Last Epoch Progression and Leveling Guide - Last Epoch Guide - IGN (2024)

They say the true gameplay experience in an ARPG revolves around its endgame. But most feature a structured storyline to help you gain a foothold. In Last Epoch, the story mode revolves around time travel, jumping between different eras in a world overrun by invading forces and magical abilities. But it's not the sole point of the game. Once you finish the campaign, you unlock the Dungeons, Arenas, and Monolith of Fate endgame activities!

Levels 1-50 in Last Epoch

Immediately following character creation, you're thrust into Last Epoch's story mode. You don't have a chance to skip the story on your first character, as it's a helpful way to introduce game mechanics, like crafting, before letting you loose.

On your second character, however, you can level up using alternate methods, but we'll dive into that more elsewhere!

For now, let's focus on the story and your journey to level 50. Some players do not finish the story until level 54 or 55, and that's okay; take your time!

The entire campaign takes place over nine acts or chapters, with each one introducing unique enemies and zones to explore. The primary objective is to prevent the Void from destroying the world of Eterra by journeying across timelines to recover the Epoch fragments.

You'll visit:

• Divine Era
• Ruined Era
• Imperial Era
• Ancient Era
• End of Time

You'll venture through the various Eras, including the Divine Era twice, in a bid to complete the main story. However, the Ancient Era isn't a requirement to complete the campaign. It's part of a side quest, "An Ancient Hunt," in which you work alongside the Chronomancer to explore Time Rifts opening across Eterra.

Along the way, you'll stumble upon characters who require help. There are a lot of side quests in Last Epoch, and many of them reward you with EXP, Gold, Idol Slots, and Passive Skill Points. You do not need to complete every side quest, though we do recommend you focus on those offering Idol Slots and Passive Skill Points, as those actively increase your power.

You can check your quest by opening the map (Hotkey: M) and looking to the left-hand side of the screen, where you will find a list of active and completed quests. At the bottom left of the map screen, there are checklists detailing the number of Passive Points Rewards and Idol Slots Rewards. There are:

• 15 Passive Points Rewards
• 8 Idol Slot Rewards

There's a catch, however. The game's quests offer up a total of 23 Passive Points across main and side quests. You're locked to 15. Once you hit 15, you won't receive any additional Passive Points from quests in Last Epoch.

The quests you'll want to focus on include:

• The Keepers - Main Quest - Chapter 1
• The Keeper Vault - Main Quest - Chapter 1
• Storeroom Saboteurs - Side Quest - Chapter 1
• The Power of Mastery - Main Quest - Chapter 2
• Finding Pannion - Main Quest - Chapter 2
• Erza's Ledger - Side Quest - Chapter 2
• Artem's Offer - Side Quest- Chapter 2
• Evacuation - Side Quest - Chapter 2
• The Upper District - Side Quest - Chapter 2
• The Lesser Refuge - Side Quest - Chapter 3
• A Study in Time - Side Quest - Chapter 4
• The Corrupted Lake - Side Quest - Chapter 4
• The Oracle's Aid - Main Quest - Chapter 5
• Hidden Gems - Side Quest - Chapter 5
• The Sapphire Tablet - Side Quest - Chapter 5
• The Immortal Citadel - Main Quest - Chapter 6
• Alric's Revenge - Side Quest - Chapter 6
• Lagon - Main Quest - Chapter 8
• Liath's Tower - Side Quest - Chapter 8
• Destroying the Siege Camp - Side Quest - Chapter 8
• Apophis and Majasa - Main Quest - Chapter 9
• Desert Treasure - Side Quest - Chapter 9
• Oasis Hunt - Side Quest - Chapter 9

Unlocking Endgame in Last Epoch

After you finish the campaign with one character, you'll unlock endgame activities in Last Epoch. Every subsequent character, however, unlocks endgame content after finishing Act 3 in the story mode, so you won't have to grind through all nine chapters a second time to level.

The endgame in Last Epoch revolves primarily around Monoliths of Fate. Your first one, Fall of the Outcasts, unlocks upon reaching The End of Time. However, every enemy you face in the first Monolith of Fate will automatically be level 58. As such, you'll want to at least reach level 55 unless you're brave enough to face its challenges.

Each Monolith is its own world, essentially, and features unique quests, monsters, and zones for you to tackle. It's a nice way to spice up the gameplay and help you earn late-game rewards without refarming the same zones from the campaign repeatedly.

When you enter a Monolith, you receive access to a single timeline. To unlock additional timelines and thereby more bosses and rewards, you must finish the quest Echoes within.

What is an Echo? Every Echo, or the zone you'll play within, is procedurally generated and unique to the timeline. Furthermore, every Echo features varying modifiers to increase difficulty and rewards, such as:

• Enemy Modifiers
• Player Modifiers
• Echo Rewards

The way in which you complete an Echo is by tackling an objective, chosen randomly when you begin the activity, including:

• Kill the Echo Boss.
• Kill specific types of enemies around the zone.
• Seal a time portal.
• Destroy spires that deal damage.

Dungeons and Arenas

While your primary focus in the game's endgame is the Monolith of Fate system, you'll also tackle Dungeons and Arenas to farm EXP.

Dungeons

Let's start with Dungeons. Last Epoch features three:

• Lightless Arbor (Level 22)
• Soulfire Bastion (Level 45)
• Temporal Sanctum (Level 55)

You'll obtain a Dungeon Key for each Dungeon by slaying rare monsters and boss-type enemies throughout the game world. But the best way to farm Dungeon Keys is by defeating Monolith of Fate Bosses. They're guaranteed to drop a key.

Once you have the Dungeon Key, visit the respective Dungeon on the game map to unlock a repeatable, optional area with varying challenges and rewards. They're a fantastic way to earn EXP and loot as monsters scale in difficulty, and modifiers affect the overall gameplay.

Arenas

If trekking through Dungeons isn't for you, then you can always tackle The Arena. It's accessible through Champion's Gate, just to the west of Heoborea, and requires an Arena Key. Like a Dungeon Key, you'll receive an Arena Key by slaying enemies in specific nodes within The Monolith of Fate.

As its name would suggest, The Arena is a confined space—an arena— filled with waves of enemies. As you finish slaying one mob, another will spawn. The enemies become progressively more difficult, but the rewards also scale. After every five waves, a chest that scales with the player's level spawns in the center. After every 10 waves, The Arena swaps to a random map, but you can choose modifiers before moving into the next zone.