Monolith Beginner Guide

The Monolith of Fate is a major system in Last Epoch. Players will spend most of their time here once they have moved on from the campaign. In this guide we cover all of the basics for the system including what the Monolith of Fate is, how to access it and all of its features and mechanics.  

What Is The Monolith?

The Monolith of Fate is the primary endgame system in Last Epoch. Once players are done with the campaign this is where they head next. It features a branching mapping system, targetable rewards, bosses, modifiers, and difficulty scaling. We’ll go into greater detail of all of these features below.

How To Access The Monolith

Fairly early in the campaign players reach a central hub called “The End of Time”. Upon reaching it the Monolith of Fate becomes available by taking a portal on the east side. However the lowest level enemies are 58 and there are still valuable campaign rewards to obtain so most players will want to continue with the campaign and come back to the Monolith of Fate later.

Timelines

Timelines are islands in the Monolith of Fate that provide their own web, quests, boss and rewards as well as their own area level (Timelines that are higher on the map have a higher area level). Upon entering the Monolith for the first time players only have access to one timeline. Upon completing that timeline (by finishing the quest echoes and killing the timeline specific boss) players can choose between opening two new timelines. 

Eventually all Timelines can be unlocked, although some will require rerunning a previously completed timeline. Timelines can be completed as many times as you want and players will often want to complete them multiple times to unlock other Timelines and farm Timeline specific rewards.  

Echoes

Echoes are the maps that you run inside of timelines. Echoes are chosen through a procedurally generated web that is distinct for every timeline and can be reset by killing the Shade of Orobyss. Killing the Shade generates a brand new web to explore but also affects Corruption (more on the Shade of Orobyss and Corruption later)

Echo Details

Each Monolith Echo has a map, modifier and reward for finishing the echo. Each timeline can roll a certain set of maps and modifiers. Modifiers add difficulty to echoes and will persist to additional echoes for a specified amount. How long a modifier persists and how high the modifier scales in terms of difficulty are determined by a number of factors including corruption level and distance from the start of the Timeline web (higher corruption and echoes further out have modifiers that are harder and last longer).  

Under 'Echo Information' (see left side image) we can find all of the information for an echo except for the map, which is found just above the 'Start' button. The number '3' under several icons in the picture represents how many Echoes those modifiers will be active for. In this case, they will be active for this echo and four additional Echoes. Note that quest Echoes, including the boss, also count so these modifiers can carry over into quests and bosses.

Echo Objectives

Upon starting each echo an objective will be randomly generated. The objectives are as follows:

• Kill a specific boss
• Kill 1-3 specific types of enemies that are patrolling the map
• Seal a time gate by activating it and then killing the enemies that spawn
• Destroy 1-3 spires which will continuously fire at you from long range until destroyed

There is one exception to the objectives which is arena maps. If you find an arena map echo it will always be an arena with 12-17 waves of enemies that must be killed in order to complete the echo.

Special Echo Rewards

Each Timeline also has a special echo reward that provides a specific type of unique for completing that echo:

Unique Echoes

• Fall of the Outcasts - Bows, Quivers
• The Stolen Lance - Wands, Sceptres, Staves, Catalysts
• The Black Sun - Helmets, Shields
• Blood, Frost, and Death - Body Armour
• Ending the Storm - Gloves
• Fall of the Empire - Belts
• Reign of Dragons - Swords, Axes, Maces, Daggers, Spears
• The Last Ruin - Relics
• The Age of Winter - Rings, Amulets
• Spirits of Fire - Boots

Stability

Every echo you complete provides stability for that Timeline. How much stability you receive is determined by how far from the center of the timeline the echo is (farther is more) and how much bonus stability you gained from killing enemies in the echo. Stability is used to access the quest echoes which include the Timeline Boss. The timeline UI displays how much stability you have as well as how much is needed to unlock each quest.  

Timeline Quests & Bosses

Each Monolith Timeline has three quests, with the third being a boss battle. Quests have a stability requirement with the first quest having the lowest and the third the highest. Quests must be completed in order and upon killing the boss a blessing is received as well as a choice of unlocking a new timeline.  

