Savant: Ascent beginner guide

A simple guide for beginners to make it easier for them to complete "Savant: Ascent".

Enemies

In the first chapter I will talk about the varieties of enemies you will encounter in "Savant: Ascent". Understanding your enemies in this game is a necessity.

First enemy you will encounter is a small green furnace looking monster called Fodders. They are easy to kill and easy to evade, but they can give a considerable ammount of trouble if you let them swarm you. They float around you for a while until they form into a ball and charge you. Note that it can be pretty useful to evade a bunch of them than to risk losing a life just to destroy them for extra points. They are easily evadable by sidestepping (if they charge you from above or below) or by jumping (if they charge you from sides).




The Golden Fodder monster is just for CD pieces. They don't attack you, have a big ammount of HP, but drop a CD fragment on death, so they are pretty useful.




The Ironcopters are slow moving enemies that have a moderate ammount of HP. They move in zigzags from side to the middle. They should be taken out as fast as possible because they can get pretty annoying if they get too close to you.








The Bluebladers is a cluster of fast moving enemies. They have a moderate ammount of HP and can be very hard most of the time. When they appear, they are inactive for a short time before scooping down on to attack you, it's best to kill them before that. It's easiest to kill them with your Burst Attack, don't be afraid to waste it on them, since it's better than try to evade the Blueblader.






Wyrms are by far the strongest enemies you will encounter in this game (not including Malicious Orb, which I will talk about later). They move in short burst like movement towards your character and have a huge ammount of HP. The easiest way to defeat them is to unleash your Burst attack on them, since it redirects them from your character and deals a lot of damage.

Story Mode: First Level

The first level can be very hard for beginners and with a good reason too. It's very hard to do it without any powers, so the first thing you need to do is to focus down the Golden Fodders (at first guarded by 4 orbiting Fodders) and take their CDs. The point is not to get as far as possible at this point, but to at least grab 4 CD fragments to form your first Power CD.
From now it should be easier as it unlocks your Burst Attack (which basicly is a huge wave that destroys most enemies instantly). Use your Burst Attack to get out of swarming Fodders and to destroy Golden Fodders faster. By the end of the first level you should get your second Power CD.
This Power CD makes your first attack split into 5 missles. Use this to take care of groups of enemies faster. To use this power with it's full potential try to attack continuously while moving around. Movement resets your attacks to first attack, so it will split all the time after every evasion.

Story Mode: Second Level

The second level consists of three points of interest. The start, Wyrm and the circle.

The start is the easiest part. It's just a bunch of Fodders, a few waves of Ironcopters and your first encounter with the Bluebladers. At this part, if you managed to get all CD fragments, you should have your third Power CD.
This power will flash the according screen side to where a new monster has appeared.

Now, the hardest part of level two. Wyrm. You should try to kill it as fast as possible (otherwise the Circle may start while still fighting Wyrm) with Burst attacks. If on the way you have also collected all the CD fragments, you should have fourth and final Power CD you can unlock in story mode.
This is a very useful power that enlarges your Charge Meter to 5 bars, meaning stronger Burst attacks, also on the side, if you have all 5 bars full, your basic attacks will deal double damage.

If you have defeated Wyrm fast enough, the Circle should be no problem for you at all. The Circle is basicly a huge circle of Fodders that appears around you.

Story Mode: Boss Fight

Congratulations, you've made it to the Malicious Orb fight.

At first just schoot at the Orb as much as possible, when it spawns a Bladesnake, just use your Burst attack to redirect it and keep attacking the Orb and you should soon destroy it's first form.

After a short cutscene of Vario leaving the Orb, you will start your second fight against it. This time the Orb cannot be damaged by your normal attacks, you must use your Burst attacks to defeat it. You can replenish your Charge Meter by destroying Vario Boxes that spawn after each Vario's appearance. Don't forget to dodge Vario by jumping (if he is coming from the sides) or sidestepping (if he is coming from above).

