Table of Contents
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Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation
Ashes is a game in the style of Total Annihilation, released on March 31st of 2016 by Stardock Entertainment. Similar to Supreme Commander - Forged Alliance for Supreme Commander, “Escalation” is a stand-alone Extension of Ashes of the Singularity.
Purchase
The game is distributed via Steam
Turn Off Launcher
By default, Steam does not start the game immediately but an intermitted launcher. If you want Steam to start right into the game, add the parameter /nolauncher
to the start options.
Tech Tree
The game is divided into two factions, the Post Human Coalition (PHC) and the Substrate. Both have similar but different tech trees and variations of units that fullfill specific purposes. Here is an overview of the build order/tech tree:
Dreadnought Upgrades
Dreadnoughts have different levels, beginning with 1 and ending at 5. The more units (not buildings!) the Dreadnought destroys, the more experience (XP) it gets. When reaching certain amounts of experience, the Dreadnought unlocks a new level which brings along certain abilities for permanent selection for this unit. The levels are unlocked when reaching the following XP points:
XP | XP Sum | Level |
---|---|---|
0 | 0 | 1 (start value) |
12000 | 12000 | 2 |
15000 | 27000 | 3 |
21000 | 48000 | 4 |
27000 | 75000 | 5 (max. level) |
In general, there are two lanes to select abilities from. Within a single lane you can only pick the very next ability the current XP unlocks but at any time you may select from either one of the two lanes. This however, finds its limits with the last level (5), during which you might run out of upgrades to choose from one lane. This happens when you consecutively chose abilities from one lane exclusively. Every lane has up to three upgrades to offer, so when reaching level 5 you already had three upgrades from one lane, facing the fourth selection not being available from this one, but only from the other (the first upgrade from this lane). Each Dreadnought has a unique set of upgrades. Some of them are used twice for different Dreadnought types. On top of that you always have the ability »Instant Repair«, which adds 5000 HP to the Dreadnought, but at the same time using up an upgrade slot. So it is a question of what you want to do with the Dreadnought in the future and if the unit is in danger of being destroyed, if not fixed instantly.
The available selection of upgrades follows in the next subsections.
PHC
Instant Repair (All Dreadnoughts)
All Dreadnoughts have the ability »Instant Repair«. It increases the current health points (HP) by 5000. It is described as follows: »Single use effect, immediately restores 5000 health to the Dreadnought by deploying a cloud of short-lived nanites.« It does however use up an upgrade slot and only restores health once.
Hyperion
Level Step | Lane 1 Name | Symbol | Description | Lane 2 Name | Symbol | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Self-Sealing Hull | Slowly repairs damage to the Dreadnought as a permanent film of repair nanites seals breaches caused by enemy weapons. | Assault Drones | Launches a self-replenishing swarm of offensive drones to harass any threads to the Dreadnought. | ||
2 | Healing Drones | Launches a self-replenishing swarm of hull-repair drones to support the Dreadnought and its army. | Disabling Bolts | Enemies struck by the Dreadnought's weapons have a small chance of being temporarily disabled. | ||
3 | Durantium Armor | Increases Armor by 20% with a permanent coat of extra-hard Durantium alloy. | Overload Engines | Increases entire army's speed by 20% by dynamically evaluating reactor containment tolerances. |
Cronus
Level Step | Lane 1 Name | Symbol | Description | Lane 2 Name | Symbol | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Orion Cascade | Long recharge, adds a super-long-range missile battery to the Dreadnought that rains down terrifying streams of death from above. | Death Blossom | Long recharge, adds an emergency short-range targeting protocol to the Dreadnought's weapon systems which obliterates encroaching enemies. | ||
2 | Armor Piercing Rounds | Infuses the entire army's weapons with 40% armor-piercing capabilities. | Radar | Grants the Dreadnought a radar module. | ||
3 | Subsonic Demolisher | Adds a sonic anti-structure module to the Dreadnought capable of massive damage to all buildings in an area. | Ionic Rangefinder | Grants the entire army an additional 10% attack range with centralized targeting routines. |
Prometheus
Level Step | Lane 1 Name | Symbol | Description | Lane 2 Name | Symbol | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Draining Beams | Adds two health-draining beam modules to the Dreadnought. Their experimental nature only allows them to target enemy Dreadnoughts and Juggernauts. | Main Battery Overload | Long recharge, adds a slow-recharge alternate firing mode to the Dreadnought's main cannon that shreds all but the hardest targets in a single activation. | ||
2 | Precision | Boosts the entire army's damage against Dreadnought and Juggernaut class enemies by 20% thanks to advanced superstructure analysis. | Annihilate | Increases firing rate of entire army by 25% by centralizing weapon protocols within the Dreadnought's mainframe. | ||
3 | Durantium Armor | Increases armor by 20% with a permanent coat of extra-hard Durantium alloy. | Substructure Reinforcement | Grants the entire army additional hit points by injecting preframulated amulite into the support structures. |