Quests are not randomly generated. They are specific to that Timeline and will always be the same within that Timeline. The boss will also always be the same for any given Timeline.

Blessings & Boss Rewards

Each Timeline boss gives two specific rewards (this does not include Shade of Orobyss. See the next section for his rewards).  

Blessings

Blessings are permanent buffs to your character that either directly increase power or improve loot drops in some way. Each boss has a specific Blessing table and the Blessings it provides cannot be found anywhere else, meaning if you’re looking for a specific blessing you need to farm the right boss until that blessing drops. 

Uniques

Each boss has its own loot table of uniques that only drop from that boss. Some are common while others are rare and many even need a specific level of corruption or require the empowered version of the Timeline  in order to drop. Since these uniques do not drop anywhere else the only way to receive them is to farm the boss until the unique you want drops.

Timeline bosses will always provide a selection of Blessings to choose from and at least one unique from its loot table.  

Corruption & The Shade of Orobyss

Corruption is a mechanic that allows the player to increase XP and rewards by also increasing the difficulty of a Timeline. To increase Corruption you must kill The Shade of Orobyss who can be found as an echo type in the web. The farther out you go the more likely it becomes that you’ll see a Shade echo and the more corruption that Shade will provide. Shade is not an easy fight so make sure you're prepared.

Increasing Corruption also increases the health and damage of every enemy in the Timeline, including bosses and additional encounters of the Shade. It also increases XP and item rarity so rewards are improved. The amount of increase per point of Corruption is effectively linear and scales equally at low and high levels of Corruption. Corruption also affects the likelihood of more valuable Echo Objective completion rewards as well as Boss Uniques.  

Here are a few more tips regarding Corruption and the Shade of Orobyss:

• Killing The Shade will reset the Timeline Web and generate a fresh one so be sure to only kill the Shade when there are no more echoes left that you want to complete.  
• If you find that the amount of corruption is higher than you’d prefer, you can also decrease corruption by finishing the Sanctuary of Eterra Echo. This Echo is located right next to the starting point of your web. After completing the Echo, you are presented with 3 options that allow you to choose how much corruption to remove.
• Corruption caps at 50 in normal timelines but is unlimited in Empowered  (see the next section for information on Empowered Timelines)
• Killing the Timeline Boss adds stacks of ‘Gaze of Orobyss’ which increases the amount of corruption received from a Shade kill.  These stacks are lost if you die to a Shade.
• The amount of XP, rarity, and monster difficulty gained by corruption is not linear. Early on corruption will increase everything by quite a bit, while at higher levels of corruption the increase will be smaller.

Empowered Timelines

By completing the top 3 Timelines (Spirits of fire, The Age of Winter and The Last Ruin) players can unlock Empowered versions of every timeline. These timelines have a level 100 area level and start at 100 corruption, meaning their rewards are greater but so is their difficulty. Unlike normal Timelines there is no corruption cap for Empowered Timelines.

Empowered Timelines also feature Empowered Blessings, which are Blessings with higher rolls than their normal counterparts. Some uniques that drop from Timeline Bosses can also only be acquired through Empowered versions.  

Video

Summary

• The Monolith of Fate is the primary endgame system in Last Epoch.
• The Monolith can be accessed through the End of Time, which is found relatively early in the campaign.
• Timelines are islands in the Monolith with their own Echo Webs, Quests, and Bosses that players will need to complete in order to progress through the Monolith.
• Echoes are the mapping part of the Monolith and each Echo has its own modifiers and rewards.
• Killing a Timeline Boss provides boss specific rewards including Blessings and unlocks further Timelines.
• Corruption is a system that allows players to increase the difficulty of Timelines for an increase in rewards. Corruption is increased by killing the Shade of Orobyss.
• Empowered Timelines are a level 100 version of the normal Timelines that also starts with 100 Corruption and provides better rewards at the cost of being more challenging.

Credits

Written by McFluffin.
Reviewed by Lizard_IRL, Aristotelian.