Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure, Indie
Last Epoch
Music of Eterra | An Interview with EHG’s Lead Composer
Hello Travelers!
Welcome to the first in a series of behind-the-scenes Blog Posts, each focusing on one team or area of Last Epoch’s development!
Today the Lead Composer for Eleventh Hour Games, Erik Desiderio, is here answering questions about what went into creating the iconic Last Epoch Theme song, how they get in to the mindset to portray the very feeling of moving through Eterra and what goes in to getting the music game-ready!
Forging a path
How are you doing today?
I’m doing great, thanks for asking!
Given your work on Movies like Immortals, how did you get into composing for Games?
I met a guy at a party… No really. I had worked on lots of film and TV projects, but had always wanted to work on games, but no one would give me a shot. When I score, I dig deep into the story to then elevate it through music. With games, there’s a direct connection to the audience, who are the main character. Writing music that can move them and emotionally enhance the choices they make in the game is a great deal of fun. So it was something I always wanted to do and this guy I met liked my work, and after a few projects together, he hired me to write music for an Adventure Time Virtual Reality game. I later gave a talk about the experience at the Game Developer’s Convention (GDC) and that jumpstarted my game music career and set me on a trajectory to work more in games the following years.
Is there much difference between the process for Movies and Games?
Yes, since video games are non-linear, the pacing is largely controlled by the player, you have to compose music in adaptable loops. Sometimes, I see the music as the heart of the player as it moves through the world and story. For some big boss battles, the music will get more intense and change sections as the battle progresses, based on the health of the boss. With Aberroth, the music had to transition to new musical styles based on the era of the timeline that was being presented.
Is there anything you’ve worked on, you’d say really impacted or influenced how you compose?
Composing music for the “Rise of the Necromancer” expansion for Diablo III really opened up my eyes to the joys of composing dark music in ways that I’ve never worked before. I’d light a candle, and turn all the lights off in the studio in order to channel the dark energy of the game. It’s a practice that I still use when working on Last Epoch.
Lute Drops and Finding Ffion
So how many instruments do you play, and how many did you learn just for Last Epoch?
I play many instruments but for Last Epoch, I also took up the lute and the tagelharpa to give the Last Epoch soundtrack an ancient, archaic feeling. Those were new for me and they were exciting to learn.
How did you go about finding the right Vocalist and what made Ffion stand out?
She was brought to my attention through the magic of the YouTube algorithm! Her voice is evocative and otherworldly, and that’s what grabbed me. She had already done an album of music in Old Norse, with excellent pronunciation. It was masterfully done and made her the perfect voice for this project.
Why Old Norse? It’s amazing, Ffion does an amazing job, though what inspired that decision and how did they learn it?
We wanted to use a language that was no longer spoken today, that transported you to a forgotten time, and the gritty sound and rough texture of Old Norse pulled me into the Last Epoch landscape. The words have a powerful feeling, the accent is always on the first syllable, which gives it a very strong drive. I took phrases and individual words from Old Norse texts that that thematically banded together the melody I had composed with the story.
Currently it’s only used only used in the Main Theme, however across many other tracks found in game we have several talented vocalists who contributed to bringing that same epic feeling to our newest Boss fights.
Composing for Chaos
So Harbingers and Aberroth, two big new inclusions! Was this a daunting challenge or an exciting one?
I love a good challenge, and especially one that involves writing angry music, so I jumped right in. Strong themes are very important throughout Last Epoch, so I made sure that each harbinger had a recognizable theme and instrumentation. The Brute Harbinger is large and intimidating, so I used a deep sounding male choir singing long tones, with the parts sung by Mason Lieberman to enhance the brutish feeling. The Agile Harbinger is more nimble and the music is faster paced with violins playing short notes throughout.
Given these fights can last a long time, how do you compose a track for that?
As you fight Aberroth, you transition through all of the different eras of the game, and the music had to match. So, the aboriginal chanting of the Ancient Era gives way to the elevated tones of the Divine Era to the distorted sounds of the Ruined Era, as the background imagery changes each time the fight escalates.
The music gives that perfect sense of ‘This is not an easy fight’, how do you go about grabbing that feeling and portraying it?
As the Monolith is the setting for this expansion, we decided to compose many new tracks to accompany the player on their journey through it. The music is similar in style to the music for the End of Time, but it differs in that it has an underlying sense of tension since you are about to do battle. This Monolith track features Rachel Hardy on vocals.
What is the process of ‘Mastering’ a track?
