Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure, Indie
Last Epoch
Sentinel Rework & Heartseeker | Coming to Last Epoch April 17th
Hello Travelers, and welcome back to the Pre-Patch Hype Week Blog Posts #2! In today’s blog post, we’re covering the complete Sentinel rework and the new skill for the Rogue Marksman: Heartseeker! We will start with the Heartseeker, and save the bigger dive into the Sentinel for the latter portion of this post. If you missed the first installment of our Hype Week Blog Posts, you can see #1 right here: [Link]
With us covering a new skill, a completely reworked skill, passive skill changes, and other skill changes, we find ourselves with a decently long post. For an easier to navigate version of the blog post with a linked table of contents, check our forums here: Sentinel Rework & Heartseeker | Coming to Last Epoch April 17th
Heartseeker
With Detonating Arrow, Multishot, and Hail of Arrows, the Marksman mastery covers area of effect style attacks fairly well, however this has presented an opening for a skill featuring high single target damage. Introducing Heartseeker. Launching a ranged projectile with the ability to recurve to the same target repeatedly, Heartseeker is highly capable in both Hit and DoT style builds to bring high-health targets to their knees. Becoming available with 30 points spent in the Marksman tree, this puts Heartseeker beyond the “chain lock”, making this new skill exclusive to the Marksman Mastery.
With Heartseeker, you will find a new mechanic in Last Epoch: Recurve Chance. Recurve works differently from other repeating attacks, such as Shield Throw’s Ricochets or Shuriken’s Pierces. In these examples, you increase the number of effective hits with a flat increase, such as +2 Ricochets, whereas with Heartseeker, you’ll have a Recurve chance.
Shoot an arrow that seeks the heart of a nearby target, passing harmlessly through other enemies. Whenever it hits its target it has a chance to continue through it and Recurve to strike it again. Subsequent Recurve chance is multiplied by 0.8 each time the arrow Recurves. If the target dies, it will choose a new target.
Starting with a default 100% Recurve Chance, each time Heartseeker strikes an enemy, its Recurve chance is multiplied by 0.8. This means at a baseline, it will always Recurve once, an 80% chance for a second Recurve, 64% for a third Recurve, and so on, until it fails to roll within the remaining percent chance. By increasing the Recurve chance, the minimum amount of Recurves each use of the skill will also increase. For example, with 125% Recurve Chance, it’s guaranteed to Recurve at least two times from the default one, and at 157% Recurve Chance, it’s guaranteed to Recurve at least three times. One node in particular can allow a Heartseeker projectile to ‘theoretically’ continually Recurve until it no longer has any targets remaining.
Specialization
As with all skills in Last Epoch, Heartseeker comes with a full skill tree, allowing you to specialize the skill extensively. Not limited to simple number changes, you can change its behavior to emphasize the exact role you’re looking for the skill to fulfill: focus on Recurve Chance to maximize the number of repeated hits, trigger Puncture to “share the love” with other enemies, or a combination of the above.
Shadow Weaver’s Grasp
With Shadow Weaver’s Grasp, your Recurve chance will never drop below 66%. This means every time Heartseeker strikes an enemy, there’s a 66% chance that it will continue into another Recurve, then another, then another. With no limit to how many times Heartseeker can theoretically Recurve, this makes for a fun node for those that like their odds.
Arrow of the Ravager
Looking for a Heartseeker that’s a bit more tactical in use rather than spam? Arrow of the Ravager offers a large amount of both Recurve chance, and damage multiplier at the cost of adding a cooldown to Heartseeker, which can be reduced with Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed. Behind this node, you’ll also find nodes to provide additional charges, and refresh a charge when you pick up a Black Arrow.
Nimble Threads
With Nimble Threads you’ll be able to acquire a scaling source of Recurve chance through stacking Dexterity - a valuable attribute for almost any Rogue.
Heartdrain
How about turning Heartseeker into a generator and support skill? Stack Recurve chance with Heartdrain, and quickly watch the mana and health roll in.
Exposed
With Exposed, Heartseeker changes its behavior to only Recurve back to the same target. The perfect option for a bit of ranged assassination as Heartseeker will also harmlessly pass through any enemies aside from the target.
Behind Exposed, you will also find Straight Through. Where Exposed focuses Heartseeker onto a single target, Straight Through makes sure any leftover recurves aren’t left to waste and are instead converted into Punctures fired at nearby enemies.
Damage Conversion
Heartseeker is a Physical Bow Attack by default, however its tree offers options to convert to either Fire or Cold; each with its own scaling options.
Converting to Cold damage will grant access to Frozen Splinter, granting scaling Cold Penetration based on Overcapped Cold Resistance. Powerful with both hit and Frostbite builds, you can never go wrong with Damage Penetration. Being a scaling source means your equipment matters that much more to get the most out of this node.
Alternatively, convert Heartseeker to Fire and gain access to Dragonfang, offering stacking added fire damage for Bow, Spell, and Throwing attacks. Dragonfang is a buff rather than a skill modifier, this means all Bow, Spell, or Throwing damage you deal will benefit from this added damage. However be aware, only the highest Recurve count matters: You can’t simply stack attack speed to get the most out of this node, you need individual Heartseekers to Recurve repeatedly to grant higher stack counts of DragonFang, potentially up to 20 stacks for a total of 80 added Bow, Spell and Throwing Fire damage.
Speaking of throwing, let’s not forget that the Skill Tree isn’t the only way to modify a Skill in Last Epoch. One of the new Unique Items you’ll be able to find in Season 2 is the new Ravager’s Dart helm. This Unique item fundamentally changes Heartseeker from a Bow attack to a Throwing attack, and offers a number of other bonuses at the cost of limiting you to one active Heartseeker at a time.
Going Even Further Beyond
Of course, Heartseeker isn’t limited to the above modifiers. You’ll find other nodes within Heartseeker which allow it to consume Shadows for extra Heartseeker attacks, have Heartseekers drop Black Arrows, and of course nodes that offer Bleed Chance, Poison Chance, Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier, as well as other stacking Recurve bonuses.
In Season 2, the Rogue comes to the party with a brand new way to make enemies feel the pain and fear the shadows. How many times do you think you’ll be able to get a Heartseeker to Recurve?
Sentinel Rework
Alongside Heartseeker, a second reworked and essentially new skill will be making its debut in Season 2: Volatile Reversal. This bears some reasoning, as neither Sentinel nor Volatile Reversal has been unpopular. In fact, Volatile Reversal has been very popular but not for a good reason.
The current version of Volatile Reversal offers very powerful global bonuses and, as such, has been a mainstay in almost every Sentinel build. While having a supporting ability certainly isn’t problematic, Volatile Reversal features a very unique mechanic, relocating the player back in time. With the skill being used for its passive global bonuses rather than its mechanical effects, this left the skill in an unhealthy position where it felt necessary to many players due to the strength, yet at the same time was often unfun, or “annoying” to use as players just wanted the buffs, and not to be moved back in time.
