The Crooked Ascent

Endless builds

Hundreds of techniques, cultivation arts, artifacts and divine powers. No two runs deal you the same hand.

Some players bet everything on a single legendary blade. Others stack a few cards that feed one another into a chain of strikes that will not stop. There is no right answer, only the build you put together this time.

Cards that grow

Some cards power up mid-battle. This legendary saber technique gains another 20% damage every time you use a saber technique. In a saber build, every other saber card you play is feeding it.

Set it up, then let go

The rules take a minute to read. Before the fight, you arrange the cards. Once it begins, they fight for you.

The same hand in a different order can be a different outcome.

From Qi Refining to Ascension

One life, starting at Qi Refining and climbing realm by realm through Foundation Building, Golden Core and Nascent Soul, all the way to ascension.

Your lifespan is finite. Secluded cultivation, travel, auctions and duels all cost years. When to push for the next realm and where to linger a few more years, every step has to be weighed. Each region unfolds as one great map of fate, crossed with forking roads, and the path is yours to choose. When your years run out, the journey ends.

Six protagonists, hundreds of cultivators

Set out as one of six protagonists. Each has their own origins and something they cannot let go of, and the road slowly unfolds their story.

Your sect has a master who brings you in and fellow disciples you grew up with. Everyone you meet on the road has a name and an agenda of their own: a polite bookkeeper who will lend you years of life, a shill in the auction crowd bidding up the price for the house.

You can climb by any means. But on the day your resolve hits bottom, there is no way back.

Made by one person, updated regularly

This game is developed by a single person. The first playtest is planned once the third major realm is complete. Wishlist it to hear the moment the playtest opens.