Mastering a track involves assembling and editing a track from its component parts. Since the game has to play the audio files so that they loop and react to what the player is doing, the music has to be written in a certain way and chopped up properly. Once the track has been reassembled, the individual sections have to be balanced and processed to maximize the volume and make all the tracks consistent in loudness so the listener doesn’t have to turn up and down the volume with each track.
When do you know or feel like you are ‘done’ with a track?
When I get chills from listening to it, and the audience is transported to another place and time.
Outro
Thank you for joining us today, and thank you Erik and Ffion for your time! Keep your eyes and ears open for our next Blog Post where we’ll be talking to one of the many great teams that help build the world of Last Epoch!
The Immortal Uprising: End of Event Wrap-up
Victory Travelers!
Thirty-one days after the Immortal Emperor let loose his loyalists legions into the world, the uprising has successfully been quelled. With a total of 760,523,009 skeletons slain, the Immortal Emperor has realized their grave error and been forced to pull his forces back to standard deployments. To reward your efforts in stopping this uprising, Yulia has managed to acquire a special item from the Emperor’s personal stash for you, which you will be able to claim from the in-game MTX shop (at no charge) to add to your cosmetic inventory.
This marks the end of the Immortal Uprising Event. We hope everyone enjoyed all the event had to offer, and with Eterra returning to a more peaceful state, we wanted to go over what’s happening in the trenches, and what to expect as we continue onwards to 1.2
End of Event Patch
Over the course of the event, we’ve been closely monitoring feedback and thoughts regarding features introduced with The Imperial Uprising, such as the event buff modifiers. Originally, we had planned to simply remove the temporary buffs, and Loyalist Undead packs with the end of the event. In this feedback we’ve seen very positive responses to some of the buffs, and many requests for some of the effects to remain in place.
The much beloved Loot Lizards, as well as the new shrines were always planned to stay after the event, and will continue to be able to be found in-game. We also want to clarify that the Cycle Refresh which started with the event will be continuing through to patch 1.2 - the refreshed Cycle does not end with the event.
We want to cover some of the changes we’re making in response to your feedback, all of which is immediately in effect with the end of event patch released today. The temporary event buffs and Loyalist Undead packs have been removed as planned, though we’re making some changes to Item Faction Favor costs and Rank requirements (these are buffs), as well as some changes to the Loot Lizards.
We’ve been watching player’s excitement around higher drop rates and the ability to interact with factions more frequently with more expendable favor. In response to this feedback, we’re lowering many favor costs and reducing the Reputation required to advance Faction Ranks. With these changes, we want players to keep the feeling of advancing factions quicker and offer more opportunities for interacting with their chosen faction.
Reduced Faction Gambler item costs by around 35% on average and made them more varied.
Circle of Fortune
Reduced the cost of most prophecies by around 30% (this varies case by case due to aggressive rounding).
Reduced the cost of Exalted Helmet, Boot, and Relic prophecies by slightly more than 30%.
Reduced the cost of Legendary Potential prophecies by around 50% in total.
Merchants Guild
Bazaar purchase Favor cost changes:
Idols cost 600 (from 800)
Experimental affix tiers add 300 to Magic and Rare item costs (from 400)
Set items cost 240 + 4 x level requirement (from 300 + 4 x level requirement)
Uniques with 0LP cost 800 + 4 x level requirement (from 1200 + 4 x level requirement)
Uniques with LP cost 3000 + 1000 x LP^2 + 40 x level requirement (from 4000 + 1500 x LP^2 + 40 x level requirement)
Legendaries cost 6000 + 1000 per affix tier + 40 x level requirement (from 8000 + 1500 per affix tier + 40 x level requirement)
Exalted items cost 2000 + 200 per T6 affix + 1400 per T7 affix + 400 per Experimental affix tier (from 2500 + 250 per T6 affix + 1500 per T7 affix + 600 per Experimental affix tier)
Listing costs remain at 25% of buy costs with a minimum listing cost of 150.
Rank Requirements
Measured from previous Rank, not cumulative;
Rank 3 requires 2000 reputation (from 3000)
Rank 4 requires 7500 reputation (from 11500)
Rank 5 requires 20000 reputation (from 37500)
Rank 6 requires 40000 reputation (from 75000)
Rank 7 requires 70000 reputation (from 125000)
Rank 8 requires 110000 reputation (from 200000)
Rank 9 requires 180000 reputation (from 300000)
Rank 10 requires 320000 reputation (from 500000)
Rank 11 requires 500000 reputation (from 750000)
Rank 12 requires 800000 reputation (from 1100000)
We will continue to monitor player feedback on these changes, so please let us know how they feel in our Forums, Discord and Reddit.
