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Updated: August 3, 2026
I have started using the Ascension Altar while making my way through the new DLC area, so I decided to put together everything I currently know about how it works.
What Is the Ascension Altar?
The Ascension Altar is a facility that becomes available after completing the quest “Bloodstained Sin,” which is given by High Chieftain Ygra in Karnhold near the beginning of the Fangs of Asterkarn DLC.
By offering materials at the altar, you can receive various special bonuses for the duration of the current game session. In exchange, however, enemies will also become stronger.
That said, reaching the altar takes a while.
Access to the DLC area itself is unlocked fairly late in the main campaign, and the journey to Karnhold is not exactly a short one.
When you interact with the altar, you will see two separate tabs.
The left tab allows you to offer up to five items in any combination, while the right tab accepts only one item.
Altar of Ascension Mechanics
Materials listed under the left tab can be offered in any combination, up to a maximum of five items.
You can offer five copies of the same material, five completely different materials, or anything in between.
Materials from the right tab are limited to one item and one type.
As shown in the screenshot, all of the following setups are possible:
- Using only the left tab
- Using only the right tab
- Using both tabs at the same time
The final enemy modifiers are calculated by adding together all of the enemy-enhancing effects attached to the materials you offered.
The altar’s effects are completely reset when you leave the game session, such as by returning to the main menu.
Important Things to Know
The right tab heavily biases the prefixes and suffixes found on dropped equipment toward a particular damage type.
However, as mentioned above, you can only place one type of material in the right tab.
There are also no materials that simultaneously increase the drop rate of equipment associated with two different damage types.
Because of this, the right tab is not particularly well suited to farming items that support both damage types used by a hybrid character.
The altar’s effects are also reset whenever you return to the main menu.
This means that when repeatedly farming a boss for a particular Monster Infrequent by leaving and restarting the game, you will need to make a new offering every time.
Keep an eye on your material reserves.
Also, attempting to stack every possible special bonus can make the enemies absolutely ridiculous.
Materials Accepted by the Left Tab
Each material is offered one unit at a time.
| Material | Bonus Received | Monster Modifiers |
|---|---|---|
| Aether Crystal | +20% Experience | +25% All Damage, +20% Health |
| Aether Shard | +25% Faction Reputation Gain — highly recommended | +25% All Damage, +20% Health |
| Voice from Beyond | Soul Fragments and Echoes can drop | +35% All Damage, +70% Health |
| Aspect of Beronath | Bonus loot in roguelike dungeons | +55% Health, +4% Offensive Ability, +4% Defensive Ability |
| Bloodbound Totem | Tempest Totems can appear | Minions only: +55% All Damage, +140% Health |
| Celestial Essence | Dread enemies can appear, with their spawn rate increased by 50% | Minions only: +30% All Damage, +140% Health, +20 Offensive Ability, +20 Defensive Ability |
| Celestial Lotus | +40% Double Rare drop chance | Bosses only: +30% All Damage, +15% Shatter Effect |
| Dynamite | +30% Iron Bit drops | +25% All Damage, +20% Health |
| Frozen Aster | Loot chests have a chance to become Voidmarked | +30% All Damage, +55% Health |
| Skeleton Key | A Glorious Chest appears | +55% Health, +3% Offensive Ability |
| Echo of the Soul | +10% Nemesis spawn rate | +30% All Damage, +3% Offensive Ability, +3% Defensive Ability |
| Soul Fragment | +40% Monster equipment drop chance | +30% All Damage, +55% Health |
Of all the effects I have tested so far, the faction reputation bonus from Aether Shards has been the most immediately noticeable.
Offering two Aether Shards gives you the same reputation bonus as a faction Writ.
This is particularly useful for your first character or when starting completely from scratch without any shared resources.
I defeated a named monster while using one Aether Shard together with an active Writ, and received 85 reputation.
The same enemy granted 75 reputation with only the Writ active.
Based on this, it appears that the reputation modifiers are added together first, after which the final result is rounded to a multiple of five.
50 * (100 + 50) / 100 = 75 → 50 * (100 + 50 + 25) / 100 = 87.5
Questions About the Left Tab
Several materials do not display the exact probability of their effects activating.
I will continue updating this section as more details become known.
Materials Accepted by the Right Tab
These materials are also offered one unit at a time.
| Material | Effect | Monster Modifiers |
|---|---|---|
| Ancient Heart | Increases the drop rate of Physical-related items | +30% All Damage, +100% Health, +12% Physical Damage |
| Royal Jelly | Increases the drop rate of Pierce-related items | +30% All Damage, +100% Health, +30% Pierce Damage |
| Eldritch Essence | Increases the drop rate of Fire-related items | +30% All Damage, +100% Health, +30% Fire Damage |
| Wendigo Spirit | Increases the drop rate of Cold-related items | +30% All Damage, +100% Health, +30% Cold Damage |
| Aetherial Missive | Increases the drop rate of Lightning-related items | +30% All Damage, +100% Health, +30% Lightning Damage |
| Aetherial Mutagen | Increases the drop rate of Acid and Poison-related items | +30% All Damage, +100% Health, +30% Acid and Poison Damage |
| Blood of Ch’thon | Increases the drop rate of Chaos-related items | +30% All Damage, +100% Health, +30% Chaos Damage |
| Tainted Brain Matter | Increases the drop rate of Aether-related items | +30% All Damage, +100% Health, +30% Aether Damage |
| Chthonic Seal of Binding | Increases the drop rate of Bleeding-related items | +30% All Damage, +100% Health, +30% Bleeding Damage |
| Ugdenbloom | Increases the drop rate of Vitality-related items | +30% All Damage, +100% Health, +30% Vitality Damage |
| Manticore Eye | Increases the drop rate of pet-related items | +30% All Damage, +100% Health |
As far as the enemy modifiers are concerned, every material in the right tab grants enemies +30% All Damage and +100% Health.
With the exception of the pet-related Manticore Eye and the Physical-related Ancient Heart, you can generally remember the system as also granting enemies an additional +30% damage of the corresponding type.
I have only tested this extensively with an Ancient Heart, which increases the rate of Physical-related items.
Out of approximately ten Rare items that dropped, around eight had prefixes or suffixes associated with Physical damage modifiers.
The bias appears to be extremely strong.
Questions About the Right Tab
There are still several things I have not confirmed:
- Does the effect apply only to prefixes and suffixes that increase damage, or does it also affect resistance-related affixes?
- Are Epic and Legendary items matching the selected damage type also more likely to drop?
- Does the effect apply to rewards obtained from the Shattered Realm?
I will add the answers to this section as soon as I can confirm them.
Example Enemy Modifiers
Suppose you offer the following materials:
- Aether Shard ×1
+25% Faction Reputation Gain - Celestial Lotus ×2
+80% Double Rare drop chance - Ancient Heart ×1
Physical-related prefixes and suffixes become more common
The resulting enemy modifiers will be:
- +55% All Damage
- +115% All Damage for bosses
- +12% Physical Damage
- +120% Health
- +30% Shatter Effect for bosses
Final Thoughts
There are still plenty of unanswered questions, so I plan to continue investigating the altar’s mechanics.
Should you have any additional information, feel free to leave a comment!
I will verify it and add it to the tables whenever possible.
Anyway, have a fantastic gaming life!!!
Thank you very much for reading all the way to the end!!!!
