Overview

The Monolith of Fate serves as Last Epoch's core endgame activity. After completing the campaign, players embark on this challenge featuring a branching mapping system, targetable rewards, challenging bosses, modifiers, and scalable difficulty. Progressing through the Monolith increases its difficulty and accumulates Corruption, amplifying challenges. However, overcoming these hurdles rewards players with the game's best loot and a highly replayable endgame system. Bosses offer thrilling encounters and valuable loot, while modifiers add complexity to each run. With a strategic approach and mastery of gameplay mechanics, players can customize their experience by choosing specific rewards to pursue. The Monolith of Fate delivers an exciting and challenging endgame experience that will keep players engaged for hours.

How to Unlock Monoliths of Fate

The Monolith of Fate activity becomes accessible upon completing Last Epoch's campaign. Upon reaching the campaign's conclusion, you'll unlock the "Monolith of Fate" side quest, leading you to the End of Time. Speak to the Forgotten Knight in the hub town, where you'll receive a brief explanation of how the Monolith functions. When prepared, head to the eastern edge of town to enter the Monolith dungeon timelines.

Within the Monolith area, approach each timeline crystal and interact with it to initiate a Monolith run, generating a network of dungeons to choose from. Players always commence at the center of this web, aiming to progress as far to the edge as possible. Advancing deeper increases the difficulty of modifiers but yields superior loot rewards. Strategize wisely to conquer the challenges and claim the treasures awaiting in the Monoliths of Fate.

Timelines

Timelines within the Monolith of Fate act as distinct islands, each with its own web of quests, bosses, rewards, and area level. Higher timelines on the map correspond to higher area levels. Initially, upon entering the Monolith, players have access to only one timeline. Upon completing this initial timeline by finishing the quest echoes and defeating the timeline-specific boss, players can then choose between opening two new timelines.

While eventually, all timelines can be unlocked, unlocking some may necessitate rerunning a previously completed timeline. Timelines are repeatable, allowing players to complete them multiple times to unlock other timelines and farm timeline-specific rewards. With each timeline offering unique challenges and rewards, players can strategically navigate through the Monolith of Fate to uncover its full potential and reap the benefits of its diverse timelines.

Echo Modifiers 

Echoes serve as the maps within timelines, offering procedurally generated challenges. Each timeline features its own unique web of echoes, resettable by defeating the Shade of Orobyss. This action generates a fresh web while impacting Corruption, a concept we'll delve into later.

Every Monolith Echo comprises a map, modifier, and reward upon completion. Each timeline can feature specific maps and modifiers. Modifiers increase echo difficulty and persist for a set duration, influenced by corruption level and distance from the web's starting point. Higher corruption and echoes farther from the start entail tougher and longer-lasting modifiers.

Echo Information displays all relevant details except for the map, which is indicated above the 'Start' button. Icons with numerical values represent the number of echoes affected by the modifiers. These modifiers persist across quests, including boss encounters, extending the challenge beyond standard echoes. Understanding and navigating echo modifiers are crucial for success in Last Epoch's Monolith of Fate.

Echo Objectives

Upon initiating each echo, a randomly generated objective is assigned, providing diverse challenges. These objectives include:

1. Defeat a specific boss.

2. Eliminate 1-3 specific types of patrolling enemies within the map.

3. Seal a time gate by activating it and then eliminating the spawned enemies.

4. Destroy 1-3 spires that continuously fire at you from long range until eradicated.

However, there is one exception to these objectives: arena maps. When encountering an arena map echo, it invariably consists of 12-17 waves of enemies that must be defeated sequentially to complete the echo.

Special Echo Rewards

In addition to standard rewards, each timeline offers a special echo reward, providing a unique type of item upon completion. These unique echoes and their corresponding rewards are as follows:

1. Fall of the Outcasts - Bows, Quivers

2. The Stolen Lance - Wands, Sceptres, Staves, Catalysts

3. The Black Sun - Helmets, Shield

4. Blood, Frost, and Death - Body Armour

5. Ending the Storm - Gloves

6. Fall of the Empire - Belts

7. Reign of Dragons - Swords, Axes, Maces, Daggers, Spears

8. The Last Ruin - Relics

9. The Age of Winter - Rings, Amulets

10. Spirits of Fire - Boots

Stability Explained

Stability in the Monolith of Time increases every time you clear an Echo, granting access to Quest Echoes within your current timeline. Each timeline features three Quest Echoes, with the first two serving as prerequisites for unlocking the timeline's boss fight, while the third always culminates in a boss encounter.