Loot Lizard Changes
The other big area of excitement we saw from players aside from the Item Faction buffs was the increased access to Unique item drops. So, while the temporary Random Unique Item drop rate buff is being removed, we’re including adjustments to Loot Lizards, bringing the Unique Item drop rate back to similar rates as seen during the event. Patch 1.2 will be introducing many additions that will give players exciting new ways to target desired loot alongside the new content being added at that time, though these changes should help provide more opportunities for Uniques overall, including immediately before patch 1.2 arrives.
We have reduced the overall spawn rate of Loot Lizards, and adjusted the chances for each type of Loot Lizard to spawn, as well as their loot pools to make them more rewarding when you do encounter them for an overall buff.
Updated Loot Lizard occurrence rate changes (values are for level 90+):
4% fewer yellow and purple lizards.
27% fewer blue lizards.
25% more white lizards (the ones with orange beams that give Uniques).
7% more big green lizards.
Other changes:
Loot Lizards now wait 40 seconds after last taking damage before burrowing underground to escape (increased from 20 seconds).
Lizards drop 2 fewer shards on average.
Yellow, purple, and green lizards drop slightly more Exalted items than before.
White lizards drop slightly more Unique items at level 60+.
Event Cosmetic Reward
As promised from Yulia, your efforts in quelling the uprising are being rewarded with a unique event cosmetic. While the Immortal Emperor was busy lashing out at his failing Loyalists, Yulia was able to access his personal stash, and commandeer his very crown for you.
This cosmetic can be acquired by visiting the MTX shop in-game and redeeming it to your cosmetics inventory (for no cost). As with all cosmetics, this cosmetic is currently only available in Online mode.
Continuing to 1.2
One of the changes we’re making internally in preparation of 1.2 is upgrading our Unity engine from 2019 to 2021, this gives our teams a lot more development tools and features to work with. The engine upgrade will be releasing before 1.2, however with such a significant code change, this means the end of the event patch will be the last patch for a short while. To be clear, today’s patch will not be the last patch before 1.2. Patches will be on hold until we can release the engine upgrade, and not have to replicate changes to the 2019 version in order to release them to the live client.
This will of course mean things will feel a bit quiet on the development side while we’re hard at work behind the scenes, so we’re also going to be stepping up our communication even further with a whole host of posts coming before 1.2. This includes our new Eterra Monthly newsletter, blog posts covering what different departments are up to and interviewing team members, as well as blog posts covering features coming in Season 2!
That’s right, we’ve also heard the feedback regarding the naming for our major content patches (eg. 1.2) and will as of this very moment, in this very sentence, at this very time of the year, localized entirely within our community, be changing that naming convention to Seasons, starting with patch 1.2 being referred to as Season 2. While we may still use the patch number in specific places, we hope this convention change to Seasons will help to clear up misunderstandings regarding what is a Major content patch, and expected to be the start of a fresh Cycle.
Join us later this week for our next blog post as we talk about the Music of Eterra, and have a QA session with our Lead Composer, Erik Desiderio.
Until then Travelers,
May Gregory the Grole grant you safe travels as you protect Eterra
Last Epoch 1.1.7.6 Patch Notes
Changes
Event Modifiers
Loyalist Undead enemies no longer spawn in Monoliths.
Removed
Increased Favor and Reputation Gain
Increased Gold Drop Rate
Increased Random Unique Drop Rate
Favor and Reputation
Reduced Faction Gambler item costs by around 35% on average and made them more varied.
Circle of Fortune
Reduced the cost of most prophecies by around 30% (this varies case by case due to aggressive rounding).
Reduced the cost of Exalted Helmet, Boot, and Relic prophecies by slightly more than 30%.
Reduced the cost of Legendary Potential prophecies by around 50% in total.
Merchants Guild
Bazaar Favor cost reductions:
Idols cost 600 (from 800)
Experimental affix tiers add 300 to Magic and Rare item costs (from 400)
Set items cost 240 + 4 x level requirement (from 300 + 4 x level requirement)
Uniques with 0LP cost 800 + 4 x level requirement (from 1200 + 4 x level requirement)
Uniques with LP cost 3000 + 1000 x LP^2 + 40 x level requirement (from 4000 + 1500 x LP^2 + 40 x level requirement)
Legendaries cost 6000 + 1000 per affix tier + 40 x level requirement (from 8000 + 1500 per affix tier + 40 x level requirement)
Exalted items cost 2000 + 200 per T6 affix + 1400 per T7 affix + 400 per Experimental affix tier (from 2500 + 250 per T6 affix + 1500 per T7 affix + 600 per Experimental affix tier)
Listing costs remain at 25% of buy costs with a minimum listing cost of 150.
