Hello Travelers!

As many of you may have noticed, with Last Friday’s Release Trailer Announcement, we also announced the release of two new Editions for Last Epoch! The new Deluxe and Ultimate editions are available both in-game and through Steam and offer a bunch of our latest cosmetics for a great value!



https://lastepoch.com/pre-order

Today, we wanted to spend a short amount of time discussing these new editions and answering some of the most common questions we saw over the weekend regarding both them and supporter packs in general.


Of course, we should start by explaining these Editions and how to get them.

We have an excellent little comparison graphic which shows what you’ll get with each of the editions:


(Please note, cosmetics are not available in offline mode.)

You can also get a pretty good look at what these cosmetics look like on our website by hovering over each of the inclusions in the pack comparison. These all use the MTX’s in-engine renders in an effort to display the cosmetics as accurately as possible.

These Editions can be purchased directly through Steam or the in-game MTX Shop.

In game you can open the MTX shop either through the flyout menu, or with the default shortcut of “Shift+K” and select “Pre-order Editions” at the top.



When purchasing through Steam, it’s important to note that there is a section for “Packages which include this game” and “Content for this game.” If you already own Last Epoch and want to purchase one of the Editions, we recommend the Upgrade options rather than the full packages, as the full package will not grant an additional game key.



One of the questions we saw come up, was “Why are some of the items listed as being available at 1.0 instead of right away?”. The reason for this is that the cosmetics have been developed using new character rigs and lighting systems coming in with 1.0, so we can’t add them until all the underlying changes are added as well.

Currently we don’t have an option to upgrade from a Deluxe Edition to an Ultimate Edition at only the difference of cost, however we’re looking into routes for adding this capability.

If you already own Last Epoch, or purchase any Edition of Last Epoch - Standard, Deluxe, or Ultimate before 1.0, you’ll also get the Golden Guppy cosmetic pet! This is the only part of the Editions that is exclusive to the pre-order and will go away once 1.0 drops February 21st.


It is important to note that Editions are separate from Supporter Packs. One of the big distinctions between these Editions and Supporter packs is that the Deluxe and Ultimate Editions will always be available for the Last Epoch and can be upgraded at any time (however, the “Golden Guppy” is only available if you pre-order before Feb 21st). Supporter packs are packs that get changed out with cycles. With this, we also want to confirm a few details regarding how we plan to handle Supporter Packs.

To start with, Though Editions are separate from Supporter Packs; we will not be offering additional supporter packs on top of Editions with 1.0. The current supporter packs will continue to be available through to Last Epoch Patch 1.2. We don’t have a date at this point for 1.2, even a very loose one, as 1.1 would come first, and right now, we’re still focused on 1.0. However, we will provide at least 30 days’ notice before any supporter pack is removed from availability, and we will also try to ensure there’s an overlap of supporter packs, allowing for as much choice as possible.

This does mean that unlike Editions, Supporter packs will not be available ‘forever’. Part of what a supporter pack is, is something that says, “I was here when […]”, much similar to gift shop souvenirs. However, at the same time, we want to balance that ‘ I was here exclusiveness’ with fairness by providing multiple cycles for packs to be available and ensuring multiple options are available.


If you haven’t already, now is the best time to pickup a copy of Last Epoch by grabbing one of the editions here: Last Epoch on Steam

If you are one of the amazing people that has already purchase Last Epoch the base game, and would love to continue to support the studio, then definitely consider upgrading your edition today as well!

Last Epoch Deluxe UPGRADE: Last Epoch - Deluxe UPGRADE

Last Epoch Ultimate UPGRADE: Last Epoch - Ultimate UPGRADE

That’s all for today talking about the Editions and Supporter packs. Of course if you have any questions we will continue answering them as best we can while we continue preparing for 1.0 in just over a month! We look forward to seeing the Warlock reveal starting later this week over on http://icy-veins.com/, when all sorts of curtains get pulled back, and hope to see many of you there!

Hello Travelers!



Today, we are thrilled to showcase the Last Epoch 1.0 Launch Trailer: Echoes from the Void, and the opening of our updated Pre-Order Editions.

Our Launch Trailer, Echoes from the Void, is the mysterious response to [Eterra’s CGI Trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGwBxbOcLns).

Along with the 1.0 Trailer Launch, we are proud to showcase our Deluxe and Ultimate editions, available for purchase now!

Starting today and up to 1.0 Launch on February 21st, anyone who purchases, or has purchased, any edition of Last Epoch will get the exclusive “Golden Guppy” Baby Chronowyrm cosmetic pet. You read that right; if you already own Last Epoch, you will soon see the Baby Chronowyrm in your cosmetics inventory!

If you already own Last Epoch and would like to score one of these editions without purchasing the game again, you can do so right here.


https://store.steampowered.com/sub/990898/

https://store.steampowered.com/sub/990899/


As for the Deluxe and Ultimate Editions, these are absolutely jam-packed with incredible cosmetics and offer phenomenal value.

Last Epoch leaves Early Access and Launches into 1.0 on Wednesday, February 21st, 2024.

Grab an edition, and jump into Last Epoch today!

Hello Travelers, and welcome to our deep dive into our Trade and Item Faction systems arriving February 21st, 2024, with the Full Release of Last Epoch! We’ve got many exciting features to share with you today.

While we feel confident in what we are sharing with you today, these systems are being actively tested in our Community Testing program, and the details below are still subject to balance changes.




From the launch of our Kickstarter campaign, we knew we wanted Trade to be part of the Last Epoch community, and through our time creating the world of Eterra we went through many discussions and iterations of how a trade system could exist.

As many of you know, balancing a trade system is one of the most challenging issues to tackle in a loot-based game, as it drastically impacts the item hunt for all players. Many players do not want to play an ARPG unless there is a trade economy that gives additional value to their items and enables them to create builds more reliably. Many other players voice that a trade economy ruins their enjoyment of the item hunt and don’t want to participate in those types of systems at all. While Last Epoch does offer a solo challenge mode which does mean all items are found by yourself, it also limits co-op.

