Last Epoch's big 1.0 launch runs into dreaded server issues, but its devs have a gift for everyone

Last Epoch, the latest ARPG coming for Diablo 4’s crown, officially ended its years-long Steam Early Access journey overnight. The launch has been a success, and the game managed to set new Steam player records, breaking its previous concurrent figures.

Unfortunately, as it’s almost always the case with big launches, server gremlins and other errors have caused a few hiccups for the big night.

Last Epoch is only available on PC through Steam, so this isn’t exactly a Helldivers 2 situation. It also offers a full offline mode, which lets you bypass all of the server drama and get right into the action. This obviously doesn’t help if you want to play the game in co-op with others, or simply create an online character to take part in trading, compete for positions on the leaderboards or really enjoy any of the features tied to a server connection.

At launch, the game broke its all-time Steam player concurrent, peaking at a very respectable 152,512, according to SteamDB. This boost exposed a problem within an API the game uses for its backend services, which unsurprisingly caused some matchmaking issues for players looking to jump in online.

Developer Eleventh Hour Games has been working to address the problem with partners and service providers, and has even posted a detailed set of hourly updates on the Steam forums to keep players in the loop. As of the most recent update, servers are “fairly stable” but scene transition times (loading) can still take longer than expected - which is a nice change from how things were immediately upon launch.

To thank players for their patience, Eleventh Hour gifted everyone the Autumnal Wrap, a back slot item available for all characters. Anyone who owns a copy of Last Epoch right now will receive the Autumnal Wrap.

This really is a good demonstration of why offline modes can salvage launch day woes, not to mention being a useful feature in and of themselves for a variety of reasons. If you’re curious how Last Epoch compares to Diablo 4, here’s my perspective as a Diablo 4 player.