Rank Requirements
Reduced the reputation needed for most Item Faction ranks. Reaching rank 9 now requires 43% less reputation, and reaching rank 12 requires 34% less reputation than before. Changes are measured from previous Rank, not cumulative;
Rank 3 requires 2000 reputation (from 3000)
Rank 4 requires 7500 reputation (from 11500)
Rank 5 requires 20000 reputation (from 37500)
Rank 6 requires 40000 reputation (from 75000)
Rank 7 requires 70000 reputation (from 125000)
Rank 8 requires 110000 reputation (from 200000)
Rank 9 requires 180000 reputation (from 300000)
Rank 10 requires 320000 reputation (from 500000)
Rank 11 requires 500000 reputation (from 750000)
Rank 12 requires 800000 reputation (from 1100000)
Loot Lizards
Updated Loot Lizard occurrence rate changes (values are for level 90+):
4% fewer yellow and purple lizards.
27% fewer blue lizards.
25% more white lizards (the ones with orange beams that give Uniques).
7% more big green lizards.
Other changes:
Loot Lizards now wait 40 seconds after last taking damage before burrowing underground to escape (increased from 20 seconds).
Lizards drop 2 fewer shards on average.
Yellow, purple, and green lizards drop slightly more Exalted items than before.
White lizards drop slightly more Unique items at level 60+.
Bug Fixes
General
Improved character pathing across a number of scenes, improving map navigability.
Fixed issue that prevented 'Chance to Shred Armor on Hit' from being applied to applicable base types that are class specific.
Fixed an issue where, after dying to the boss in the Sanctum of the Architect, characters couldn’t move upon respawning.
Fixed a bug causing the incorrect player character voice line to play upon entering the Shattered Road.
Offline
Fixed a bug that occurred in Offline mode that would cause the player to be immortal after going through a Time Rift.
Fixed an issue causing Offline players to teleport back to End of Time when using a Town portal during a fight with Aberroth instead of exiting the boss run as intended.
Skill
Fixed a bug where Black Arrows created by Aerial Assault’s node Darkwing Fall were not able to be picked up.
Fixed Aerial Assault not being able to go over gaps. It now behaves more like Fury leap.
Fixed a bug causing incorrect player rotation when spamming Shield Rush with "The Rush of Sacrifice" node in Online.
Fixed a bug where Runemaster's Hydrahedron was targeting an un-targetable ballista in the Argentus bossfight.
Fixed an issue where the maximum companions stat would be displayed incorrectly on a Beastmaster with Artor's Loyalty or the Natural Bond passive node unlocked.
Fixed an issue causing arrows to get stuck in the air after hitting an enemy when the player uses Flurry.
Fixed Evade clipping through stairs and other ramps.
Visual and Text
Fixed a bug where the fly-by indicator from Void Rahyeh in The Black Sun didn’t line up correctly with its dash.
Updated skeleton visuals, including adding a double stab animation for the Acolyte’s Rogue Skeleton.
Fixed an issue where Gaspar’s beam’s hitbox did not always line up with its visuals in Online play.
Fixed some enemies using outdated descriptions.
For example, Void Prophets used the description of the old void prophets, "Always crits distant enemies", despite them having no such effect.
Fixed an issue where Phoenix Shrine could block the view of Runes that Runemasters could have above their character.
Fixed a visual bug where some fire torches appeared bright pink.
Fixed a bug where multiple Forgotten Knights could appear on top of each other in the Shattered Road.
Fixed an issue where the Boss Ward bar would not animate.
Fixed a bug where in the second Quest Echo of Reign of Dragons, a VFX would never disappear during the Lightning Dragons fight. Also fixed a bug where the Lightning Dragons' shake attack would sometimes produce ability indicators that did not disappear afterwards.
Fixed an issue where the tooltip for the 'Reduced Bonus Damage from Crits' stat was missing in the character stats menu.
Shrines
Fixed a bug where shrines would spawn items in inaccessible areas in the Majel'ka Slums.
Fixed an issue that prevented the Reclamation Shrine displaying the visuals for its beam.
Fixed a bug where shrines could be placed on top of each other and other random encounters such as Nemesis in Temporal Sanctum in Online.
Fixed cases where shrines and Nemeses could spawn in inaccessible locations in the Ice Caverns.
Controller
Fixed an issue where the Bazaar menu could not be navigated when using a controller.