Because of this, we’ve intended to rework Volatile Reversal for some time. However, with Sentinel being almost “propped up” by Volatile Reversal, reworking it to be a more individually interesting skill rather than an unfun support buff would leave many Sentinel options in too weak of a place. Thus, with Season 2, we’re both reworking Volatile Reversal into a new skill, with an entirely new Skill Tree and mechanics, as well as providing many buffs and changes across many Sentinel skills and passives to help Sentinels Eterra-wide stand on their own without leaning heavily on a single skill.
Volatile Reversal
A combo ability that jumps forwards in time to a target location and performs a melee attack on arrival. Recast within 3 seconds to jump backwards in time to your original location and perform a melee attack on arrival.
Rather than being a supporting spell, Volatile Reversal is making its grand reappearance as a Melee Traversal Combo skill. As a two-part combo skill, Volatile Reversal allows you to teleport into enemies, landing an area melee attack and allowing for further follow-up before re-activating and teleporting back in time to your original location. Or, if you’re happy with the engagement, simply don’t reactivate the skill and retain your all-new forward-future self (Effects on aging of Travelers from not returning unknown)
Providing both engagement and disengagement in one skill, Volatile Reversal offers new engagement opportunities to Sentinels and new synergies and build options. While it may be noticed that the skill offers Added Void Spell Damage through Vitality scaling, the skill only deals melee damage by default, and this Vitality scaling is offered for optional spell-based subskills in the Skill Tree. Becoming available with five points spent in the Void Knight tree, this places Volatile Reversal before the “lock line”, making it available to all Sentinels with the right investment.
Specialization
Volatile Reversal also offers its own full Skill Tree to customize how you want to utilize it in your build. Make it a high-damage engagement option, maximize its traversal potential, or support other skills to further expand their potential.
Nether Convergence
With Nether Convergence, Volatile Reversal supports your Devouring Orbs by pulling them toward you every time you jump forward. Why cast new Devouring Orbs when you have perfectly good Orbs on the field already? Bring them along on a field trip.
While Nether Convergence pulls your Devouring Orbs along with you, Accelerationist or Eternal Banquet can either cause your Orbs to expire earlier or last longer, at will, augmenting how you’ve built Devouring Orb.
Future Focus
Does your Sentinel only look to the future? With Future Focus, the second activation of Volatile Reversal will now send you forward a second time, allowing greater forward mobility at the cost of a longer cooldown.
Reclaimed Action
What’s a Void Knight without Echoes? Reclaimed Action guarantees your next direct melee attack or spell Echoes so long as you traveled at least four meters - a great addition with any heavy-hitting build to really bring the pain with the initial engagement.
Void Bolts
As mentioned earlier, Volatile Reversal can also be specialized toward spell damage. You can do this in Void Bolts with both Incipient Void Bolt and Terminal Void Bolt. These options will launch a set of three Void Bolts at the start of movement and end to barrage enemies with Void damage.
Add Returning Corruption to cause all Void Bolts to return, and double down on the delivery. These nodes apply to each activation of Volatile Reversal, meaning if you pick up both Incipient and Terminal Void Bolts, you’ll trigger a total of six projectiles per cooldown.
Holding the Line
Of course, there’s always the option of specializing in Volatile Reversal into more of a support role. With Warped Time and Phased Reality, you can gain powerful buffs after jumping into the fray - for so long as you hold off on jumping back out.
Anchored Timeline
Perhaps you’d rather have Volatile Reversal as more of an offensive ability with a shorter cooldown? At the cost of making the skill less mobile, you’ll be able to cut the base cooldown in half and remove the Traversal Tag, allowing for much more frequent use, particularly when stacked with additional sources of Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed.
And More
In addition to the mentioned nodes, you’ll also find options that allow you to convert Volatile Reversal to Fire Damage, grant Void Essence, Trigger Abyssal Echoes, or increase the damage options for Volatile Reversal itself. The new Volatile Reversal offers a completely new playstyle option and many new build opportunities with it.
Sentinel Changes
While Volatile Reversal may have the spotlight for the Sentinel Rework, as mentioned, there’s a whole lot of other changes coming to the class with this update in both Skills and Passives. Let’s start taking a look at some of these with one of the more significant changes: Symbols of Hope.
Symbols of Hope
But wait, isn’t the skill called “Sigils of Hope?” Not as of Season 2! In the future, we will be adding the Sigils system, which left a bit of confusion with this skill. With the mechanical changes, we felt there was no better opportunity to resolve that confusion with a small name change. The mechanical change, not so small.
Every 2 seconds, summons a symbol that orbits you, causing you and your allies’ attacks and spells to deal 3 additional fire damage and increasing health regeneration by 20%. Activate to consume the symbols, granting 100 ward and 5% less damage taken per symbol for 3 seconds. You can have up to 3 symbols at a time.
Like Volatile Reversal, Sigils of Hope often became an “annoying” factor. As a buff skill that required regular reactivation to maintain passive bonuses, it ended up either being an interruption to play without a fun effect or simply being auto-cast. Rather than gaining a Sigil upon using the ability, the change to Symbols of Hope now causes the player to gain Symbols passively over time, while activating the skill will consume the Symbols for significant temporary buffs.
While not a fully reworked skill like Volatile Reversal, you’ll still find many differences in the new Symbols of Hope tree, including a changed Divine Flare branch, Ward Generation, and new passive bonuses, such as Increased Critical Strike Chance.
Orian’s Sun Seal
Of course, passively generating Sigils was previously the domain of the Unique item: Orian’s Sun Seal. This leaves many asking, “What does this Unique do now?” The answer: Orian’s Sun Seal now increases the rate you passively gain Symbols and offers a circuit breaker activating Symbols of Hope when you’re left below your Endurance Threshold to automatically consume current Symbols for defensive and offensive bonuses.
Time Rot
Boiled down: Time Rot is now a viable build path for Void Knights. Time Rot is an ailment that deals 60 Void Damage over Time, increases stun duration by 5%, lasts 3 seconds, and stacks up to 12 times. While most ailments depend on achieving as high of stack counts as possible, don’t let that dissuade you from the new Time Rot. With many new sources being able to reliably apply Time Rot and newly available augmenting passives for Time Rot, such as the extremely powerful Void Knight Rot Grip passive, Time Rot offers other routes for scaling than just stack count.
Passive Changes
With the Sentinel Rework, a total of 65 passives have been changed between all Masteries. That’s a few too many to cover in a Blog Post like this, so for the full details, you’ll have to wait for the Patch Notes on the 11th. For today, we’re going to cover some of the bigger new or changed nodes. While almost all of these passive changes are in Void Knight and Paladin, with Forge Guard recently getting attention, Forge Guard is still getting a very impactful new passive in Forgemaster’s Might.