After polling the community and receiving thousands of responses we found that these two camps of players are divided shockingly close to 50/50.

On December 22nd of 2022, we announced our plans for the Item Gifting System as our version of trade. This was designed to fulfill what we felt was the core necessity to trade, to be able to share items with friends you’re playing with, while protecting the itemization systems we had built elsewhere in Last Epoch. Thankfully, our community was great enough to let us know that we needed to do more. So we got to work.

After many design meetings and conversations with the community, Item Factions began to take shape - what we feel is a unique and exciting solution to the trade debate in ARPGs - a solution not seen before, and which we believe satisfies both sides of the conversation. Item Factions holds a place of pride for us, as it’s a direct showing of what can be accomplished when working closely with our community.

So the very first thing we want to do when discussing item factions is to say this: Thank You. Thank you for being part of our community, being involved in the future of Last Epoch, and continuing to push us to innovate and drive Last Epoch forward to become a great ARPG we can all enjoy.


One of the most common suggestions we received - and what other games have tried - was to have different cycles for trade or trade-free. This solution wouldn’t work for us as it would mean dividing the player base away from each other, increasing overhead for itemization, and balancing what would be effectively two games. So, the question became: how can we implement two different ways to find and acquire items without creating a division within the community?

The answer? Item Factions. A fully integrated solution into the lore and mechanics of Last Epoch, allowing players to make a meaningful and rewarding choice in how they want to empower their loot hunt in Eterra.



On February 21st, within the world of Eterra you will find two Item Factions:

• Merchants Guild - grants the ability to trade items with other players through the Bazaar, and player-to-player
  
• Circle of Fortune - grants boosts to items you find yourself through Prophecies, and passive bonuses

Let’s dive into Item Factions!


Your first opportunity to join either The Merchant’s Guild or Circle of Fortune comes with your arrival to the Upper District of the great mercantile city, Maj’Elka. Here, Zerrick will introduce you to both Factions and provide you the opportunity to take a look at what each has to offer. Upon selecting either Merchant’s Guild or Circle of Fortune, you will be guided to the Faction’s Central Hub: The Bazaar or The Observatory, respectively. We’ll dive into what each of these hubs offers below. However, let’s first cover what it means to join a faction and some universal mechanics that are shared between both factions.


With the introduction of Item Factions, you’ll have access to a new panel in the UI that allows you to view details about your faction. By default, this panel can be accessed by using the “Y” key, or through the main flyout options next to your mana globe at the bottom of the screen.



On this panel, you will find all sorts of information concerning your current Faction including your current amount of Favor, your current Faction Rank and progress to the next Rank, details on what benefits you currently have from the faction, and in the case of Circle of Fortune, details for any current prophecies you have. You will also find the button to allow you to leave your current faction if you so choose and a quick button to bring you to your faction’s central hub.


Your Rank with a Faction determines what benefits that faction is willing to offer you. To gain access to more powerful benefits, you’ll need to gain Reputation to increase your Rank with them through two different ways. The first is by gaining experience, such as by defeating enemies and completing quests while aligned with them. Just by going about your adventure, you will passively build Reputation with your current faction. However, for a larger boost of Reputation, you’ll need to participate in the Faction’s core mechanic. This means completing trades when aligned with the Merchants Guild or fulfilling prophecies with the Circle of Fortune.



Your reputation with a faction is never lost or spent and is also shared across your account in that game mode. This means if you rank up one character to Circle of Fortune Rank 7 on Hardcore Cycle, any of your Hardcore Cycle characters upon joining Circle of Fortune will both share and contribute to that same Rank progression. Characters in a different game mode, such as Solo Challenge, or Standard Cycle, do have their reputation separated in the same way the player Item Stash is.

There are a total of 10 Ranks to achieve with either faction. Obtaining Rank ten with a faction will take some time, so while you have the freedom to change your faction at any time, you’ll want to find your preferred faction and stick with it to reach the most potent benefits.


Favor is your primary currency with the Factions. Separate from Reputation, Favor is the currency you will use to interact with the Faction mechanics, and grants Reputation when spent. With the Merchant’s Guild, you will need Favor to list an item to sell, or to purchase an item. With Circle of Fortune, you will need Favor to acquire Prophecies. Favor can only be earned by slaying enemies and completing quests. The amount of Favor you gain with kills depends on the experience the enemy gives, so as you push further in the game, you’ll find yourself earning more Favor to purchase greater rewards with your Faction.



If you find yourself in a position where you have excess favor, you can spend it with a Faction Vendor.



As a member of an Item Faction, you will find many items which will have an attached Faction Rank Requirement. This can be found at the bottom of the item tooltip.

For Merchant’s Guild, items will gain a Faction Rank Requirement when purchased through the Bazaar, or via player-to-player trade.

The Rank Requirement on the tooltip of a Merchant’s Guild item will typically match the rank required to trade that particular item. So if you purchase a rank 4 Idol through the Bazaar, you will need to be at least Rank 4 with the Merchant’s Guild in order to equip that idol. The exception to this rule would be with Legendary items. If you purchase a Unique weapon with LP at rank 6, and create a Legendary with it, it will retain it’s Rank 6 requirement rather than increasing to Rank 8 (the rank required to sell and purchase legendary weapons). Where if you were to directly purchase a Legendary weapon, it would have a Rank 8 requirement on the item.



For Circle of Fortune, items obtained from benefits of the Faction will have a Faction Requirement. Most items that drop for you will be influenced by your Faction benefits, and thus you’ll find a Faction Requirement on most dropped items you find. As your various Faction benefits can influence the item in many ways, the Rank Requirement to equip the item will be based on your current Circle of Fortune Rank at the time the item drops, while never exceeding it. The maximum Circle of Fortune Faction Requirement is Rank 5.

Items with Faction Rank Requirements require that you actively be in that faction to meet the requirements. For instance: You initially join Circle of Fortune, reach rank 4, and have an item which requires Circle of Fortune Rank 2. You then change to Merchant’s Guild. Even though if you swap back to Circle of Fortune you would still be Rank 4, you will not be able to equip that item unless you do swap back to Circle of Fortune.


