Empowered Timelines in Last Epoch: A Guide to Corruption, Blessings, and Exclusive Rewards

Empowered Monolith Guide

The Monolith of Fate serves as a solid starting point for endgame progression, but the empowered version is where the true grind begins. This version significantly increases the difficulty while offering better rewards and infinite scaling, ensuring that players will always have a challenge, regardless of their build or skill level.

Empowered vs Normal Monolith

Normal Timelines have their own area level, start with zero Corruption, and can only increase their Corruption up to a maximum of 50. Empowered versions, however, are all level 100, start with 100 Corruption, and can scale Corruption infinitely (as long as you can handle the challenge).

Additionally, there are rewards that can only drop in Empowered Timelines or at levels of Corruption that can only be achieved within them. We'll discuss these rewards in more detail in a later section.

How To Empower Your Timelines

To activate the empowered version of every Timeline, you first need to complete the Normal versions of Spirits of Fire, The Last Ruin, and The Age of Winter. Once these are completed, head to the central island between the three Timelines and click on the chest in the center. This will unlock the Empowered versions of all Timelines.

Now, when you access a Timeline, you will always have two options: you can choose to play the normal version or the empowered version by selecting the appropriate option. Each web will maintain its own corruption and stability, allowing you to freely switch between the normal and empowered versions as you choose.

Empowered Monolith Rewards

While the normal versions of each Timeline offer many rewards to players, there are certain rewards that are reserved exclusively for Empowered Timelines.

Blessings

Empowered versions of each Timeline offer the same Blessings as the normal versions, but they roll much higher. This means that in order to acquire the best Blessings in the game, you need to farm the Empowered versions of each Timeline.

Boss Specific Uniques

Every Timeline boss has at least one Unique that is exclusive to Empowered versions. If you're looking for a particular Unique in this category, you'll need to farm it in Empowered Timelines.

Empowered Exclusive Boss Uniques

• Fall of the Outcasts – Strands of Souls
• The Stolen Lance – Wings of Argentus
• The Black Sun – The Confluence of Fate
• Blood, Frost, and Death – Eulogy of Blood
• Ending the Storm – Eye of Storms
• Fall of the Empire – Anchor of Oblivion
• Reign of Dragons – Horns of Uhkeiros
• The Last Ruin – Sacrificial Embrace, Ravenous Void (these are also random world drops in Empowered, but at a significantly lower drop rate)
• The Age of Winter – Faith of the Frozen
• Spirits of Fire – Trinity of Flames

Additionally, the Shade of Orobyss has some Uniques that can only drop at certain levels of Corruption, and these are exclusive to Empowered versions.

Shade of Orobyss Exclusive Uniques

• Apathy's Maw (While this technically can drop in normal at 50 Corruption, it has a lower drop rate and there's no other reason to reach that level of Corruption, so this should be farmed in Empowered only.)
• Shattered Chains (Requires 150 Corruption)
• Omnis (Requires 200 Corruption)

Corruption

While we covered Corruption in our Monolith Beginner Guide, it's worth revisiting the topic in the context of Empowered Timelines, as this is where the mechanic plays a significant role. Corruption is the primary driver of both difficulty and rewards in the Empowered Monolith. It allows players to increase the health and damage of enemies while also boosting XP and Item Rarity, resulting in greater challenges and better rewards.

Item Rarity

To acquire the best items possible, you want to increase Item Rarity, which affects drops in several ways:

• Increases the likelihood that an item will drop with more affixes. This also makes Exalted items more common, as more affixes increase the chances of rolling T6/T7 affixes.
• Increases the likelihood that an item will be a Unique.
• Increases the likelihood that a boss will drop a rare Unique.

Item Rarity is increased by both Corruption and Echo modifiers. Higher Corruption also yields higher modifiers, meaning rarity is boosted in two different ways by increasing Corruption.

Blessings

While Corruption doesn't directly affect Blessing drops or rolls, reaching 200 Corruption unlocks an additional Blessing option from boss kills. If you're struggling to get the Blessing you want with a high enough roll, make sure you're at 200+ Corruption to improve your chances!

Other Benefits of Corruption

As mentioned in the previous section, certain levels of Corruption are required for the Shade of Orobyss to drop some Uniques.
Corruption also increases the amount of Stability gained from completing Echoes, allowing you to reach boss fights more quickly.
The Echo Rewards are improved with Corruption. For example, high Corruption Echoes are more likely to offer Unique and Exalted rewards.
The benefits of Corruption are undeniable, so don't overlook this important mechanic when trying to improve your loot!

Summary

• Empowered Timelines are similar to Normal Timelines, except they start at level 100, have 100 Corruption, and Corruption can be scaled infinitely.
• To Empower your Timelines, you need to complete Spirits of Fire, The Last Ruin, and The Age of Winter.
• Empowered Timelines offer many rewards above the Normal versions, including better Blessings and exclusive Uniques.
• Corruption provides a greater challenge but also greater rewards. Scaling Corruption increases Item Rarity, offers more Blessing rolls, improves Echo rewards, and unlocks some exclusive Uniques.