Forgemaster’s Might
With Monument of Protection we introduced a “dual-wielding shields” option, the next logical step was wielding a two-handed weapon with a shield. While no current characters have four arms to dual-wield two-handed weapons, we do feel the Forge Guard’s mastery of weapons gives them enough of an edge to efficiently wield one with a single hand.
Sword of Rahyeh
This Paladin capstone node found at the end of the passive tree now offers power to warrant its position as one of the final Paladin passive nodes. Not only offering a significant amount of Melee Ignite Chance per point, it also offers a threshold bonus granting a major boost to all ignite damage when you activate Holy Aura.
Holy Precision
Holy Precision is a node which currently offers a lot of power, but is limited to Lightning Damage, greatly limiting its applicability. While the values for the node have been adjusted, its effects are now much more universal, and the benefits offered are still nothing to sneeze at, offering Added Critical Strike Chance with its Threshold bonus.
Woe
In theme with the Void Knight, the adjusted Woe node offers a Threshold bonus with Slow and Frailty Chance. Combine this with the altered Dread Form passive, which reduces slowing effects on you, and you’ll have much greater mastery over the passage of time for yourself and your enemies.
Abyssal Fluctuation
You deal zero damage while you’re dead. Abyssal Fluctuation offers a powerful and thematic method of damage reduction for the Void Knight, converting up to 50% of Elemental Damage Taken to Void Damage Taken and reducing all Void Damage Taken (including the converted damage).
Skill Changes
Continuing with the theme of “too many changes to show in one Blog Post,” the Sentinel is also receiving changes to 22 of its 26 skills. As with passives, you’ll have to wait for the Patch Notes for the complete list of changes, but today we’ll touch on some of the skills receiving more significant changes.
Devouring Orb
Devouring Orb has received an adjustment to its base functionality, now passively dealing Void Damage over Time to enemies within its area of effect. This change helps Devouring Orb in more of a primary skill role, less dependent on other skills to trigger rifts.
Inside the Skill Tree, you’ll find many changes and even some entirely new nodes. Two of note being the new “All Consuming” node and the reworked “Abyssal Rush” node.
Javelin
While Javelin has had its Added Damage Effectiveness increased to 250% (from 200%), the biggest changes for Javelin can be found in its skill tree nodes. This includes Divine Fury no longer being incompatible with Siege Barrage. With both nodes allocated, each Javelin that rains down will create lightning spears. In addition, many nodes have received adjustments to provide more power to Javelin builds, as well as compensate for the Volatile Reversal changes.
Multistrike
Multistrike is also receiving a number of numerical adjustments, along with one very big new node. With Bladestorm, your additional swords are able to consume mana and, in exchange, strike the same enemy. This makes Multistrike far more formidable against individual targets - if you can sustain the cost. Multistrike has also received a buff to its hitbox, making reliably landing those primary hits feel much smoother.
Shield Throw
Shield Throw is an ability that previously required a number of passive points to get it up and running as a primary skill. This is largely because of the long cooldown, which required a non-insignificant number of skill points to remove. Considering this was the style that was generally preferred for the skill, we’ve adjusted its base functionality to reflect this, removing the initial cooldown and reducing the cost.
While it still requires the shield to return before throwing out a new shield, it now only costs a single skill point in the first ring of the tree to remove that restriction. Alternatively, you can add a cooldown to the skill and further specialize it to be able to ricochet to yourself and grant additional benefits with that. These changes free up skill points and, combined with other node changes throughout Shield Throw, make it a much smoother and more formidable skill.
Smelter’s Wrath
Smelter’s Wrath is receiving some fairly significant number changes and an important mechanical change. While many nodes on the tree are receiving some love, the Added Damage Effectiveness of Smelter’s Wrath is being increased to 600% (from 450%).
Mechanically, Smelter’s Wrath is being changed to now grant more damage based on charge, up to 100% more damage at maximum charge, from 50% more hit damage per second spent charging. This means that reducing your charge time will no longer reduce the benefit received from this effect. Effects in the tree that are “for each second channeled” remain unchanged.
Vengeance
The last skill we’ll be touching on today is Vengeance. With 28 lines of Patch Notes just for Vengeance Skill Tree changes, Vengeance has a new outlook on life in Season 2. This includes changes to Iron Blade offering a way to get it to a 100% chance on both Vengeance and Riposte hits, Forged Weapon generation, and full Fire and Void conversion options while keeping its highly defensive strengths. Like Multistrike, its base hitbox has been increased to help make striking with the attack feel smoother and more forgiving.
Closing
There are so many more related changes we didn’t have an opportunity to show off in this post, but don’t worry, the Patch Notes are just around the corner. We look forward to seeing what kind of builds the community manages to create with the all-new Heartseeker, as well as the reworked Sentinel in Season 2: Tombs of the Erased, launching April 17th!
Be sure to stick around for more Pre-Patch Hype Week Blog Posts!
Hype to look forward to
Endgame Itemization and other Balance changes (4/9)
QoL & other game improvements inc. dungeons (4/10)
The Woven Faction & Monolith Updates | Coming to Last Epoch April 17th
Hello and welcome Travelers to the first installment of Last Epoch Season 2 - Tombs of the Erased Hype Week! If you’re new here, Hype Week is a feature-reveal celebration and a collaboration with the various teams working on Last Epoch. It includes detailed information about the upcoming season and answers the community’s biggest questions.
New Twitch Drops
First things first, we will be offering all-new Twitch drops for you to collect on all participating Last Epoch streams! We will also be running a Support-A-Creator campaign as well, which grants you an additional cosmetic. For more information, check out the Twitch drops page at https://twitch.lastepoch.com/
Cemeteries & Tombs of the Erased
In Season 2, Travelers will find new challenges in the Monolith of Fate placed by The Weaver, a Titan who seeks to create a new world free from the Void and other imperfections. In your Echoes, you will have a chance to uncover Tombs and Cemeteries of the Erased, which are new side zones filled with the Weaver’s experiments and flawed creations.
Tombs and Cemeteries are the foundation for interacting with our new endgame systems in Season 2, and they also represent our first foray into procedurally generated side zones, ensuring that each area is unique and different.
Inside these zones, you’ll find the Woven, who have captured souls for the Weaver and wrapped them in Cocoons. Breaking these Cocoons open will release the souls, which will then flee and possess nearby enemies. Possessed enemies gain new abilities, increased health, and damage - and when slain, they drop Memory Amber, a new currency used in the Weaver’s Faction. You’ll want to collect as much Memory Amber as you can throughout the zones.
After reaching the end of a Tomb and challenging one of the Goldthread Fateweavers, you will have an opportunity to enchant your idols with some of the Weaver’s power via the Woven Enchanter device and gain a duplicate of the current echo bonus reward.
