Clicker Heroes Ascension Explained: Amenhotep, Hero Souls, Ancients and Gilds

Sooner or later every Clicker Heroes run hits a wall: the next boss has more health than your heroes can take away before the timer ends, and each new level of gold takes longer to earn. The game's answer is to destroy the world and start again, stronger. That is Ascension.

How to Ascend

Ascension is an upgrade on Amenhotep, the twentieth hero. His upgrades come at levels 10, 25 and 50, and the last one, simply called ASCENSION, at level 150. The game spells it out: to Ascend, you must purchase the last upgrade from Amenhotep. It restarts your game — gold, hero levels and zone progress go back to the beginning — and unlocks the Hero Souls you have earned.

Where Hero Souls come from

• Hero levels. You get 1 Hero Soul for every 2,000 hero levels you have when you Ascend.
• Zone 100. Beating zone 100 for the first time gives you a free Hero Soul.
• Primal bosses. Further into the game, some bosses are Primal. Beating one adds extra Hero Souls to your next Ascension — the game congratulates you when it happens.

The Ascend button shows how many souls you would get right now, so you can decide whether one more push is worth it.

What Hero Souls do

Unspent Hero Souls raise all of your damage by themselves. But the real use for them is Ancients: powerful beings you summon and level with souls. Summoning offers you a choice of four random Ancients, and the price goes up with each one you take. Solomon, Ancient of Wisdom, for example, adds a percentage to Primal Hero Souls; others make bosses weaker, add seconds to boss timers, lengthen skills or boost idle damage when you have not clicked for 60 seconds. If you change your mind, you can destroy your Ancients and get most of the souls back.

Gilds

Reaching a new highest zone every so often gives you a random Gilded hero: a hero whose damage is permanently boosted, even across Ascensions. For 80 Hero Souls you can move a gild from a random other hero onto the one you use; for 2 you can swap a gild for a new random one. Gild the hero you plan to level most.

The Dark Ritual

Abaddon teaches The Dark Ritual at level 75. It multiplies your current DPS by 1.05 for the rest of that world, and it stacks up to 20 times per Ascension. Used every time it comes off cooldown, it adds up to a big multiplier by the end of a long run.

Transcendence

Past Ascension there is one more reset. Transcendence unlocks at zone 300, sacrifices your Hero Souls for Ancient Souls, and resets your Ancients and relics. It is a long way off for a new player, but it is why a Clicker Heroes save can keep going for years.

When to Ascend the first time

There is no single right moment. A practical rule: once Amenhotep can reach 150 and the next boss takes you several attempts, Ascend. Even a handful of souls makes the first zones fly by, and the second run always goes further than the first. New to the game? Start with the first-hour guide.