Last Epoch's 2026 roadmap announcement causes stir among community members

Eleventh Hour Games has announced its 2026 roadmap for Last Epoch and shed some light on its upcoming PlayStation 5 release and Orobyss expansion. Season 4 will arrive first, followed by Season 5. If we assume a four-month window for each season, the new expansion should be ready by August at the latest.

Anyone who bought Last Epoch on PC will get access to Orobyss for no extra charge. Similarly, it will be bundled with the base game on the PlayStation 5. EHG has also said it wants no part of its parent company, Krafton's 'AI-first' approach to game design, and that Last Epoch's development will be unaffected. So far so good.

Paywalled classes coming to Last Epoch

The next part has left the community up in arms, and unlike the usual bouts of nerd rage, it is somewhat justified. Along Orobyss expansion, Last Epoch will debut what is calls 'Paradox Classes' that let players experience a class differently. They will be locked behind a paywall, and judging by EHG's wording, the Paradox variant of each class may have to be purchased separately.

At the time of writing, Last Epoch has five base classes (Rogue, Mage, Sentinel, Primalist, Acolyte). Each class has three masteries for a total of fifteen classes. Now, it isn't clear if the Paradox class applies to the base or mastery, but either way, one may have to pony up between five and fifteen times to unlock everything Last Epoch has to offer.

This approach is similar to Blizzard, which has a habit of paywalling new classes since as early as Diablo 2. Last Epoch's main competitor, Path of Exile, on the other hand, has no such restrictions, and it relies entirely on cosmetic microtransactions to stay afloat. Then again, any serious POE/POE2 player will have to fork out extra cash for additional stash tabs because it becomes nigh impossible to play with the paltry amount of storage space offered by default.