After this you have finally completed the Story Mode and unlocked Time Trial with Endless Mode. Also the Vario mode.

Vario Mode

After you defeat Malicious Orb, you unlock a modification for the Story Mode, called Vario mode.
In it your basic attacks are changed into... Varios, who are very short ranged, so you need to be close to the enemy to hit it. Your Burst attack is change into Vario Box summoning. Also your evasions are instant in this mode.
This mode also offers a different ending after completion.

GOTY Mode

Just changes the looks of fodders (or at least that's what I've found out so far).

Fifth and Sixth Power CDs

Both CDs are found by destroying Golden Fodders in Endless Mode, but beware, to get both CDs you will need to go very far, around 4-5 minutes of survival.
Fifth CD gives the abillity to evade faster the more you move around while also filling up your Charge Meter. Also it unlocks my personal favorite song in this game.
Sixth CD unlock the abillity to Chain Grab enemies. This attack is hard to master, but once you get the hang of it, it can be very useful. To use this attack you need to continuously evade back and forth (Trapeze Shuffle) until the sphere around you becomes a triangle. Then aim at the enemies you want to grab and press S or left mouse button. This also consumes 5 charge bars, so you won't be able to do it, unless you have all of them full.

Ultimate Power

Now, I'm not gonna talk a lot about Ultimate Power, nor how to get it, mostly just how to utilize it to it's full potential.
The reason I don't wanna say how to get it, because it's more fun to find it out yourself. The only hint I will give that you need all six CDs and you get it in story mode.
Anyways, Ultimate Power allows you to Overdrive when you Grab Attack enemies, meaning, more enemies you grab attack, the higher level your Overdrive will be. With every Overdrive level you gain aditional destructive power and faster movement.
There are five Overdrive levels:
1st-Green
2nd-Blue
3rd-Purple
4th-Red
5th-Black

Achievement Guide

Wyrm Be Gone - you need to destroy Wyrm in 3 seconds. Best done with a well placed Burst Attack when the Wyrm shows up.
Scrapper - just destroy 500 enemies in Endless to get this one.
Soundtracks - unlock all 6 CDs.
Grab Some - Grab Attack an enemy.
5 Min Survival - survive 5 minutes in Endless.
10 Min Survival - survive 10 minutes in Endless.
Take Out The Trash - destroy 99% of enemies in Time Attack.
Obtain Ultimate Power - ???
Overdrive Lvl 1-Max - you need to reach from level 1 overdrive to level 5 to get all of these achievements.
Glint Of Gold - destroy all Golden Fodders in Time Attack without dying. To do this best, you need to look out for golden arrows that indicate that Golden Fodder and Burst Attack them down as soon as they show up.

[Gachi Kitanic]

you need to unlock all achievments to unlock GOTY mode

[JustN]

how to intiate goty mode?

[Major]

Once you get the Trapeze Shuffle if you jump 4 times your energy refills fully.

[Zerthyam]

Hehe, have fun!

[vadymmykh]

Oh my gosh! That was new!!! I played previous version of the game so that "cheating" is new to me. Just tried it now and it's awesome!

[Zerthyam]

I just spam W A and D, because sometimes when you do a spin jump, your energy refills isntantly.

[vadymmykh]

Could you describe in more details how to quickly refill the energy bar and shoot various bursts at a time. I just saw guys do this on YouTube but I have no idea how.

[spellbook.wyrm]

Heh, going back and reading the comments hyping up the all new 6th CD. Wonder if there's going to be another update in the future?

[Azzelfide]

I was hoping for a little clarity on the stage that appears after Vario with the two rotating platforms. Alas, no.

[Jerga]

The burst attack can fill up your power bar depending on the stuff you hit with it. If you hit nothing, no power bar energy. If you hit a bunch of stuff, it may be refilled to max! This may actually be another way to quickly fill the power bar I think?