'The Ascent': How to Respec Your Character's Stats

The Ascent is a twin-stick shooter that allows you to customize your character's appearance, loadout, and skill set.

What Is 'The Ascent'

The action RPG is set in a far-flung world that is presided over by a series of megacorporations.

This planet is so remote (and so expensive to reach) that any aspiring residents are forced to enter indentured contracts with one of the ruling companies, just so that they can arrive there in the first place. In other words, races from across the galaxy are voluntarily signing their lives away for a chance at making it in the big city.

As one of these dejected "indents", you perform handyman duties for the Ascent Group archology, which is a bustling metropolis that takes the form of one massive skyscraper.

The tower is structured so that the lower levels are totally inhospitable for humans, and then as you work your way up floor-by-floor (and through the business' ranks) things start to become more luxurious.

For example, the basement is plagued by regular flooding and infested by subterranean monsters. Then, just above that, is a slum district where the criminal underworld operates without any interference from the law.

Meanwhile, if you go all the way to the top of the building, you will find the upper classes thriving comfortably with access to premium healthcare, technological conveniences, and generally better living conditions.

This status quo is disrupted when the Ascent Group (your employer) goes bust without warning and the entire archology is thrown into disarray. The workers are suddenly left to fend for themselves, as everyone worries about where their next pay check will be coming from.

You, on the other hand, seize this as an opportunity to finally get out from under the corporation's thumb and pursue a career change as a freelance gun-for-hire.

Throughout the game, you will gradually work your way up the tower's various levels and potentially even get a shot at earning your back freedom.

Can You Respec in 'The Ascent'?

Of course, your journey is not without adversity, as the city is populated by ruthless gangs, military-grade androids, and mutated creatures who stand between you and the big leagues. To survive, it is imperative that you equip yourself with the best gear, modify your body with top dollar augmentations, and spend upgrade points judiciously.

Speaking of which, whenever you level up in The Ascent you will be given three points to allocate to your character's various stats. Among other things, you can increase their base HP, their reload speed, and their ability cooldowns.

You will find that you level up quite regularly and it is quite easy to max out these attributes. Yet if you later decide that you regret any of your choices and want to make a chance, you can always respec. Not every RPG gives you the facility to do this, so it is good to know ahead of time that it is available here.

To redistribute your upgrade points, you will need to visit one of the archology's "grafters". The equivalent to Cyberpunk 2077's "Ripperdocs", these merchants are essentially back-alley surgeons who will install "Chrome" augmentations onto patients, bestowing them with things like hydraulic biceps, an extra pair of arms, and synthetic organs.

The first time that you are likely to encounter a grafter is in The Ascent's inaugural side-quest, entitled "Gear Up". When you interact with the trader, you will notice that he sells augmentations and modules. Some of our personal favourites from his stock include the biometric timestamp (which is basically a quick-heal function) and volatile (which causes enemies to spontaneously combust in an extremely gory fashion).

The quest itself only requires you to browse this inventory and does not particularly call attention to the fact that the grafter offers an additional service. If you look at the menu, you will notice that there is an option to respec and, depending on what level you are, the cost of this will vary quite a bit.

In a nutshell, the more upgrade points you have already spent, the pricier it will be to reset them.

In general, we found that you level up in The Ascent so frequently that we never needed to respec and would recommend saving your money for better guns or augmentations instead. Nevertheless, the option is there if you want it and you can return to the grafter at any point by hailing a taxi to Cluster 13.

The Ascent is out now for PC and Xbox consoles. It is also featured as part of the Xbox Game Pass Service.