placement and drops have been changed drastically, meaning that even veteran players need to change their strategy. Every enemy comes equipped with its own set of additional effects like fire damage, stamina reduction by 50%, or even speed reduction by 50%. The most challenging of enemies now continuously spawn (yes, including every Ash Lake hydra). Boss fights are predominately the same, but all have a lot more health, deal greater damage, and often feature more knock back. It's important to note that Bonfire locations have changed or have been entirely removed. This means that saving is a huge luxury and players need to be even more careful to avoid getting killed.
The Ascension Mod has a lot of exciting features, including new boss music, reprogrammed AI, and physics changes. The mod is also available for Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 3, including any remastered or DLC versions of the games. There is also the Ascended Mod for Dark Souls which is being actively updated nearly every month. For those who are able to brave its overwhelming difficulty, the Ascension Mod adds plenty of exciting RPG elements to the classic Dark Souls title that are definitely worth exploring.
Source: Van Buinen/Nexus