Last Epoch caps character level at 100, and experience comes from quests, enemies, and rewards such as Monolith Echoes. For a fast climb on a new character, keep moving through the campaign and clearing dense enemy packs while your character is under level 50, and only try the Monolith early when your build clears it quickly. From level 50, the Monolith and Arena XP bonuses start to apply, but re-entering an Echo you've already attempted pays significantly less XP, so keep pushing into new ones.
| Enemy type | Experience when slain |
|---|---|
| Ordinary enemy | Base amount |
| Magic enemy | 50% more than base |
| Rare enemy | 200% more, plus 4% per enemy level (600% at level 100) |
| Boss | No multiplier, but a much higher base reward |
Follow the Campaign Route and Clear Dense Packs Under Level 50
Under level 50, your job is to keep kills coming while you move through the story. Experience comes from both quests and enemies, so a route that finishes quests as you pass them and clears groups as they show up gives you steady XP without much backtracking.
- Follow the campaign's main route.
- Complete the quests you pass along the way.
- Clear dense groups and any magic or rare enemies you meet on the route.
- Skip thinly populated areas, and don't stop to inspect every drop.
Each step is about where your time goes. Magic and rare enemies pay more than ordinary ones, and rare enemies pay a lot more, so a group with one of them is worth more than a quiet hallway with a few weak enemies. Time spent clearing empty rooms or checking loot adds up without adding much XP.
Experience Shrines fit into the same routine. Pick one up when it sits on your path, then use its boost while you clear the enemies nearby, so the bonus lands on fights you're already in.
Jumping far ahead doesn't pay as much as the enemy levels suggest, though. An area counts for XP at most 10 levels above your character, so a level-20 character in a level-40 area earns XP as if the area were level 30.
Monolith of Fate: When Early Entry Makes Sense
The Monolith of Fate opens once your character reaches The End of Time in the campaign, and you don't have to defeat the final campaign boss first. Going in early can cut down campaign time and combine XP farming with gear, but it's a high-risk choice rather than a faster route for every character.
Experienced players with a strong build, or with an equipped alternate character, sometimes try it around levels 20 to 40. Enemies there hit hard for an underleveled character, so the approach only works when your build kills quickly and gets through Echo objectives without trouble.
Keep an eye on how the run feels:
- If kills are slow or deaths keep interrupting your runs, go back to the campaign and gain levels and gear there.
- A first character may find early entry inefficient, so the campaign route is usually the safer start.
Early Monolith runs pay base XP without the Echo bonuses, so the value is in the enemies and gear rather than in a multiplier.
Campaign Dungeon Skips: Keys, Rewards and Trade-Offs
The campaign has three dungeons: Lightless Arbor, Soulfire Bastion, and Temporal Sanctum. Each one needs its matching key. Completing a dungeon and taking its alternate exit moves you past part of the campaign and onto a later region. You don't have to use every dungeon.
The first completion of each dungeon grants two Passive points and one Idol slot, so it's worth clearing each one at least once.
Season 5 added three one-shot key caches in out-of-the-way campaign areas. Each holds a dungeon key, which gives the first character of a season, or a Solo character, a single chance to use that dungeon's skip without waiting on a random key drop. The cache areas are fixed, but the exact chest spot inside each one is random.
| Dungeon | Key cache location | Skip outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Lightless Arbor | The Forsaken Trail (Ruined Era) | The Risen Lake (Imperial Era), Act 3 to Act 4 |
| Soulfire Bastion | Ruins of Etendell (Imperial Era) | Kolheim Pass (Divine Era), Act 4 to Act 7 |
| Temporal Sanctum | Maj'elkan Catacombs (Imperial Era) | The Radiant Dunes (Divine Era), Act 5 to Act 9 |
Skipping has a cost. Skipped quests don't hand out their Passive points or Idol slots on their own, so the Monolith and dungeon skips can leave a character short on both. There are more reward quests than your character can claim, so you only need enough to fill the gap. Check the counters in the lower-left corner of the map, then finish just the quests that grant what you're missing.
Skipping also affects the XP from the quests you land on. A chapter's quests pay less for your level when you're at least five levels under that chapter's starting level, so a skip that puts a character well ahead of their level earns less from the quests there.
Dungeons are harder than the standard campaign areas, so skip only when your character can handle one. If you'd rather not hunt for keys or learn dungeon mechanics, sticking with the standard route is the simpler choice.
Leveling Past Level 50 in Last Epoch: Monolith, Arena and Echoes
At level 50, the Monolith Echo and Arena XP bonuses begin to apply. Under that level, the Arena still gives normal XP for the enemies you kill, just without the extra bonus.
Past level 50, the question becomes speed. XP rates depend on how quickly your character clears each activity, so compare new Monolith Echoes, the Arena, and the campaign on your own build rather than relying on a fixed ranking.
Raising Corruption in the Monolith of Fate is one of the main ways to push XP higher. Pair it with a build that clears quickly, since that's what keeps your XP rate up.
Don't loop the same Echo for XP. Since patch 1.5, entering an Echo you've already attempted gives significantly less XP and Favor, along with reduced random encounters and loot. Put your time into new Echoes instead. Quest Echoes and Timeline bosses are worth going after too, since patch 1.5.4 fixed a bug that sometimes made them give less XP than intended.
