Dear Adventurers,
Today marks exactly one week since the launch of the latest demo for Wretch: Divine Ascent.
We never expected this demo to attract so many players — we’ve received the amount of feedback and suggestions (in the best way)! 🙌
Here’s a quick update on what we’ve achieved in just one week:

1.Our Steam wishlists have surpassed 10,000! (Before the demo, we were around 2,000.)
2.We were featured at the top of Steam’s official Free Demos section, alongside games like FC 25 and Shape Of Dream
3.We ranked in the top 3 trending free demos on Steam!
4.Our Ranking List server received over 600,000 data uploads from in-game activity.
5.Our Bilibili followers have nearly doubled, and our Heybox followers have grown nearly 6x!

And now, a look at what’s coming next — based on all the feedback we've seen so far, here are some of the key features we’re planning to adjust in future updates. The demo will stay online with regular updates to improve and refine the experience:

1.Overwhelming move counter mechanics: We don’t plan to remove counter relationships between moves, but we will adjust the counter effect to reduce the feeling of helplessness caused by bad luck.
2.Low survivability with only 3 HP bars: There is a healing mechanic in place, but the UI doesn’t show it clearly yet — that’ll be fixed. We’re also continuing to explore better failure tolerance.
3.Limited viable builds: We’re actively working on this — beyond number tweaks, we’ll also add new items to support more varied playstyles.
4.Can’t preview item crafting results: This is already in the works! It involves UI and system updates, so it’ll take a little more time.
5.Cluttered backpack UI, unclear combo and cooldown displays: Yes, we’re well aware of the UI issues — we’re planning a major visual update to address these.
6.Lack of guidance for new players: We're brainstorming solutions now. Once confirmed, we’ll work on building a proper tutorial/guide system.
7.Potion sometimes doesn’t work, combo input issues: Potions may behave counterintuitively right now — we’ll optimize both the mechanics and fix related bugs/UI issues.
8.Crashes, freezes, FPS drops: These are performance-related problems. Since we currently only have one programmer, our focus is still on core features first. That said, performance optimizations will come before full release.
9.Request for an economy system (e.g. rewards from battles): Something we’d love to add, but it’ll have to wait until after the core systems are in place.
10.Want to keep playing after 10 wins: We’re designing a new system that allows you to continue using your “10-win” character — something to look forward to!
11.Other suggestions like Pre-battle combo previews, storage box improvement, better filter/memory functions in the codex, more informative tooltips, super Overload level indicators, and fixes to various bugs...All of these are on our to-do list — they’ll take time, but we’re working on them step by step.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who’s sent feedback, streamed the game, or made content ❤️
Also, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to player Adam Cook for the invaluable help with the English translation of the game. We truly appreciate your love and support of the game. ❤️

Game development is a long journey, but your support gives us so much motivation. Let’s keep making Wretch: Divine Ascent better together!

Ongopogo
April 24, 2025

Greetings Warriors,

Since our April major update, we've received extensive player feedback. While future version adjustments remain under discussion, we'll share a comprehensive adjustment plan this week. First, let's focus on this week's update featuring game mechanic refinements and balance changes affecting characters, skills, equipment, and elemental interactions. We've also optimized and fixed leaderboard server issues caused by massive player data uploads.

1. Core Mechanic Changes
Elemental Interaction Fixes & Adjustments
Frostfire Reaction: Damage reduced to 18% of max HP
Fixed Thunderfire/Icethunder bugs: Damage reduced to 12% of max HP
Slightly increased base HP for all characters in early-game
Improved counterattack buildup efficiency across all characters

2. Samurai Skill Adjustments
Thrust: Damage & Posture Damage ↓10%
Chain Slash Kick: Damage & Posture Damage ↑25%
Spinning Kick: Faster recovery frames
Mind's Eye Combo: Posture Damage ↑12%

3. Knight Skill Adjustments
Upward Lunge: Damage & Posture Damage ↓10%

4. Equipment Rebalancing
Sacrificial Bone: HP bonus 150 → 140
Heavy Boots: "Mighty" stacks per linked skill 10 → 8
Lion Shield: Reduced linkable node count
Conversion Armor: Stamina cost/s 20 → 10, "Mighty" stacks gained 5 → 7
Bloodthirst Vial: Removed HP penalty
Shock Gauntlets: Removed extra stamina cost
Portable Vessel: Activation chance 50% → 40%
Impact Shield: Posture Damage boost per linked skill 10% → 12%
Iron Bracers: Now grants 15% Damage & 20% Posture Damage
Malice Helm: Starts combat with +50 "Fortitude" stacks
Broken Sword: Damage bonus ↑30% → 40% (description clarified)
Frostiron Shield: Increased counterattack damage, new effect: +5% parry buildup during blocks
Small Lightning Rune (inventory): Stamina recovery +8% → 10%
Lightning Rune (inventory): Stamina recovery +12% → 15%
Champion Helm: Stamina restored per armor link 20 → 30, grants 15 "Mighty" stacks
Champion Buckler: New effect: Applies 24 "Fatigue" stacks to enemies at combat start