New Last Epoch patch notes are here as 2024’s best new ARPG builds on its second season with a dramatic character reset. Deploying a wealth of quality-of-life upgrades alongside the arrival of the Last Epoch Imperial Uprising limited-time event, the update also implements a community-chosen cycle refresh. That means if you’ve not been keeping up but are looking for a game to play, now is a great time to jump in, as it effectively acts like an all-new Last Epoch season, and you can take advantage of all the additional features.
Following a successful launch in February 2024, Last Epoch developer Eleventh Hour Games has decided to rework its plans for upcoming seasonal content. While we’re technically only about halfway through the second seasonal cycle of the Diablo-style action RPG, EHG is treating this week’s update as a soft reset. Primarily, this decision was taken to rectify the game’s trading economy following exploits early into the season, but it also offers an ideal jumping-on point if you want to check out the new updates and event.
The Last Epoch Imperial Uprising event is the focus of the update, and you’ll be able to play it whether you choose to make a new cycle character or continue with one of your legacy characters (including those created in 1.1 and transferred over with this cycle refresh). It will also work if you’re playing an offline character. If you’re a player who uses the Circle of Fortune faction and isn’t looking to trade, then, you can safely continue on with the character you were already using if you’d rather not start fresh.
Last Epoch Imperial Uprising runs from Thursday September 19 through Sunday October 20, and features Loyalist Undead showing up across all of the endgame echoes found in the Monolith of Fate. These packs each contain a rare leader and a group of followers, and they’ll boast a range of new, unique modifiers shared across the echo for you to deal with. The good news is that, during the event, you’ll earn 50% more favor gain, faction reputation gain, gold, and random unique item drops.
This new update, however, goes far beyond just the Imperial Uprising additions. First on the list are Loot Lizards, effectively treasure goblins that can appear at random and will flee from players and towards enemy packs, dropping gold in their wake. Manage to defeat them before they escape and you’ll snag a bounty of loot, with five different types of Loot Lizard each boasting their own pool of potential rewards. There are also 28 new shrines to discover offering a range of powerful, temporary boons, including some that spawn Loot Lizards.
Perhaps the most exciting change to me is the new stash tab priority system (I’m not sure what this says about me, but I suspect it’ll also be true for many LE players). Last Epoch’s comprehensive stash system is one of its very best features, far outstripping what Diablo 4 and even Path of Exile offer, but it’s been missing one crucial tool. Now, you can set up tabs with specific conditions such as item type, class requirement, rarity, and so on. Once done, quick-storing items in your stash that match any of your preset filters will drop them into the correct tab automatically.
For those who enjoy trading through the Merchant’s Guild, you’ll benefit from some welcome improvements to the Bazaar’s search too. EHG has completely overhauled its item subtype and affix selection menus, allowing you to much more cleanly and precisely set what you’re looking for. Your filters will also be saved per stall, allowing you to quickly check back in again.
Last Epoch patch 1.1.7 launches Thursday September 19 at 9am PDT / 12pm EDT / 5pm BST / 6pm CEST. Online servers will be down for 24 hours prior to its release.
There are even more additions to dig through in the full patch notes, including a slight reduction to the size of dungeons, a full mastery reset option, and some additional UI scaling options, the latter of which should be particularly beneficial to anyone playing on Steam Deck. Performance on the Valve handheld should also feel a little smoother thanks to some resolved memory leak issues during echo farming.
Jumping in for the reset? Here are the best Last Epoch builds to get you started on the right foot. Alternatively, we’ve picked out the best games like Diablo for lots of monster-blasting, loot-snatching goodness.
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