Beginner's Guide to Last Epoch

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

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

And of course, Last Epoch also has a lot of content and replayability for endgame players. In this guide, we will share some tips and tricks that will help 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 something useful on this page!

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

Sentinel is a strong, tanky warrior class, with a lot of support abilities such as shields and high armor value. This class can be played either with shields, or dual-wielding weapons, making it the perfect fit for multiple playstyles. Once you unlock a mastery, the Sentinel will be able to either specialize 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 most resistant characters in the game, all while dealing decent damage to enemies and protecting yourself or your team members. Sentinel can spec into either Void Knight, Forge Guard, or Paladin upon unlocking Masteries through the campaign.

Mage is a powerful and ancient class that can harness arcane forces to bend reality and combat foes. As a Mage, you specialize in runes and elemental magic, but are also extremely versatile when combining melee weapons with elemental power. Once you choose a mastery, you will be able to become an even stronger Spellcaster, mastering the elements and dealing heavy AoE damage. The Mage class also allows you to take your sword and shield, imbue them with magic, and combat enemies in close range. Alternatively, you can decide to create a variety of different spells from a single cast of Runic Invocation. The possibilities are (almost) endless. Mage can spec into either Sorcerer, Spellblade, or Runemaster upon unlocking Masteries through the campaign.

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

Rogue is your typical assassin class. Whether you like impersonating a Ninja or a Ranger, you can do so as a Rogue. With this class, you will attack from the shadows while also being able to use a bow and strike from afar. Different masteries allow you to pick the class fantasy you like most. As a Rogue, you will be able to act as a true Ninja, with a playstyle revolving around the use of bombs, shurikens, and poison. Become a master in trapping and striking your foes from behind. Or, if you are more interested in range combat, the Rogue is the only class that can use bows and quivers, letting arrows rain down on enemies. Rogue can spec into either Bladedancer, Marksman, or Falconer (coming soon!) upon unlocking Masteries through the 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, or to sacrifice your minions for more power, it is up to you. If you prefer a different playstyle, however, the Acolyte can also focus on powers revolving around Necrotic and Poison damage, cursing and annihilating enemies everywhere. Acolyte can spec into either Lich, Necromancer, or Warlock (coming soon!) upon unlocking Masteries through the campaign.

During your first playhtrough, you should focus on following the story. The campaign is very rich and will reward adventurers with skill points, idol slots, and other useful items. However, be careful when creating a character: if you want to be able to group up, or have shared stash/gold between your own characters, do not pick the solo challenge during character creation! Furthermore, make sure not to choose Hardcore mode for your very first playthrough, as it will make things more difficult and frustrating. Only pick 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 map and clicking on them. This way, you will know which side quests will give you additional passive points or idol slots. By confirming which quests give which rewards, you can then easily decide which ones you want to do to, without having to complete every side quest in the game.

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

• Everything can be undone, except your Mastery. So make sure to pick what you want to play before choosing your Mastery. Once you spec into it, there is no going back. You will have to create a new character if you want another Mastery.
• Press G to open the game guide. It contains the most basic and useful tips any player will need in-game.
• Press Alt while hovering over tooltips for extra details. This will show more 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 while leveling 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 picking up 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 a zone, try to increase your resistance % to the specific element (e.g. Cold Resistance).
• Don't do random dungeons before reaching the end of the story on the first character, as some dungeons will skip part of the story.
• Watch out for ground AoE effects, because most enemies will put some on the ground, and they can do heavy damage.
• Gamble. It can be a great way to get new base items. But be careful on the price of the Gamble, as it can be rather expensive. Don't Gamble for items that cost a lot of gold. Keep in mind, that you can't get any unique or set items from gambling.
• Melees should focus on damage, attack speed, and increased damage, and Casters should focus on adaptive spell damage and increased damage.
• Affixes on two-handed weapons will be stronger than on 1-hand weapons, but you won't be able to equip an offhand or shield to protect yourself, so they are 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 the passive trees.
• Make use of Lootfilters: for example, searching for 2x1 idols with flat health and percentage health or elemental resistances can be very useful early on. It can also help you to look for specific gear types useful for your build.

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

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

Here are a few more tips about skills and passives:

• Visit the Chronomancer to respect passive skills. The NPC can be found in most major towns or the End of Time hub. Passive points are not lost during respec, but depending on how many points you wish to respec, it can cost a high amount of gold.
• Your base class tree and your mastery tree are connected. If you want to change your base class tree, you have to reset your mastery tree first. This is 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-specific skill tree.
• Active skills can be reset. You can remove a skill from the active skills to switch it to a new one, but it will reset the experience gained, and you will have to level the new skill again.
• Make sure to only despecialize one skill at a time, as it will be faster to level it up again, if only one skill needs leveling. Once it's at a decent level again, you can switch out another skill. Resetting all your skills at once would damage your build too much and make it harder for you to level up the new abilities efficiently.
• Don't bother farming gear until the campaign is over, as the best gear will come from endgame modes.
• Use the lootfilter to focus on the type of gear you need. This can be set up early on, and customized with time. Lootfilters are a great help, no matter the level.

Last Epoch has an amazing crafting system, and you should learn to craft early 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 they drop often. Affixes are modifiers that affect the stats and properties of an item. They have different tiers and values, and can either be prefixes or suffixes.

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 special modifiers that affect your stats and skills. Shattering items will give you a chance to obtain shards, which are materials you need to craft affixes on other items. Therefore, you should keep an eye out for items with good affixes 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 break equipment for the affix shards that are needed to enhance items.
• Keep gear that has the best values in the stash, to use for crafting better gear later on.
• Swap weapons regularly. It is your primary means of dealing damage. If you don'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 they can be turned into powerful legendaries later on.
• Glyph of the Guardians are your most important crafting items, so keep them until you're crafting better gear (around Level 40+).
• Don't craft on white (common) items. Make use of your materials for other items.

As in most progression games, endgame will be where you spend the majority of your time. Here are a few more tips to help you decide when or how to start 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 big challenge. Level up to 45/50, optimize your gear and passive points, and unlock idol slots, because the difficulty will ramp up quite fast.
• Farm Monolith of Fate, as reaching the Empowered Monolith is your most important 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 and build customization for players. You can choose from different classes and masteries, level up and respec your skills and passives, craft and improve your gear, and explore endgame modes.

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