Forge Guard Leveling Guide
Last Updated:April 11, 2025|Changelog
This Forge Guard leveling build decimates its opponents by summoning a legion of Summon Forged Weapons. In order to summon them, you go into close combat and use Rive or Multistrike depending on your level. Your minions use stats from your weapon, making it the most important piece of the build.
When playing this Forge Guard build you can't be afraid of going into melee range as you rely on proccing Healing Hands every time you attack. If you are faced with a fierce opponent, you can buff your minions with Volatile Reversal and Void Cleave.
Overall this Summon Forged Weapon Forge Guard is an amazing leveling build, it provides enough damage to one shot most monsters in the campaign and scale really well into end game. It is also a good defensive build with great recovery through Healing Hands and a lot of space on the gear for defensive stats.
Check out the Campaign Guide for an in depth breakdown of the campaign.
Gameplay
As we level the power of skills evolve, with some becoming stronger while others get weaker. To account for this, we transition from a setup that is optimized for early game to one that is more suited to tackling endgame content.
Early Setup
Use this setup until you have 5 points in Multistrike.
- Rive is your single target and clear ability. It summons Summon Forged Weapon that scale with your weapon stats.
- Use Lunge to move quickly through the chapters.
Final Setup
- Attack with Multistrike until you have the max amount of Armament stacks and use Forge Strike to summon Summon Forged Weapon.
- Multistrike also procs Healing Hands, healing you massively.
- Use Void Cleave on your Summon Forged Weapon to boost your damage against bosses and high hp monsters.
- Use Volatile Reversal in melee range to boost your damage.
- If you need to heal yourself, attack with Vengeance to proc Healing Hands.
- Use Lunge to move quickly through the chapters.
Key Leveling Notes
- Keep your character at the area level by killing monsters.
- To use this guide, you need to maintain at most a 5 level difference with the area.
- Press C to open the character sheet to find your level and TAB to find the area level.
- Only collect loot that serves as an upgrade.
- The loot filter reveals many items that might not be an upgrade for your character.
- If your inventory is full, stick gear with high value affixes in your stash and sell the rest.
- Don't sell gear that has high value affixes to a vendor.
- Instead, keep it to use later or destroy it with a Rune of Shattering or Rune of Removal.
- Always get the best weapon you can.
- Weapons are a core part of your power and getting a higher level base boosts your damage significantly.
- Early on, you can buy them at the
Gambler NPC in the Council Chamber town and in the End of Time town. - After level 40, they don't sell you higher item bases.
- If you want to enter the Monolith of Fate early, unlock all the passive points and idol slots from quests first.
- By the time you complete chapter 7, you will be ready to tackle the Monolith of Fate content.
- Crafting is powerful and important for enhancing your gear.
- Press F and place your item in the crafting interface to level up its affixes and craft new ones!
- Adding health or vitality on a few empty affix slots can increase your HP by a significant amount!
If you need help with crafting, check the Beginner Crafting Guide.
Skills and Passives
Passives and Skills provide powerful effects that dictate the playstyle of a Class and its Masteries. Remember that you can allocate Passives in the first half of any Mastery regardless of the one you chose.
Click on the Arrows at the top and on the Bar at the bottom to see Passive and Skill Trees Progression
Gearing and Side Quests Step by Step
Itemization is a vital aspect of your journey in Last Epoch. While prefixes and suffixes matter, what sets Last Epoch apart is the power of item bases. Many items have potent implicit attributes that can rival or even surpass modifiers.
Level 1 to 10
Items
- On Deft Bastard Sword of Conflagration prioritize Chance to Bleed on Hit and Chance to Ignite on Hit. DoT damage in the early game is really high.
- Commander's Silver Ring of Deflection is the best source of movement speed early on.
- Commander's Sunrise Emblem of Deflection provides damage, which is important early on.
- On Vital Leather Boots of Deflection, prioritize Movement Speed and Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed to enhance your mobility.
Side Quests
- Storeroom Sabotuers for 1
Passive point. - Evacuation Quest for 1 Passive point.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Level 11 to 25
Items
- Start equipping Idols with Vitality, any type of resistance, Health, Health on Kill, Chance To Bleed On Hit, Chance To Poison On Hit and Chance To Ignite On Hit.
- Deft Cultist Chopper of Conflagration is the best weapon base available for that level range. You want to prioritize Damage Over Time and Chance to Bleed on Hit.
- Commander's Gold Ring of Deflection provide significant elemental resistances, outshining other options at this level.
- Commander's Heretical Script of Deflection provides extra Void Resistance for Chapters 2 and 3.
- Avarice gives you a decent chunk of elemental resistances and leech.
Side Quests
- Erza's Ledger Quest for 1 Passive point and Avarice.
- Don't talk to the Gambler NPC before completing this quest, otherwise you can't get Avarice.
- The Upper District Quest for 1 Passive point.
- An Ancient Hunt for extra
Idol slots. - The Lesser Refuge Quest for 2 Passive point.
- The Corrupted Lake Quest for 1 Passive point and extra Idol slots.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Level 26 to 40
Items
- Warrior's Turquoise Amulet of Life and Commander's Turquoise Ring of Deflection are extremely powerful bases for this build.
