Last Epoch’s progression system revolves around two main experience types: character experience and skill experience. Character EXP is gained by completing quests Last Epoch Gold, defeating enemies, and finishing content, increasing your character’s level up to a maximum of 100. Leveling up improves stats like Health and Mana and grants passive points to invest in mastery trees, enhancing offensive and defensive capabilities. Skill experience is earned by actively using skills, allowing you to level each skill individually (up to level 20 base) and allocate points in unique skill trees, which deepen build customization and power.

1. Early Progression: Campaign and Leveling to 50-55
The campaign spans nine acts and is the primary path for initial leveling, typically taking characters to level 50-55. It offers a balanced mix of quests and enemy encounters, providing steady EXP and gear drops. While gearing is not critical during this phase, focusing on survivability by maximizing resistances—especially physical and cold for tough bosses like Lagon—is recommended. If struggling with bosses, learning the crafting system (the Forge) to improve gear quality is advised. The campaign is also where you unlock passive points and idol slots, essential for later build development.

2. Mid to Late Progression: Monolith of Fate (Level 50 to 80-90)
After completing the campaign, the Monolith of Fate becomes the main leveling and endgame progression system. It offers procedurally generated timelines called Echoes, which provide EXP and rewards. Clearing Echoes with experience bonuses and Tomes of Experience yields some of the fastest leveling gains. The Monolith also introduces empowered versions of timelines with higher difficulty and better rewards. At this stage, gearing becomes more important: crafting rare items with the right affixes and using uniques that synergize with your build is key to progressing efficiently.

3. Endgame and Level 90-100+
The final leveling stretch involves empowered Monoliths with high corruption levels, demanding optimized gear and survivability stats such as critical avoidance and high resistances (75%+). Farming for high-tier idols, crafting exalted items, and acquiring empowered blessings are vital to survive and thrive in this extreme endgame content. The ultimate goal is to unlock and complete empowered timelines and face challenging bosses like the Harbinger, which lead to the final content and level cap.

4. Alternate Leveling Paths
For players who have completed the campaign, Last Epoch offers alternate leveling paths through special dungeons accessed by Dungeon Keys earned in the Monolith of Fate. These dungeons allow skipping certain chapters by jumping between eras, providing efficient level gains and fresh content buy Last Epoch Gold. Examples include Lightless Arbor (Chapter 2 to 4), Soulfire Bastion (Chapter 4 to 7), and Temporal Sanctum (Chapter 5 to 8). This system enables leveling multiple characters quickly without replaying the entire campaign.