Asencension

The player was far too weak against the bosses, so this alpha is mostly about power, and about the gear and screens that make a character. Minecraft 1.21.1, NeoForge 21.1.249. A world made on alpha.1 still loads (a saved rune page that held Silent Step or Cat's Eye is moved to the keystone that replaced it), but the numbers below apply to it at once.

Combat and power

• The 11 legendary weapons are stronger, in base damage and in what their abilities scale with: a weapon kills the standard boss in about two thirds of the old time and the Wither in about half. The flat-damage weapons (Darius's Axe, Wraithblade, Mortal Reminder, Endless Hunger) rose furthest. Both dual-wield weapons (Ragefang, Endless Hunger) were checked as a pair.
• The skill tree gives a lot more. A small node is now +1 Attack Damage (it was +0.25), +3 Health (was +1), +5 Armor (was +4) and +3 Lethality (was +2), and the notables and capstones were raised too.
• Enchantments are bigger, and the legendary items can be enchanted (they could not). Sharpness and Power +1.5 Attack Damage a level, Smite and Bane +1 Attack Damage a level on top of their bonus, Sweeping Edge adds magic damage to every extra target, Collector's Pants add a real Looting level.
• Three magic enchantments: Arcane Edge (melee), Aether Tip (bows) and Spellpiercing, so magic damage has sources beyond a few items. Keen Edge goes with Sharpness; an item takes at most 6 enchantments (7 on a legendary); the enchanting table can add more; a new Enchantment Library block stores books.
• The runes were audited and reworked. Flat numbers became percentages of your stats. Ambush is a primed strike that grows with Lethality; Momentum heals from damage before Armor; Arc stays charged until the fight ends and throws four strikes a hit; Starfall is far bigger; Vein Breaker takes whole veins; Predator (Lethality is damage) replaced Silent Step and Overheal (healing becomes a shield) replaced Cat's Eye. Growing runes cap at 20.
• A fix: strikes that landed just after a sword hit (stars, lightning, shockwaves) were mostly swallowed by the game's invulnerability frames.

Loot

• Every chest on the Moon, the Nether and the End now pays out. Wheat, seeds, bones and rotten flesh are taken out of them, and each gets a bonus that grows with the planet: raw titanium and helium, diamonds, experience bottles, netherite, enchanted gear and books, our five enchantment books, and the build paths' components (the epics are rare finds). The Ender Golem's arena on the Moon is the example. It works for every chest from every mod, and with Lootr each player gets their own. Earth's chests only lose their seeds and rotten flesh; mob drops and boss drops are as they were.

Slots and quality of life

• Curios slots: one for an oxygen tank (a worn tank is an open source, no valve) and one for Zonia's Hourglass or Sterak's Harness, which no longer need the off hand. Cataclysm's six accessory slots were removed.
• Also in the pack: FallingTree (a tree comes down in one go), Gliders, Double Doors (with Collective) and GraveStone Mod.
• No clouds, anywhere. The Moon, space and the End were getting Distant Horizons' clouds; the pack now turns clouds off in every world, the game's own and Distant Horizons'.
• The Moon's dust storms obey the doWeatherCycle game rule: /gamerule doWeatherCycle false ends a storm and stops new ones.
• ImmediatelyFast was removed: it is the likeliest cause of the level ring and hunger badge vanishing from the HUD. If they still vanish, tell us.

The quest book has a new page, Runes and Skill Points, a guide to the two screens (K and R): where the 41 points come from and what everything does. Fourteen pages in all. The Create fan quest now also hands you a block of soul sand, so you can light soul fire and try haunting.

Updating: a world made on alpha.1 needs no wipe. Back it up, then update the pack (or, on a server, delete the old mods folder contents and upload the new ones; SERVER-README.md in the server zip has the steps).