Fixed a controller targeting issue when using Terrify.
Fixed a controller navigation issue where you cannot navigate down from the second specialized skill in the skill slot.
Fixed an issue where abilities couldn't be used with a controller after navigating the action bar.
Fixed several issues with controller navigation of the Passive Tree panel.
Fixed a bug that prevented reaching the Party panel when using a controller.
Fixed an issue where the prompt for additional information in Skill Nodes in Skill Trees wouldn’t change when using a controller.
Fixed a gamepad-related crash that could occur while opening the radial menu.
Improved controller navigation of the Stash menu. Pressing Y/Triangle while hovering over a tab in the stash menu now opens the configuration window for that tab.
Fixed a controller issue where the screen keyboard showed incorrect icons, and also adjusted the size of the screen keyboard keys.
UI
Changed the Dungeon Key & Tier Selection UI so that it no longer shows for everyone in a party, preventing confusion about whether everyone in a party had to expend a dungeon key.
Items duplicated via Rune of Creation or Lightless Arbor now properly show their mirrored images in the Bazaar UI.
Fixed Class Masteries’ descriptions appearing squished and made UI scaling improvements.
Fixed a UI scaling issue that could lead to the minimap appearing to move outside of its frame.
Fixed a bug with the Loot Filter rule UI where the color picker would sometimes be visible for “show” rules.
Fixed a bug where the Observatory reroll constellation button could not be interacted with in some circumstances.
Updated confirmation popup for selecting a Mastery to make it clear which Mastery you are selecting.
Fixed the Mastery selection panel for Acolyte showing the old icon for Reaper Form.
Fixed the Mastery selection panel and the Passive Tree side banner showing the old icon for Forge Strike.
Fixed a bug where clicking Empower on a Nemesis panel would reopen it.
Improved item tooltip interaction behaviour.
CTRL then ALT shows ranges with comparison, while ALT then CTRL shows ranges without comparison.
Fixed an issue with the close button access in tutorial tooltips where the visual button did not line up with the actual area that could be interacted with.
Performance
Made performance improvements to the Character Select screen and several in-game scenes.
Added further performance improvements related to opening the Stash.
Last Epoch Hotfix 1.1.7.5
Changes
Loyalist Undead
Magic loyalist undead have 31% less health at level 60 and below, scaling to 18% less health at level 100.
Rare loyalist undead have 15% less health at level 60 and below, scaling to 5% less health at level 100.
Magic loyalist undead deal 7% less damage.
Rare loyalist undead deal 9% less damage
Reduced the maximum amount of magic loyalist undeads each pack can spawn with. On average this means their spawn rate is reduced by 13%
Transfusion Casket
Deal 10% less damage.
Rare versions deal 16% less damage.
Unearthed Bonespike deals 14% less damage.
All these changes are mutually multiplicative, so Unearthed Bonespikes from a rare Transfusion Casket deals about 50% less damage.
Acid Trap mod
Acid traps last a maximum of 15 seconds (from 20).
Magic loyalist undead throw 30% fewer acid traps.
Lightning Retaliation mod
Lightning bolts from rare loyalist undead produce 3 sparks, from 4.
Sparks from lightning bolts from rare loyalist undead last 4 seconds (from 6).
Rare loyalist undead retaliate with lightning bolts about 12% less frequently.
Bug Fixes
Fixed obstacle checks for dash skills, such as evade and shift, being much harsher than in 1.1.
Prior to this fix, these skills stopped at the edge of any obstacle, meaning that you couldn't evade through small obstacles or the corners of walls.
Fixed a bug that made buffs and debuffs (including Shrines) seem to persist between zones erroneously in Online play.
Now those icons are shown correctly cleared from the UI on zone changes. Active buffs still carry over between zones in Offline play as before.
Fixed a bug where Warpath cast directly by the player was benefitting from the damage bonus applied to Warpath from shrines, and this bonus also incorrectly applied even after the shrine ended.
Fixed a bug where Warpath's echoes damaged enemies near the player instead of at the echo's position.
Fixed certain idol affixes being missing from the Bazaar selector.
Increased damage over time.
Elemental resistance.
Fixed an issue where the waypoint was flickering in Champion Gate and The Frozen Roots.
Fixed missing images in the game guide.
Stash Priority, Loot Lizards, Shrines.
Fixed an issue where a white box would appear on the loading screen while transitioning between scenes.
Fixed a bug that allowed skipping the fight with Haruspex Orian.
Fixed a bug where killing your first Harbinger didn’t always correctly count for progression in the Forgotten Knight’s faction.