Both Merchant’s Guild and Circle of Fortune members will be able to trade favor in exchange for a rewards. For those familiar with the Gambler Artem, you’ll find Faction Vendors share some similarities and some differences. Faction Vendors sell items with base item types exclusive to your Faction, and can generate Exalted items. Item Faction item types can be powerful early on as you gain access to them, but will be outpaced by endgame item types to prevent ‘FOMO’ from faction selection. Circle of Fortune members can also purchase Lenses from their Faction Vendor, which we’ll get to in the Circle of Fortune section.



Faction Gambling can be accessed by speaking to your Faction Leader found near the waypoint in your Faction Hub and selecting “Browse Faction Wares”. You’ll also gain Reputation with your faction by spending Favor with your Faction Vendor.



Items that have a Faction Rank requirement follow the same rules for gifting as all items. To gift an item to another player, you’ll need to be playing in a party with that player, and the other player will need to be present when the item drops. Alternatively you can use a relevant Resonance to make the item eligible to be gifted. Gifting items does not incur any favor or gold cost and simply gives an item to another player, there’s no exchange. It’s important to keep in mind that while any equipable item can be gifted, the recipient of the item will still need to meet the item requirements, including the Faction Requirements, to be able to equip the item.



In the words of Nama, The Merchant’s Guild is a ship guiding you through the seas of trade in the Bazaar. The Merchant’s Guild offers the power of Trade. Players around the world visit the Bazaar to offer their items to trade, so finding the right item for you becomes as simple as speaking to the right person - and having the right currency. Your Rank with the Merchant’s Guild will determine what kind of trades you’ll be entrusted with. Meaning with more Reputation comes the opportunity to both obtain and sell more powerful and sought-after items.



By selecting to learn more about the Merchant’s Guild, you will be directed to the Bazaar, located just north of the Maj’Elka city center. Bustling with trade carts, merchants, and stalls of all kinds, even the rarest of items in Eterra can be found within the stalls of the Bazaar… for a price. In the Bazaar, you will find numerous stalls, each dedicated to a specific equipment type. The complete list of item types that will be able to be traded through the Bazaar are Helmets, Amulets, All weapon and off-hand item types, Rings, Belts, Gloves, Boots, Relics, and Idols. If it can be equipped, it can be bought and sold… assuming you are trusted enough with the Guild to conduct the trade.

There are some limitations, however, on buying and selling items in the Bazaar.

Firstly, The merchant’s Guild only trades in worldly wares. This means if an item has been dropped through the providence of the Circle of Fortune, it cannot be traded. The Guild views these items as bound to their owners, and will not facilitate their trade.

Secondly, The Merchant’s Guild maintains control over their economy by marking any items which pass through the hands of Merchants. Trade is a sacred and permanent exchange in the eyes of the Guild. After you’ve purchased an item from the Merchant’s Guild, it cannot be traded again.

Thirdly, you must have built up enough Reputation with the Merchant’s Guild to deal in a particular item type or rarity. Not every street urchin can be trusted with the exchange of high-level goods.

Finally, you will need sufficient Favor to participate in the trade to prove to the Merchant’s Guild that you are an active merchant in the world and are not just seeking to benefit from their hard work.




(note: subject to change with feedback)

Rank 1: Trade Basic Items. You can buy and sell Normal, Magic, and Rare items in the Bazaar or directly with other players.

Rank 2: Trade Set Items. You can buy and sell Set Items in the Bazaar or directly with other players.

Rank 3: Trade Specific Unique Items. You can buy and sell Unique items with no Legendary Potential in the Bazaar or directly with other players.

Rank 4: Trade Idols. You can buy and sell Idols in the Bazaar or directly with other players.

Rank 5: Trade Exalted Weapons. You can buy and sell Exalted Weapons in the Bazaar or directly with other players.

Rank 6: Trade Unique Weapons. You can buy and sell Unique Weapons with Legendary Potential in the Bazaar or directly with other players.

Rank 7: Trade All Exalted Items. You can buy and sell all Exalted items in the Bazaar or directly with other players.

Rank 8: Trade All Unique Items: You can buy and sell all Unique items - including those with Legendary Potential - in the Bazaar or directly with other players.

Rank 9: Trade Legendary Weapons: You can buy and sell Legendary Weapons in the Bazaar or directly with other players.

Rank 10: Trade All Legendary Items. You can buy and sell all Legendary items in the Bazaar or directly with other players.


To buy items through the Merchant’s Guild, you’ll need to start by visiting the Bazaar just north of Maj’Elka in the Divine Era after joining the Merchant’s Guild. Upon arrival, you will see numerous stalls marked on the map with an icon representing what type of item you can find at that stall.

Speaking to the Stall Vendor will open the Bazaar search window. This will list all items currently for sale from Players all across the world who are participating in the same game mode, such as “Hardcore Cycle.” We wanted to ensure there was no obfuscation and unnecessary limitations with searching the Bazaar, so you will find a robust suite of search tools to help you refine your search for precisely the type of items you want to find.

We also want to make sure there’s no guesswork with what you’re buying, so we’ve tried to make the UI for each item clearly display all the important item information, including all implicits, affixes, Forging Potential, Legendary Potential, Equip Requirements, and anything else you could want to know about the item. With the Bazaar, we wanted to make sure players have all the power they need to find what they’re looking for, so you’ll find options here you won’t find in the Loot Filter, such as refining your search by amount of Forging Potential, or Weaver’s Will value. We’ve also updated our Affix list to only show affixes applicable to the item, and we’ll be rolling out this change to Loot Filters as well making finding the right affixes even easier.



Once you find the item you want, you’ll first need to make sure you have what you need to purchase the item, including Faction Rank, Favor Cost, and the amount of Gold the seller is asking for. So long as you meet these requirements, simply hover the item, Select “Buy” and you’ll get a final confirmation to purchase the item. Once you confirm the purchase, the item will instantly appear in your inventory, or Gift Inventory if full, ready to equip!


