Last Epoch Gameplay 1.0 Launch - EVERYTHING You Need to Know
Feb. 20, 2024Last Epoch Gameplay 1.0 Launch – EVERYTHING You Need to Know
In this article/video I’m going to be talking about the ARPG Last Epoch 1.0 which is leaving Early Access after three years. We’re going to talk a little bit about the game if you haven’t heard of it before and why it’s something I think maybe you should have a look at if you’re a fan of these types of games.
Before we get into the video itself though big shout out to Last Epoch for sponsoring this video if you guys are going to be picking it up or you haven’t picked it up yet you can use our link below to support the channel.
So what is the Last Epoch? The game is an ARPG in the same vein as Diablo,Path of Exile 2,Titan Questor Grim Dawn. Those sorts of games if you know that genre then you know sort of what you’re getting into with the Last Epoch. However, there are a lot of differences by comparison. I will talk a little bit about those contrasts in this article.
First, let’s talk about the setting of Last Epoch. What exactly is Last Epoch and, what does that even mean? One major difference compared to the games I’ve previously mentioned is that Last Epoch has a big focus on different timelines. There will be periods of time within the game world where you are essentially going to be traveling back and forth. Along the way, you will see different locations in different periods of time and you do that by traveling through time with something called the Last Epoch.
Essentially it’s an artifact that allows you to travel throughout time. It sounds kind of strange at first and when I started playing the game I thought “wow this is going to be really weird” but it fits very well into the game. Eleventh Hour Games did a fantastic job of kind of making this happen. It’s really cool to kind see different locations in different periods of time.
Beyond that there are five classes and three sub-classes per class. You can start the game as one of the five classes and then after you progress the campaign a certain way into the game. You will get to choose one of three sub-classes for that class this is a permanent choice. Meaning you will not be able to change this later so it does give some definition to characters. It’s not like you can just constantly make any build you want with one character.
If you do want to pick a different subclass even from the same class you’ll have to create a new character and choose that subclass when you reach that point. Your build in this game is essentially made up of the skills that you choose between your main and your subclass. You’ll have a skill bar and you’ll pick some combination of these skills, adding them to your skill bar. These are changeable at any time.
If you are playing a Mage for instance you can have some Mage skills on there. Or if you end up choosing a Rune Master like I did then you will have skills on there from your Rune Master. You can change these around any time you want, into a different field. However, to add depth to this you can actually empower certain skills via a skill tree. As you get to a higher level, more and more slots for these will unlock. However, you’ll basically drop a skill in there as you play.
Throughout the game, you’ll get more points that you can drop into a skill tree for that skill. This ultimately will further determine how that skill operates and it can change what it does. For example not whether it only adds damage to it or duration but it can change up the properties of the type of damage damage. Also altering the way it behaves in combat. It’s not only the skills that you put on your bar but it’s also how you use those skills with the skill tree.
You can obviously try out different combinations and see what you like in Last Epoch 1.0. If you don’t like it slot different skills and try them out. A major part of Last Epoch is experimenting, using trial and error. The freedom to play how you want it to play. Not only for your class skills and subclass skills but how the variations perform in combat. This can take hours and hours of time and that’s tons of fun. This is probably my favorite part about Last Epoch in general. I’m a huge build guy as I love making builds for video games. You guys probably know that by now if you have watched this channel/visited Fextralife.
This game allows me to tinker and test all different types of combinations. Once you start adding the gear into it, that’s when it gets even more interesting. You may end up getting a really good weapon or a really good piece of armor that has some special effect on it. You can test different versions of a skill, granting even more combinations, that’s what really keeps the game interesting in my opinion.
The loot system in Last Epoch is kind of typical in some regards. There is a rarity system that is to be expected should you have played similar games in this genre. Different base weapons and armor have a variety of base properties associated with them such as their attack speed or damage. They can even come with some special bonuses that will always be available on those base types. By endgame, you will seek items that have the base properties you want and look for bonuses that complement those items.
Another thing that’s a huge part of Last Epoch is the crafting system. This is where you will really get to customize your gear and tinker your gear into something that you really want. I feel like Last Epoch has a huge focus on not just getting RNG drops but also making items that you have into useful items. That’s something that I really appreciate as I don’t want my loot to just be reliant entirely on RNG. The crafting system here kind of allows you to customize your equipment a bit so that even if you don’t have the greatest stuff right out of the gate you can still make it more powerful. You can still get off to a good start or go with the build that you want to go with. In the meantime, you can still be on the lookout for better gear.
You don’t have to wait for that specific drops in order to make it happen. The way this crafting system works is that you’re going to use shard runes and glyphs that you find throughout the game to modify this gear from the crafting window. What these allow you to do is for instance you can add affixes to weapons or armor or something to give it a property. It doesn’t currently have to make it stronger, you can also increase the amount of the bonus you gain. From that the bonus that it gives you for instance is something like fire damage on it, then you can increase the amount of fire damage you get by improving it.