This caused players to join the Faction but be at rank 0 instead of 1.
Fixed a bug where Harbinger’s Crest didn’t block the Harbinger from spawning if a player was rank 0 in the Forgotten Knight’s faction.
Fixed an issue with correctly switching between multiple controllers’ input.
Fixed a case where the tooltip in the inventory would close when another player exited/entered the targeting area.
Reduced lag spikes when encountering loot lizards.
Last Epoch Hotfix 1.1.7.4
Bug Fixes
Reduced frame-lag that would happen when switching stashes via the cycle dropdown. Also reduced frame-lag when adding or interacting with stash tabs or categories.
Last Epoch Hotfix 1.1.7.2 Notes
Changes
Reworked the Isle of Storms quest, to avoid a possible progression block. The entire collect the Moon Fragments step has been removed, along with the two altars. The portal to Lagon's Temple now appears right after speaking with Liath in the Moonlit Shrine.
Your efforts to unburden all the Loot Lizards of Eterra have been paying off! Many of the Loot Lizards are now safely back at home having been freed of their burdens. In response, the factions employing them are becoming more wary of sending their Lizards into the world.
Blue and White Loot Lizards now start spawning in area level 12 and above. This prevents players finding Idols before having any Idol slots unlocked in normal gameplay scenarios
Loot Lizards spawn less frequently, especially in the campaign
Loot Lizard shrines are less common, especially in the early game
Fewer lizards are blue, this makes the other types more common.
All Loot Lizards, other than the blue lizard, drop more of their main types of loot.
Lizard shrines are less common, especially early in the game
All Loot Lizards drop more crafting materials
Bug Fixes
Fixed item labels being spread too far apart for many users.
Reduced frame-lag that would happen when switching stashes via the cycle dropdown. Also reduced frame-lag when adding or interacting with stash tabs or categories.
Fixed case with passive trees where two passive points of a node would be respecced instead of only one. Also fixed a case where pressing "enter" while confirming to respec a single node would result in a respec of all nodes.
Fixed Gambler items overlapping after refresh.
Fixed an issue where the keybind menu could break after re-entering the game through character selection.
Hotfix 1.1.7.3
Reverted stash tab optimization changes due to inventory graphical issues. We will continue investigating this to get a new fix out as soon as possible.
Last Epoch Hotfix 1.1.7.1 Notes
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a display bug where passives were displaying incorrectly
The Imperial Uprising Event is now live!
Hello Travelers,
Patch 1.1.7 - The Imperial Uprising Event is now live!
Fight against the Immortal Empire over this month-long event with bonuses to Reputation and Favor gain, as well as increased Gold and Random Unique Item drops. This event also introduces Stash Tab Priority, Loot Lizards, and 28 new Shrines!
If you are having issues with the game, the first step with Steam is always to try verifying integrity files, if that doesn’t resolve the problem, or your issue is account-related, our support team will be ready and waiting right here: https://support.lastepoch.com/hc/en-us
Updates and Notices:
If problems occur, be sure to join our Discord or pay attention to our socials, as well as currently known issues as those spaces will have the most recent updates.
Thank you, Last Epoch Team
Last Epoch: The Imperial Uprising Event Patch Notes & Downtime Notice
The Imperial Uprising event begins Thursday, September 19th, at 11:00am CT!
The Imperial Uprising begins in just two days and runs from September 19, 2024 9:00 AM through to October 20, 2024. This event introduces Loyalist Undead, Loot Lizards, the Stash Tab Priority system, Bazaar improvements, UI Scaling, and more. We’re excited to kick off this event with you in just a couple of days, and share with you today the patch notes for this event patch.
As previously announced, and confirmed with a community poll: Coinciding with the start of the event, there will be a Cycle Refresh. This means all current Cycle characters will be migrated to Legacy, and a refreshed Cycle will begin with fresh economy and leaderboards.
Please Note: To prepare the servers for the Cycle Refresh and event start, we will be shutting down our servers 24 hours before the patch, starting Wednesday, September 18th, at 11:00am CT
The Imperial Uprising: Event Details & Poll Results
Hello Travelers!
With the Imperial forces gaining strength and ready to begin their siege of Eterra on September 19th, we’ve been preparing several buffs to help you Travelers rebuke them.
Event Modifiers
Throughout the event from September 19th, to October 20th, you’ll receive greater rewards to help get into the refreshed Cycle, or continue gaining strength on your already legendary characters. These modifiers will be active on Cycle and Legacy, both Online and Offline. You’ll not only find more gold and Unique items, but both Merchant’s Guild and Circle of Fortune are offering their aid to the effort.
