Underworld Ascendant Update 4 Available

The team over at Otherside Entertainment has put together a brand new update for their dungeon crawling immersive sim Underworld Ascendant. The update adds a number of new quests, new NPC interactions, and several new enemies. It also makes the game’s combat more strategic, improves its tutorial sequence, updates its UI, and more.

Here are the major fixes and improvements:

What’s New:

• This update is about 1.1GB in size.
• Added friendly NPC interactions with a number of new characters, many of whom are locked away behind insidious challenges that can only be accessed by powering a Materia Modus to lower the local water level.
• New main quest to find and free the Outcast Fane, who will provide a hunting guide for the Eidolon and Animus. (He then sets up as a vendor in the Saurian camp, as added in Update 3.)
• New Faction quest to find and free The Shambler Meridian, who will open The Bazaar of The Arcane in Marcaul and offer high level magic items for sale.
• New Faction quest to find and free the Outcast Dahlia, who will teach the player several Rune Formulas.
• New Faction quest to find and free the Deep Elf Severn, who will provide a map location for a hidden area.
• New Faction quest to find and free the Expedition dwarf Quater, who will provide a map location for a hidden area.
• Series’ mainstay Rawstag the Troll — who really has a lot to say — has taken up residence in The Bazaar of The Arcane
• Several new enemies added:
• The Bellum, a blind “headless” charger w/ tongue ranged attack
• The deadly Poison Bellum
• The stealthy Shadow Beast

Updated Fixes:

• Combat tuned to be more strategic, with the addition of a shove attack (which can interrupt some enemy attacks or push them off ledges) and fan-requested combat music, which reinforces when enemies are aggroed on you.
• Updated in-world loot pass, added new weapons, armor, and gear items to increase the variety of loot and further reward exploration.
• Added Rune formulas and increased the Runes found in-world to encourage deeper exploration of magic. New Fehu (Beast) Rune added, increasing the number of spells players can craft, such as Create Beast (which spawns a Deep Slug with a flammable trail), Create Bellum, and Harm Beast.
• Improved tutorial sequence and smart hint system to teach elements that players were missing (such as advanced combat attacks and bow zoom) or unclear about (status effects like hunger and exhaustion).
• Updated UI/UX elements, such as:
  • Improved map icons and readability.
  • More prominent notifications when you unlock a new Rune or enter a new region.
  • The Rune Wheel now has additional commentary regarding target and use of the currently-crafted spell, along with UI styling to make it clearer that you can click on spell names in the Spellbook to ready them.
  • The tooltip for the Rune Bag now includes the Spellbook name (if available) of the currently-readied spell.
  • The Doom Counter now properly shows itself on the HUD when its value changed.
  • Tooltips in the Trade screen now show the resale value of items in your inventory, not just those in the “Your Offer” area.
  • Improved readability of inventory annotations for stack counts and Rune Formulas.