While exploring the Monolith of Fate, you will also find Cemeteries of the Erased, a new Echo type that contains even greater dangers and riches. Within these Cemeteries, you will need to locate and defeat the Woven Firstborn who is guarding the Weaver’s Altar, where you may place Woven Echoes to manipulate your current timeline.
The Woven Faction
After completing your first Cemetery, you will be introduced to the face of the Woven Faction, Masque, and be given the chance to join the followers of The Weaver. You will progress through the ranks of The Woven by earning and spending Memory Amber, which is most commonly found in Tombs and Cemeteries.
With each rank, Masque will sell you new Woven Echoes, an alternate reality constructed by the Weaver that has been captured in physical form. You will be able to conquer these unique echoes after placing them in your timeline using the Altar of the Weaver. By completing Woven Echoes and progressing through the Woven ranks, you will earn points that can be spent in the Weaver Tree, allowing you to influence the Monolith of Fate.
Weaver Tree
The Weaver Tree functions similarly to a skill or passive tree but is specific to the Monolith of Fate. Further power within the Weaver Tree is gained from increasing your rank within the faction and by completing new Woven Echoes. There are a total of 50 points to be earned and allocated within the nodes of the Weaver Tree.
Some nodes increase the odds of specific rewards or echo types spawning in your Monolith. Others raise the spawn rates of encounters such as Nemeses, Exiled Mages, or Loot Lizards. Some even enable target farming by imprinting items directly onto the Weaver Tree, which then have a chance to create similar items when slaying enemies, completing echoes, or opening Caches.
Woven Echoes
Woven Echoes are fragments of Weaver’s vision of her new world and offer new and unique challenges that are not found anywhere else. Woven Echoes are new items that can drop from within Tombs and Cemeteries or be purchased from Masque at the Haven of Silk, the Woven Faction Hub, in exchange for Memory Amber. You will be able to add as many Woven Echoes as desired to your timeline via the Altar of the Weaver in Cemeteries.
There are 36 Woven Echoes, providing a variety of content including new crafting rewards, interesting encounters and mechanics, the ability to affect other echoes on your Echo Web, and new endgame bosses like the Draal Queen, a tremendous insectoid broodmother, and the Antipode Dragon, a paradox of fire and ice, who will each have new Unique items only available by defeating them. You will also find previous bosses reinvigorated with new abilities and strength, such as Uber Aberroth, a much more difficult version of Aberroth, accessed through a Woven Echo obtained from slaying Aberroth.
Idol Enchanting
As mentioned earlier, you will find an Idol Enchanting altar at the end of every Tomb and Cemetery. Tombs allow one use, Cemeteries two, and some Woven Echoes up to four uses.
Each use allows you to enchant a new class idol or re-enchant an idol and infuse it with the Weaver’s power. This process creates Heretical idols with Enchanted affixes and Weaver’s Touch.
Unlike other affixes you can find on idols, these new affixes have tiers that can reach up to tier 7. Similar to Weaver’s Will items, when you have a Heretical Idol equipped and slay an enemy, you will have a chance to either increase the tier of an Enchanted Affix or add a new one. Heretical idols can have up to 4 affixes - 2 normal affixes with no tiers and 2 enchanted affixes up to tier 7 each when fully converted from Weaver’s Touch.
If you’re not happy with the affixes granted by enchanting your idol, you can reroll it at the end of any Tombs or Cemeteries by spending Memory Amber. This will first remove any Enchanted affixes or Weaver’s Touch that the Heretical idol had and then enchant it again just like the first time, granting the idol an enchanted affix and some Weaver’s Touch.
Weaver Idols
You may also find new Weaver idols of Small, Minor (previously known as Small Lagonian), Stout, and Humble idols that can roll affixes from a new pool exclusive to these sub-types. Weaver idols always have at least one of these more powerful affixes, with a chance to have another, but most often, the second affix is from the standard idol affix pool.
New Weaver’s Will items
Season 2 brings with it a nest of new Unique Items that will possess Weaver’s Will. Just as it is up to the Traveler to find The Woven, we will leave finding these items up to you but offer you a glimpse of a few of them.
Orb Weaver’s Fang, a two-handed Sword that will boost melee damage, Critical Strike Chance, and Dodge Rating, then it will double its own stats after striking a Boss or Rare enemy that is at low health!
Nest of Nightmares, a one-handed Mace that increases the chance of enemies being crit by inflicting Spiders on them, boosts your and your minions’ Melee Critical Strike Multiplier, and provides you and your minions with some Leech too.
Inheritance of the Erased, an Amulet that grants Frenzy and 200% of its own stats to a random minion every 10 seconds.
New Supporter Packs
Just like the launch of Last Epoch 1.0, we have a list of all new supporter packs just for you! New for Season 2, each of the Woven Series supporter packs will contain all of the cosmetic content from the Tiers below the one you choose, with the Woven Legend pack containing all of the cosmetics from the other three packs as well. No more having to feel like you’ve missed out! The Woven Series supporter packs will go live on launch day and are available via Steam and in-game via the shop.
Woven Traveler
Whether you’re delving into forgotten tombs or charting your path through time, equip yourself with these unique cosmetics that embody mystery and adventure.
Woven Templar
The Woven Templar supporter pack not only grants access to all the unique cosmetics from the Woven Traveler tier but also introduces an array of fiery new visuals to set you apart in your adventures through Eterra.
Woven Vanquisher
This pack includes all cosmetic items from the Woven Traveler and Woven Templar supporter packs but does not carry over the Epoch Points from the Woven Templar pack.
Woven Legend
This pack includes all cosmetic items from the Woven Traveler, Woven Templar, and Woven Vanquisher packs but does not carry over Epoch Points from the Woven Templar or Woven Vanquisher packs.
The Weaver brings a lot to the table this season, so collect your own Supporter Pack and flaunt it in Eterra. Also, this season will be your last chance to snag the Eternal Series supporter packs before they leave the shop on May 2nd.
Closing
That’s all for today, but it’s not all there will be. Come back tomorrow for the next installment of the Pre-Patch Hype Week, where we will cover the New Heartseeker skill and the Sentinel Class Rework! Need more content to fill the time? Join us for two very special podcast streams on Twitch on April 8th and 11th - the streams will feature Judd, Ross, Mike, and Karv and give a deeper look at Season 2!
Until next time, thank you for your support, and we will see you in Eterra!
Hype to look forward to
Sentinel Rework & Heartseeker (4/8)
Endgame, Balance and Itemization Updates (4/9)
Quality of Life, Dungeon & Other Improvements (4/10)
Eterra Monthly: March. 2025 Edition
Starting off with some important news, as you all may be well aware, Patch 1.2 Tombs of the Erased has been delayed from its original April 2nd launch date. The newly scheduled release date is April 17th. EHG Game Director, Judd, revealed the change with the following graphic.
