Ascension Legends preview – I get by with the help of my legendary friends

In the land of Vigil, the Muses of Malevolence are threatening the world and a new era of heroes must step up to defeat them. Along their path, legendary heroes from the pantheon of Ascension have returned to guide their way and offer assistance. Who will earn the most honor to be named a new Hero of Vigil? Designed by Justin Gary, and debuting almost 15 years after the original, Ascension Legends is the brand new stand-alone set in the long line of deck building games.

For those unfamiliar with the game of Ascension, players take on the role of a hero and build a deck to earn honor points by acquiring and utilizing different cards from a central market. On their turn, players will play cards from their hand to gain runes, power, honor, or renown, or activating other effects such as drawing more cards. There are three different types of cards in the game: Heroes, Constructs, and Monsters. Players can use runes to purchase new Heroes and Construct cards for their decks from two common, but limited, card choices and a variable offering of six cards. Power is used to defeat monsters from the evergreen Cultist to more powerful monsters such as the Earth Tyrant. Cards in the game also have one or two associated factions:

• Enlightened – Blue
• Void – Purple
• Lifebound – Green
• Mechana – Brown

Heroes are allies that power up your deck in different ways from giving you runes, power, or allow you trigger effects. Some heroes serve as emissaries to other factions whose effects are triggered when other emissaries are played on a player’s turn. When a construct is played, it will stay in play between rounds giving players ongoing abilities and power-ups. Some cards will also Monster cards usually award the player honor and other special abilities when defeated. Honor points are the victory points of the game and, when awarded, are taken from a common gem pool that triggers the end of the game once depleted.

Renown is a new mechanism in Ascension Legends and allows players to move up the Legendary Track corresponding to one of four Legendary Characters. The final game will feature 8 different Legendary Characters that offer different bonuses as players ascend their associated tracks. There are three ways to gain renown in the game:

• Each time a player acquires a card from the center row, players will move up one space on the Legendary Track matching the color and faction of the card.
• Each time a player defeats a monster matching the color and faction of one of the tracks, the player will get to move up as well.
• Card effects will also grant renown when they are triggered by being played from a player’s hand.

At different intervals along the four legendary tracks, players will be granted a one-time use boon such as drawing cards or gaining more runes to spend on cards in the center row. If players can reach the end of a legendary track, they will be able to use the associated boon once per turn until the end of the game. Some card effects in the game will be boosted based on a player’s position on the cards associated track position. The higher the position, the more powerful the effect.

As in most deck builders, newly acquired cards will be placed into a player’s discard pile. When a player runs out of cards to draw from their deck, they will shuffle their discard pile to make a new deck. In a player’s turn, any unused runes, power points, or unplayed cards will be forfeited. The game continues through player turns until the honor pool is depleted. Players will finish the current round before the final scoring. Players will determine the winner by adding their honor tokens to the printed honor values on each of the cards in their deck with the highest total value winning the game.

The final production copy of Ascension Legends will have special player markers for the legendary track and the Legendary characters will have a special 3d effect finish. Ascension Legends can also be included with all the previous products and add the renown mechanisms into the player’s other favorite eras of Ascension. Ascension Legends expands and improves upon an already 15-year legacy. The gameplay of Ascension is easy to teach, easy to play, and easy to get to the table. The new legendary characters add a nice spin and new element to manage from the original game mechanisms. Players can race up one of the legendary tracks by acquiring a certain faction of cards to get the permanent boon, or they can balance their approach by looking at other synergies between cards with a few different boons sprinkled throughout. Combining this set with some of the others would give some amazing replayability opportunities. While my experience with Ascension has only come through playing the digital application and this on-table version, I am ready to explore the full world Ascension has to offer.

Ascension Legends was crowdfunded through GameFound and, at the time of this posting, is still taking late pledges. You can find more information about the campaign and snagging a copy of the game here. Ascension Legends will head to retail outlets in 2025, but the other 15 years of products and the digital iteration are available for purchase.

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