For many, People Can Fly's Outriders was a welcomed surprise, especially those looking to get their looter shooter fix. Taking place on a mysterious and hostile planet known as Enoch, players could select from four different classes, each with multiple skill trees to help further refine them. With the beta breaking records, the launch was unfortunately marred by server issues and technical issues, like one particularly nasty Outriders bug that wiped player inventories. Although not a live service title, People Can Fly continued to release updates to improve the overall experience and fix nagging issues.
Between these updates and the already solid gameplay mechanics, Outriders was able to find a sizable fanbase, even pleasing publisher Square Enix with its digital sales. Ultimately, it prompted People Can Fly to continue to develop the title and eventually release a massive free update known as New Horizon. While also fixing a number of issues as well as further balance updates, Outriders: New Horizon added tons of new content, including four new Expedition missions, tweaks to the end game, as well as buffs for each of the four classes.
New Horizon also gave fans their first tease at the planned expansion known as Worldslayer, which was recently shown off in full. The expansion not only adds a new campaign for players to experience, but also adds a new PAX specific skill tree for all four classes, adds tons of new weapons and gear, enhances the endgame content, and introduces a new system called Ascension.
What is the Ascension System?
With the Worldslayer expansion, Outriders players can continue to progress long after they hit the level 30 cap. Similar to Diablo 3's Paragon leveling system, Ascension is a long-term progression system intended to give players something to do after they've not only hit the level cap, but finished off the main campaign as well. Better yet, the Ascension system is there to only make players stronger; it does not prevent access to perks, weapons, or gear.
Once the level cap is hit in Outriders Worldslayer expansion, players can continue to accumulate experience as they would traditionally. Instead of working towards a new level unlock, players are filling the Ascension meter, which in turn unlocks new Ascension Points. Players have four categories to invest there points into: Brutality, Endurance, Prowess, or Anomaly. Each category has an additional five sub-options that can be invested in, up 10 points in each. Some examples include the ability to further reduce anomaly cooldowns, gain additional health, or vastly improve damage output.
Ultimately, there are 200 Ascension Points to unlock and players are more than free to respec as much as they want, as there is no cost to do so. With this new system, People Can Fly are giving Outriders players new ways to further power up their favorite builds or reward experimentation for finding a loadout that may be a bit more unconventional.
Outriders: Worldslayer expansion releases June 30, 2022, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.