Beginner’s Guide to Last Epoch: Get into the Game with Some Understanding of It

Beginner’s Guide to Last Epoch: Tips and Tricks that Will Help You Focus on the Right Things, Get into the game with some basic knowledge of it, and some habits i now have that are good to have from the start

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The Last Epoch gaming community has grown a lot since its initial launch, and it’s only going to keep growing. While all games are different, Last Epoch’s spell builds malleability and specializations is what makes it an amazing game. If you’re looking to find out more about Last Epoch, read on! This post is going to give you the insights necessary in order to start playing this game without the worries of missing something important or spending a lot of time on things that don’t matter much later. Let’s get started with some helpful tips and tricks that will help you focus on the right things, make it more fun for you, and get into the game with some understanding of it.

What is Last Epoch?

Last Epoch is an online action RPG with a fantasy setting developed and published by Eleventh Hour Games. It has been released in Beta mode in late April 2019, and to this day 19th of September 2022, it is still in Beta. The reason behind it is that the game devs want to make sure the game is stable and free of bugs before the actual release, and they have been listening to the gaming community for a lot of tweaks, bug reports, changes etc. Las Epoch is set in Eterra, a fictional world, and heavily focused on time-travelling. The beginning of the storyline is meant to be a bit confusing, but the answers eventually come to you, so I will not be spoiling the story here. Like most ARPGs, the camera angle is limited, which for some (including myself, having never played such games before) it can be confusing at first. All kinds of interesting characters, environments, and monsters have been created for the game, and it has dungeons as well as an amazing storyline.

Why You Should Play Last Epoch

FFXIV, Elden ring, as well as a certain game we shall not name, have become some of the most popular games in the world. What makes them so successful? Each of these games has its own unique traits, but all of them have one thing in common: engagement. These games captivate their players with a strong sense of community and fun gameplay. One of the biggest draws of Last Epoch is its uniqueness. Other popular free-to-play games often feel like carbon copies, but Last Epoch is a game that feels fresh and new. It leans heavily into the angle of time travel, even going as far as making you go in a different era and back to complete a quest, and we see a lot of recurring names no matter where we end up… and connecting the dots sometimes makes you raise an eyebrow and have some questions. One of my favorite time-travel angles of the game is going to the same places in different eras, and it fascinates me how they rework the maps for the era’s needs and aesthetics. Last Epoch also features a unique story that is easy to follow, but very engaging. I play games for their story before the gameplay, and I have ditched games for story reasons alone. Believe me when I tell you this is one of the best storylines I have witnessed so far.

For now, the storyline goes to 9 Acts, or chapters. The story is not finished (that makes for some fun theorycrafting for possible endings and things we want to know more about) and as far as we know, there should be a total of 12 Acts for this storyline.

The Gameplay of Last Epoch

The Imperial Era is where the story begins, and where you will go through a tutorial stage so you can learn a bit more about your class, the place, and for beginner gamers, fighting mechanics.

You’ll also want to collect items and start leveling up your character’s abilities. Each character ends up with a pretty big amount of abilities, thanks to unlocking one of the three masteries per class on storyline’s “Act 4”. Having that many options makes for a lot of different options for spell builds, and on top of that, each spell has the option to be leveled up for extra customization. Last Epoch has a crafting system like many other RPGs, but one fun thing is that it is accessible no matter where you are.

The way I see it, it certainly feels like the game devs know who their audience is: adults who love gaming but also have a life, therefore they minimalized the need of going back to town, unlike other games where many features are time sinks.

While Multiplayer is not currently available, there is a chat box to talk to other players, and Multiplayer is planned to come to Beta “soon”.

Helpful Tips and Tricks for New Players of Last Epoch

• Items have a color-coded hierarchy, which is as follows: white (normal), blue (magic), gold (rare), green (set piece), orange (unique), and later in the game, purple (exalted). To start, you will see a lot of whites, blues and some golds. Uniques can drop at any level. White items have no stats (affixes), blues have 1 or 2, and golds have 3 or 4.
• Uniques are not that unique. They drop fairly often, and I have many copies of said “uniques”! However, they can be very interesting as they have stats and effects that aren’t in the usual list of affixes and they can radically change the gameplay of a spell or build.
• You do not need to pick up every item dropped. They don’t sell very well at the merchant, and your inventory is limited. I keep my inventory for items I want to use, shatter for affix shards (to craft affixes onto other items) and uniques.
• Pressing Shift+F will open up the loot filter window. It might seem daunting, but making loot filters will declutter your screen and help you see only what you’re looking for. I will add a link to this post for a generic filter any character can start with soon.

Things To Look for Early That Will Help You Later (and the easiest way to get them)

• Always check out the merchant when you’re in town! The merchant’s inventory resets every 10-15 minutes. What you are looking for are Runes of Shattering, mostly. They cost a lot, especially at first when you’re strung for cash, but they’re really useful and don’t drop often at first.
• Another note about the merchant: check out any chest, head, necklace and relic piece available for purchase.
• Necklaces have one specific affix that is exclusive to them, which is a set of Damage Penetration (cold, fire, lightning, necrotic, physical, poison and void pen) this type of affix makes damage a lot more potent, so if you see one, might as well stock up early!
• The other pieces listed have Spell +1 affixes, which adds extra levels to specialize into that skill. They can be quite rare, and they are very useful.

Spells, Specializations & Masteries

• While almost everything in the game can be reset (you can despecialize a spell, you can reset your passive talent tree, you can change your build entirely at very little cost), you will only get to pick a Mastery once, and it cannot be changed. However, nothing stops you from making another character!
• You can only specialize a total of 5 spells/abilities on your character, but those spells do not need to be in your spell bar. In most builds, you will want your spell bar to match the 5 specialized spells you chose, but in some cases, passively specced spells are a thing.
• Don’t be afraid to respec a spell. You gain bonus xp gain until your spell is back at the prior level, and it goes rather quickly.

A Few More Tips to Research and Figure Out Things

• Try checking out the Discord server. Many people meet in the Discord server to discuss and share information on the game.
• Don’t hesitate to ask questions in the game chat. However, it is good etiquette to first check in the game guide or on Google if you can find the answer easily first. lastepochtools.com is also an amazing resource with a full item database and many builds to try out.
• Try checking out the in-game guide (press “G” in-game). In many games, the in-game guide is an afterthought, but the Last Epoch guide is a valuable resource with a lot of useful information (and a search bar!).
• There is a lot of text involved in spell definitions, spell specialization, passive trees and mastery trees, but it is very much worth it to dive into a single spell head-first for 15-20 minutes when you want to understand how it works, how it could synergize with other spells, etc. That is, of course, a little later than beginner stage!

Conclusion

Last Epoch is a unique action RPG that challenges players in interesting ways. The spell build system is unique and engaging, and the game features many different ways to customize your gameplay for weeks! New players will find Last Epoch to be easy to pick up and play, while seasoned players will enjoy the game’s constant evolution. While there is no “end-game” available yet story-wise, we do have end-game content in the form of Monoliths, which will be covered in a different post. The game has personality, a sense of humor, fascinating scenery and dungeon mechanics, and a lot of potential. If you’re looking for a game that is engaging, interesting, with a great community, then Last Epoch is a great game to try out.