Advanced Monolith Strategies

Welcome to the the Advanced Monolith Strategies guide! Here we provide all the key information, tips and tricks to help you understand how to maximize this game system.

The Monolith of Fate is the primary and deepest Endgame system in Last Epoch and it hosts core progression elements like Blessings. It's grindy by nature and its rewards can take a long time to obtain if you jump in blind. Luckily, there are things you can do drastically increase your efficiency.

There are multiple strategies that a player can use depending on their goals. These tactics are designed for Empowered Monolith so make sure to reach it as fast as possible. To do so, defeat the 3 level 90 Timelines: Spirits of Fire, The Age of Winter and The Last Ruin.

Special Echo Types

Each Timeline has its own Echo Web that branches out from the Starting Node. Complete Echoes to gain specific rewards and Stability, which can be used to fight the Timeline Boss. More Echoes unlock as they are successively completed. Nodes further out on the web grant more Stability, but also come with more dangerous enemy Modifiers.

Aside from the regular Echoes, your Web might contain special Echo types that have the ability to modify your entire Web. Understanding what they do is crucial to ensure you approach the content efficiently.

Beacon Echo

Normally when you complete an Echo, you can see two steps ahead; the Echoes adjacent to the completed one, and the ones directly beyond those. Beacon Echoes allow you to see further.

They contain a Beacon of Light, which can be charged to reveal all potential Echoes in a large ring around it. It is the most common out of the special Echo types and are crucial to scout your Web.

Echo of a World

As you expand your Monolith web you will encounter Echoes that trigger an encounter with The Shade of Orobyss. Successfully defeating this Boss resets your Echo Web and adds Corruption.

Once your Corruption is above a threshold, encountering and defeating this Echo closer to the Starting Node of your Web reduce Corruption instead, giving you the opportunity to make your Timeline more manageable.

Vessel of Chaos Echo

If you’ve spent time completing Echoes and claiming rewards in a Timeline, there will inevitably be a large number of Echoes that you have chosen not to complete. This is when a Vessel of Chaos becomes an exciting prospect.

Vessels of Chaos echoes are rare, but completing one rerolls the rewards of all the Echoes that you have not yet completed, providing a chance for less enticing options to be swapped for more relevant or powerful rewards.

Vessel of Memory Echo

Normally when you complete an Echo, you can’t return to it and have to move on to your next choices. Vessel of Memory Echoes change this.

The objective of these rare Echoes is to smash the Vessel of Memory; destroying it resets the state of all existing Echoes on your Web (aside from other Vessel Echoes). This allows you to re-run the Echo Web (starting from the completed Vessel of Memory) and claim all its rewards again.

Corruption Farming

Corruption is a mechanic that allows the player to increase Item Rarity, Experience gained and amount of Exalted Reward Echoes that appear. It also increases how much Timeline Stability Echoes give by also increasing the monster and Modifier scaling of a Monolith Timeline, making it more challenging. To increase Corruption you must enter an Echo of a World and kill the Shade of Orobyss. The further away from the Starting Node, the more Corruption it grants.

Most of your goals in the Monolith of Fate can be done parallel or enhanced by Corruption, so its quite important to learn all the tools that improve its gains. Don't farm any Corruption before reaching Empowered Monolith.

Gaze of Orobyss:

It is important to know that completing the third Quest Echo (defeating the Timeline Boss) in an Empowered Timeline grants you a Gaze of Orobyss.

Defeating the Shade of Orobyss consumes all current Gaze’s of Orobyss within that Timeline to grant bonus Corruption, allowing you to build up Corruption more quickly. However, if you die while fighting the Shade of Orobyss you lose all accumulated Gaze’s of Orobyss.

If one of your Timelines has more Corruption than others, you can catch up to your highest value relatively quickly in the other Timelines by completing an Echo of a World, as it grants bonus Corruption based on the highest that character has achieved. The further away you are from the Starting Web Node, the more this mechanic grants.

Corruption Farm Strategy:

1. Timeline Stability is not a priority, clear Echoes as fast as possible.
2. Avoid Arena Echoes and huge Map Layouts, as they take longer to clear.
3. Path your Echoes to get as far away as possible from the Starting Node of your Echo Web.
4. If you fill up your Stability, defeat the Timeline Boss to gain a Gaze of Orobyss.
5. Reach the edge of your Web and defeat a Shade of Orobyss that grants at least +15 base Corruption.
6. Repeat until you reach your desired Corruption.

You can defeat the Shade of Orobyss as much as you wish to continue building Corruption. However, the more you have, the further away from the Echoes of a World that increase Corruption. Shade of Orobyss furthest from the Starting Node of your Web offers the highest amount of Corruption gain. Enjoy the grind!

Timeline Boss Farming

Each Timeline has its Timeline Boss. Each one of them has its own loot table of Items that only drop from that Timeline Boss. Additionally, defeating them lets you choose one of several randomized Blessings from its pool.