You accumulate stability by defeating enemies within Echoes and completing Echo objectives. Monster kills primarily contribute to stability, so eliminating foes along the way to your main objective is advantageous. The further your Echo is from the Monolith map's center, the more stability you'll gain.

Upon reaching a certain threshold of stability (typically 240-400), you unlock the final Quest Echo for that timeline. Conquer the boss within this Echo, exchanging all accumulated stability for rewards exclusive to the boss' loot pool. For instance, the Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros Unique item may exclusively drop from the final boss in the Reign of Dragons timeline.

Understanding stability mechanics is essential for efficiently progressing through timelines and obtaining unique rewards within Last Epoch's Monolith of Fate.

Blessings

Upon defeating a boss within a specific timeline, players have the opportunity to acquire a Blessing unique to that timeline. A Blessing functions as a passive bonus that permanently impacts the character, akin to the character's passive tree. 

Players will be presented with 3-5 random blessings based on the Corruption value of their timeline, which will be explained later in the guide. However, only one Blessing per timeline can affect the character, with a maximum limit of ten Blessings across all timelines.

Choosing the right Blessing strategically can significantly enhance the character's capabilities and effectiveness in combat. Thus, understanding the Blessing options available and their potential benefits is crucial for optimizing character progression within Last Epoch's Monolith of Fate.

Empowered Monoliths

Upon defeating a timeline's boss for the first time, new timelines become available for exploration in the End of Time. Progressing through timelines unlocks access to the final three timelines located near the top of the map: The Age of Winter, Spirits of Fire, and The Last Ruin.

To unlock Empowered Monoliths, players must defeat the bosses in these last three timelines. Empowered Monoliths present a significantly greater challenge, setting all enemies to Level 100 and increasing all Echo modifier values, including XP and item rarity bonuses. Activation of an Empowered Monolith run occurs by interacting with a timeline Monolith in the End of Time and selecting the "Legendary" difficulty option.

The gameplay loop of Empowered Monoliths mirrors that of their non-empowered counterparts. Players must clear Echoes to build stability, utilize stability to confront bosses, and venture deeper into the map's edges to unlock greater rewards. However, Empowered Monoliths introduce a harsh twist - drawing the attention of the Void. As players progress further from the center, they encounter escalating levels of Corruption, intensifying the challenge and risks involved.

Corruption & The Shade of Orobyss

Corruption serves as a pivotal mechanic, allowing players to augment XP and rewards while simultaneously heightening Timeline difficulty. To increase Corruption, players must confront and defeat The Shade of Orobyss, an echo type within the web. The likelihood of encountering a Shade echo rises as players venture further from the center of the web, with correspondingly higher Corruption rewards. However, engaging the Shade is a formidable challenge, requiring thorough preparation.

Augmenting Corruption amplifies the health and damage of all enemies within the Timeline, including bosses and additional Shade encounters. Concurrently, it enhances XP and item rarity, improving overall rewards. The rate of increase per Corruption point is linear, applying equally across low and high Corruption levels. Additionally, Corruption influences the likelihood of valuable Echo Objective completion rewards and Boss Uniques.

Consider these additional tips regarding Corruption and The Shade of Orobyss:

1. Killing The Shade resets the Timeline Web, generating a fresh layout. Thus, only engage the Shade when no desired echoes remain.

2. To decrease Corruption, complete the Sanctuary of Eterra Echo located near the web's starting point. Following completion, choose from three options to reduce Corruption.

3. Corruption caps at 50 in normal timelines but is unlimited in Empowered timelines.

4. Defeating the Timeline Boss accumulates 'Gaze of Orobyss' stacks, increasing Corruption gained from Shade kills. These stacks reset upon death to a Shade encounter.

5. The impact of Corruption on XP, rarity, and monster difficulty is non-linear. Early Corruption levels yield substantial increases, while higher levels offer diminishing returns.

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