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It’s true what they say — Last Epoch doesn’t require a Ph.D. and MIT scholarship, unlike Path of Exile. Still, it’s significantly deeper than Diablo 4. As well-balanced as it may be for a loot-based ARPG, it still has some rather rough mechanics for newbies, which is something you might want to know ahead of time before starting Last Epoch. We present you some Last Epoch tips before embarking on your journey.
You Don’t Get Points Back Using the Respec
We mentioned some harsh mechanics, right? This is the most “Spartan” among them. In other ARPGs (even in Path of Exile), respec mechanics grant the point back. In Last Epoch, respeccing singular points will only downgrade the Skill’s level and not grant you the point back.
You’ll have to level up the Skill again to gain that respecced point back, but this gets easier as you become more powerful. It gets to a point where respeccing Skill nodes has a negligible grind, which is around level 80, but prior to that, it’s a bit of a chore to respec Skills.
Test Out Skills Before Specializing
With the aforementioned respec mechanics in mind, we recommend being meticulous and considerate about what Skills you actually want to specialize in or level up. You get to pick five since the Skill bar can only fit five.
If you want to change Specialized Skills, you’ll have to level them up over again and lose the progress for the Skill you replaced. That’s why you should test out the Skill itself to see if you like how it feels before you commit to it. Note that you can still use non-Specialized Skills in the Skill bar to get a feel for them.
Pick Your Mastery Class Carefully
As for the list of big potential mistakes you can make in Last Epoch, that would be carelessly picking your Mastery Class. The game isn’t joking when it says Mastery Classes (subclasses) are permanent. Once you choose one in Level 15, you’re stuck with it for the rest of your playthrough.
You can still allocate points in the other Mastery Classes, but only half of them will be accessible (see the image above for how this looks; take note of the huge blockage chain in the middle). If you want the full perks of other Mastery Classes, you’ve no choice but to make a new character.
Always Craft
You might think that you can safely ignore crafting in this game, but you’d be handicapping yourself in doing so. Crafting in Last Epochis the most reliable way to get the most powerful, build-enabling items in our Last Epoch tips list. Some crafted items can even be more powerful than Unique or Legendary items.
The game has a rather extensive (and fun) crafting mini-game that you ought to toy with just to familiarize yourself. You’ll be thankful that you got fond of it early on once you’ve set foot in Last Epoch‘s endgame around 10-20 hours in.
Don’t Bother With Vendor Equipment
In fact, don’t even bother trying to get rich. The game will eventually shower you with all the gold you need. Picking up items that you think will sell well to vendors is a waste of energy — energy and time you could have spent playing the game instead of playing dark fantasy eBay. We don’t recommend that in our Last Epoch tips.
Besides, selling items will reward you with paltry gold, which isn’t worth it, even if you’re just starting out. We also recommend ignoring whatever these in-game vendors are buying. While they are cheap items, you can get much better just by playing the game.
Save the Gold for Stash Tabs
Another reason why we mentioned you shouldn’t grind for gold is that there’s really only one major use for it in the game: buying Stash Tabs. Last Epoch will allow you to purchase up to 100 Stash Tabs, but by the time you’re past 15 Stash Tabs, they’ll become increasingly expensive.
Past that point, each Stash Tab will cost hundreds of thousands of gold, so it’s better to reserve all that gold for the Stash Tabs. If you’re playing online and in Cycles, you might also find uses for gold in the Bazaar or the in-game auction house.
Learn to Use the Loot Filter
Apart from the crafting menu, the Loot Filter is also another mechanic in Last Epoch that you should learn early on. Last Epoch comes with an innate Loot Filter that you can customize to show only specific loot or omit loot you don’t want. This helps immensely in customizing your build.
More importantly, setting up a Loot Filter saves you time from reading and comparing items on the ground. That’s more momentum for combat since you’re stopping less. If you want a tutorial on the Last Epoch Loot Filter, here’s our guide for it.
Try to Stick to One Damage Type
You might feel tempted to walk around Last Epoch as a rainbow-colored harbinger of doom, dishing out more Elements than the Avatar could learn. However, that’s not really possible or viable unless you stick to certain classes. Moreover, multiple damage types translate to lower damage since they go through different resistances and damage reductions.
As a result, you’ll end up with less net damage. For maximum efficiency and to avoid hitting some progression walls, consider sticking to two damage types at most. One damage type is preferable, especially if you have tons of Penetration for that damage type. This practice should also help you tailor your Loot Filter to be more specific.
Don’t Get Attached to Items Early On
You’ll get better. Don’t worry. The only point when we’d start recommending that you get attached to your items is from levels 80-100 because they’re usually capped out at that stage in Last Epoch. But before those levels, always swap to something that looks slightly better.
Afterward, throw the older item into Storage or scrap it in the crafting menu to store its stats. Getting too attached to a Unique sword you found 20 levels ago might be the deceptive crutch preventing you from progressing, and our Last Epoch tips list is here to help you get stronger.
Grab All the Side Quests from NPCs
Side-questing is another area where Last Epoch is considerate of its players’ ARPG mentality. There’s minimal backtracking in this game when it comes to side quests. Most of the time, the side quest objectives are also along the way of the main quest. So, it’s best to just grab all the side quests you come across and tick off the exclamation points or question marks as you progress.
A handful of sidequests might veer you off from the main path, but those don’t usually have substantial rewards. That said, it’s good to know that the game lets you focus on your goal: to make a fun build to farm fun loot. Thanks for reading through our Last Epoch tips and tricks TED Talk.
