Eleventh Hour Games is looking back at their launch of Last Epoch:

1.0 Launch Retrospective

Hello Travelers!

Today’s blog is a little different from our usual fare. As most of you know, Last Epoch launched on February 21, and the reception has been amazing. In the first week after launch, over 1.4 million of you logged in to play Last Epoch. At our peak, we had just under 265,000 players all roaming Eterra simultaneously. That’s good enough for the 39th highest all-time concurrent player count recorded on Steam, and we’re humbled by your support and enthusiasm for the game.

There’s plenty of cause for celebration, but let’s not ignore the obvious: Last Epoch’s launch was pretty rough for the majority of you who play online. Your patience and positivity have been amazing, but it was obviously not the launch experience that you or we had hoped for.

Now that the initial launch woes are behind us, it’s time to reflect on the experience. What happened? We put a strong emphasis on testing our servers and infrastructure ahead of time, so what did we get wrong? Last Epoch’s backend team is here to give you a bit of a recap of what went on during the launch.

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Monstervine reviewed the action RPG Last Epoch:

Last Epoch Review – An Epoch Win

The state of action RPGs is such that your choice is “Get a Ph.D. in Path of Exile until Path of Exile 2 comes out” or endure the fact that Diablo 4 exists–and remember, I kept playing Diablo 4 even while we called it one of our biggest disappointments–and wait for Path of Exile 2. But what if…oh, compromise is dead in America, but what if there was an option between “The Content Delivery Platform Game As Service Microtransaction Content Hellscape” and “It will take 400 hours to build a character without guides”? A reasonable adult compromise of clicking monsters, getting gear, and having a good time that isn’t Old (sorry, Grim Dawn and TitanQuest). Well, friends, a Kickstarter game has actually come out (I know!), and…it’s pretty good (I KNOW!).

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And while I don’t know if I really got the storyline, I did enjoy it, because what I took from it was, basically, time has been shattered and people are trying to help, but every time they do, they just make things worse. There are many quests that are basically “Help these people try to fix things,” then you do, then the quest text changes to “Oh god, no, they managed to summon some kind of terrible horror from the nether, kill it before it gets loose. Everyone’s an idiot and things just keep getting worse.” No major studio would try that, it would lose them key happiness points in the teenage demo, but it did make me laugh. 

Score: 4/5

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C4G checked out Last Epoch:

I Finished Last Epoch - My Brutally Honest Review

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Rock Paper Shotgun has reviewed Last Epoch:

Last Epoch review: a vibrant time-travelling ARPG that makes percentage point stat increases fun

It's not a question of where, but when

Last Epoch is, as has been observed many times, a kind of middle-ground ARPG. You hold down a button to evaporate hordes of enemies from a top down isometric perspective, but, in a step further than Diablo 4, it has more in-depth, any-time crafting for entry level percentage perverts to eke out incremental slivers of health regen vs. damage. At the same time, it's less complex than Path Of Exile, which is where advanced percentage perverts go when they die. Last Epoch has been in early access for a while now, so there's a decent chance that you already know what you think of it now it's in 1.0. If you haven't yet dipped your toe in, then I can tell you it's very decent. It makes building an extremely overpowered mega-wizard very easy, and I liked it better than Diablo IV, I think.

Still, it's a very worthy buy, and I hope the devs keep it up with the post-game improvements. Mostly, I really like the high drama and high fantasy of Last Epoch. It's much less depressing to stare at for hours as you blast mercenaries and ice wolves into trembling ragdoll corpses that some of its contemporaries, and the the mid-complexity crafting and gear systems, along with the character building, makes it easy and, dare I say it, actually fun to engage with minor percentage increases. I never thought I'd see the day.

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Couchpotato spotted a beginner and a crafting guide for Last Epoch:

Last Epoch 1.0 Beginner Guide - Tips I Wish I Knew Before Playing in 2024 @ Fextralife

Last Epoch Crafting Guide @ IGN

IGN reviewed the action RPG Last Epoch:

Last Epoch Review

Last Epoch is an impressive, time-bending action RPG that combines rich customization with modern action. In the mechanical sense, it serves as an important stepping stone between Diablo and Path of Exile – but even without making direct comparisons, it competently stands on its own merits thanks to a flurry of unique, intertwining systems and a strong endgame that make it difficult to resist pouring an entire weekend into its endless loops. Just don’t let its poorly told story or the handful of bugs that have yet to be squashed discourage you from seeing this adventure through to the end of time.

Score: 8/10

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GamingBolt reviewed the action RPG Last Epoch:

Last Epoch Review - The Final Verdict

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Mortismal Gaming checked out Last Epoch:

Mortismal Gaming

The action RPG Last Epoch has been released:

Last Epoch Official Technical Trailer

Fextralife checked out the upcoming action RPG Last Epoch:

Last Epoch Gameplay 1.0 Launch - EVERYTHING you Need to Know About this ARPG

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Game Director Judd Cobler presents a patch 1.0 overview for the upcoming Last Epoch:

Last Epoch Patch 1.0 | Patch Overview

PCGamesN has reviewed Last Epoch:

Last Epoch review – a worthy challenger to the ARPG throne

Last Epoch is an ARPG that strikes a careful middle ground between Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2, with some excellent new ideas of its own.

