Ascension - Power level strategy

[BlasteR]

Wow! If you are interested in power-leveling for your prestige, in my experience Ascension is the best and fastest way if you don't have some of the other DLC maps.

Here's how...

You will first need to permanently unlock the "Alchemical Antithesis" gobblegum in prestige for this to work. You can use whatever other gobblegums you want but this one is critical. I've also found double points gobblegum and fire sale gobblegums are good at speeding up the setup process in the lower rounds. Sword flay is also extremely helpful.

THE INITIAL ROUNDS...

Rnd 1 - Buy quick revive (this is just to ensure getting to at least rnd 10). shoot zombies 6 times and stab (they can take 8 shots in the leg).

Rnd 2 - double stab each zombie. Don't buy the RK5!

Rnd 3 - you should now have around 2k points. Unlock the back entry to the stairs, go up and purchase VMP off wall.

After this, save up enough points to unlock and get power on up top.

Ignore the mystery box until the rocket is launched. The VMP should last you and if it doesn't you can get ammo on the cheap. VMP is fantastic for points on the low rounds especially if you get double points.

Proceed to use all 3 landers and launch the rocket. This will unlock pack-a-punch by round 7 or so if you do it right.

Feel free to get whatever perks you want but you don't need anything other than...

1-Widows Wine
2-Deadshot Daiquiri
3-Double Tap

If the monkeys steel quick revive, let them have it.

If you use the 3 perks above, the monkeys will always come to you (at widows wine) and you'll never have to worry about stolen perks. Mule kick/ third weapon is not necessary for this to work.

WHERE TO CAMP...

You want to camp in front of the widows wine area @ the lander. Don't ever use the lander to escape unless absolutely necessary. Use the final zombies or crawlers at the end of each round to buy time to pack-a-punch, spin for the girsch/thundergun and get your perks.

Specifically, this should be your weapons...

1 - Thundergun (packed)
2 - Any MG (packed +deadwire).
3 - Girsch Device

Use fire sale powerups and mystery box as many times as needed to get thundergun. Gersch isn't as important early but gives you breathing room breaks after round 30 or 40.

At around the mid 20's you will start noticing how much more natural it becomes to weave through the zombies and train them behind you in such an open area.

The strategy is basically STAY in that area.

1 - Weave through the openings and train them behind.
2 - aim behind you and fire 1-2 rounds with deadwire at the zombie in front of the others (10 or so zombies will die).
3 - reload.
4 - Repeat...

Deadwire recharges every 5 seconds or so. Afterwards, the first shot will electrocute.
Deadwire is essential with this becuase of the quick recharge time and becuase you get points for every single kill.

The other double pack effects take too long to recharge for them to work with this and effects like fireworks kill alot of zombies but don't give you points for those kills.

Deadwire also seems to work best if you shoot whatever zombie is the furthest out front. Not sure why but it kills the most zombies.

If you get stuck or swarmed, use the thundergun to escape. If you are weaving thru and theres no gap to get thru, use the thundergun to make a hole. The key is to use deadwire only in 1-3 round bursts, reload, continue and only the thundergun if necessary.

MONKEYS...

Thundergun w/ pack a punch will always kill the monkeys in 2 shots regardless of how high the round is. Generally, the monkeys increase in health as the rounds go up.

If you've ever tried killing a monkey with a regular pistol or MG at round 70+, it just doesn't work. I once pumped a monkey with 2 or 3 clips w/ double packed dingo and dude was still coming!

If you only use the 3 gobblegums I mentioned above, the monkeys will always come to you, you never have to worry about stolen perks and you're always guaranteed max ammo after the round.

RUNNING LOW ON AMMO IN HIGH ROUNDS...

If you run dangerously low on ammo, use "Alchemical Antithesis" especially with the thundergun it is amazing. It is essentially infinite thundergun ammo for the duration of the effect (2 activations). If used in the middle of a round, you will always have full Thundergun ammo when the effect ends.

Also, since you are camping in front of widows wine, the gobblegum machine is always right there.

Ephemeral Enhancement gobblegum can also help since it resets the ammo count for the duration of the effect (AA and EE are also amazing gobblegums for getting to high rounds with the wunderwaffe on verrukt).

If you are using a wall-bought gun with deadwire, you can always buy ammo of the wall in between rounds too.

The highest round I've gotten is 71 solo then died on purpose because I got bored!
But if you follow the strategy you can probably get much higher.

Later on after round 40 or so the zombies do the same stuff theres just more of them.

Hope this helps somebody!

-BlasteR

[BlasteR]

I was able to get to round 70 tonite and noticed a couple more things I think are important for anyone struggling out there.

The KN-44 w/ deadwire or the ICR w/ deadwire are both really good choices for a main gun just because of the fact you can buy ammo off the wall since at mid 60's, low 70's ammo starts becoming an issue if you aren't using mule kick.

Conserve thundergun ammo for the monkey rounds and a shot or two in the case you get pinned down for some reason.

The strat is extremely difficult if you don't save enough thundergun ammo for the monkeys.

This time I stuck to the standard gobblegums and had no issues. I never needed to use Antithesis w/ the FFORMLESS FFEARR due to the high ammo capacity and mule kick was not necessary.

I usually save up enough to buy the sycle upstairs before using any of the landers. This way you can get it early (round 5 or 6) and have instakill style melee until round 10. Even then, one shot and a melee will kill them until rnd 12 or 13. Points and good XP.

-BlasteR

[Nepgear]

You should put this as a guide, not a discussion...

[BlasteR]

Theres an idea. Didn't know that was possible. Ty.

[BlasteR]

I was able to get to level 73 tonite w/ this strategy but I tossed a girsch and it didn't activate?

I was so wierded out that I died trying to get a good screenshot but it basically just sat there on the ground in front of the lander doing nothing.

In the screenshot I took it's behind the zombies so you can't see it.

Has anyone seen this before?

For a couple rounds I experimented with using only the weevil w/ blast furnace.
It only kill 4 or 5 zombies at a time and has double the recharge speed of dead wire but it got me through level 68 and 69 on its own with no problems. it just took FOREVER.

-BlasteR