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Wretch: Divine Ascent is a 1v1 tactical auto battler where you arrange items in your backpack to chain together attack combos, then watch your character fight autonomously. Drawing inspiration from Backpack Battles with a darker medieval aesthetic, it emphasizes build variety and strategic item placement over direct control. Those seeking a low-cost roguelike battler with visual polish will find merit, though the mechanics lack the mechanical clarity and hero differentiation found in its inspirations.

About this game

What players are saying

▲ Recommended 0 hrs

Summary: A fun auto battler with a good core base, but sorely missing a lot of QoL options that would be great to have added in the near future.

Positive:
- It's Backpack Battles but with more visual flare
- Great price point for the content available
- Combos system is very refreshing and a fun thing to experiment with
- Builds seem to be fun and variable, having done a few runs now
- Upgrades feel solid and impactful
- Combat is fun to watch

Negative:
- Unable to edit settings during the tutorial, which you are thrown into on your first startup. Because of this I was semi soft-locked due to incorrect resolution size and had the bottom half of my screen missing. Eventually I noticed the small "Skip" button in the top-left corner to bypass the tutorial and get into the settings menu
- UI could use improvements on the Shapes and Colors used to represent things. Some of them overlap in style and are a bit difficult to understand at a glance
- UI is very text heavy, and a lot of effect descriptions could be summarized to be more concise
- There are a lot of small camera zooms during combat that gets a bit nauseating; I'd like an option for a static camera view of the field
- No option to slow/speed up combat until the replay is available to watch (Possible I missed an input for this because I had to skip the tutorial? Nothing on-screen at least)
- No option to re-bind PC controls
- No options to change Click+Hold to drag items into your inventory to a single click to pick up + drop

44 found helpful Steam ↗

▼ Not recommended 8 hrs

It's okay and I really like the visual representation, but I wish heroes were actually different from each other apart from their extremely limited amount of attack items.

You have a hero with a long glaive? He'll just walk into arm's reach range and get face pummeled w/o even trying to use the reach advantage.

In games like Backpack battles or Bazaar each hero plays VASTLY different from each other, while they still have a shared pool of neutral items, their core items offer different builds and subclasses

In this game all you have is neutral items and that's it, most of the items just add buffs/debuffs/attack damage with only a few offering at least something build defining. The combo system is interesting at it's core but it's really shallow and doesn't develop into anything worth thinking about. Just slap a bunch of attacks together and that's it.

28 found helpful Steam ↗

▼ Not recommended 26 hrs

Could be a cool backpack-battles like game but the mechanics are super janky. The battle replays are awful at explaining what actually is taking place, making it near impossible to analyze why a game is won or lost. I.e. Attacks can be tagged with the "Cannot be interrupted" attribute, but will still be halted sometimes if you get hit midswing. Why? Hell if I know. Pulling off and breaking combos feels more random than it should be, and highly dependent on minor differences in cooldown speed. Two similarly built characters will largely be determined by who gets the first strike advantage since most battles are won in either one or two attack chains. The only exception being completely broken and invulnerable armor stacking builds. TLDR - game needs more mechanical polish and balancing to promote more interesting fights that lie somewhere between burst and invulnerability.

10 found helpful Steam ↗

Reviews are by Steam users, hosted on Steam.