After five years in early access, Last Epoch is finally here. Arriving squarely between the launches of Blizzard behemoth Diablo 4 and the upcoming Path of Exile 2 from Grinding Gear Games, this ARPG has long been heralded as the ideal middle ground between D4’s beginner-friendly systems and Path of Exile’s unrelenting depth and complexity. Built by Eleventh Hour Games, originally formed as a passion project by developers who met through Reddit, Last Epoch certainly bears the mark of that scrappy upstart origin. Yet it’s also clear that this is a game built by people who love the genre and have spent a lot of time playing it, and the result is one of the most delightfully player-friendly and welcoming RPGs I’ve ever played – one that pushes the genre forward in some ways its bigger-name rivals would do well to take note of.

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Last Epoch gets more gear:

New Items & Affixes | Coming to Last Epoch February 21st

Hello Travelers, and thank you for joining us for another pre-patch blog post! In today’s post we’re going to be taking a look at some of the new items and affixes you’ll find in Eterra with our release later this week!

We’re expanding the range of base items for Boots, Gloves, and Belts, and with the new Armor Sets coming in as we talked about on Thursday, those will get new item base effects as well. Further, we’ll take a look at a couple of new generic affixes, new mastery affixes, and a few of the new unique items you’ll be able to find February 21st!

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Learn more about item factions, the Warlock and the Falconer in Last Epoch:

Factions, Falconer, and Warlock | Coming to Last Epoch February 21st

Happy Saturday, Travelers!

For today’s pre-patch blog post, we’re taking a look at information regarding the three headlining features coming on February 21st: Trade Factions, the Warlock, and Falconer!

There have been a lot of new Travelers recently joining us in the final stretch to release, so for today’s post, we’re going to be covering all of the information regarding these three big features.

Item Factions

On January 11th, we released our deep dive into the Item Faction system. Item Factions is our answer to the eternal trade debate. Offering an option to players who want trade as part of their itemization experience, and those who don’t, without splitting the player base, and without being left behind the other.

To read the full deep dive, you can do so here: Trade & Item Factions. Our Game Director, Judd, also made a video overview of the Item Faction system, which you can watch it below.

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Learn more about healing in Last Epoch:

Healing Hands Skill Tree | Coming to Last Epoch February 21st

Hello Travelers, and welcome to day three of the pre-patch blog posts!

Healing Hands is a skill which has existed in the Paladin tree for quite some time, without being able to be specialized. There’s various reasons we waited to create a tree for this skill, one of the bigger reasons being that we wanted this type of skill to be able to support nodes which help cooperation with other players.

With our release of Last Epoch on February 21st, Healing Hands will finally be getting its long awaited skill tree. While Healing Hands at its core offers a large amount of support, focusing on healing, one should remember that the Paladin is not a back-line player. Healing to a Paladin means more than mending wounds, but also healing the world of its evils. As such, Healing Hands offers a great deal of customization for offensive ability as well, including multiple ways to make it a directly damaging ability.

Healing Hands

As a baseline, Healing hands is an ability which casts a medium sized area of effect which heals all allies, including yourself for an immediate burst, and applies a heal over time for three seconds.

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Last Epoch had a successful Early Access phase:

Celebrating a Milestone - 1 Million Copies of Last Epoch Sold!

We're bursting with excitement to announce that over 1 million players have joined the Last Epoch community!

This wouldn't have been possible without the incredible support of each and every one of you. From the day we launched into Early Access, you've been there with us, playing, providing feedback, crafting amazing theories, and spreading the word about Last Epoch. Your passion and dedication have fueled our drive to create the best possible game, and we are truly grateful.

We know this news might not be fresh, but we were hard at work getting everything ready for 1.0 and wanted to make sure we took a moment to celebrate this achievement with you, our amazing community.

Thank you to everyone who has played, theory-crafted, reported bugs, shared their experiences, and simply enjoyed Last Epoch. You are the heart and soul of this game, and we can't wait to continue this journey together as we approach 1.0 and beyond!

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The Hack and Slash game Last Epoch will be released on February 21, 2024:

Last Epoch Official Launch Trailer | Echoes from the Void

The Hack and Slash game Last Epoch will be released on February 21, 2024:

Last Epoch - Exclusive Trailer

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The Hack and Slash game Last Epoch will be released on February 21, 2024:

Last Epoch 1.0 launches Feb 21st, 2024!

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

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Raxxanterax checked out Last Epoch:

Last Epoch is WAY Better Than I Thought It Would Be

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IGN presents the Runemaster of Last Epoch:

The Last Epoch: Runes of Power - Official Runemaster Trailer | gamescom 2023

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NOOBLETS checked out the atction RPG Last Epoch:

Try LAST EPOCH If You Like Diablo & Path Of Exile!