To sell items through the Merchant’s Guild, you’ll want to start by visiting your personal stall. This can be accessed through any vendor in the Bazaar north of Maj’Elka in the Divine Era and selecting “My Stall” on the right side of the window, or by speaking to Kubra and selecting “Open my Stall”.

With your stall open, you’ll be able to view all of your currently listed items, as well as previous sales you’ve made. To list a new item select “List an Item” on the right hand of the window, which will open a small window to insert an item to sell, as well as your inventory to pull items from. To list any item, you will first need to meet the Rank requirement for that item.

Upon placing an item into the window, the Merchant’s Guild will automatically assign a Favor cost to list the item based on the item quality, list the required rank, and provide you an input box to enter your asking price for the item. The Merchant’s Guild doesn’t take a cut of any profits, so the Asking Price is what another player will need to pay to buy the item, and you will get the full asking price upon sale.



When viewing your Stall, you can also un-list any item by hovering over it, and selecting “unlist”. It’s also worth clarifying while our previous overview of the Merchant’s Guild mentioned a limit to how many items you can list at a time based on your rank, that restriction has now been removed.

Once an item has successfully sold, you can visit your stall in the Bazaar at any time to redeem the gold from the sale.


“The Stars Guide our Fate” is the fundamental creed of the Circle of Fortune. While some see the power of coin, others dedicate themselves to intimately knowing the shape and nature of the heavens, and through it, to know the same of their future. Rather than relying on commerce to fuel their item acquisition, members of The Circle of Fortune will gain powerful benefits to their potential to find items. With access to Prophecies, they will gain the ability to peer into their future and find precisely where certain treasures await.

By choosing to align with the Circle of Fortune you will be directed to visit the Observatory, located in northern Maj’Elka in the Divine Era. The Observatory serves as the Circle of Fortune’s primary hub. Here you will find your Faction Leaders and various Telescopes for observing the heavens which allow you to trade Favor for Prophecies.

While much power can be found in acquiring Prophecies, The Circle of Fortune also grants exceptionally powerful passive bonuses to your item-finding abilities as you rank up your reputation with them.



Items you acquire as a Circle of Fortune member will have been guided by the stars, and as such will drop with a Faction Rank Requirement. While this requirement on items dropped for you will never exceed your current rank and is never higher than 5, it is important to note that these items cannot be traded, and when gifted the recipient must meet the rank requirement to equip the item.



(note: subject to change with feedback)

Rank 1: Enemy Item Drop Chance. Enemies have a 35% chance of dropping twice as many items.

Rank 2: Upgraded Rune of Ascendance. 45% chance for Runes of Ascendance to be preserved when used on an item that requires at least Circle of Fortune Rank 1.

Rank 3: Idol Drop Chance. Whenever an Idol drops, there is a 25% chance for two more to drop at the same time

Rank 4: Exalted Affix Chance. Affixes are 50% more likely to be Exalted

Rank 5: Monolith Echo Reward Upgrade. 35% chance for double rewards from Monolith Echoes

Rank 6: Legendary Potential Chance. Uniques are twice as likely to have Legendary Potential

Rank 7: T7 Affix Chance. T7 Affixes are twice as common.

Rank 8: Rare to Exalted Chance. Items that would drop as Rare above level 44 have a 25% chance of becoming Exalted.

Rank 9: Full Set Drop Chance. When a Set item would drop, the whole set drops instead.

Rank 10: Prophecy Reward Upgrade. Items from Prophecies are duplicated.


Prophecies are pseudo-items which can be purchased in the Observatory that cause certain item drops, or increase the odds of higher tier affixes being generated on an item when you complete the requirements listed on the Prophecy.

To acquire Prophecies, start by visiting the Observatory located north of the Maj’Elka town center in the Divine Era. Here in the Observatory, you will find four Telescopes looking North (Arctus), East (Eos), West (Dysis), and South (Mesembria). Each telescope offers Prophecies for specific item types: Armor, Weapons, Idols and Crafting materials, and Accessories, respectively.



Upon peering through a telescope, you will observe a constellation with randomly generated prophecies represented by its stars. By hovering over one of the stars, you can see details regarding the specific prophecy including the Favor Cost, the event which will trigger the prophecy, any special conditions for the prophecy, and what the prophecy will reward upon completion. The more powerful a Prophecy, the more Favor it will cost to obtain.

You can view all of your current prophecies in your Faction window, accessed through the “Y” key by default. You can have a maximum of 48 active prophecies at any given time. Prophecies can also be discarded through the Faction panel.


The Prophecy Event will outline what particular event needs to occur in order for the Prophecy to trigger. Some example events are “Death of Chronomancer Julra”, “Death of an Arena Champion”, “Death of X number of rare enemies”, or “Death of X number of siege golems”.


The Prophecy Condition will outline any additional conditions that need to be met for the Prophecy to trigger. Not all prophecies have extra conditions, though as you progress to higher ranks you’ll find them to be more common. Some example Conditions are “Monolith”, “Lightless Arbor”, “Fall of the Outcasts Timeline”, or “320 Corruption”.


Fairly straightforward, this is what kind of reward will drop for you upon completing the Prophecy. Some example rewards are: “X number of Rare Body Armors”, “X number of Exalted Amulets”, “Unique Weapon”, or “Unique Amulet (minimum 1LP)”


Lenses offer a method to modify your telescopes in the Observatory to further refine what kind of Prophecies you can discover. Like Item Factions themselves, Lenses have been added to the Observatory in response to Community Feedback from our Community Tester Program!



Lenses are items which can be purchased from your Faction Vendor, and then slotted into a telescope. Lenses are permanent items, so once you purchase a lens, you can slot it into a telescope, remove it, and store it like any other item - they are not consumable. Each telescope is equipped with three lens slots, unlocked at Circle of Fortune Ranks two, five, and nine.