While the war rages with the Imperial armies, you will be bolstered with:
+50% More Favor Gain (Added with community feedback)
+50% More Reputation Gain
As Reputation is gained from earning and spending Favor, this means you’ll be receiving a total of 125% more Reputation
+50% More Gold Drop Rate
+50% More Random Unique Drop Rate
If you’re deciding to start anew with the cycle refresh, the large Favor and Reputation Gain buffs will help you quickly climb the ranks with your Item Faction, and either commence more trades, or acquire and fulfill more prophecies.
Event Details
The Immortal Uprising will be our latest event for 1.1. During the event, all modifiers, as mentioned above, will be put in place. The Immortal Emperor’s influence has grown too strong, and Eterra now turns to you to fight back. From the depths of his army, one voice has reached our ears and it calls to you for aid. Work alongside this liaison within the immortal forces and cull the undead army before it can grow to full strength.
Travelers need not apply to join this event. Simply logging in and killing skeletons in all forms will be enough to earn your spot among the uprising.
Your efforts will not go unnoticed; a reward will be granted to all who participate. Though the contact has yet to tell us what they have in store, we do know it has significant value to the Immortal Emperor.
Keep your eyes on our Social Media for updates and information regarding the efforts of your fellow travelers.
Expanded Imperial Forces
With the event, Imperial forces will also be bolstered throughout the Monoliths. These undead enemies are in addition to the usually spawning enemies. This means more enemies overall, including in echoes which wouldn’t usually spawn undead enemies. Within every echo, you will encounter packs of Loyalist Undead.
These Loyalist Undead packs contain a rare leader and a group of magic followers. Each pack will have a new special mod from a pool of seven enemy modifiers shared with all members of the pack. Loyalist Undead modifiers may include throwing acid traps when using an ability, or teleporting near the player when engaged.
Beware of the leaders in particular, as the mod effects will be much stronger for them than their followers.
Loot Lizards
The Imperial Uprising Event will also introduce Loot Lizards. These new creatures are veritable loot goblins in their treasure hoarding ways. When the Lizards were first hired, they were supposed to bring loot to you, but let’s be honest, anyone familiar with lizards knows there’s nothing happening behind those eyes. They’ll simply flee at the first hint of any danger.
If you manage to chase them down and drop their health, you’ll unburden them of their luggage, allowing them to make a quick getaway. That luggage is then yours for the taking. You’ll encounter five different types of Loot Lizards, each offering different loot pools. However, keep in mind that if left alone for too long, they will still manage to find an escape by themselves.
These Loot Lizards will still be sticking around after the event as a new part of the Eterran Fauna.
New Shrines
Also introduced with The Imperial Uprising are 28 additional new Shrines to find and activate in Eterra. Some of these new Shrines you’ll encounter will automatically cast player abilities, such as Hammer Throw, Chaos Bolts, Warpath, Shadow Cascade, or Flame Reave. There is a total of 15 of these ability shrines you can encounter. These skill shrines also come with added bonuses, such as additional attributes or increased area for skills. In addition, encounter a shrine for a skill you have specced into, and it will use your skill tree for an even greater effect. While these Skill Shrines can be quite powerful, they also don’t last forever, so take advantage of their power while you can.
As well as the new Skill Shrines, there are also several buff shrines. Among these, you will find shrines that cause meteors to rain from the sky on your enemies, call forth a phoenix to burn enemies in front of you, reduce damage taken from distant enemies, or the all-powerful new Rainbow Shrine.
You may also encounter a Shrine that generates a number of Loot Lizards, which immediately scatter upon being seen. So keep an eye on those shrines to unburden as many lizards as possible before they make their escape.
Like Loot Lizards, these shrines will continue to stick around after the event.
Stash Tab Priority
A core game feature being introduced at the same time as the event is the new Stash Tab Priority system. This powerful Stash feature allows you to set a priority configuration for any of your tabs in your stash. With your tabs configured, quickly moving an item into stash (shift + right click or X / Square on controllers) will deposit the item into the tab matching the item’s properties, regardless of what tab you currently have open.
You can even have multiple tabs with the same conditions. In this case, the tabs will be filled from left to right. If an item does not match any tab priorities that have enough space, it will be moved to the currently open Stash tab.
This allows for easier management of your stash and quicker drop-offs to get back into the action faster.