Latest updates

[1.5.0 Patch Update] Season Gameplay First Wave Numerical

5 days ago

Greetings, warriors. Today marks the first round of stat and balance adjustments following the official launch of Seasonal Mode.After today's update, the new season's ascent journey will officially begin. Previous points will be reset as "Preseason" points — please take note.During the update, when we reset the leaderboards, if you happen to be playing at that time, the leaderboard will not record points earned during that window. Thank you for your understanding.For future seasons, we plan to include a testing period as a "Preseason" to gather feedback, allowing us to make adjustments and improvements accordingly.Please find the detailed update adjustments below —Balance Adjustments0. Character AdjustmentsGladiatorBase Armor: +51. Move Value AdjustmentsExecutionerCharge (Basic)Action Speed increasedWhirl Strike (Basic)Damage: 49 → 46Poise Damage: 44 → 41Guard Counter Buildup: 55 → 51Horizontal Sweep (Basic)Damage: 75 → 69Poise Damage: 59 → 55Guard Counter Buildup: 76 → 70Meat Grinder (Core)Damage: 27/32/32/32/29 → 25/29/29/29/26Poise Damage: 18/19/19/19/32 → 17/18/18/29/30Guard Counter Buildup: 27/32/32/32/29 → 25/30/30/30/27Reaper's Long Pull (Core)Damage: 116 → 107Poise Damage: 92 → 86Guard Counter Buildup: 116 → 107Siege Breaker (Core)Damage: 23/23/33 → 21/21/31Poise Damage: 25/25/14 → 23/23/13Guard Counter Buildup: 23/23/33 → 21/21/31Rising Heavy Hammer (Core)Damage: 93 → 86Poise Damage: 74 → 69Guard Counter Buildup: 93 → 86Armor-Break Finisher (Core)Damage: 75/23 → 38/31Poise Damage: 60/20 → 28/27Guard Counter Buildup: 93/15 → 39/32Looming Dread (Core)Damage: 98 → 91Poise Damage: 75 → 69Guard Counter Buildup: 103 → 96Trailing Sweep (Counter)Damage: 47 → 44Poise Damage: 39 → 36Guard Counter Buildup: 48 → 45Repelling Push (Counter)Damage: 52 → 49Poise Damage: 42 → 39Guard Counter Buildup: 53 → 49Front Kick (Counter)Damage: 68 → 63Poise Damage: 56 → 52Guard Counter Buildup: 70 → 65Plague DoctorGale Rush (Core)Damage: 9/11/11/26/10/10 → 8/10/10/24/9/9Power High Ki...

【1.4.4 Patch Update】Seasonal Mode + New Character "Execution

10 days ago

Greetings, warriors! We're bringing you a brand new update — Patch 1.4.4. This update includes quite a bit of content, covering items, characters, and gameplay mechanics. Please read on below.Season GameplayElemental Mechanics AdjustmentsSeason 1 theme: "Elemental Surge" — Fire, Ice, and Lightning elemental status mechanics have been adjusted.Skills with elemental effects now deal elemental damage immediately on hit and build up the same amount of the matching elemental status on the enemyElemental status values no longer decay automatically and have a 500-point buildup capWhen any elemental status reaches specific values (50 / 150 / 300 / 500), it directly triggers an Elemental Burst, dealing 40 HP damage to the characterNew Character-Specific ItemsKnight Frost Dagger, Thunder-Forged Warhammer, Burning Longsword, Lava Whetstone, Thunder Couple Rings, Dragonfire Iron Armor, ElegyRonin Searing Wakizashi, Murakumo, Humming Tsuba, Stormcloud Saya, Flame Pipe, Yuki-onna's Protection, Sheath SnatchPlague Doctor Shock Cane, Frost Sleeve Blade, Arc Spike, Incendiary Bomb, White Phosphorus Powder, Black Market Doctor's Gloves, NeedleworkWuJiang Cold-Iron Whip, Thunder God's Wedge, Flame Dragon Axe, Ice Dragon Pearl, Vermilion Bird Tassel, Flame Dragon Pauldrons, Severing CurrentPirate Searing Iron Hook, Siren's Dagger, Blazing Scimitar, Strong Rum, Lightning Rod Bracelet, Tidal Sword Belt, OverheatGladiator Shield of the North, Sword of Jupiter, Shield of Jupiter, Fire Oil Pot, Jupiter's Blessing, Ring of Mars, UnrulyExecutioner Zeus's Wrath, Judgment Writ, Frost Curse Bracelet, Frost Lock, Soulbinding Chain, Branded Heavy Armor, Silent MountainUpgrade Event AdjustmentsLevel 3 reward changed from a Skill Rune to an EmblemThe Level 5 Skill Rune event and Level 7 Emblem event have been swappedItem rewards from Shadow Warrior Challenges have been unified into Gold rewardsSeason ModePoints Mode has been renamed Season ModeLocal points have been removedSeason Points have been ad...

New Historical Low Discount Now Live! This Week's Official Update

13 days ago

Greetings, warriors,A major official update is arriving this week—The new character "Executioner" and Seasonal Mode will officially launch.New Character: ExecutionerThe Executioner wields a two-handed heavy weapon with a charging mechanic — one hammer blow to decide the outcome. Perfect for those who enjoy slow, heavy-hitting playstyles.Seasonal Mode Now LiveA new season begins alongside this update. Unique out-of-game elements and seasonal rotating rules join the battlefield, adding a fresh twist to PvP combat.Additionally, the game is now on sale at a new historical low of 17% off for two weeks. For those who haven't joined yet, this is the perfect time to jump in!

Posts come from Steam's official announcements feed.