When you view the Faction shop, you will find two tabs listing lenses; Regional Lenses and Greater Lenses. Regional lenses are lenses which are specific to one telescope. For instance, an Eos Telescope Lens can only be fitted onto the Eos Telescope, and has a modifier specific to Weapon Prophecies (which the Eos Telescope Provides). Greater Lenses can be slotted into any telescope. You can add multiple of the same Lens to a telescope for an additive effect. To help get a better idea of these lenses, lets take a quick look at what some of the Lenses offer.



Focusing Lens of Idols: “15% Increased chance per rank to find Large Idols”

Enhancing Lens of the Unmatched: “15% increased chance per rank to find Unique Items”

Obscuring Lens of Battle: “100% Reduced chance for Prophecies to have Arena Events”

You may notice there’s four types of modifiers here: Lenses which increase the chance for certain item types, Lenses which increase the chance for certain item rarities, Lenses which block certain Prophecy Activities, and finally Lenses which modify favor cost for specific Prophecy effects. This offers a lot of power to customize the ‘randomness’ of prophecies and focus them on the types of items you want, as well as the activities you want to do. There’s also room for more types of Lenses to add in the future, though these will be the four types available with 1.0.


Rank 2: Unlock “Increased Chance of Specific Item Type Prophecy” Lenses for purchase, Unlock First Lens Slot

Rank 3: Unlock “Block Activity Type” Lenses for purchase

Rank 4: Unlock “Increased chance of specific Item Rarity Prophecy” Lenses for purchase

Rank 5: Unlock “Block High Corruption (50+)” Lenses for purchase. Unlock Second Lens Slot.

Rank 7: Unlock Special Greater Lens “Prophecies cost 80% more Favor and have twice as many uses”

Rank 8: Unlock Special Greater Lens “Prophecies cost 90% more Favor and have double rewards-type”

Rank 9: Unlock Third Lens Slot.


While resonances are technically separate from the Item Faction system, because we had mentioned them in the original Developer Blog regarding Item Factions, we felt it only makes sense to talk about them here! So lets talk a bit about Resonances with 1.0.



Resonances are a new item type which drop when you’ve played alongside a player for an extended period of time. Using a Resonance on an item will enable it to be gifted to that player even if they were not present when the item dropped. When a Resonance drops, it will drop with the player name in the item card to show who it enables gifting with. As you may notice from this example label, there are different types of Resonances: Obsidian Resonances, which are required for Legendary and Exalted Items, and Golden Resonances, which are required for Unique, Set, Rare, Magic, or Normal quality items.

Upon picking up a Resonance, it is placed in your inventory, and will be stored into your Gifting Inventory when you Store Crafting Materials. Once stored, when you open a gifting window to a player, you will have a flyout menu to select a resonance to use for the Gift. Resonances are consumable, so pay heed to when you decide to use them!



One of the big questions we often see about resonances is “How long is ‘an extended period of time’?”. The answer is…. it depends. The amount of time required to have a Resonance drop is slightly random, though Golden Resonances will be more common than Obsidian Resonances. We also want to make sure resonances aren’t used for “pseudo-trading” as a way to bypass the Merchant’s Guild requirements to trade items, so you can expect these drops to be fairly infrequent. At the current time we don’t want to share exactly what the time range is, however we’ll of course be watching feedback and adjusting it based on how people feel about them, as well as how they’re being used.


Thank you everyone for joining us for this deep dive into the upcoming Item Faction system, available with Last Epoch 1.0 on February 21st! If we’ve left any questions unanswered, please ask away in the forums below, or on our Official Discord server at http://discord.gg/lastepoch and we would be happy to answer!

For more upcoming information, make sure to keep an eye on http://Icy-Veins.com starting January 25th as they dive into details regarding the Warlock Mastery, and http://Maxroll.gg on February 8th as they dive into the Falconer, then back to us in the days leading up to February 21st as we talk about some of the other features coming with our big 1.0 release. We hope you’re as excited as we are, and we’ll see you there!

Hello Last Epoch community!

As we get closer to the upcoming 1.0 launch of Last Epoch on February 21st, it’s time to drop the details on what you can expect for Twitch Drops during the weeks after launch.

First off: Head on over to www.lastepoch.com/twitch and make sure your accounts are correctly linked.

Starting on February 22nd (Thursday), you can head on over to the Last Epoch category on Twitch and look for users who have drops enabled.

Four total cosmetic items can be earned, and each day will be different. The following week, starting on February 29th, each item will be available one last time in case you missed it the first go-round. You will not be able to earn two of each.




Week 1 - February 22nd - 25th

• Day 1 (Thur the 22nd) - Mantle of the Prophesier cosmetic back slot item.
  
• Day 2 (Fri the 23rd) - Green Dire-Guana pet cosmetic item.
  
• Day 3 (Sat the 24th) - Merchant’s Mantle cosmetic back slot item.
  
• Day 4 (Sun the 25th) - Blue Seer’s Orb pet cosmetic item.

Week 2 - February 29th - March 3rd

• Day 1 (Thur the 29th) - Mantle of the Prophesier cosmetic back slot item.
  
• Day 2 (Fri the 1st) - Green Dire-Guana pet cosmetic item.
  
• Day 3 (Sat the 2nd) - Merchant’s Mantle cosmetic back slot item.
  
• Day 4 (Sun the 3rd) - Blue Seer’s Orb pet cosmetic item.

Stay tuned for more exciting announcements as we look forward to Last Epoch’s amazing 1.0 Launch, starting Wednesday, February 21st, 2024!

• Fixed a bug where mini healthbars were not appearing over enemies or minions
  
• Fixed a bug where Flurry would collide with friendly players and minions
  
• Fixed a bug which could result in a Gray Splash Screen on client start
  
• Fixed an issue where Lagon would not drop potions in phases 1 and 3
  
• Fixed a bug which would result in enemies in arena not animating properly after spawning
  
  • This can still occur due to a different bug which we are still working on, however is far less frequent

• Reduced the sizes of many textures loaded on client start. This should reduce the starting memory footprint when launching the client, as well as help the client launch a bit faster. Because this reduces the start-up memory footprint, we also expect this to help with many cases of “crash-on-startup” which were due to memory issues.
  