- Vital Spiked Helm of Deflection is a powerful base that helps you fix your Physical res when combined with Sentinel's Forge Plate of Life
Side Quests
- Hidden Gems Quest for 1 Passive point.
- The Sapphire Tablet Quest for 1 Passive point and extra Idol slots.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Level 41 to 58
Items
- As we get access to Molten Blades from Void Cleave, we prioritize fast two handed swords such as Deft Khopesh of the Phoenix.
- Commander's Argent Crest of Insulation is a powerful base that helps you fix your Cold res when combined with Vital Heoborean Boots of Life.
Side Quests
- A Heoborean Cure Quest for extra Idol slots.
- Liberating the Nomads Quest for extra Idol slots.
- After defeating the Frostroot Warden boss and completing chapter 7 quests, you have reached the cap of 15 Passive points and 8 Idol slots. You can dive into the Monolith of Fate or you can choose to finish the campaign for a reward of +1 to all attributes.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Early Monolith
Items
Important At this point, you have access to most of the best item bases in the game. Your upgrades come from prefixes and suffixes on items instead of the implicits.
Here is a recap of the best item bases :
- Weapon : Flamberge or Khopesh
- Helmet : Augury Helm
- Body Armour : Forge Plate or Solarum Plate
- Belt : Spidersilk Sash or Praetorian Belt
- Boots : Heoborean Boots and Solarum Greaves
- Gloves : Plated Gauntlets
- Amulet : Bone Amulet or Turquoise Amulet
- Rings : Turquoise Ring
- Relic : Argent Crest
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Monolith Progression
After beating the Abomination timeline boss and completing your first timeline, you have the choice to go between The Stolen Lance timeline and The Black Sun timeline. Go for The Black Sun timeline.
You want to do timelines on the right-hand-side of the Monolith progression as they provides more relevant Blessings for your character progression.
Level progression includes 1-10, 11-25, 26-40, 41-58 and Early Monolith, scroll to find the correct tab.
Forge Guard Uniques
If you are lucky you might get a Rune of Ascendance while leveling. Use this first on boots to get unique boots such as Eterra's Path, Advent of the Erased or Suloron's Step.
Keep an eye out for useful Uniques such as Doublet of Onos Tull, Advent of the Erased, Morditas' Reach and Arboreal Circuit.
Gear Stats Priorities
Best Prefixes
- Level of Rive until you have 5 points in Multistrike
- Level of Multistrike, Level of Volatile Reversal, Level of Healing Hands, Level of Forge Strike and Level of Void Cleave
- Melee Attack Speed
- Damage Over Time and Fire Damage only on the weapon
- Minion Damage
- Increased Area of Void Cleave
- Vitality
Best Suffixes
- Damage Over Time for Minions
- Chance to Bleed on Hit and Chance to Ignite on Hit
- Fire Penetration and Minion Fire Penetration
- Chance to Shred Armour on Hit
- Health
- Hybrid Health
- Fire Resistance, Lightning Resistance, Cold Resistance, Elemental Resistance, Physical Resistance, Necrotic Resistance and Void Resistance
- Health
- Chance to Chill on Hit
- Chance to apply Frailty on Hit and Chance to apply Frailty on Melee Hit
- Chance to Slow on Hit
- Armour
- Dodge Rating
- Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed
Idols
- Increased Area of Void Cleave
- Chance to Ignite on Hit
- Chance to Bleed on Hit
- Chance to Poison on Hit
- Shared Fire Damage
- Shared Physical Damage
- Chance To Shred Armor on Hit
- Health
- Health
- Vitality
- Armor
Loot Filter
Loot Filters are critical in Last Epoch. Highlighting all the related valuable Item Bases, Affixes, Uniques and Idols is crucial to your character's progression. As your gear gets better, remember to hide the rules that are no longer useful to avoid screen clutter.
Link : Download Lootfilter
Learn how to load and make Filters with our Loot Filter Guide.
Summary
This Forge Guard leveling build shines in its offensive capabilities. It kills bosses and clear packs of monsters in seconds, making it one of the smoothest mastery to play during the campaign.
- Use Hammer Throw as your main damage skill until you unlock Rive.
- Use Rive to summon Summon Forged Weapon until you have 5 points in Multistrike.
- Attack with Multistrike until you have the max amount of Armament stacks and use Forge Strike to summon Summon Forged Weapon.
- Use Void Cleave on your Summon Forged Weapon to boost your damage against bosses and high hp monsters.
- Use Volatile Reversal in melee range to boost your damage.
- If you need to heal yourself, attack with Vengeance to proc Healing Hands.
- Use Lunge to move quickly through the chapters.
- Always change your weapon to the best base two handed sword possible .
- Cap your Physical Resistance early to make the campaign look easy.
What's Next?
Congratulations, you completed the campaign and your first 3 Monoliths Timelines! What awaits you is unlocking Empowered Monolith after pushing through The Reign of Dragons, Spirits of Fire, The Age of Winter and The Last Ruin Timelines and activating the beacon in the middle of them. Then you can dive into dungeons, empower your character further and test your limits at the Arena leaderboard.
Check out our Forge Guard Guides and find the perfect Forge Guard Endgame build for you.
Explore the Monolith of Fate with our Beginner Guide and learn how to farm Dungeons.
Credits
Written by Terek.
Reviewed by Tenkiei, Volca.