Beginner's Guide to Last Epoch (2024)

Last Epoch offers a deep character customization system that allows you tocreate your own unique hero. You can customize your character's skills andabilities with skill trees and specializations.

Another important feature of the game is the crafting system, and it isstrongly recommended that you learn how to use it effectively as soon aspossible.

And of course, Last Epoch also has a lot of content and replayability forendgame players. In this guide, we will share some tips and tricks that willhelp anyone get started with the game, and enjoy it as much as possible.Whether you are new to the genre or a veteran player, you will find somethinguseful on this page!

Currently, there are five major classes available in-game, and each classhas three available Masteries that you can choose from.

Sentinel is a strong, tanky warrior class, with a lot of support abilitiessuch as shields and high armor value. This class can be played either withshields, or dual-wielding weapons, making it the perfect fit for multipleplaystyles. Once you unlock a mastery, the Sentinel will be able to eitherspecialize in Void Damage, Physical Damage, become a Shield wearing powerhouse,summon Minions or focus on healing. As a Sentinel, you will be one of the mostresistant characters in the game, all while dealing decent damage to enemiesand protecting yourself or your team members. Sentinel can spec into eitherVoid Knight, Forge Guard, or Paladin upon unlocking Masteries throughthe campaign.

Mage is a powerful and ancient class that can harness arcane forces to bendreality and combat foes. As a Mage, you specialize in runes and elementalmagic, but are also extremely versatile when combining melee weapons withelemental power. Once you choose a mastery, you will be able to become aneven stronger Spellcaster, mastering the elements and dealing heavy AoE damage.The Mage class also allows you to take your sword and shield, imbue them withmagic, and combat enemies in close range. Alternatively, you can decide to create a varietyof different spells from a single cast of Runic Invocation. The possibilitiesare (almost) endless. Mage can spec into eitherSorcerer, Spellblade, or Runemaster upon unlocking Masteries throughthe campaign.

Primalist is one of the more adaptive classes, with strong beast mastery,totems, and beast form transformations. If you become a Primalist, you willhave a very high endurance capacity, as well as good defense and damage. If youare unsure about what to play, then the Primalist can be a great option to startwith. You will have various companions at your side that all have their ownabilities, or you can make use of totems that can provide damage buffs andsupport. And if you enjoy a more wild playstyle, the Primalist allows you totransform into multiple original, yet powerful, beast forms. Primalist can spec into eitherBeastmaster, Shaman, or Druid upon unlocking Masteries throughthe campaign.

Rogue is your typical assassin class. Whether you like impersonating a Ninjaor a Ranger, you can do so as a Rogue. With this class, you will attack fromthe shadows while also being able to use a bow and strike from afar. Differentmasteries allow you to pick the class fantasy you like most. As a Rogue, youwill be able to act as a true Ninja, with a playstyle revolving around theuse of bombs, shurikens, and poison. Become a master in trapping and strikingyour foes from behind. Or, if you are more interested in range combat, theRogue is the only class that can use bows and quivers, letting arrows raindown on enemies. Rogue can spec into eitherBladedancer, Marksman, or Falconer (coming soon!) upon unlocking Masteries throughthe campaign.

Acolyte is the best pick for anyone wanting to become a master of dark magic.Known to most as "Necromancer", as an Acolyte, you will be able to defy death,and use corpses as pawns, turning them into the most powerful army of the dead,that only you have control over. Whether you decide to use them to fight, orto sacrifice your minions for more power, it is up to you. If you prefer adifferent playstyle, however, the Acolyte can also focus on powers revolvingaround Necrotic and Poison damage, cursing and annihilating enemies everywhere.Acolyte can spec into eitherLich, Necromancer, or Warlock (coming soon!) upon unlocking Masteries throughthe campaign.

During your first playhtrough, you should focus on following the story. Thecampaign is very rich and will reward adventurers with skill points, idolslots, and other useful items. However, be careful when creating a character: ifyou want to be able to group up, or have shared stash/gold between yourown characters, do not pick the solo challenge during character creation!Furthermore, make sure not to choose Hardcore mode for your very firstplaythrough, as it will make things more difficult and frustrating. Onlypick this game mode if you are already an experienced player.

As you level up, you can check the rewards for your quests by opening the mapand clicking on them. This way, you will know which side quests will give youadditional passive points or idol slots. By confirming which quests give whichrewards, you can then easily decide which ones you want to do to, withouthaving to complete every side quest in the game.

Here are a few more useful tips to keep in mind when creating your firstcharacter:

