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Last Epoch’sfirst major seasonal update is here. Named Harbingers of Ruin, this update adds a new endgame foe for players to face in the Monolith of Fate. Best these ancient Harbingers, and you’ll walk away with powerful new items. The leveling process has also been updated to include a new Nemesis system, acting as a new source of power in the early game.
Beyond the myriad of balance changes that launched with this update, the new content in Harbingers of Ruin might be slightly confusing at first. Let’s go over what Harbingers of Ruin is, how to access the new Nemesis system, where to find Harbingers, and how to increase your reputation with the cycle’s new Forgotten Knights faction.
What Is Harbingers Of Ruin?
Harbingers of Ruin is the first major content update for Last Epoch, serving as the game’s first cycle. ACycle is a seasonal realm where players start in a fresh economy.Unlike similar ARPGs, the new mechanics tied to this seasonal cycle arenotrestricted to cycle characters. If you play Last Epoch onanycharacter this update,even an offline character, you’ll get to experience the new Harbingers of Ruin content.
This cycle brings with it two new enemy types:Nemeses and Harbingers.These ephemeral foes drop high-quality items and tons of crafting shards when slain, but you can make their rewards even stronger if you choose to empower them instead of outright banishing or slaying them. Ramp up the difficulty, receive more rewards, and you’ll eventually unlock access to this update’s unique pinnacle boss.
Eternal Realm characters will gain access to the new cycle mechanics once this update’s new pinnacle boss is slain on the Cycle Realm. If this takes longer than a week, EHG will unlock this content for all players automatically.
Battling A Nemesis
Nearly every region in Eterra is haunted by the presence ofa Nemesis, which will appear on your minimap with a golden circle icon. Interacting with the ephemeral figure will reveal every item it’s made out of.If you successfully defeat the Nemesis, it will drop all the shown items.However, that’s not the only thing you may do. You have three ways to tackle each Harbinger encounter:
These enemies are slightly weaker than Exile Mages in terms of power, so most builds should be able to tackle them without too much resistance. In general,if the Nemesis has a good item, go ahead and kill it.If it has a decent Unique and you don’t mind waiting, empower it instead.Empowered items gain sealed affixes, and Unique can outright morph into Legendaries or gain Legendary Potential.
When you reach the later Chapters of the campaign, each Nemesis you find also has a small chance of spawning with anEgg of the Forgotten.This item lets you incubate any Unique you own into that slot.Socketed Uniques can then be empowered,granting Legendary Potential or Weaver’s Will. It might also turn the item into a Legendary, making this an absurdly powerful way to strengthen your Uniques while leveling.
Harbingers
Once you reach the endgame,a Harbinger type is associated with each Monolith of Fate timeline.They will spawn upon defeating the timeline boss and inherit some of its properties. Upon defeating all ten endgame Harbingers, you’ll gain access to this cycle’s new pinnacle boss who can drop some of this update’s new Unique items. Future Harbinger kills will drop Eyes to let you resummon the pinnacle boss.
Forgotten Knights Faction
The Forgotten Knights is a faction dedicated to this cycle’s new Harbinger mechanic.Upon defeating your first endgame Harbinger, you’ll gain access to the Forgotten Knights faction, located in the new Shattered Road region. They’re structured similarly to the Circle of Fortune and Merchant’s Guild, granting you passive bonuses as you earn Favor with them. Eliminate Harbingers to progress their reward track.
The Forgotten Knights faction doesnotprevent you from joining the Circle of Fortune or Merchant’s Guild. You can be part of the Forgotten Knights and either faction simultaneously.
Progress with the Forgotten Knights is also shared between characters in the same realm.
Effect
Rank 1
+40% chance for Nemesis items to include an Egg of the Fogotten.
+20% additional Glyph of Envy drop chance from Harbingers.
Rank 6
The tiers of sealed affixes added by Empowering a Nemesis are 15% higher on average.
Blessings roll their value twice and pick the highest roll.
