Whether you're an ARPG veteran or someone dipping their toes into the loot-driven genre for the first time, Last Epoch offers a standout experience, and much of that magic comes from its incredibly satisfying and complex crafting system. Even among players divided on various aspects of the game, there's one thing nearly everyone agrees on: Last Epoch features one of the best, if not the best, crafting systems in any ARPG to date.

This article is a deep dive into what makes Last Epoch's crafting system so excellent, how it works at both the basic and advanced levels, and what tools — glyphs and runes — you'll be using along the way. The system is intuitive enough for beginners to grasp yet deep enough to satisfy theorycrafters and min-maxers. So let's go step-by-step into the wonderful world of forging your loot in Last Epoch.

Crafting Basics: What You Can and Can't Do

Let's start with some fundamental rules:

• You can't craft on set items or most unique items.

These are locked, with the only option being to shatter them for crafting materials.

• Some Uniques, however, can be altered in limited ways.

Certain Woven Echoes Uniques allow you to reroll the ranges (not tiers) of their affixes if you meet specific conditions.

• Legendary Potential (LP) is where things get spicy.

If a Unique item has 1 or more LP, it can be slammed with an Exalted item of the same base type in the Temporal Sanctum dungeon to create a Legendary item. The affixes from the Exalted item will be transferred, one for each LP. So, 1 LP = 1 affix transferred. This is how you create some of the most powerful items in the game.

Example: You find Wing Guard gloves with 1 LP. You need an Exalted pair of gloves (same base) with great stats. Run the Temporal Sanctum (at least Tier 2 for guaranteed transfer), and one of the Exalted affixes will be inherited by your Legendary item.

This is why Exalted items — rare drops with at least one tier 6 or tier 7 affix — are so valuable. They serve both as potent gear in their own right and as the essential crafting material for creating top-tier Legendary items.

The Forging Interface: Understanding Forging Potential

When you toss an item into the crafting forge, you'll immediately see its Forging Potential (FP) — think of it as your crafting juice. Every action you take, whether adding, removing, or upgrading affixes, consumes FP. Once FP hits zero, no further crafting can be done.

This system forces you to think strategically. Every crafting decision matters.

Glyphs and How to Use Them Effectively

Glyphs are single-use items that enhance or alter the crafting process. Here's a breakdown of each one and how to use them optimally:

Glyph of Hope

• Effect: 25% chance for your crafting action to not consume any Forging Potential.

• Use: These are your bread-and-butter glyphs. When you're upgrading tiers on affixes or adding new ones, always use Glyphs of Hope.

• Why it's amazing: You get free rolls, which means more shots at god-tier items. You'll collect hundreds of these over time, so use them liberally.

Glyph of Chaos

• Effect: Upgrades the chosen affix and transforms it into a different random affix of the same category (prefix or suffix).

• Use Case: You're stuck with a tier 1-3 affix you don't want. Instead of just upgrading it, use Chaos to re-roll it into something useful. Pro tip: Don't use it on affixes you want to keep. Chaos will replace them!

• Example: If you've got “Stun Chance” but want “Fire Penetration,” Chaos might get you there—or closer, at least.

Glyph of Order

• Effect: Prevents the value of the affix within its tier from changing when upgrading.

• When to Use: When your affix is already maxed out in its current tier range and you don't want to risk rolling it downward when tiering up.

Why it's rare: Most players prefer Glyph of Hope due to its potential to save FP. The order is niche but excellent in precision crafting.

Glyph of Despair

• Effect: Seals an affix instead of upgrading it. The affix is moved to a separate “sealed affix” slot.

• Use Case: You want to remove a junk affix without destroying your item's integrity, so you “seal” it off and free up the slot.

• Advanced Use:

   Despair enables endgame-tier strategies:

   1. Find an Exalted item with a bad affix (e.g., T7 Melee Physical Damage you don't want).

   2. Seal off a low-tier junk affix (like T1 Stun Chance).

   3. Craft a useful affix (like T1 Fire Penetration).

   4. Use Rune of Havoc (we'll get to that) to shuffle the tiers. If you're lucky, the T7 will move to your newly crafted Fire Penetration.

   5. Chaos off the leftover bad affix if needed.

Success rates: T1 affixes are easy to seal. T2 is decent. T3 is hard. T4+ is not recommended — failure raises the tier, so it becomes a waste of FP quickly.

Runes and What They Do

Runes are consumable crafting items that perform a wide variety of more specialized actions compared to glyphs. Let's focus on a few key ones for now:

Rune of Havoc

• Effect: Randomizes the tiers of the non-sealed affixes.

• Use: This is the rune for manipulating tier levels in the hopes of transferring a high-tier affix into a useful one.

Use with Glyph of Despair for magic results.

Rune of Removal

• Effect: Removes one random affix.

• Use Case: Great when you've got a strong Exalted item but one bad affix. Just beware — you can't control which one it removes, so use it carefully.

Rune of Shattering

• Effect: Destroys the item but gives you affix shards (crafting currency).

• Use: Best way to farm specific affix shards, especially from Uniques, Sets, or gear with rare mods.

Rune of Refinement

• Effect: Re-rolls the values of your affixes within their current tier.

• Use: When you have T5 or higher affixes and want to maximize the stats within the tier without moving up or down.

Exalted Items, Legendaries, and the Path to Godly Gear

Crafting in Last Epoch isn't just about making gear with Last Epoch gold as you level. It's about sculpting god-tier endgame items, especially by using the Legendary Crafting System.

Here's the flow:

1. Find a Unique item with Legendary Potential.

2. Craft or acquire an Exalted item of the same base type.

3. Make sure the Exalted has only the affixes you want (ideally all four).

4. Enter the Temporal Sanctum dungeon, Tier 2+.

5. Combine the items into a Legendary — it inherits 1-4 affixes depending on LP.

6. Profit.

This system is a beautiful combination of deterministic crafting and RNG — the player controls the prep, and the slam is the dice roll.

Endgame Crafting Strategy Tips

• Save your best Exalteds. Even if you can't use them now, they may be perfect for a Unique slam later.

• Don't waste Glyphs of Despair on T3-T4 affixes. Stick to T1-T2.

• Craft early, craft often. Use cheap bases with decent affixes to get comfortable with the system.

• Use filters smartly. Loot filters that highlight items with high Forging Potential or specific base types make a world of difference.

• Track your potential. Don't spend it all chasing one perfect line — plan the item out!

Closing Thoughts: Why It's So Good

Crafting in Last Epoch is layered.

• Accessible to beginners. You just throw in an item and click upgrade.

• Endlessly deep for veterans. Advanced glyph/rune usage, sealing, tier manipulation, and legendary crafting open up insane customization.

• Rewarding risk. You can fail, but even that teaches you.

• Combines deterministic systems with RNG in the right places.

• Supports building diversity. Because you can handcraft almost any stat you need.

Whether you're hunting the perfect sword for a crit-based Spellblade or trying to build the ultimate Necrotic resistance armor for your Lich, the Last Epoch crafting system makes it possible — and fun.

If you haven't dug into crafting yet, give it a try. Start with basic upgrades, then experiment with Glyph of Chaos and Despair. Once you start making gear tailored to your build, you'll see just how incredible this system really is.