EHG would like to thank you all for your un-ceasing support and look forward to an outstanding 2nd Season along side you.
With this announcement, the team has also decided to reveal the date of the Patch Notes!
Mike’s Teasers
March was a very different world for Last Epoch streams and with it, the teasers you have all come to expect from Mike every week. The first two weeks of March’s streams were designed as Interview Podcasts with some of your favorite streamers such as, Zizaran, Raxxanterax, and Ghazzy. These podcast streams will be kicking off again before the launch of Tombs of the Erased on April 4th and April 11th.
3-7-25
Mike was not actually present for the Podcast stream with Ziz and Raxx. Instead, the streamers were joined by the Founder of EHG and Game Director Judd, Creative Director Ross, and Principle Designer Holly.
3-14-25
The following week, Mike and Karv joined Ghazzy on his stream and gave an absolutely massive amount of spoilers sending the twitch moderators into a panic.
3-21-25
Returning to normal streams, Mike was not about to ease up on his famous teasers, bringing with him 5 glimpses into the future. The last of which was the new “Death Vacuum” that brings nearby loot out of an Echo should your character die before completion.
3-28-25
Mike wrapped up the end of the month with 5 more teasers to keep us thinking all week.
Build Spotlight
This month’s Community Build Spotlight goes to Demoner with their incredible “Finger of God - Healing Hands” build.
“Have you ever wanted to heal your enemies to death? Well you’re in luck, the Finger of God build does just that.” This one is for anyone interested in powerful 1-button, kickback and relax, builds and can be started as soon as you unlock Healing Hands and Paladin! And the best part is, there are NO item requirements to make it work. Though the build guide does feature a few popular items such as Orian’s Sun Seal, Soul Bastion, and Firestarter Torch, or alternatively Mad Alchemists Ladle, none of these are required; putting creative freedom back into your hands. The Finger of God build makes you and your allies practically unkillable and has proven to be viable in both SCF and HC formats. Not just like any build, there are some drawbacks. The AOE does exist but it’s a bit smaller than most AOE builds are familiar with. You’ll also need to manage your mana a bit closer to make sure you don’t get stuck.
For more information, please check out Demoner’s Build Guide on Last Epoch Tools and give it a try. With the upcoming Sentinel overhaul, this is sure to be a favorite build very soon.
Meet the Team
Travelers, we know how much you have all enjoyed meeting the EHG team. As you can imagine, Season 2 Tombs of the Erased, has the entire studio hyper-focused on bringing you our best. Because of this, instead of focusing on one individual this month, we would instead like to invite you all to meet some of our team members during the upcoming Podcast streams on Twitch.
Discord Fun
This past month, the Community Management team got together and started a new stream just for you! Every Wednesday at 11:30 am CST, the Last Epoch Official Discord will host a voice channel called “CM Cozy Streams.” These streams are an opportunity for everyone to hang out together, enjoy the game, and create a healthy dose of chaos at the expense of the CM team’s characters. As of the time of this blog posting, Averielle, Wick, and Kain have all been featured with community driven character builds. Ave has stepped out of her comfort zone and is being guided through a Forge Guard build, Wick has fallen victim to the chaos of the chat and plays a Warlock, and Kain seems to be rolling with the punches with a Rune Master.
On behalf of the CM Team, we want to encourage everyone to join us for the next stream. Help guide them to victory, or hilarious chaotic tragedy.
March was chalk full of new fan art and excitement and the team was absolutely gushing over it all.
Vezidroga on Discord has been working tirelessly on a brand new Last Epoch LED sign in their woodshop. As of 3/18 the project was announced as completed! You can check out the final product on Reddit where they have also included a short video on the entire process. Shortly before the project was posted, Vezidroga reached out to Mike, host of the LE Official Twitch Channel, to offer the project a permanent home. Mike has since accepted and soon it will be seen in the background of all of the LE Twitch streams.
As it turns out, WilliamGoatCreates on Reddit is a master jeweler. After spotting a reddit post calling out the Carcinization of Momentum ring, they posted a photo of the exact same ring they made from gold and set with a gorgeous white pearl!
Another Discord user by the name Lungbutter (we hope they are breathing smoothly) showed off their Last Epoch support with an amazing Epoch tattoo. Give your artist a shout out from everyone at the studio. This is some nice color work.
What’s Next?
We’d like to ask you all to keep your eyes on our forums for the patch notes you’ve all been chomping at the bit for. We know the wait has been long and frustrating but we thank you for your patience through it all. Your unyielding support has not gone unnoticed.
This has been Eterra Monthly; a report on the happenings and changes in the world of Last Epoch. We hope you have enjoyed this month’s report and will see you all again soon.
Last Epoch - Season 2 - New Launch Date: April 17th
Hello Travelers,
We’ve recently learned that our friends in the ARPG space have chosen a release date just a couple days after ours which would divide the player base and hinder the success of our Season 2 launch. Last Epoch is still a smaller studio in this space that looks towards each of its launches as a way to continue to sustain the studio financially and work on the things we are most passionate about.
It is with a heavy heart that we are forced to move our release date of Season 2 - Tombs of the Erased, to April 17th.
As we adjust our launch date, we invite our community to help us spread the word so that everyone can join in the Season 2 experience — a massive update to Last Epoch that we’re thrilled to share with you.
Judd “Mox” - Game Director
Eterra Monthly: Feb. Edition 2025
Welcome to the Eterra Monthly February 2025 Edition, Travelers!
’Twas the Season of love and we would love to dive in to our latest report with you.
Hotfix Rollout
We released a few Hotfixes this month. The first added extra client support for system updates, though more importantly, it added performance telemetry tracking for FPS and frame hitches to aid our teams' investigations.
The second Hotfix addressed an issue that affected some players' access to their Offline Saves. The third and fourth Hotfixes addressed various issues related to the In-Game Chat, affecting access to Characters and some players being able to block themselves. As well as an issue where True Offline players could not return to the Character Select Screen from within the game.
Eyes on Eterra
A New Threat Looms…
A summons went out across Eterra, with the promise of new treasures and opportunities to become stronger to entice our travelers.
The strange happenings our team has been reporting on have finally revealed themselves and you can hear the call of the The Weaver here, Season 2 Launch Trailer: Tombs of the Erased, though it is for you to decide if you will answer.
By the way, you may have seen some Dev Tool Shenanigans in the Trailer in the form of Blessings in the player Inventory UI. This is not something players should expect to see in-game themselves as we will never let Gregory the Intern have access to the game code again.
Walk, walk, fashion, Gregory….
As Seasons change, Fashion cycles. As we approach Season 2 and the new Tombs of the Erased update, we wanted to keep you informed of the latest upcoming and outgoing ways to show your support for Eterra and Last Epoch.
