Dungeons can help you improve your character, but this activity might be confusing if you are a new player. There are only 3 dungeons in Last Epoch, but they offer unique rewards and gameplay mechanics. Even while are still leveling, you can enter them and receive some loot.
In this guide, I will talk about these 3 dungeons, their features, mechanics, and rewards, and explain why you should not ignore them. In case you aren’t familiar with this game, I recommend you to read my 100-hour review first.
Prerequisites
Before you move to one of these dungeons, you should find a special key that opens a door to a new area. To find them, you can simply kill mobs, open chests or play Monoliths (End-game activity). All three dungeons can be found on the map straight from level 1. During the campaign, you will certainly find at least one dungeon on your way.
Once you obtain a key, you can visit a dungeon that fits your level. Each of them has a specific level requirement. Completing a dungeon will allow you to skip a portion of the story (recommended for experienced players).
Lightless Arbor (level 22)
- Reasons to farm: Random materials, items for spending gold
- Level requirement: 22-100
- Dungeon mechanic: Amber that debuffs enemies and lights your way
The first dungeon you might encounter during the story is the Lightless Arbor. It is located in the Ruined Era in Chapter III. Once you reach The Surface area, you can go to the optional area on the left, and unlock a new waypoint with the entrance. You should be at least level 22 by that time, or it’s going to be a rough adventure.
After you place the corresponding key in the gate and choose a Difficulty, you will be introduced to the Burning Amber. This Amber acts as a lantern and a debuffer. Any enemy that is affected by this light does less damage and takes more damage from you. You can also press the “D” key by default, to send this Amber to a target location and it will stand there until you recall it back.
If you are getting hit, you will lose some of its stacks. But you can replenish it back to 100 by killing the Amber Construct (bright Amber elite). If you fall to zero, nothing bad will happen. You’ll just see less and mobs will deal more damage to you. However, if you die at any point, you will lose and have to use a new key.
Once you find the exit to the second floor, you will add one new monster modifier to the dungeon. And there, the game will teach you how to burn pyres. This mechanic will be extremely important during the boss fight.
On the first phase (when you enter the boss arena), you’ll have to burn two pyres, protected by roots. You can target your Amber to destroy the pyre while you are dealing with monsters and avoiding boss attacks. The second phase may seem simple enough, but here you need to pay close attention to the charging poisonous beams and avoid them at all costs, as they can one-shot your character.
Once you defeat the boss, it is time to unlock the Vault. Basically, this is the place where you can sacrifice your hard-earned gold. You can accept or decline any modifiers that would affect your final reward. Some of them cost significant amounts of gold, and it’s only up to you to decide. At any point, you can stop and open the Vault. There you will find from one to six chests with modified loot.
After that, you can leave the area through the Corrupted Lake to the right to skip a large portion of the story and continue your way to the second dungeon.
Soulfire Bastion (level 25)
- Reasons to farm: Gambling Exalted, Unique items
- Level requirement: 25-100
- Dungeon mechanic: Elemental Shield to ignore Fire/Necrotic damage
The second dungeon – Soulfire Bastion can be found in the Imperial Era in the Felled Wood area. You can safely play this dungeon once you are at least level 25. If you manage to clear this dungeon, you’ll be able to skip another half of the story and go straight to Chapter IX.
To open this dungeon, you’ll need to find the Soulfire Bastion key. Inside this dungeon, you will receive a new ability called Soulfire Shield. This shield can make you immune to Fire or Necrotic damage, but each cast consumes one soul. Killing enemies will give you more souls and of course loot.
You will also notice that this dungeon has plenty of fire traps, Necrotic Mages and Fire Archers, so use your Shield wisely to stay alive. Your base resistances will also help you a lot.
You can simply start searching for the exit and ignore all the threats, but I’d personally recommend you to kill as many enemies on your way as you can, because you will receive plenty of souls that you can later spend at the Soul Gambler.
But before you reach him, you’ll have to deal with the boss. Cremorus can attack you with fire and necrotic abilities. And floor tiles can make this fight even harder, but since we have a shield which grants immunity to one element, it shouldn’t take long to win this battle.
Once you defeat him, in the next area you will find the Gambler. He is like Kadala from Diablo 3, but you have a limited set of items you can gamble as your final reward. Here you can gamble any weapons, armor pieces and accessories. Any item has a chance to become rare, Exalted or even Unique. Most of them have high-tier rolls and they are not limited to your class.
The Tempest Sanctum (level 55)
- Reasons to farm: Sealing legendary items
- Level requirement: 55-100
- Dungeon mechanic: Switching timelines to cross dead-ends and avoid boss attacks
And the final dungeon – The Temporal Sanctum is located in the Ruined Era. This place is going to be your main endgame activity, because of Eternity Cache – aka. The Forge that allows to transform a unique item with legendary potential and an Exalted into a Legendary.
In order to reach this area, you need to finish a specific quest in the Imperial era which unlocks the sealed door with a Time rift behind it. To play the Temporal Sanctum, it’s recommended to start on at least level 55. And don’t forget to find the appropriate key to unlock the gate.
Inside this dungeon, you will receive a new ability called Temporal Shift. This will allow you freely to switch to Divine and Ruined era. You can use this ability to bypass obstacles or closed gates and avoid enemies. But if you have a teleport, you can ignore this mechanic completely and skip the area straight to the exit. Just walk along the edge of the map and at some point, you’ll find the exit to the next level.
Once you reach the boss, Julra, prepare to use Temporal Shift to avoid her deadly attacks and try not to stand still. After killing the boss, you’ll receive some boss-specific loot and gain access to Eternity Cache. On this forge, you can make legendary items. Simply put your unique item with legendary potential from 1 to 4 into the slot, and put an Exalted item of the same time in another slot. After that, the Cache will randomly select 1 to 4 stats from Exalted and put them into your unique.
If you are confused of what to do next after Sealing Cache, you should change your timeline with Temporal Shift. You will find your newly forged item in the Ruined Era.
In case you can’t put your item into the forge, you should pay close attention to what Tier you select when opening the dungeon. Tier 1 will allow you to forge items up to level 50; Tier 2 – 65; Tier 3 – 75 and Tier 4 – with no level restrictions.
What dungeons should I farm?
Now, after we covered all three dungeons, here comes the question: What dungeons should I farm first? The answer is simple – If you have at least one million gold and you lack resources or items, then you can choose Lightless Arbor. If you want to gamble high-tier items for your low-level character, pick the Soulfire Bastion. If you have a unique with legendary potential and an Exalted of the same type for your build, then it’s recommended to play the Temporal Sanctum.
You can also play these dungeons to level up your character, but it’s not as efficient as Monoliths. They are mostly used to skip the large portions of the campaign and to receive valuables to tune up your build and become stronger.
Video guide
Summary
So, there you have it! With these beginner’s tips, you can focus more on specific loot. Every single dungeon offers some valuable rewards and you don’t have to play an entire story for that. While you are still leveling, these dungeons are pretty much optional, and you will do just fine without them. However, once you start doing endgame Monoliths, you should stash more exalted and uniques with legendary potential, and then visit the Temporal Sanctum.
