2025-07-09
The following guide explains how to setup and run Project Epoch on Linux using the unofficial epochcli launcher. These instructions were created using Arch Linux, but can be easily adapted to your distro of choice.
The launcher built by the Project Epoch team works great on Windows. I found that there are some issues with the app running in wine on Linux and macOS, and I prefer to run everything in the terminal, so I built a simplified cli tool as an alternative. If you would rather use their launcher, then just ignore the section below about epochcli.
First, download an unmodified 3.3.5 client. Project Epoch's website has a magnet link for bitorrent clients. I highly recommend qbitorrent or transmission for your bittorrent client. Both are open source, well maintained, and not full of malware like other closed source clients (utorrent, bitorrent.com, etc). Alternatively, you can use the direct download from the Chromiecraft folks but it is rather slow.
For your wine environment, you can either choose to create a wine prefix yourself or use a launcher app like lutris or faugus-launcher. I will provide instructions for both. All examples will use the home directory for our user named user at /home/user.
This tutorial uses the Faugus launcher because it's what I use. Other tools like Lutris will work fine as well, but the particulars of alternative launchers are left to the reader.
Create a new game in Faugus by clicking the + button.
Fill in the title and prefix location. For this example, the prefix will be /home/user/.faugus/epoch. You can leave the runner as the default, GE-Proton Latest.
Set the path based on where you plan to put your wow folder. Since my prefix is /home/user/.faugus/epoch, and I plan to call the wow folder epoch, my path is /home/user/.faugus/epoch/drive_c/epoch/Project-Epoch.exe. Whatever your path ends up being, be sure the "path" setting in Faugus points to Project-Epoch.exe.
Before you click Ok, switch to the Tools tab and click winecfg. Once winecfg opens you can just close it. You must do this step or faugus will not create the prefix and the following step will fail. You can now click Ok.
Copy your wow folder to your wine prefix. Your folder's name will probably be different than just wow.
mv HOME/Downloads/wow /home/user/.faugus/epoch/drive_c/epoch
wine-staging and dxvk. With Arch Linux, you can install wine-staging from the repos and dxvk-bin from the AUR. Your commands and package names will differ on other distros# Install wine on arch linux
sudo pacman -S wine-staging
# Using an AUR helper like yay. You dont need my help if you plan to clone the PKGBUILD instead :)
yay -S dxvk-bin
WINEPREFIX as needed or leave the variable out to just use the default $HOME/.wine. Close winecfg when it pops up.# Create the wine prefix
WINEPREFIX=/home/user/.epoch winecfg
wowmv /home/user/Downloads/wow /home/user/.epoch/drive_c/epoch
WINEPREFIX=/home/user/.epoch setup_dxvk install
Install epochcli using the instructions in the repo. If you're on Arch Linux, you should be using the AUR package named (unsurprisingly) epochcli.
Run through the setup process for epochcli by simply starting the application. Here is an example output of a Faugus-based install being configured and updated. If you are using a launcher, be sure to choose n when asked if you want to use epochcli to launch the game.
> epochcli
Enter the path to your Wow directory below. Use the full path without shortcuts like '~' (ex: /home/user/epoch):
/home/user/.faugus/epoch/drive_c/epoch
Do you want to use epochcli to launch Wow? Select No if you plan on using a launcher tool like Lutris (y/n): n
Created new config at /home/user/.config/epochcli/config.toml
Updating /home/user/.faugus/epoch/drive_c/epoch/ClientExtensions.dll...
Updating /home/user/.faugus/epoch/drive_c/epoch/credits.txt...
Updating /home/user/.faugus/epoch/drive_c/epoch/Project-Epoch.exe...
Updating /home/user/.faugus/epoch/drive_c/epoch/Data/patch-A.MPQ...
Updating /home/user/.faugus/epoch/drive_c/epoch/Data/patch-B.MPQ...
Updating /home/user/.faugus/epoch/drive_c/epoch/Data/patch-Y.MPQ...
Updating /home/user/.faugus/epoch/drive_c/epoch/Data/patch-Z.MPQ...
Updating /home/user/.faugus/epoch/drive_c/epoch/Data/enUS/realmlist.wtf...
8 files updated
If you are using your own wine prefix, you can opt to have epochcli launch the game for you. Simply answer 'y' instead to the launcher question and enter your wine prefix when prompted. Here is an example based on our earlier setup instructions. You MUST include the prefix if it is anything other than the default /home/user/.wine.
> epochcli
Enter the path to your Wow directory below. Use the full path without shortcuts like '~' (ex: /home/user/epoch):
/home/user/.epoch/drive_c/epoch
Do you want to use epochcli to launch Wow? Select No if you plan on using a launcher tool like Lutris (y/n): y
Enter your wine prefix. Leave blank if you do not need to set WINEPREFIX
> /home/user/.epoch
Your launch command has been set to the following:
WINEPREFIX=/home/user/.epoch /usr/bin/wine /usr/bin/wine /home/user/.epoch/drive_c/epoch/Project-Epoch.exe
Modify the configuration file at /home/user/.config/epochcli/config.toml if you need to customize it.
Created new config at /home/user/.config/epochcli/config.toml
Updating /home/user/.epoch/drive_c/epoch/ClientExtensions.dll...
Updating /home/user/.epoch/drive_c/epoch/credits.txt...
Updating /home/user/.epoch/drive_c/epoch/Project-Epoch.exe...
Updating /home/user/.epoch/drive_c/epoch/Data/patch-A.MPQ...
Updating /home/user/.epoch/drive_c/epoch/Data/patch-B.MPQ...
Updating /home/user/.epoch/drive_c/epoch/Data/patch-Y.MPQ...
Updating /home/user/.epoch/drive_c/epoch/Data/patch-Z.MPQ...
Updating /home/user/.epoch/drive_c/epoch/Data/enUS/realmlist.wtf...
8 files updated
Starting Epoch...
Running command: WINEPREFIX=/home/user/.epoch /usr/bin/wine /home/user/.epoch/drive_c/epoch/Project-Epoch.exe
At this point you should be good to go. If you're using a launcher, then run the game from your launcher. Remember to run epochcli regularly for updates. If you're using plain old wine, use epochcli.
If you have any problems, drop a message in the #launcher channel in Epoch's discord. There are several community members, including myself, with Linux experience that will reply to those looking for assistance.