While we are excited to show you more of the new MTX we have already teased on Mike’s Streams, which will be coming with Tombs of the Erased on April 2nd, the following Supporter packs will be leaving our shop on April 18th;
All of our Supporter Packs will exist together in the shop for a short period of time, this means the existing Deluxe and Ultimate Editions as well as the Abyssal Supporter Packs will remain available after April 19th.
Also, please note that items from the Eternal Supporter Packs will not be added to the in-game shop as individual items once these packs rotate out, so be sure to snag your favorite before it's gone.
Bringing Down the Hive
Another month, another round of old bugs that we can confirm will be put out to pasture in Season 2.
Rogue Passive Tree
Coated Blades now only applies to directly used abilities
Warpath
Warrior's Fury now only applies to direct uses of Warpath
Bone Curse
Fixed a bug where Crippling Anguish had no effect when Signet of Agony is also allocated
Summon Sabertooth
Fixed a bug where Ice Bringer was summoning Ancestral Sabertooths instead of casting Ice Vortex, and those Ancestral Sabertooths did not receive appropriate stats when summoned, making them considerably weaker than intended
Added a new node, Ancestral Hunter, which requires 2 points in Frost Fang. Your Sabertooth's hits have a 4% chance per point to summon an Ancestral Sabertooth that attacks nearby enemies for a short duration. Maximum of 1 point.
Added a new node, Ancient Bond, which requires 1 point in Ancestral Hunter. Your Sabertooth's hits have an additional 4% chance per point to summon Ancestral Sabertooths, and they deal 20% more damage per point. Maximum of 3 points.
Ritual Lake
Fixed a bug causing some movement abilities to not adjust the character to the terrain.
Deep Harbor
Fixed a bug where some portals in Deep Harbor would appear in an inaccessible place
Dummies
Target dummies, such as those available at Champions' Gate, no longer have damage variance when hit.
Mike’s Twitch Teasers
After a long break, catching Mike's Streams to catch up with Mike's Stream Teasers isn’t always the easiest, so we’ve compiled them all here in one place for you!
02-14-25
After a few weeks away to move house, Mike reminded us all that he DID love us by bringing us gifts for Valentine's Day!
Sentinel’s can look forward to a shiny new Phalanx Spear and builds that benefit from builds that didn’t benefit from automatically drinking floor potions should find a much needed reprieve in the Settings! We also got a peek at some of the upgrades that have been happening to the Monolith of Fate islands, though the workers did say they noticed a lot of spiders around lately, and items showing up covered in webs and old cloth strips….
We also got a look at some new adornments provided by The Weaver, those that walk Her web are never far from it.
02-21-25
Another week, another Stream, another set of teasers!
The Weaver blesses the Traveler this week, a new Lance allows up to 9 Elemental Essence to stack before unleashing a barrage of attacks at your foes. Work also continues in the Monolith of Fate as we spied what looked like a new Echo, though workers were quick to distract us with some new finds - a web covered Bow and a web carved stone that turned out to be the new Rune of Weaving (you can see the full tooltip in our brand new trailer).
Seems the Mage was feeling a little malicious, and took it out on some local bugs with a new Skill MTX (though our Dev team completely understand that feeling 😅 ). When we asked Mike about it, he kept evading the question 🤔
02-28-25
Sorry, no early leaks here. You’ll have to watch the Stream tonight like the rest of us! Mike can be found roaming through Eterra here on Fridays at 3:00 PM CST.
Community Build Spotlight
Bees have long had their place in the heart of Eterra and the heart of our Community, so it only felt right to find a Bee Build for this month. Originally dubbed ‘Aberroth CoF BEE Druid’ by morphLE in this video here at Eterra Monthly we call this build ‘The A-Bee-rroth Slayer’ as this is *the* Bee Build that brought down Aberroth in under 3 minutes!!
The Pinnacle Boss has been a thorn in the side of our Travelers so morphLE decided to *bee* a ‘Summon Thorn Totem’ in his. Combining that Skill with Spriggan Form to grant access to Thorn Shield and using the Unique helm Bloodkeeper's Nest to bring forth an entire hive’s worth of Bees to be a bother.
This build is also buzzing with some creative synergy between Eterra’s Blessing and Thorn Shield, using the Introspection node of Thorn Shield to only target the player, then the Rosebloom node of Eterra’s Blessing to cast Eterra’s Blessing on the Thorn Shield target - this means the majority of the defensive and healing properties of this build are focused on the player first, before nodes like Ancestral Renewal turn those healing properties towards your helping hive.
While on paper gearing this build can look overwhelming, with the amount of Legendary items, most of those can be swapped out for good Exalted items with the right Affixes, such as ‘+ All Attributes’, ‘increased Minion Damage’ and most importantly as you need Spriggan Form for this build, ‘increased Movement Speed’.
Legacy of the Quiet Forest is one very common Unique you should keep your eyes out for as it will help maintain your Rage levels while providing a lot of Armor, Void and Poison Resistances. You will also want to find Exalted Armour or Helm with the ‘+X% Chance to apply Bleed on Hit with Minion Skills’ Affix and then use the Eternity Cache to Slam those onto a Unique like the Doublet of Onos Tull to double up on the Affix effect.
The true royal jelly of this build however, is the Ornate Heorot Idols due to the ‘**Bees Per 10 Seconds** affix, bzzzz. This helps you bee-line to victory by bolstering your ranks with even more tiny, fearsome allies so it is worth getting your hands on these as soon as you can!
Tell us a little about your job and what it includes.
I’m the Operations Producer at Eleventh Hour Games, where I support the Marketing, Community, Cosmetics, and Data teams. My role involves coordinating meetings, transforming ideas into actionable projects, and ensuring those projects are successfully executed from start to finish. It’s all about keeping things organized, streamlining workflows, and helping teams bring their visions to life.
What inspired you to get into game development, and how did you end up at this studio?
As a passionate gamer, I wanted to transition from playing games to creating them. Three years ago, I contacted Eleventh Hour Games through their company email, asking if they needed any help. That led to an interview where I met Michael Bortolin, now the COO, and we immediately connected over our shared love of games. Our conversation was incredible, and they brought me on board. From there, I worked my way up from standard operations to my current role as Operations Producer.
How does working at an indie studio differ from working at a larger studio?
One of the biggest differences is the freedom. At Eleventh Hour Games, we have a passionate team and leadership that truly values input from everyone. Unlike larger studios, where roles can be more rigid, we have open discussions about the game's direction, and ideas are genuinely considered no matter where they come from. It’s a highly collaborative environment where you get to contribute in ways you might not typically experience at a bigger company.
How do you balance working from home with your home life?