Also, you can change around the affixes, maybe remove one that you don’t want. It can be replaced with something else or removed completely to be applied to a different item. There are always ways to modify this even further but that crafting system is very easy to get into. It also allows you to adjust your build even further. As I mentioned earlier it’s quite an enjoyable aspect of the game. You can spend a lot of time using this system on bits of gear that you get because you’re always getting shard runes and glyphs as you play.
This crafting system plays a huge part in the endgame system because you spend a lot of time working on your gear. It’s not something like Diablo where you just sit there, you either gain something better or it’s not. That’s all you do with it. There are ways to make your gear better and you’re going to spend time doing that in this game which I think if you’re someone who really likes to min-max your characters, you would really appreciate it.
Now that Last Epoch has both online and offline modes, you can make characters of each one. These modes are played separately. If you’re somebody who doesn’t want to be dependent on the servers to be up in order to play Last Epoch, you can make an offline character. Maybe just have one in case they’re doing some maintenance, so you can still play.
If you want to partake in online play and co-op with other players or the ladder for example, there’s the option to make an online character or many. Having that choice I think is important. Beyond that there are standard modes and hardcore modes.
If you’re familiar with any of the other RPGs out there you’ll know kind of what hardcore means. It means if your character dies then it’s gone after one death, you don’t respawn. In Last Epoch though, if your character dies in hardcore it will go to become a softcore character, or a standard character. This means it not permanently dead, it just won’t be accessible in hardcore servers anymore.
There is also a character found mode, which prevents you from partying with other players who have traded gear. Trading gear yourself amongst other players so basically everything that you find is yours and you’ll be playing with other characters that is are playing the same way as you effectively you guys won’t be trading gear or anything like that. Everything that they have gotten on their character they’ll have gotten for themselves and the same for you. So if you like this kind of gameplay, you can also play that mode as well.
Lastly, I’ll be talking a little bit about the endgame of the Last Epoch in 1.0. I know endgame is really important in these types of games so we’ll discuss that here. The endgame of the Last Epoch has something called the Monolith System. This is essentially an endless grind of instances that have objectives that just keep getting harder and harder, until you reach a point where you’re going to do a very specific type of Monolith instance. You will continue to complete the randomized objectives of that type and it’ll just have no cap in terms of how difficult it can get. These keep on going so there’s which are kind of similar to theNightmare Dungeonsfound inDiablo 4. If you’re familiar with how that is or the maps fromPath of Exile, they’re very similar to that sort of content.
Now that’s not the only endgame activity that you can do in Last Epoch 1.0. It’s probably the main endgame activity but it’s not the whole thing as there are other such as the Temporal Sanctum. This is a specific activity that actually affects and improves your legendary gear in the game upon completion. When you get legendary items periodically you’re going to want to improve them. It gives you a bit of a break from that endgame grind.
There are also endgame dungeons in the game that have unique bosses as well as unique boss mechanics. To access them you will periodically find keys from doing the Monolith System. These will unlock these types of dungeons and they’re pretty cool from what I’ve seen so far. I haven’t done them myself personally, however of everything I’ve seen gameplay wise they look like they’re really good. I think there are currently three of them in the game and I imagine that they will add more of these over time.
The last endgame activity I want to share is the arena. This offers wave after wave of enemies that just keep coming at you. If you are a fan of that type of gameplay where you just keep fighting hordes of enemies, over and over you will probably enjoy that gameplay. It just keeps getting harder, more challenging and this is a great way to test your build. For instance, you can see how far into the arena your character can make it compared to maybe some other build you’ve made. This can kind of give you a sense of how strong your build is or not.
A lot of times it’s hard to figure out how your build compares to other players’ builds. Or how it shapes up compared to other builds. Obviously, you can kind of get a sense by checking how fast you’re clearing enemies in the game. However, sometimes just you know seeing how far you can make it in the arena. This is a great way to test your build. Another way is by checking the leaderboard for The Arena. You can see how you’re doing compared to other players out there, what they’re using with their build etc.
A big part of endgame will be tinkering with your gear, and crafting through the crafting system. Exploring different enhancement options as you try to figure out ways to use the drops you gain. A lot of gameplay hours will be spent on that which I think is great.
So that kind of wraps up our Last Epoch 1.0 overview article/video, explaining what you can do in the Last Epoch. You can play the game in multiplayer too so if you’re a big multiplayer fan that’s there. We hope you get a sense of what makes the Last Epoch different from some of these other games. If you like what you’re seeing here then you might want to give it a shot. As I mentioned it’s coming into full launch right now after being in Early Access for 3 years. The game will be completely polished and if you haven’t played it before now is a great time to pick it up.
What I really like about Last Epoch in my time playing it so far is that the complexity is more than Diablo but not as much as Path of Exile. POE is a very non-new player-friendly game in my opinion. Diablo is extremely new player-friendly but doesn’t really have the depth that Path of Exile has. So this is a great middle-ground in my opinion for players that find Diablo 2 simple but Path of Exile too hard. If you’re one of those players it’s definitely something you should check out. A big shout out again to Last Epoch for sponsoring this video and if you are going to pick up the game if you like what you see use the link below to support the channel.
Be sure to be on the lookout for more of our Lost Epoch content. In the meantime, you can check out the majorhighlights of the 1.0 Patch Notes.
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