• Everything can be undone, except your Mastery. So make sure to pick what youwant to play before choosing your Mastery. Once you spec into it, there is nogoing back. You will have to create a new character if you want anotherMastery.
• Press G to open the game guide. It contains the most basic and useful tipsany player will need in-game.
• Press Alt while hovering over tooltips for extra details. This will showmore information about an item or skill.
• Press C to open the character sheet: it will show all stats such as strength,defense, resistances, etc. that the character currently has.
• Visit every vendor in towns: they sometimes have good items, especially whileleveling up.
• Focus on Health and Defense stats, as those provide powerful resistance.
• Pay attention to skill tags, as they provide lots of information.
• Gold scales up with level, but gear prices do not, so don't bother pickingup every item in order to sell, it is not worth it.
• Each zone focuses on a specific element. If you have a hard time inside azone, try to increase your resistance % to the specific element (e.g. ColdResistance).
• Don't do random dungeons before reaching the end of the story on the firstcharacter, as some dungeons will skip part of the story.
• Watch out for ground AoE effects, because most enemies will put some on theground, and they can do heavy damage.
• Gamble. It can be a great way to get new base items. But be careful on theprice of the Gamble, as it can be rather expensive. Don't Gamble for itemsthat cost a lot of gold. Keep in mind, that you can't get any unique or setitems from gambling.
• Melees should focus on damage, attack speed, and increased damage, andCasters should focus on adaptive spell damage and increased damage.
• Affixes on two-handed weapons will be stronger than on 1-hand weapons, butyou won't be able to equip an offhand or shield to protect yourself, so theyare worth it only if you are not a shield wearer or dual-wielder.
• Learn about your main skills, in order to make the right choices within thepassive trees.
• Make use of Lootfilters: for example, searching for 2x1 idols with flathealth and percentage health or elemental resistances can be very usefulearly on. It can also help you to look for specific gear types useful foryour build.

The skill trees, specializations, and passive abilities may seem daunting atfirst glance, but don't worry, we have some helpful tips that will guide youalong the way.

First of all, it is good to know that every single choice made in the gamecan be undone, except for the class mastery. Don't hesitate to respect anyskill or passive, experiment, and try out different combinations. Abilitieslevel up fast, so you should try and find what suits your playstyle andpreferences the best.

Here are a few more tips about skills and passives:

• Visit the Chronomancer to respect passive skills. The NPC can be found inmost major towns or the End of Time hub. Passive points are not lost duringrespec, but depending on how many points you wish to respec, it can cost ahigh amount of gold.
• Your base class tree and your mastery tree are connected. If you want tochange your base class tree, you have to reset your mastery tree first. Thisis because your base class tree must always have 20 points in it.
• Choose your Mastery as soon as you have access to it.
• After spending 20 points in the base class, and choosing your mastery,don't hesitate to start spending skill points inside the mastery-specificskill tree.
• Active skills can be reset. You can remove a skill from the active skillsto switch it to a new one, but it will reset the experience gained, and youwill have to level the new skill again.
• Make sure to only despecialize one skill at a time, as it will be fasterto level it up again, if only one skill needs leveling. Once it's at a decentlevel again, you can switch out another skill. Resetting all your skills atonce would damage your build too much and make it harder for you to level upthe new abilities efficiently.
• Don't bother farming gear until the campaign is over, as the best gear willcome from endgame modes.
• Use the lootfilter to focus on the type of gear you need. This can be setup early on, and customized with time. Lootfilters are a great help, no matterthe level.

Last Epoch has an amazing crafting system, and you should learn to craftearly on. It will be one of the most important systems in the game.

Don't hesitate to enhance gear affixes by using runes and glyphs, as theydrop often. Affixes are modifiers that affect the stats and properties of anitem. They have different tiers and values, and can either be prefixes orsuffixes.

Enhancing your items is an important part of progression in Last Epoch.You can use runes and glyphs to modify your items and make them more powerful.You can also shatter items that have good affixes, which are the specialmodifiers that affect your stats and skills. Shattering items will give youa chance to obtain shards, which are materials you need to craft affixes onother items. Therefore, you should keep an eye out for items with goodaffixes and shatter them when you don't need them anymore.

Here are some more tips to make crafting easier:

• Buy Runes of Shattering at every opportunity. Those are used to breakequipment for the affix shards that are needed to enhance items.
• Keep gear that has the best values in the stash, to use for craftingbetter gear later on.
• Swap weapons regularly. It is your primary means of dealing damage. If youdon't drop a better weapon for a while, use crafting to at least enhance it.
• Keep unique items that have a Legendary Potential or Weaver's Will, as theycan be turned into powerful legendaries later on.
• Glyph of the Guardians are your most important crafting items, so keep themuntil you're crafting better gear (around Level 40+).
• Don't craft on white (common) items. Make use of your materials for otheritems.

As in most progression games, endgame will be where you spend the majorityof your time. Here are a few more tips to help you decide when or how tostart your journey into endgame content.

• Endgame modes are accessible from the End of Time Hub.
• Before you tackle endgame content, make sure you are ready for the bigchallenge. Level up to 45/50, optimize your gear and passive points, andunlock idol slots, because the difficulty will ramp up quite fast.
• Farm Monolith of Fate, as reaching the Empowered Monolith is your mostimportant goal during Endgame.
• Focus on the Endless Arena rather than the Arena of Champions.

Last Epoch is a fun and challenging game that offers a lot of variety andbuild customization for players. You can choose from different classes andmasteries, level up and respec your skills and passives, craft and improveyour gear, and explore endgame modes.

The game offers many possibilities, so have fun and experiment. Moreover, thecampaign is rather short, so don't hesitate to try out multiple classes. Makesure to test as many skills and passive routes as possible, and find theplaystyle you enjoy the most. Keep in mind that there are many helpful in-gametools that can give you a lot of information, such as the guide window, thelootfilter, the various tooltips, and more. By learning how to use them, you canimprove your game experience and make the most out of your time in Last Epoch.