• Added support ticket submission to in-game bug report tool for players looking for support rather than to report an issue.
  
• Several backend improvements for performance improvements while playing in a party, as well as for longer game sessions
  
• Cleaned up a number of log events which were not logging useful information

Welcome Travelers, and thank you all for joining us for November’s Developer Blog as we progress through the final stretch to 1.0. As many of you are likely already aware, yesterday saw the first reveal of our Cinematic Trailer for Last Epoch over on IGN. We want to thank everyone for the fantastic support we saw in regards to the trailer, it’s been a great morale boost to see the continued excitement for our 1.0 release. If you didn’t have a chance to check out the Cinematic Trailer yet, please do so below!



Of course, on October 20th, we also announced our roadmap to 1.0, covering the main news articles to keep an eye out for, as well as our 1.0 release date of February 21st, 2024! We’re all very excited for the big day and wanted to talk about both what to expect in regards to the roadmap, as well as share with you all some of the things we’ve been working on. I’m sure you’re all excited to hear about some of these things coming, so allow us to waste no more time and get into it!




Let us start by talking a bit about the Roadmap we showed with our Release Date announcement. As many of you are aware, 1.0 not only marks the release of Last Epoch from Early Access, but will also introduce Item Factions, The Warlock and Falconer masteries, and a host of additional updates!

In the roadmap, we showcase the major upcoming announcements leading up to our 1.0 release on February 21st. We wanted to provide a bit more context on what to expect from each of these areas and give you a bit of a look into how Last Epoch continues to support its community, with both the Warlock and Falconer previews being community-driven exclusives that are designed to bring some awesome depth of information for these masteries ahead of their release at 1.0.

As you may notice with this dev blog, this roadmap is not an exhaustive list of all news posts to expect leading up to 1.0, so you can look forward to much more insight into 1.0 before the big date. Instead, this roadmap shows the dates of when you can expect to get more information on the three headlining features for 1.0 - Item Factions, The Warlock, and The Falconer.


Fresh into the new year, keep an eye on our socials as well as here on our regular posting platforms where we’ll be releasing a comprehensive blog post diving into Item Factions: providing information on The Merchant’s Guild, The Bazaar, Circle of Fortune, and Prophecies. There’s a lot of information we’ll be sharing in this post, so look forward to getting all the info in this deep dive! As a note, to clear any potential confusion, Item Factions are launching with the 1.0 update, and not on Jan 11th.


On this date, our community member AaronActionRPG will be providing a first look at the final Acolyte Mastery - The Warlock over on Icy-Veins.com. A long-time fan of the acolyte class, a huge supporter of Last Epoch, and a great member of the community, we are excited to see what Aaron and Icy-Veins have in store for the reveal. As a note - The Warlock will be coming with the 1.0 update, and this will be an early informational look at the class.


Just over a month before Patch 1.0, the bird will be the word over on Maxroll.gg with the first look into the final Rogue Mastery - The Falconer. We’ve worked with the team over at Maxroll before, and are happy to be rejoining them for this reveal leading up to release. Here, some of our hardest-going community members will be representing Maxroll for this reveal, so we know no interaction will be left unturned. Find out how the Falcon works, what kind of skills will be coming with the mastery, and what kind of stats to expect on the Falconer over on Maxroll.gg on February 8th! As a note - The Falconer will be coming with the 1.0 update, and this will be an early informational look at the class.


The big day! On February 21st, 2024, Last Epoch will be releasing with version 1.0! On this day, everyone will be able to play the Full Last Epoch experience with Item Factions, The Warlock, The Falconer, and all the other improvements we’ve been hard at work on!

Of course, 1.0 is just the start of our journey here at Eleventh Hour Games as we plan for many years of content to come. However we cannot understate our excitement to be hitting this massive milestone, and look forward to seeing you on Launch Day!


A couple of weeks ago we invited everyone to provide feedback on things they wish they knew as a new player to Last Epoch. We would like to thank everyone for providing responses to this form, and we’ll be going over this great feedback to find further improvements to the new player experience we can sneak into 1.0, as well as what kind of community resources we can put together to continue supporting you all in your travels.

If you haven’t had a chance yet to provide feedback on things you wish you knew as a new player, let us know by following this link to the form: https://forms.gle/8Mg9u7e1NJcyDJph9 .

Now, Lets take a look at a few of the improvements coming on the big day!



One of our major goals for the game is to improve both visual quality and performance across the board. To continue chasing this goal, we are making multiple changes to our lighting systems, shaders, and more.

Historically, many of our scenes felt a bit floaty, with characters and objects not grounded in the way we would wish. A big part of this issue was missing good contact shadows and shadows in general. There are many reasons why this is not as simple to solve as it may look - the most significant reason is of course the performance.

One of the systems we have improved for 1.0 is Ambient Occlusion. Our new implementation creates much more accurate contact shadows and brings much-needed depth into many of our scenes.

In addition to ambient occlusion improvements, we are also adding a modern screen-space Soft Shadow system. In many scenes, where we previously did not have any shadows, player light is now the source of physical light where objects around the player properly cast shadow, which is increasing much more dramatic lightning in our scenes, while still keeping performance in check. Since this is screen space solution, it has fixed performance cost, no matter how many objects or monsters are on the screen.



In addition, we are reworking lighting in almost every scene in the game, with multiple goals in mind - to improve performance, to increase the visibility of the player, and frankly, to improve the visual fidelity of our scenes.

Here is our EoT scene as an example. With new ambient occlusion, shadow system, and reworked lighting, all objects in the scene feel more grounded, the player character is clearly visible and there is a much better sense of depth.




The scene variant system is another major system we are introducing for 1.0. It is basically a set of tools and shaders which allow us to improve the visual quality of our scenes and add more variety to the game. It allows us to create dramatically different-looking scenes by using scene variant templates

In the past, it was quite hard for us to create different variants of the scene, having different weather effects or changing our vegetation. In most cases, we needed to create new materials, new texture maps or assets, and decals, and combine them to achieve results we needed - which has a negative impact on performance, since it all can increase draw calls.

