Character Wipe once in release?

[Darkwave76]

As per title, are we suppose to keep all our chars once the game will go in release or will they be wiped?

Thanks

[AndrewTilley]

The most recent developer input on the subject from the last-epoch-general and ask-the-devs sections of their Discord channel (updated as of June 26, 2020):

Mike Weicker 04/04/2020
-To be clear the “wipe” we have said we’ll do is actually just that offline characters will never be transferred to the online environment. This can feel like a wipe because when online starts, everyone will be playing from scratch. We are also planning a league style system that will see a new cycle start at launch. We haven’t commented on if we will delete characters in the beta cycle or not.

Mike Weicker 04/04/2020
So you wouldn’t wipe the MP servers on launch?
-We aren’t saying yes or no to this question right now.

Mike Weicker 04/04/2020
Fair enough. Though, I’d assume you would as otherwise the people that buy the game on launch would be screwed vis-a-vis the ladder?
-A new cycle will start so they won’t be behind on the ladder.

Sarno 04/11/2020
Are there going to be more wipes?
-There may be one at release; this hasn’t been written in stone yet.

Sarno 05/03/2020
When multiplayer characters will be up during Beta, they’ll still wipe them for release?
-This is something we’re still discussing internally. We aren’t ready to say for sure.

Sarno 05/03/2020
-My personal preference would be a wipe, but there have been points raised in favor of both options. While playing in them will be optional, we do anticipate most players - particularly competitive ones - to engage in Cycles (I.e. Seasons / Challenge Leagues), which older characters wouldn’t be able to take part in.

Mike Weicker 06/25/2020
-We aren’t planning on deleting characters. However, currently all saves are offline so they can’t be trusted and transferred to the multiplayer environment. This means that everyone will have to start fresh when multiplayer goes live. We are also planning on doing cycles, much like PoE leagues or D3 seasons. The first of which will start on day 1 of launch. This will also be an effective “wipe”. We do plan on having a “standard league” where characters from past cycles will still be playable.