In the Stash Tab Priority system, you can define:
Item Type (for example, Boots)
If only one selected item type, then you can also specify Sub types, such as Citadel Boots
Rarity (this is also where you can choose Keys)
If you choose Unique, you can also then specify Legendary Potential and/or Weaver’s Will
Class Requirement (For example, Mage)
Level Requirement
Item Faction Requirement
Bazaar Improvements
For all the Merchant’s Guild players out there, there are also several improvements to the Bazaar being added on September 19th. These changes include UI improvements to help make the Bazaar easier to navigate and improve the search functionality to increase the search power to find the items you want more easily.
New Affix and Subtype selection
We’ve reworked the Affix and Subtype selection panels for more refined searches. With these new panels, you’ll now be able to define “must have”, and “require one of” affixes, as well as a minimum required tier, and minimum roll within the tier. With the Item Subtype selection, you can specify a minimum implicit roll. These fields can, of course, still fulfill their prior basic functionality and are fully controllable with a gamepad.
With the increased complexity of the bazaar queries, there is a limit of 5 required affixes and 10 “Require One” affixes to prevent illogical or too complex of searches that would take a long time to query.
Another request we’ve often seen regarding listing items is listing directly from your Stash. This functionality will be added with the event patch, increasing the efficiency and ease of finding the right item to list.
Alongside these more significant improvements, you may also notice a number of smaller improvements, such as your Favor updating immediately when listing an item, icon improvements, listing sealed affixes, and more.
Cycle Refresh Poll Results
On Tuesday, we released a post covering the 1.2 timeline and a Poll on the planned Cycle Refresh. If you haven’t had a chance to read that post, you can do so here: Patch 1.2 Timeline, 1.1 Event Updates, and Cycle Poll. With the poll, we wanted to gather some direct responses regarding whether there should be a Cycle Refresh corresponding with the Imperial Uprising Event.
We want to thank everyone who turned up and voiced their opinions in the poll. Though it was only open briefly to provide enough time if we needed to change our plans, we had a much better turnout than expected. We understand this poll wouldn’t reach everyone in the community, such as players who had already wrapped up their characters for the existing cycle. This means we also need to consider what community members this poll wouldn’t reach and what their input would most likely be.
The poll, though, still had a very large turnout and also had very strong results for what the community desires in regards to the Cycle Refresh. You can see the results for the poll below:
The answers to question #2 are something we will continue to look at (alongside discussions across our platforms) to determine how we can focus on improving the Legacy Migration experience in the future. One of the big things here we want to dive more into is why players feel their characters become irrelevant when transferring characters to Legacy, and what we can do to alleviate that feeling. With the decisive result of over 75% responses in favor of continuing with a Cycle Refresh, we will continue with our original plan of having the event kick off with a refreshed Cycle.
This means that when The Imperial Uprising begins on September 19th, existing Cycle characters will be migrated to Legacy, and there will be a fresh Cycle, starting with new Leaderboards and a clean economy. The event bonuses will also allow you to progress through the Cycle much faster during the event for those starting in the Cycle, or achieve the long-term goals of your character if continuing on Legacy. We once more want to re-confirm that aside from the Leaderboard; there is no content difference between Legacy and Cycle. Legacy and Cycle have access to all the same mechanics, encounters, systems, and events. (eg. The newly introduced Nemesis encounters and Harbinger system are fully available in Legacy, as well as the upcoming Imperial Uprising Event modifiers and other additions coming with the event).
Steam Deck Updates
As a part of our announcement for the Sept event, we were excited to announce our work towards Steam Deck verification. However, many of you in the community were quick to share some new concerns, which caused us to pause and audit the current situation regarding the performance of Last Epoch on the Steam Deck itself. After this audit, we were able to find several places where we need to improve, which will cause us to push back the release of our Steam Deck announcement and sale.
We feel it’s important that when we say we are Steam Deck verified, players can trust that the experience they will receive on the Steam Deck is up to snuff with our expectations for player experience. We want you to enjoy Last Epoch while on the go, and we do not want players to feel they have to compromise their experience or utilize third-party tools/adjustments to do so.
There is a silver lining here: We want to ensure that we continue to support the handheld space, and for this reason, we aren’t going to delay the updates we already have planned for the Steam Deck. We are still planning to push the support and updates we originally planned; we just want to spend additional time tuning the player experience, receiving feedback on the current status, and improving where possible.
Closing
Whether you’re participating in the cycle refresh, or continuing in Legacy, these modifiers in addition to increased enemy counts, and the new Loot Lizards, there’s never been a better time to hoard loot and slay enemies.
We’re looking forward to sharing all of the patch details and notes on September 17th, and hope to see you join us in this fight against the Immortal Empire September 19th.