However with shader changes, we now can change the vegetation, wetness of our surfaces, and add puddles to the scene using just shader functions. In other words, we can now have richer looking scenes, while improving performance in the process.

This set of tools also allows us to create new scenes more quickly, allowing the level design team to focus on, well, level design, without trying to solve technical issues and challenges.

Last, but not least, it allows us to bring much more variety into the game. For example monolith scene can look very different each time you will enter it, as you can see in some of the examples below!

We have big plans for the system and you will see us utilize it more and more as the game progresses in the future.




We’ve heard all of the feedback regarding the Shaman Mastery and agree. For 1.0 we’ll be revisiting our favorite warrior of the north (sorry Grael), giving this mastery some much needed love helping to bring it up to par with the other mastery options in Eterra. With this revisit to Shaman, we won’t be doing a complete rework of the mastery; However, we know some aspects of the mastery can be a bit lacking at the moment, and we decided it needed some time dedicated to it in preparation for 1.0.

These changes are still a work in progress, so for today’s post we’ll just be speaking a short bit to one of the big improvements coming to Shaman with the reworked Tempest Strike skill. We’ll also be making changes to the Mastery’s Passive Tree to improve options in the tree and a new, as of yet to be disclosed skill. Expect more information in a later post!


Tempest Strike, as it’s currently implemented, is a spammable melee skill imbuing each strike with a chance to trigger elemental storm spells on hit, and offering elemental penetration instead of attack speed scaling. Being a hybrid skill with both attack and spell features, with the spell procs not being the most reliable, and lack of attack speed scaling, Tempest Strike has been in a fairly rough spot. As such, Tempest Strike is getting a complete rework for 1.0, keeping the same name and theme, but with completely new mechanics, skill tree, and even role as a skill.



As of 1.0, Tempest Strike will instead be a powerful high-cost combo ability. With each strike of your weapon, Tempest Strike will flow through launching penetrating icicles, creating tornadoes, and expanding rings of lightning. In its tree you’ll find the ability to specialize into each of these strikes making them more powerful, or removing them for other benefits. You’ll also find the reworked Tempest Strike will be quite favorable to building attack speed, allowing you to rage an elemental storm through hordes of enemies with a whole new suite of animations and VFX.

Speaking of storms, this change to Tempest Strike leaves a vacancy within Primalist for a low cost generator, or filler skill, tailored towards Shaman - but that’s a story for another time as we get closer to 1.0.


We’ve gotten a lot of feedback concerning endgame echo modifiers, as well as corruption scaling. As such, we’ve decided this is another great area we can add polish to with our release. In this area, there was two main pieces of feedback we wanted to address. The first is inequality and obfuscation of Echo Modifiers, and the second is the effects of scaling corruption.


With Echo Modifiers, we wanted to focus on enemy power coming less from the modifiers themselves, and more from the inherent strength of high level enemies and Corruption directly. The goal of these changes are primarily to achieve a more predictable experience in high corruption Timelines.

To accomplish this we’ve made Echo Modifiers have shorter durations (now lasting a maximum of three echoes), and importantly made these mods no longer scale with corruption or distance from center.



As we dove into echo modifiers, there was a number of mods which scaled invisibly with corruption including enemies enraging at half health, Enemies have high speed and crit chance until approached, and enemies are deadly if not damaged recently.

These mods actually scaled at the same rate as increased damage modifiers, which if you're familiar with these mods, means these quickly became extremely deadly without clearly presenting the increasing difficulty of these mods. This will no longer be the case as these will now have fixed values alongside all other mods, including the infamous increased damage mods.

We're still tweaking numbers for this and testing the changes, so we're not quite ready to share numbers. These changes to Echo modifiers should make for a smoother more predictable experience, however don't expect tackling endgame scaling to suddenly be an easier task.


While Echo modifiers are getting reigned in, we’re also shifting some of that power from scaling modifiers directly into Corruption scaling. The difficulty modifier from corruption will now scale much more quickly meaning corruption will be the primary method of scaling difficulty, and hitting these points should be both a quicker and smoother experience. For this, we feel it’s important to provide some numbers here for context, however please do keep in mind these numbers are still subject to change:


100 corruption: 60% more monster damage and health (from 50%)
200 corruption: 170% more monster damage and health (from 100%)
300 corruption: 281% more monster damage and health (from 147%)
500 corruption: 505% more monster damage and health (from 289%)

Corruption will now also slightly scale up the average legendary potential and weaver’s will values. This means item rarity from echo modifiers will increase the total number of unique item drops for more chances at Legendary potential, while Corruption will have a multiplicative effect directly increasing the chance for Legendary Potential on each Unique item which drops.


With 1.0 being such a significant point for us, features are not the only thing we’re working on. We’re continuing to work through many of the current bugs, Improving our networking, improving performance, and addressing many balance concerns brought forward by you all. We want to ensure Last Epoch has the best launch it can for everyone, and we’re working hard towards that goal.

With 0.9.0, we had to change a number of processes with the Community Tester program, meaning we weren’t able to get the program back up and running for 0.9.1, and managed to get the program up and running only just before 0.9.2. We know with this, there’s been feedback and concerns regarding if there will be sufficient testing and review of these big new features coming to Last Epoch. We’re happy to say that the program already started a week ago providing testing a few of these upcoming features, and have already started adjusting to feedback from these community members!

Currently the program isn’t accepting additional members, however we wanted to provide the reassurance that we’re as always committed to working closely with the community, and making sure we fulfill that cooperation and coordination for these important features. Though not limited to the CT Program, we as always will be keeping a close eye on everyone’s feedback as we continue on the path to 1.0 and beyond.

Thank you all for for taking the time to read up on the latest goings-on here at Eleventh Hour Games. For more information concerning 1.0 and all things Last Epoch, make sure to mark the Roadmap Events on your calendar, keep tuned into our social channels, and join us on Discord at discord.gg/lastepoch for further blog posts and teasers as we work forward to the February 21st release!