It can definitely be a challenge, especially when you’re passionate about what you do. But having a great partner I’ve been with for 16 years makes a huge difference. Outside of work, I stay balanced by diving into hobbies that keep my attention, whether it’s gaming or riding my motorcycles. Those things help me unplug, recharge, and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
How do you balance creativity with practical constraints like time, budget, or technical limitations?
It’s all about finding smart solutions. While limitations like time, budget, or technical challenges can be restrictive, they also push you to think outside the box. I focus on prioritization, breaking big ideas into achievable steps, and collaborating with the team to find the best path forward. It also helps to stay flexible. Sometimes, the best ideas come from working within boundaries rather than against them.
What’s the biggest lesson you've learned while working in indie game development?
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in indie game development is the importance of adaptability and a willingness to wear many hats. In a smaller team, you often need to step outside your primary role and take on new responsibilities, be it design, programming, marketing, or anything else that needs doing. This experience not only broadens your skill set, but also deepens your appreciation for the different facets that come together to create a successful game.
How do you stay motivated and creative, especially during long or difficult projects?
For me, staying motivated and creative boils down to passion. Game development is exactly what I want to be doing, and that deep love for the craft fuels me even when projects get tough. There’s nothing quite like the rush of nearing a patch release, where everything you’ve worked so hard on finally comes together. Hitting that “go live” button and seeing players experience the new content is incredible. That excitement and sense of accomplishment keeps me pushing forward, no matter how challenging the journey gets.
What kind of feedback from players do you find most helpful or motivating?
I find constructive criticism to be the most valuable type of player feedback. When someone can break down their experience step by step, what’s working, what isn’t, and why it provides a clear understanding of how they’re interacting with the game, this level of detail helps me see the journey through the player’s eyes and identify where we might need to make adjustments. It’s incredibly motivating because it not only validates where we’re succeeding, but also gives us the insights we need to continuously refine and improve the overall experience.
What’s a feature or design choice you’re particularly proud of in one of the games you’ve worked on?
I’m especially proud of the day-to-day problem-solving that goes on behind the scenes. There are always those odds-and-ends situations where the path forward isn’t clear, and I love diving in to find clever solutions. It’s incredibly satisfying to turn what initially seems like a dead end into a creative breakthrough, and that sense of discovery is a huge part of why I’m so passionate about game development.
What advice would you give someone who wants to get into this industry?
My biggest piece of advice is to take the leap and commit to doing the work. It’s not enough to sit around thinking about making games while playing them, you have to jump in, learn new skills, and adapt quickly. Game development can be challenging, but there’s no feeling quite like seeing millions of people play and enjoy something you helped create. That sense of accomplishment and community is what makes all the hard work worthwhile.
Is there anything else you’d like to tell our readers?
I just want to say thank you for being you. It truly means the world to us that you take time out of your busy life to play the game we’ve worked so hard on. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. I’m eternally grateful for every moment you spend with our creation, and I hope it brings you as much joy as it does for all of us who worked on it.
Community Spotlight
Discord Voice Channels
You may have seen our post here about bringing back the Discord VC ahead of Season 2. We can now let you know when that will be…. Monday 3rd March 11 am CST! We look forward to seeing, well hearing, you all there.
Community Manager Cozy Streams!
With the return of Voice Channels we thought that would also be the perfect time to bring in another much requested feature - the Discord CM Cozy Streams!
Starting Wednesday 5th March, for 1 hour at 10:30 am CST, you can join your Discord CMs as they play Last Epoch and answer your questions in a dedicated Channel. There you’ll be able to type out questions, comments, encouragements or just emotes as we die… a lot. We never claimed to be as skilled as Mike!
We had to share Gizmot_Time’s hilarious Loot Filter names with you as we had a great time figuring out what each one actually did 😅
Vezidoroga is Carving into our hearts again
We’ve been watching the creation of this for a while now and with every update we get more and more excited! They must have been taking lessons from Mike on how to properly tease content, because we are on tenterhooks waiting for the finished piece!
What's Next
This has been Eterra Monthly; a report on the happenings and changes in the world of Last Epoch. We hope you have enjoyed this month’s report and we'll be back soon with more news, more excitement and the return of our Hype Week Blog Posts! See you soon!
Launch Trailer : Tombs of the Erased
COMING TO ETERRA WEDNESDAY APRIL 2ND, 2025
From deep within Her web, The Weaver calls and the Woven Disciples have answered…will you?
Today, we’re excited to share the Last Epoch Season 2 Launch Trailer: Tombs of the Erased.
Bringing a new Faction and new Woven Echoes, Travelers can learn more about the mysterious Weaver, Her influence over Eterra, and perhaps even Her plans for it in Last Epoch’s Season 2: Tombs of the Erased update.
While exploring these mysteries, Travelers will face formidable Champion Enemies and Mini-Bosses, earning powerful rewards along the way. Through enhanced Crafting systems, you'll strengthen these treasures as you prepare to confront familiar enemies who have grown even more dangerous in their pursuit to reshape your Fate.
The new Last Epoch Season means a new set of Twitch drops and a brand new “Support-A-Creator” campaign.
The launch of Season 2 will also bring new Supporter Packs. All of our Supporter Packs, including the new Woven Series (we will have more on those in the coming weeks), Deluxe Edition, and Ultimate Editions, will be available at the launch of Season 2 via Steam and the in-game shop. However, the Eternal Supporter packs will leave the store forever on April 18th, so make sure to snag it before it's gone!
Also, please note that items from the Eternal Supporter Packs will not be added to the in-game shop as individual items once these packs rotate out, so be sure to snag your favorite before it's gone.
We look forward to sharing more with you as we head towards our Season 2 launch on Wednesday, 2nd April 2025, so keep your eyes out for the upcoming Making Last Epoch Blog Post as well as the return of our Hype Week Blog Posts starting on Monday, 24th March!
Thank you for joining us Travelers, we’ll see you again soon.
Last Epoch Hotfix 1.1.7.13
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug that prevented players from connecting to chat, which would sometimes prevent them from entering the game
Hotfix 1.1.7.12 Notes
Bug Fixes
- Resolved a recent issue that caused players to be unable to launch offline characters.
Last Epoch Patch 1.1.7.11 Notes
Changes
Added client support for system updates
Added performance telemetry information for tracking FPS and frame hitches to support continued performance improvement efforts
Notes
This patch requires rolling server restarts to get the servers up to version. We have also started a count-down notification in game for the server shutdown. We expect the server downtime to be very short, as it’s just a restart for the update.
World of Last Epoch | Creating the Universe
Hello Travelers, and welcome back for the fourth installment of Making Last Epoch! For today’s look at the world of game development within Eleventh Hour Games, we’re going to be taking a look at World Design and Narrative with our resident Lore Master and Lead Writer: Kyle Melberg. Kyle has made a couple of guest appearances on our weekly Developer streams to answer questions about the lore of Eterra, and today we’ll be talking about what exactly “World and Narrative” is, and the process behind creating the expansive universe in which all the loot, lizards, and groles reside.
