Hello, RivalSector. Elias here. I need to be honest with you all. I am a recovering MMO addict. For literal decades, my life has been a cycle of grinding levels, farming reputation, and then, finally, getting to the good stuff-the endgame dungeons and raids. That thrill of a five-person team moving as one, interrupting a boss cast at the last second, and finally getting that epic drop… it’s a high I’ve been chasing for years.
But I am also a gamer with a job, a life, and not enough time to spend 40 hours in a leveling campaign just to get to the starting line.
For years, I’ve said, “I wish someone would just make a game that is the endgame.”
Well, someone finally did.
Fellowship, the new PVE dungeon-crawler from developer Chief Rebel and publisher Arc Games, just hit Steam Early Access, and it is exactly that. It’s a “Multiplayer Online Dungeon Adventure” or “MODA,” and that’s not just marketing speak. It is a game that has surgically removed the entire leveling grind and left only the pure, uncut, addictive endgame loop. I’ve been running dungeons non-stop since it launched, and I am completely hooked.
What is a “MODA” Anyway?
Let’s get this out of the way. Fellowship is not an open-world MMO. There are no quest hubs, no 100-hour-long story campaigns, and no endless zones to explore. The entire game, from the moment you log in, revolves around a central hub called “The Stronghold.” This is your new home. From here, you queue up for dungeons, manage your gear, and prep for the next run.
The game is built exclusively for four-player co-op, and it strictly enforces the holy trinity: one Tank, one Healer, and two DPS. This is a classic, old-school formula that works. The “adventure” part of the name comes from the dungeons themselves. You are not just running a boss rush. You are clearing trash mobs, managing your pulls, handling dungeon-specific mechanics, and taking down one or more massive bosses.
If you have ever played World of Warcraft‘s Mythic+ system or Diablo‘s Greater Rifts, you will be right at home. This is a session-based PVE thrill ride, and the entire game is built to get you into that session as fast as possible.
The Heroes – Class, Not Custom
Here is the first big “love it or hate it” design choice: you do not create a character. Instead, you choose from a roster of nine pre-designed heroes.
I know, I know. For many RPG fans, the character creator is half the fun. But I urge you to give this a shot. By having set heroes, Chief Rebel can design much tighter encounters. They know exactly what tools a tank has, what cooldowns a healer can use, and what kind of utility a DPS can bring.
Each hero has a unique resource,-a detailed talent tree, and a fantastic visual design. They all feel incredibly distinct to play. As a tank main, I immediately gravitated to Helena. She is a classic sword-and-board warrior whose entire kit revolves around generating and spending “Toughness,” a blue shield bar that provides passive damage reduction. Managing it while positioning a boss is a constant, engaging puzzle.
Then I tried Meiko, the other tank, who is a high-octane martial artist. She uses combo-point builders to unleash one of six different “Finishing Moves,” making her feel more like a DPS who just happens to be unkillable.
The Early Access launch roster is nine deep, offering a ton of variety right out of the gate.
| Hero | Role | Primary Mechanic |
| Helena | Tank | Strength-based. Generates “Toughness” to mitigate damage. |
| Meiko | Tank | Agility-based. Uses a “Combo Finisher” system for damage and defense. |
| Sylvie | Healer | Intellect-based. A druid who commands “Flutterflies” for heal-over-time effects. |
| Vigour | Healer | Intellect-based. A holy healer who builds and spends “Radiant Runes.” |
| Ardeos | DPS | Ranged. A fire mage who applies and detonates “Burning Embers.” |
| Elarion | DPS | Ranged. A celestial archer who manages a “Focus” builder/spender rotation. |
| Mara | DPS | Melee. A stealthy assassin who uses combo points for big burst finishers. |
| Rime | DPS | Ranged. A frost mage who builds “Winter Orbs” to empower her spells. |
| Tariq | DPS | Melee. A hammer-wielding berserker who builds “Fury” for massive attacks. |
The best part? All your progression is shared across your account, so you are encouraged to swap heroes and play what your group needs without penalty.