• Fixed a bug where a Lost Cache could be looted multiple times
  
• Fixed a bug where simultaneously exploding Volatile Zombies creating Infernal Shades could exceed the Shade limit
  
• Fixed a bug where holding Shift would not prevent movement
  
• Fixed a bug where Region Select was defaulting to US-Central
  
• Fixed a bug where Exiled Mage's Mana strike was not able to reach players
  
• Fixed a bug where closing the in-game Bug Report tool with esc would disable game inputs
  
• Fixed a bug where some Osprix enemies would appear invisible in Liath's Tower
  
• Fixed some instances of pink particle effects

Hello Travelers!

A quick hotfix today to resolve an issue where a small number of players were unable to log in.

• Fixed a bug where some newly created characters were being generated with items using a newer version of item serialization that the live client was not able to deserialize preventing the character from loading, or any character if the item was placed in the stash.

Along with today’s hotfix, we also want to provide a quick update of some of the bugs and fixes we are continuing to work on.

A fix went out for this in 0.9.2f, however withheld the patch note as we still saw a reproduction of the case internally. However, we believe this was purely internal and the fix did correctly work. If you’re still experiencing blockers in offline Temporal Sanctum, please let us know.

There is a bug with two nodes in Volatile Zombie that are triggering while at negative mana. (Abilities which consume mana shouldn’t trigger while at negative mana.)

We have some fixes and adjustments we’ve made internally focused around these bugs and skill interactions which are currently planned to be released at 1.0, which we’ll share for awareness. Please note that these changes are still subject to further change, or omission with other changes. The planned changes:

• Fixed a bug where Volatile Zombies’s Grand Sacrifice and Effigy of Combustion could trigger while on negative mana
  
• Volatile Zombie changes: Dreadful Horde and Giant Zombie now only have a 10% chance to trigger their effects on indirect casts (from always triggering), such as via Awakening Presence or the Experimental Belt affix
  
• Giant Zombie gives 120% increased mana cost (from 300%)

Our current decision of not releasing these in a hotfix is due to the power of the builds that rely on this, and that it doesn’t greatly impact performance negatively (server and/or client). We generally want to avoid hotfix changes that suddenly invalidate builds, particularly when that change could prevent others from pushing as far on leaderboards. We’re always eager to hear your thoughts on these sorts of decisions.

The changes to Giant Zombie were unrelated to the bugs, but are general changes to make indirectly casting Giant Zombie less necessary when using Volatile Zombie as a damage skill.

Here’s a list of some of the other fixes we’re currently working on. Please keep in mind this is not exhaustive, but some of the more commonly reported items which are in the works.

• Flurry collides with players and minions in online play
  
• Flurry is producing too many projectiles
  
• We’ve seen reports of this still occurring since the last patch, and are re-investigating
  
• Flurry sometimes not hitting with very high attack speeds
  
• Detonating Arrow Cone is exploding in the wrong direction
  
• Flame Rush tracks Rune generation between skill uses
  
• Effigy boss (giant worm) can spawn loot off the map
  
• Skeleton enemies missing health bars and hover outlines
  
• Enemies in arena not properly animating after spawning
  
• Runic Invocation’s “Unbridled Ruin” not providing its damage bonus
  
• Teleporting back to town doesn’t put you near your portal

We have deployed a fix following the patch to resolve an issue where players were unable to transition zones, or connect to some towns (such as upon log-in). If you’re still experiencing these issues, please make sure you restart your client and have the latest patch. We apologize for the disruption.

• Fixed a bug where the Soul Eater Backslot was on the wrong layer causing some decals to appear on top of it
  
• Fixed a number of abilities that, in online play, when used multiple times in the same scene would stop working or start behaving differently. The most common occurrences of this issue were:
  
• Blade Shield would not spawn Shurikens after first cast in a scene, if it hit an enemy
  
• Flurry would generate too many arrows and Multishot procs
  
• Cinder Strike’s first attack would not deal damage
  
• Fixed a bug where Town Chat would be unavailable while in a town scene
  
• Several bugfixes for Town reliability and connection issues
  
• Fixed a bug where Frost Claw projectiles would be deleted when coming into contact with Water
  
• Fixed a bug where Osprix Raiders would appear invisible in Liath’s Tower

• Added Keybind for “Force Move”. This is unbound by default.
  
• Removed Lost Caches from spawning in Arena Echoes

• Updated dropdown options to better match types of bug reports
  
• Replaced “Severity” selection with a “Unable to Progress” checkbox
  
• Added additional information to Bug Report Tool for contacting support when looking for assistance rather than submitting a report

Travelers,

I’m thrilled to announce that Eleventh Hour Games is launching the long-awaited 1.0 version of Last Epoch on February 21st, 2024. After a journey that started with the dream of uniting genre enthusiasts to create the next great ARPG and forming an after-hours team through Reddit, to holding a successful Kickstarter 18 months later, and then building Last Epoch alongside our passionate community throughout Early Access… we’re confident in saying that we’ve made something truly special.

Last Epoch’s 1.0 launch will mark a new beginning for Eterra, and will set a new bar for quality, polish, gameplay feel, and visual excellence. Beyond 1.0, Eleventh Hour Games will bring substantial new content to Last Epoch every few months in what we call “Cycles”. These releases will contain additions and refinements to many aspects of the game, such as end-game content, skills, unique items, gameplay systems, quality-of-life features, etc.

We understand that February is later than we had initially targeted for this release; however, our original December timeline became a bit crowded with other studios’ releases, and we didn’t want to force the ARPG community to have to choose. By moving our date, we’ll also be able to take advantage of a few more months of polish for our new systems and classes, complete more bug-fixing, and reinforce our team with a restful and well-deserved holiday break.

We thank you all for your unwavering support and enthusiasm that has allowed Eleventh Hour Games to make this game for all of us. We hope you will join us in Eterra this February and invite your friends to join in a new co-op hack-and-slash experience!

- Judd Cobler
Game Director, Last Epoch