World & Narrative vs. World Design
Let’s start off by getting an explanation of what exactly “World and Narrative”, and “World Design” are as concepts in game development, and what separates two aspects of design that come together to help form the player’s experience. Both of these aspects work together to answer the questions in a way that feels satisfying: Where is the player? What are they fighting? Why are they fighting? How is this communicated to the player?
“World and Narrative” is in simple terms, the setting the game takes place in and the story we are telling in this world. In turn, “World Design” is taking the setting and story we want to communicate, and answering the question of how to deliver this experience to the player. It is one thing to have a grand story and world in mind, but it is another thing entirely to express that to the audience.
World Design is the difference between running through a grey plane fighting featureless pill capsule shaped 3D objects vs fighting through the slums of Maj’elka against the Scalebane in order to secure the loyalty of your potential new ally Zerrick.
Creating History
Having covered what these concepts are, and their purpose within game design, lets jump into the process behind creating and implementing these aspects. For this, we’ve picked the recent Harbingers lore as an example, and are covering the process of their creation with Kyle.
The Harbingers began with a design goal. The larger design team identified that we needed a “Pinnacle Boss” encounter in the endgame portion of the game that could act as a clear goal for players that had reached our story campaign’s current endpoint.
From there the questions we had to answer were, “Who/What are we fighting?”, “Why are we fighting them?” and “How do we communicate this to the players?”. We chose the Harbingers initially for two main reasons.
Firstly, we knew that this “Pinnacle Boss” would act as the game’s final boss for an extended period of time, and out of our main enemy factions the Void stands out as the most important and thus most fitting for this role. Orobyss himself as an option was off the table due to reasons involving the yet to be released story chapters, thus we needed a group that could act as Orobyss’s most powerful servants.
Secondly, the Harbingers update was originally proposed as a more “lightweight” update with less resources directed towards it. These high tier Void enemies thus were pitched to be extremely powerful Void Knights serving Orobyss, now known as Harbingers, and would use Sentinel player models with unique armor in order to be efficient with modeling and animation time. It wasn’t long at all before we went with the direction of giving the Harbingers unique models. This increased the scope but it was a decision that ultimately resulted in a far more interesting set of encounters compared to the original plan.
(Aberroth went through a few name changes during development)
Parallel to this was the discussion of who should act as the leader of the Harbingers and thus be our “Pinnacle Boss”. While we were still considering existing and in-development assets as sources of reskins, the Forgotten Knight was one of the candidates. When it was determined that we would be making completely custom models for these new encounters that knocked the Forgotten Knight out of the running for that role (barring some brief considerations of her doing some sort of monstrous transformation before the fight), but her being involved stayed in the conversation.
We had kept the Forgotten Knight in our back pocket for a long time as this mysterious character with a connection to the Void, but were never entirely sure what to do with her once it came time for her to take center stage. In the early versions of the Harbingers storyline where she acted as a twist villain, she was still your guide through your encounters with the Harbingers, and this aspect remained part of the plan.
Now the question became “What is the Forgotten Knight’s role in this? Why is she helping the Traveler?” and from there answers began spinning out that answered other questions, from who our “Pinnacle Boss” is to the question of how and why we learn about the Harbingers from the Forgotten Knight and how this pushes the player further down this storyline. The final shape that coalesced from answering these questions was a story about a knight filled with regret and their redemption in the face of despair.
In short, it all starts with a goal and the questions that spin out from trying to fulfill that goal in an achievable way.
Lore within Limits
When World and Narrative meets World Design, there’s often considerations and concessions that need to be made. Even if you have the most compelling story to tell, you need to make sure it actually fits in with the gameplay flow, and acts to support the game as a whole. The ideas and concepts that come from World and Narrative all have to be filtered through World Design to reach the point where they are something that is communicated to the player rather than an ephemeral idea.
One of the most obvious areas where these sorts of considerations and concessions have to be made are places where the gameplay and expectations of the genre come into conflict with an idea. ARPGs are traditionally fast paced, where time not spent killing monsters and getting loot is at a minimum. An extended sequence in the port city of Thetima trying to broker passage to the nearby Isle of Storms would be something a vast majority of ARPG players blanch at, thus that sequence is kept brief so they can get back to the action as soon as possible.
This comes into play even outside of direct gameplay sequences like the above, and can shape the structure of the story itself. There was at one point a plan to make the gaining of your Mastery Class a much more involved experience, involving going into each character’s backstory in more depth before unlocking their new powers.
However, this sort of content would require five unique mini-chapters that each told a story that could be expressed in the fast, combat heavy ARPG style. Not to mention the question of how to handle multiplayer in these class specific scenarios where a group could consist of wildly different characters. This resulted in us backing away from the idea and in its place we have the current sequence that gets the new character options in the player’s hands quickly so they can return to combat and looting.
Above all, the gameplay that fans of the genre love takes precedence. Narrative and World Design’s goal is to come together to create a player experience that ARPG players enjoy.
Notes from the Loremaster
As part of the process of discussing Narrative and World Design with Kyle, we also asked a couple of questions to get some personal insight, and wanted to quickly share this insight from our resident Loremaster.
What’s your favorite piece of existing lore in Last Epoch?
The Forgotten Knight started as a reference only very early players and devs would get, she was added as a flavor NPC in End of Time around the same time that we scrapped the Knight class and replaced it with the Sentinel. For those unaware, the Knight was one of our female player characters at the time and the Void Knight Mastery was one of our earlier playable classes, one of the three available in our Kickstarter demo. As a tribute to the original Knight class, I added the Forgotten Knight as this Void Knight woman hanging around the End of Time with a cynical yet casual personality.
We had played with ideas on how to give her a larger role multiple times, but when we decided to make her a focal character in the Harbingers storyline I had a great time fleshing her out to be a fully realized person.
Over the course of the Harbinger storyline you get a new conversation with her with each new rank in the associated faction, and it was an exciting challenge to show her journey. From starting out cynical and closed off, to slowly starting to trust again, sliding back, and then finally finding it within herself to fight for her redemption.
How about a lore tease for Season 2: Tombs of the Erased?
As much as I love the Forgotten Knight, “Tombs of the Erased” will introduce a character that I had nearly as much fun writing. A character that has been referenced in some of the existing Weaver’s Will Uniques, and I’m very excited for players to get the opportunity to meet him face to mask.
Closing
We want to give a thank-you to Kyle for providing us with this look behind the scenes while being so busy closing out work for Tombs of the Erased. We hope you enjoyed this look at the Making of Last Epoch, and we’ll see you all again soon! We’re all very excited to start getting into the hype for the upcoming Season 2 of Last Epoch releasing on April 2nd!