The Grind: Gearing, Crafting, and Climbing
So if there is no leveling, what are you chasing? Power. The progression loop in Fellowship is all about gear and skill.
When you first start, you will jump into Quickplay. These are shorter, 10-15 minute dungeons called “Adventures.” They are not ranked or timed, and they are the perfect way to learn a new hero and farm your starter currencies, Supplies and Marks of Fellowship.
Once you feel confident, you enter the real game: the Challenger Leagues. This is the ranked ladder. You start in the “Contender” league and run dungeons with scaling difficulty, from +1 up to +6. These are timed, and the higher you go, the more “Curses” (think affixes) get added to the dungeon, making enemies tougher or adding new environmental hazards.
To advance to the next league (like “Adept”), you must beat a “Capstone Dungeon” at +7 difficulty. These are much longer, 3-boss instances that act as a serious skill check for your team.
The gear chase feels just right. Here is my basic gameplay loop:
- Run the highest Challenger dungeon I can complete.
- Get a new piece of loot. Is it an upgrade? Equip it.
- If it is not an upgrade, I take it to The Scrapper in The Stronghold and break it down for gold.
- I take that gold to The Blacksmith and use it to upgrade my good gear, increasing its item level.
- If I keep getting unlucky and finding helmets when I need gloves, I go to The Crafter. This is your bad-luck protection. Using materials like Mithril and Aether, I can re-roll a piece of gear into a new, random item, or even add gem sockets.
This loop is fast, rewarding, and respects my time. I can log on, run two or three dungeons in an hour, and feel like I made tangible progress on my character.
The “Forever” Game: The Star Map and Eternal Mode
This is where Fellowship truly shows its genius. Your long-term progression is tied to the Star Map. This is a massive, account-wide talent tree that you unlock just by playing the game.
It is broken into three tracks. The left track is hero-specific, unlocking new abilities and talent points for whichever hero you are playing. The center and right tracks are account-wide, unlocking things like new mounts, cosmetic skins, and currency bonuses for all your heroes. This system brilliantly solves “alt-itis.” The more you play on any hero, the stronger your entire account becomes.
But what happens when you beat all the leagues? What is the “real” endgame?
It’s called Eternal Mode.
Once you clear the final Paragon capstone dungeon, you unlock this mode. Here, the difficulty continues to scale infinitely. But-and this is the key-the item level of your gear is capped. The rewards top out at item level 330.
This means you cannot just out-gear the challenge. Eternal Mode is not a gear treadmill, it is a skill treadmill. It is a pure, leaderboard-driven challenge to see how far you and your team can push. This is a hardcore, old-school design choice that I completely respect. It puts the focus on player execution, strategy, and teamwork above all else.
My Verdict After a Wild Launch
I am not going to sugarcoat it, the launch on October 16th was rough. The game was so popular that it melted the servers. I spent a lot of that first night fighting login queues, high ping, and matchmaking errors. But the important part is that Chief Rebel has been transparent and working on fixes around the clock. To me, a rocky launch from a small team is forgivable when the game itself is this good.
Fellowship is a focused, polished, and incredibly confident game. It knows exactly what it wants to be: a pure, co-op dungeon-running experience. It does not waste a second of your time. The combat is punchy, the nine heroes are all fun to master, and the progression systems are smart and rewarding.
This is not a game for everyone. If you need a deep, branching narrative or a massive world to get lost in, this is not it. But if you are like me, if you are a raider at heart who believes the real game starts at max level, then Fellowship is a dream come true. It just skips straight to the good part.
This is an easy recommendation for any PVE dungeon fan. For $24.99, the amount of polished, repeatable content in this Early Access build is already a fantastic value.
Now if you’ll excuse me, my team is waiting. We have a +5 Cithrel’s Fall to time.What are your thoughts on this new “MODA” genre? Are you diving into Fellowship? Let me know which hero you are maining in the comments below. For more in-depth builds and guides on Fellowship and other co-op hits, make sure you keep it locked to our Gaming Insights category right here on RivalSector.
