Last Epoch Gold

Last Epoch Season 5, Rage of the Frostborn, launches on October 1st at 11:00 AM CDT. Alongside the new season, the developers are introducing First Blood season-start race, designed for all Travelers who thrive on speed.

The rules are simple: using your chosen class, be the first to defeat Pinnacle Morditas - God of Bloodshed - to claim First Blood title for that class.

Participation and Rewards

First Blood race offers two modes of participation:

• Online Normal Solo Challenge
• Online Hardcore Solo Challenge

Regardless of the mode chosen, you must progress solo. Unlike standard gameplay where trading Last Epoch gold can provide an advantage during the early game, First Blood emphasizes the player's own resource management skills.

Rewards are divided into two tiers: participation rewards and racing rewards. Players who log in to Season 5 within two weeks of its October 1st launch will receive the in-game title Blood Seeker as a memento of the event.

Racing rewards are reserved for true speedrunners. The race covers all five base classes, with a winner determined for each class in both Normal and Hardcore modes.

The first player to defeat Pinnacle Morditas for each class and mode will receive Enraged Legend Supporter Pack. Consequently, a total of 10 players will earn this supporter pack.

Notably, the developers have provided clear guidelines for the rare scenario of simultaneous kills: if two players are determined to have defeated the boss at the exact same time, both will receive the reward without further tie-breaking.

The Path to Pinnacle Morditas

Morditas does not appear immediately; players must follow a specific progression chain to unlock the Pinnacle Morditas encounter.

Step 1: Obtain Woven Echo via Rage of Morditas

First, players must engage with the new Season 5 mechanic, Rage of Morditas, to defeat the standard version of Morditas and obtain Woven Echo drop.

Rage of Morditas encounters appear as players explore Eterra. Players will come across Blood Crystals; interacting with them triggers Rage of Morditas event. Once the event begins, players must reach specific kill thresholds within a limited time; the higher the threshold reached, the stronger the resulting buffs, while also generating Bloodrage Charges.

This mechanic features various iterations, each introducing unique combat effects. For example:

• Revitalizing Rage: Blood Potions may appear during combat; picking them up grants a temporary movement speed boost.
• Freezing Rage: Generates projectiles with a high Freeze Rate.
• Coalescing Rage: Spawns Blood Orbs around the player that explode upon contact with enemies.
• Reptilian Bloodrage: Has a chance to spawn lizard-like enemies nearby every few seconds.

Step 2: Place Demigod's Ascendance into Monolith of Fate

After obtaining Demigod's Ascendance Woven Echo, the next step is to slot it into Monolith of Fate's Echo Web.

It is important to note that Demigod's Ascendance is a Woven Echo with fixed difficulty. Players must raise their Corruption level to 400 to slot it into Echo Web.

Unlike standard Echoes, the difficulty of Demigod's Ascendance does not scale further with increased Corruption. In other words, reaching 400 Corruption satisfies the entry requirement, but raising Corruption beyond that point does not increase the difficulty of Woven Echo itself.

Step 3: Challenge Pinnacle Morditas

Upon entering Demigod's Ascendance, players face the ultimate challenge: Pinnacle Morditas - God of Bloodshed. This serves as the final objective of First Blood race.

Based on revealed mechanics, Pinnacle Morditas follows the established design philosophy for Pinnacle Bosses: players must engage with the seasonal mechanic, defeat the standard Morditas, acquire the corresponding Woven Echo, meet the 400 Corruption entry requirement, and finally challenge Pinnacle version.

Season 4's Vision of the Observer utilized a similar design, requiring players to reach a specific Corruption threshold to access Pinnacle encounter via a Woven Echo.

Consequently, for players participating in First Blood, the entire journey - from initial progression and character strengthening to reaching 400 Corruption and ultimately defeating God of Bloodshed - forms part of the race.

Speedrunning Strategy Recommendations

Class Selection

Choosing a class is the first step in speedrunning. Prioritize Masteries in Last Epoch that offer efficient map clearing, high mobility, and consistent boss damage; if playing Hardcore, survivability becomes a critical factor.

Pre-planning Your Build

Finalize your build, skill setup, and gear requirements before the race begins to minimize the need for on-the-fly adjustments after launch. For First Blood event, how quickly a build comes online and its reliance on specific gear are often more important than its theoretical maximum damage output.

Prioritize Progressing Monolith of Fate

Once you reach the endgame, prioritize progressing through Monolith of Fate. Aim to reach 400 Corruption as quickly as possible to meet the entry requirements for Demigod's Ascendance. Unless your gear is severely lacking, avoid spending too much time farming for items at low Corruption levels.

Efficiently Navigating Rage of Morditas

Minimize wasted movement within Rage of Morditas and make full use of the game's objective markers to eliminate targets quickly. The goal isn't to clear every enemy, but to maximize effective kills and Bloodrage gains within the time limit.

Planning Gear Acquisition

Since First Blood requires Solo Account Found or Solo Character Found modes, you cannot rely on trading or grouping up with others. Therefore, plan your gear and resource acquisition routes in advance and leverage in-game mechanics effectively based on your specific build.

First Blood speedrun is not merely a test of speed; it is a comprehensive evaluation of a player's resource management, build knowledge, and execution skills during the early stages of the season.

Whether you are a top-tier speedrunner aiming for Supporter Pack or a casual player looking to experience the competitive atmosphere, understanding the seasonal mechanics, planning your route, and choosing the right class build will help you go further in Last Epoch: Rage of the Frostborn.

After nearly 6 months, Last Epoch is finally preparing to launch its new League, Rage of the Frostborn. The official team has made changes across many areas, including factions, new endgame mechanics, unique items, and more.

