Ascension Guide: What All 10 Levels Change and How to Climb Them
An early-access summary of all ten Ascension levels, how multiplayer progression differs, and what kinds of deck discipline matter more as the modifiers stack.
STS2 currently compresses Ascension into 10 steps
Multiple current guides agree that the early-access build has ten Ascension levels, not twenty. The modifiers are cumulative, and Ascension 10 ends with the sequel’s double-boss check at the top.
Because the climb is shorter, each step matters more. You feel the pressure spike much earlier than in the original game.
Higher Ascension punishes sloppy deckbuilding first
Less gold, fewer rest sites, rarer premium cards, tougher enemies, and deadlier attacks all point toward the same lesson: consistency is king. Bad removals, bloated lists, and speculative payoffs get punished much harder.
As you climb, the most important upgrade is not finding more broken cards. It is learning when to skip, when to reroute, and when a safe elite is better than a greedy one.
Multiplayer Ascension is a separate ladder
Co-op Ascension progression is separate from solo, and the party uses the lowest unlocked level among its players. That alone changes who hosts and which group composition makes sense for a push night.
If your goal is coordinated high-difficulty clears, treat multiplayer as its own progression track instead of an extension of your solo grind.