Here's the patch 0.8.5 overview for Last Epoch:

0.8.5 on the Horizon | Development Update January 2022

Development Update
December saw the introduction of the Eternal Legends update. This introduced one of the new endgame Dungeons: Temporal Sanctum, Legendary Items, an overhaul to crafting, and an overhaul to the Druid mastery. We're happy to say this new endgame system, and the addition of legendary items to provide further solid goals for players has been very well received. This patch resulted in not only continual growth of player numbers over the first month following release but the highest overall retention we’ve seen to date.

Looking forward to patch 0.8.5, we have some exciting news to share with you today. 0.8.5 will bring an exciting batch of content into the game for players in Eterra to explore. From endgame content like two new dungeons and updates to our Arena system - to visual improvements across the game, like new 3D models, weapons, and combat VFX and feel. We are also putting a lot of effort into improving our tools to find, track and fix performance issues.

In addition to the new content above, behind the scenes our 0.8.5 development cycle has a massive focus on multiplayer. We have more dedicated developers devoted to multiplayer this year than at any time in Last Epoch’s history, and we are actively paving the way towards our first community test.

Forecast Update
As our development path towards 1.0 comes closer into focus, we have an update to share on some of our longer-term development goals for Last Epoch.

We now have a better understanding of what our focuses need to be for 1.0 to ensure Epoch is ready for a large audience, and live operations development for years to come.

As we’ve continued to develop and shape Last Epoch around community feedback (thank you by the way), we have realized that some features have needed to be re-evaluated in how they fit into the world of Eterra, and thus removed from this development card. This does not mean we have plans for any less content for Last Epoch, just that these items no longer fit into the core experience in a fun and fluid way as they were envisioned.

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Henriquejr spotted the patch 0.8.3 overview for Last Epoch:

Last Epoch - Sands of Majasa Update | Patch 0.8.3 Overview

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The Early Access action RPG Last Epoch will get a multiplayer mode in 2021:

Patch 0.9 and Multiplayer Are Coming

The latest news on us preparing to incorporate multiplayer in builds released to the community

Hey Travelers!

Today our Game Director, Judd Cobler, is providing an update on our progress towards incorporating mutliplayer in the builds we release to the community. This post includes new information on how multiplayer will work as well as a recently recorded video of us playing multiplayer internally. You can find it on our official forum here.

Thank you for all of your support! We're as excited to release multiplayer to you as you are to play it. Until then, we hope you enjoy the festive season and stay safe. We'll be in touch again soon!

SmattyMatty checked out the Early Access Action RPG Last Epoch:

Last Epoch has a lot of Potential - Review

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PC Gamer checked out the action RPG Last Epoch:

Last Epoch puts a brilliant new twist on the Diablo and Path of Exile skill systems

The action-RPG, now in Early Access, still needs lots of work, but its skill system is already great.

When I unlocked the Bone Prison specialization for my Mark for Death spell, I forgot to read the fine print. Though a wall of bones now encircled my enemies, my once insta-cast spell now had a nasty side effect: a 20-second cooldown. But I was delighted to find that I could now cast another spell on each individual bone piece, turning my new bone prison into a cascading wall of death. Any trade-off that ends with a cascading wall of death is a good one.

Last Epoch hit Steam Early Access on April 30 after six months in closed alpha, adding a proper prologue and extending the campaign to four chapters. Although it’s a traditional hack and slash action-RPG, the world and story structure are clearly inspired by Chrono Trigger. I zip around to different eras that eventually lead to an apocalyptic future I need to prevent. It’s a neat idea but the writing isn’t really what's keeping me playing. Take your stupid ledger and give me my skill point, Elder Erza.

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Last Epoch is an action RPG set to enter beta April 30th.

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Last Epoch combines time travel, exciting dungeon crawling, engrossing character customization and endless replayability to create an Action RPG for veterans and newcomers alike. Travel through the world of Eterra’s past and face dark empires, wrathful gods and untouched wilds – to find a way to save time itself from The Void.

Key Features

• 15 Mastery Classes
  Begin your adventure as a base class which can then specialize into one of three Mastery Classes. When specializing into a certain Mastery you will be able to access new skills and specialize your playstyle!
• Customize each skill
  Every active skill has its own augment tree that can completely change how the skill functions. Transform your skeletons into archers, your lightning blast into chain lightning, or make your serpent strike summon snakes to fight alongside you!
• Lose yourself in the item hunt
  Fill your arsenal with magic items you craft to perfection, change the rules of your build with powerful unique and set items, and always have that next upgrade just on the horizon with Last Epoch's randomized loot system.
• Explore a vast world throughout time
  The world of Eterra is home to many factions and secrets. Travel to different points in time to change the world's fate, and fight to set it onto a new path.
• Endless replayability
  With a wealth of classes and skills to customize, deep game systems, randomized loot, and continuing development, Last Epoch is a game that will keep you coming back.
• Easy to learn, hard to master
  We're committed to making our gameplay approachable through breaking up the required learning and being transparent. At the same time, overcoming some of the most challenging content will require deep knowledge and pushing your build to its limits.