Common Timeline Boss Item Strategy:

1. Stack Timeline Stability as fast as possible by getting far away from the Starting Node of your Echo Web. The further away from the Starting Node, the more Stability an Echo generates by default.
2. Fill the Bonus Stability bar while inside the Echoes by only attacking high density mob areas. Don't slow down your clears for this; rush Echo Objectives to quickly distance yourself from the Starting Node in your Web.
3. Don't defeat the Shade of Orobyss unless you reached the edge of your Web and it grants +15 base Corruption.
4. If you don't want to raise your Corruption further, do Echoes on the edge of your Web for better Stability gains.
5. As soon as your Timeline Stability is full, fight the Boss. Echo Modifiers, Item Rarity, Corruption and Drop Rate Blessings don't increase your chances for COMMON Timeline Boss Items: they are always a 50% chance.

Rare Timeline Boss Item Strategy:

1. Stack Timeline Stability as fast as possible by getting far away from the Starting Node of your Echo Web. The further away from the Starting Node, the more Stability an Echo generates by default.
2. Fill the Bonus Stability bar while inside the Echoes by only attacking high density mob areas. Don't slow down your clears for this; rush Echo Objectives to quickly distance yourself from the Starting Node in your Web.
3. Defeat the Shade of Orobyss when you find an Echo of a World that grants +15 base Corruption.
4. Play in the highest Corruption you can without slowing down your clear speed significantly. If you have reached your optimal difficulty/speed Corruption amount, just do Echoes on the edge of your Web for higher Stability.
5. When your Timeline Stability is full, fight the Boss with as much Item Rarity as possible, ideally with 6 active Echo Modifiers. Item rarity, Corruption and Drop Rate Blessings increase the drop chances for RARE Timeline Boss Items up to a cap (specific to each Item). 500% Item Rarity should be your goal for maximum efficiency.

Empowered Blessing Strategy:

1. Get 200 Corruption as soon as possible, as it unlocks a 5th Blessing option after defeating the Timeline Boss.
2. Stack Timeline Stability as fast as possible by getting far away from the Starting Node of your Echo Web. The further away from the Starting Node, the more Stability an Echo generates by default.
3. Fill the Bonus Stability bar while inside the Echoes by only attacking high density mob areas. Don't slow down your clears for this; rush Echo objectives to quickly distance yourself from the Starting Node in your Web.
4. Don't defeat Special Echoes unless they fill your Stability Bar or serve a parallel objective.
5. If you don't want to raise your Corruption further, do Echoes on the edge of your Web for better Stability gains.
6. As soon as your Timeline Stability is full, fight the Boss. Blessings are unaffected by Item Rarity or Modifiers.

Echo Web Engineering

Once you have finished all your Empowered Blessings and reached high Corruption, you should start approaching your Echo Web differently than just filling up your Timeline Stability really fast. Time to get some GG gear!

Corruption increases Item Rarity and the amount of valuable (Exalted, Uniques, Idols...) Reward Echoes that appear while uncovering your Web. Using the Special Echoes Types to manipulate your Web generation to improve its Echo Reward Types, claim them twice and optimize time is what separate good players from true Monolith god-gamers.

Echo Engineering Strategy:

1. At the start of your Echo Web generation, target the most valuable Echo Rewards as you expand it.
2. Use all Beacon Echoes you encounter to scout your Web.
3. Leave as much unimportant Echo Rewards undone as possible as you expand.
4. Branch out so the Echo Web extends in the shape of a tree root. Revealing all Echo Rewards available.
5. Locate Vessels of Chaos and Vessels of Memory.
6. Once the valuable Echoes of your Web are deployed, reroll the bad ones by completing a Vessel of Chaos.
7. Scout your Web and clear all the Echo Rewards that rerolled into something valuable.
8. Repeat step 6 with multiple Vessels of Chaos. This will fill your Web with valuable Echo Rewards.
9. After you Web is full of amazing Echo Rewards, run a Vessel of Memory in the most profitable area of the Web.
10. Path towards all the good Echo Rewards and reclaim them again.
11. Combine Vessels of Chaos and Vessels of Memory efficiently to maximize your Echo Web.
12. One all Echoes have been claimed and all Vessels have been used, run and Echo of a World and start again!

Your Echo Web might encounter some strange scenarios duo the its randomly generated nature. Learn to spot situations where switching things up is more efficient and profitable. Combine your Web engineering with other goals your character might have in the Monolith; like using Timeline Stability to farm a specific Timeline Boss Unique drop with Legendary Potential or get a maxed out Empowered Blessing.

Summary

There are multiple strategies that a player can use in the Monolith of Fate depending on their current character progression and goals. These tactics are designed for Empowered Monolith so make sure to reach it as fast as possible. Use them to get more and better rewards with the less time spent possible. Have fun with the grind!

Credits

Written by Lizard_IRL.
Reviewed by McFluffin, Facefoot