Ascending seems like a trap at first

[daman4567]

It greatly reduces your production to slow down your fastest ring at the early stages, at least it seems. The increase in mult doesn't even begin to cover it when you're barely going more than 10% of the speed of max level red. Am I missing something?

[spidweb01]

It recovers fairly quickly and more than makes up for the initial slowdown.

[<unknown>]

You are right, if I remembered it right you need at least +5 level after ascending to match the power you have before ascending.

You can easily calculate it yourself, calculate the power before ascending and after it.

Early in the game I waited a little bit before ascending to make sure I can upgrade the color after ascending to match the power before it.

[GloomyWood]

It becomes one of your biggest multipliers later on. The speed issue will be fixed by something a bit later on in progression.

[matthew]

There are two things that happen when you complete a lap: your revolution score ("money") increases, and the multiplier increases. Ascending multiplies the multiplier increase by a factor of 10, so the penalty from wiping out your level is marginal at worst on that score.

The hit to revolution score is real though, especially at the beginning of the game and right after doing an infinity. You can see how much revolution score you are making per second by multiplying the # /rev number by the sum of the laps/sec on all your loops (which is IMO a statistic that deserves to be displayed on the main screen), and you can see how much you lose by ascending when the number of laps on the color you want to ascend is a significant contributor to that sum.

You don't want to never ascend, though, because the multiplier increase is very significant especially when you get the levels back, and ascending also increases the max level cap so your rings become more efficient. The best way to go is a compromise where you sit at max red for a minute and use the increased cushion to improve other rings and also have a supply so that you can build up red immediately after you ascend.

[fractalgem]

Suuper early on you can wait a while before ascending a color.

Later the ascension mult gain will dwarf the loss of revolution speed.

[Kyouko Tsukino]

At the start, yes, it looks like a bad idea to ascend, but others have explained why it really isn't. The small setback will pay for itself eventually. And at some point in the closer-than-you-think future, your colors will be ascending so quickly you would need a slow motion camera to see each ascension happen, and the slow down itself will take so little time it may not be simulated at all.

And yes, I say "closer than you think future" from own experience, since a week ago I was wondering how the heck I would be able to "Infinity within one hour" but now I can get a number of Eternity points (the next tier of "prestige" after Infinity) per second that needs a three-digits scientific notation.