How to Master Empowered Monolith Strategies in Last Epoch: A Guide to Boosting Rewards and Minimizing Time

Advanced Monolith Strategies

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

The Monolith of Fate is the primary and most extensive Endgame system in Last Epoch, featuring core progression elements like Blessings. It’s grindy by nature, and obtaining rewards can take a long time if you jump in without preparation. Fortunately, there are strategies you can use to drastically increase your efficiency.

There are multiple strategies a player can employ depending on their goals. These tactics are designed specifically for Empowered Monolith, so be sure to reach it as quickly as possible. To do so, you’ll need to 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. Completing Echoes rewards you with specific rewards and Stability, which can be used to challenge the Timeline Boss. As you complete Echoes, more will unlock. Nodes that are further out on the web grant more Stability, but they also come with more dangerous enemy modifiers.

In addition to the regular Echoes, your Web might contain special Echo types that have the ability to modify your entire Web. Understanding these special Echo types and what they do is crucial for approaching 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. Beacon Echoes are the most common among the special Echo types and are crucial for scouting 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 exceeds a certain threshold, encountering and defeating this Echo closer to the Starting Node of your Web will reduce Corruption instead. This provides an opportunity to manage your Timeline and make it 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.

Vessel of Chaos Echoes are rare, but completing one rerolls the rewards of all the Echoes that you have not yet completed, giving you a chance to swap less enticing options for more relevant or powerful rewards.

Vessel of Memory Echo

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

The objective of these rare Echoes is to destroy the Vessel of Memory. Doing so resets the state of all existing Echoes on your Web (except for other Vessel Echoes). This allows you to re-run the Echo Web (starting from the completed Vessel of Memory) and claim all of its rewards again.

Corruption Farming

Corruption is a mechanic that allows the player to increase Item Rarity, Experience gained, and the amount of Exalted Reward Echoes that appear. It also boosts the Timeline Stability that Echoes provide while 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 defeat 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 in parallel or enhanced by Corruption, so it is essential to understand all the tools that improve Corruption gains. Do not farm any Corruption before reaching Empowered Monolith.

Gaze of Orobyss

It is important to note 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 Gazes 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 Gazes of Orobyss.

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

Corruption Farm Strategy

• Timeline Stability is not a priority – clear Echoes as fast as possible.
• Avoid Arena Echoes and large Map Layouts, as they take longer to clear.
• Path your Echoes to get as far away as possible from the Starting Node of your Echo Web.
• If you fill up your Stability, defeat the Timeline Boss to gain a Gaze of Orobyss.
• Reach the edge of your Web and defeat a Shade of Orobyss that grants at least +15 base Corruption.
• Repeat the process until you reach your desired Corruption.
• You can defeat the Shade of Orobyss as much as you want to continue building Corruption. However, the more Corruption you accumulate, the further away you will need to go from the Echoes of a World that increase Corruption. The Shade of Orobyss furthest from the Starting Node of your Web offers the highest Corruption gain.
• Enjoy the grind!

Timeline Boss Farming

Each Timeline has its own Timeline Boss. Each boss has its own loot table of items that can only drop from that specific boss. Additionally, defeating these bosses lets you choose one of several randomized Blessings from their pool.

Common Timeline Boss Item Strategy

• Stack Timeline Stability as quickly as possible by getting far away from the Starting Node of your Echo Web. The further you are from the Starting Node, the more Stability an Echo generates by default.
• Fill the Bonus Stability bar while inside the Echoes by focusing on high-density mob areas. Don’t slow down your clears for this—rush the Echo Objectives to quickly distance yourself from the Starting Node in your Web.
• Don’t defeat the Shade of Orobyss unless you’ve reached the edge of your Web and it grants +15 base Corruption.
• If you don’t want to increase your Corruption further, focus on doing Echoes on the edge of your Web for better Stability gains.
• Once your Timeline Stability is full, fight the Boss. Echo Modifiers, Item Rarity, Corruption, and Drop Rate Blessings do not increase your chances for COMMON Timeline Boss Items—they always have a 50% drop chance.

Rare Timeline Boss Item Strategy

• Stack Timeline Stability as quickly as possible by getting far away from the Starting Node of your Echo Web. The further you are from the Starting Node, the more Stability an Echo generates by default.
• Fill the Bonus Stability bar while inside the Echoes by focusing on 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.
• Defeat the Shade of Orobyss when you find an Echo of a World that grants +15 base Corruption.
• Play in the highest Corruption you can without significantly slowing down your clear speed. If you’ve reached your optimal difficulty/speed Corruption amount, just do Echoes on the edge of your Web for higher Stability.
• 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

• Get 200 Corruption as soon as possible, as it unlocks a 5th Blessing option after defeating the Timeline Boss.
• Stack Timeline Stability as fast as possible by getting far away from the Starting Node of your Echo Web. The further you are from the Starting Node, the more Stability an Echo generates by default.
• Fill the Bonus Stability bar while inside the Echoes by focusing on 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.
• Don’t defeat Special Echoes unless they fill your Stability Bar or serve a parallel objective.
• If you don’t want to raise your Corruption further, do Echoes on the edge of your Web for better Stability gains.
• 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 completed all your Empowered Blessings and reached high Corruption, you should start approaching your Echo Web differently than simply focusing on filling up your Timeline Stability quickly. It’s time to get some GG gear!

Corruption increases Item Rarity and the amount of valuable rewards (Exalted, Uniques, Idols, etc.) that appear while uncovering your Web. Using the Special Echo Types to manipulate your Web generation to improve the types of Echo Rewards, claiming them twice, and optimizing your time is what separates 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 many 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 your 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. Once all Echoes have been claimed and all Vessels have been used, run an Echo of a World and start again!
13. Your Echo Web might encounter some strange scenarios due to 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 specifically for Empowered Monolith, so make sure to reach it as quickly as possible. Use these strategies to gain more and better rewards while minimizing the time spent. Have fun with the grind!