Last Epoch Season 5 will launch on October 1, and the official team will gradually reveal the core content. However, the trailer has already shown us plenty of details. Let's take a look at the new content coming with Season 5.

Rage of the Frostborn

When you enter an Echo, the first thing you will see is a blood crystal spire. It appears right at the starting location, so you do not need to search around for it. However, you must manually interact with it to activate the seasonal mechanic in that Echo.

After clicking it, the timer starts, and players need to defeat enemies as quickly as possible. The system is somewhat similar to Delirium mechanic in Path of Exile.

A kill streak meter will appear on the screen. Your goal is to fill it as much as possible before the countdown ends, which requires defeating 250 enemies.

There are several thresholds on the kill streak meter, and reaching them will grant BloodRage charges. When the kill streak gets close to being completed, the timer will speed up, so players do not have to simply wait for the countdown to finish.

Once the kill streak reaches 250, the next stage of the mechanic will begin. Morditas will appear and use blood to revive the enemies that were just defeated during the kill streak, allowing players to defeat them again.

This stage could be very effective for gaining experience and leveling because of the large number of enemies. After defeating the second stage, players can consume their BloodRage charges to claim rewards.

Reward System

This new mechanic is somewhat similar to the Nemesis System, but with a few differences. Normally, Nemesis System requires players to search across multiple Echoes to find and enhance rewards before finally claiming them. Here, players accumulate BloodRage charges and use them at the end of each Echo to receive Ritual rewards.

Ritual rewards will display how many charges you have, with each charge representing one interaction. The reward screen will offer four equipment rewards, along with some type of currency item, crafting material, or key. Players will have three options: the middle option allows them to directly claim the items, while the other two options are Frozen Ritual and Bloody Ritual.

Frozen Ritual

Frozen Ritual sacrifices the selected item, then rerolls and strengthens the remaining rewards to provide better results. For example, if you sacrifice a helmet, the other 4 rewards will all become helmets. If you want to farm helmets, sacrificing a helmet is the way to target them.

Using Frozen Ritual consumes one BloodRage charge, and you will receive four upgraded helmets that become Exalted and have Ice Forging Potential.

Ice Forging Potential means crafting is more likely to consume less Forging Potential, allowing players to perform more crafting attempts.

Bloody Ritual

Bloody Ritual also sacrifices the selected item and rerolls and strengthens the remaining rewards, but its mechanics work differently. Sacrificing a helmet will provide helmet rewards, while sacrificing a relic will not produce relics.

In other words, players can use sacrifices to remove unwanted item types. It can also provide rewards with Blood Forging Potential. The difference between the 2 is that Ice Forging Potential has a higher chance to reduce Forging Potential consumption, while Blood Forging Potential has a higher chance to trigger a critical crafting success.

Morditas

Morditas is a new boss added in Season 5. It has hooves and antlers, and it may have a connection with Heorot.

Players will have two ways to challenge Morditas. One is the normal version, while the other is an enhanced Pinnacle version. The Pinnacle version is not on the same level as Uber Abberoth, but the unlock requirement is at least 400 Corruption.

For reference, challenging and defeating Uber Apollyon requires at least 500 Corruption. Therefore, 400 Corruption is only the unlock requirement for Pinnacle Morditas and does not mean that every build can easily handle the fight.

Faction System

The interfaces and systems for Merchant Guild and Circle of Fortune will receive major reworks.

Merchant Guild

For players who sell equipment through Merchant Guild to earn Last Epoch gold, the system will provide recommended values based on historical transaction data. If you do not want to compare the value of other items on the market, this feature can save time.

However, it may not always be intelligent enough. For example, for an Exalted item with two T7 affixes, it may provide a similar recommended value while ignoring whether the affix combination is actually desirable. For unique items, the recommendations should still be relatively reliable. 

Circle of Fortune

Prophecies system for Circle of Fortune will also receive major changes. Previously, players needed to randomly refresh Prophecies, but now they will appear in a dropdown list, allowing players to directly choose Prophecies they want.

The 4 Telescopes will remain, and each one will still have its own trigger conditions. Players will accumulate charges, meet the requirements, and receive rewards. Lenses can still be used for fine adjustments.

Favor will not disappear, but its purpose will change. It will no longer be used for rerolls. Instead, it will determine the speed at which players accumulate charges and trigger Prophecies.

Class Changes

Based on the information currently revealed, Last Epoch Season 5 will not introduce large-scale class reworks. The official team has added some new skills, but the main focus remains balance adjustments. The final numerical changes will be revealed in the complete patch notes.

Bladedancer: Dreamslash

Dreamslash charges toward the target and attacks, while your shadow copies the attack as a projectile version. This skill will be moved to the top of Dreamslash skill tree.

Paladin: Radiant Lance

Radiant Lance uses a shield to absorb light and releases a focused beam forward. It deals lightning damage by default, but the skill tree allows it to be converted into Void or Fire damage. All Sentinels can use this skill, but players must specialize into Paladin to unlock it.

In addition, Symbols of Hope will become a Paladin-exclusive ability and will be moved deeper into the skill tree, while Radiant Lance will take its previous position.

Shaman: Summon Tide Elemental

Summon Tide Elemental is a Minion skill, not a Companion skill. It summons a Tide Elemental that acts as a powerful caster.

Only one Tide Elemental can exist at a time. It deals Frost damage by default, while its skill tree can convert the damage type into Lightning or Physical. A Unique Idol can also convert it into Fire damage.

Last Epoch Season 5 introduces many changes, including new uniques, mechanics, and bosses. Although some players may not consider this a massive amount of content, these additions affect the foundation of the game, and the official team is moving the game in a positive direction.