'Last Epoch' Guide: An Introduction To Basic Crafting

Crafting is an important part of “Last Epoch” and most of the endgame will be spent trying to craft a perfectly rolled piece of gear. However, this system can be a little confusing and overwhelming at the beginning, especially for new players.

Since loot and stats work differently in “Last Epoch,” players will find themselves sticking with certain gear pieces for long periods of time due to an apparent lack of good item drops unlike in other ARPGs. Gear hunting mostly involves looking for the perfect modifier on the right item then upgrading it through the crafting system.

For new players or for those who are still confused with how this all works, here’s a short guide on “Last Epoch’s” crafting system.

Shards

Enemies will sometimes drop items called Shards. These are essentially representations of the unique modifiers that drop with gear pieces. Shards are used to imbue weapons with new modifiers or upgrade existing ones to higher tiers. Ideally, players should hoard as many of these as possible to make the late-game farming easier.

How To Craft

The crafting menu can be accessed by approaching forges in friendly camps or by pressing F on PC by default. Place an item on the empty slot to see all of the available options for it. Existing modifiers will appear as upgradable options while empty modifier slots will appear as plus buttons.

Select the Add Modifier button to imbue the weapon with a new bonus effect. Alternatively, players can upgrade existing modifiers by clicking on the small plus icons over the desired modifiers.

Before players can craft anything, they have to deposit their Shards into the Forge inventory, which is a dedicated storage for modifiers. This can be done by pressing the relevant button on the Inventory screen.

Instability

Every time an item is modified, its Instability level increases. This will reduce the chances of success for future modifications and possibly cause the item to fracture.

Fractures can prevent an item from being modified any further, reduce the level of existing modifiers or remove existing modifiers altogether while locking it from future modifications.

Instability can be mitigated by using Glyphs of Stability or Glyphs of the Guardian before modifying an item.