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Last Epochfeatures a deep crafting system that walks a fine line between accessible and intricate. Virtually every item in Last Epoch can be heavily modified through the Forge, a crafting interface that allows you to modify affixes, insert new modifiers, and perform more advanced crafting techniques with exotic crafting materials.
While Last Epoch’s crafting system is far more accessible than games like Path of Exile, it can still be rather intimidating to newer players and ARPG veterans alike. This guide will give a general overview of how to craft items in Last Epoch. We explain how to use the crafting interface, give a general breakdown of common crafting terms you’ll find in the community, and showcase how to forge your own items with Last Epoch’s various crafting materials.
Updated May 21, 2025, by Charles Burgar:Creating the perfect items in Last Epoch can be a difficult task, especially if you’re new to using Runes and Glyphs. To help you create the best items, we’ve updated this article to include information on how every Rune and Glyph in Last Epoch works. Check the “Glyphs and Runes” section to find a table detailing what every Rune and Glyph does.
How To Unlock Crafting
Technically, there aren’t any quest prerequisites to start crafting in Last Epoch.You can use the Forge as soon as you acquire affix shards and an item with Forging Potential.You’ll start to find affix shards around Chapter 2. Monsters usually drop them, but you can also acquire shards by opening chestsand using the Rune of Shattering, but we’ll cover Runes in more detail in a later section.
Crafting Material Bag
you’re able to transfer all of your crafting materials into a seperate inventory by clicking the “Transfer Materials” button in your inventory. This crafting bag has no capacity limit.
Crafting Terminology
Before we cover how to craft items in Last Epoch, it’s important to understand what certain crafting terms represent. If you’re new to crafting in Last Epoch or ARPGs in general, here’s a brief rundown.
Last Epoch-Specific Terms
Forging Potential
The number of crafting modifications you’re able to perform on an item.
Most crafting options cost 1-18 Forging Potential. This cost is random.
Runes
Socketable objects that perform a unique crafting procedure, draining Forging Potential.
Consumes the Rune on use, regardless of outcome.
Glyphs
Scrolls that augment your next craft. Glyphs are consumed when used, regardless of outcome.
Glyphs are socketed in a dedicated slot in the Forge menu, located below the item.
Exalted
An item that rolled with a T6 or T7 affix, denoted with purple text.
T6+ affixes cannot be crafted normally. They must be found from item drops.
Legendary Potential
How many affixes a Unique can acquire when it is upgraded to a Legendary.
Uniques can roll with 1-4 Legendary Potential when they drop.
Shatter
A community term for breaking an item with a Rune of Shattering. This converts the item into affix shards.
Items with skill ranks or similar unique affixes are typically worth shattering.
Common ARPG Terms
Affix
These are the modifiers on your item, located on the bottom half of the item’s description.
Affixes are made up of two pools: prefixes and suffixes.
Most prefixes increase your damage, attributes, or offer utility effects.
Suffix
The right-most affix slots on your gear.
Suffixes improve your character’s defenses, such as armor, resistances, and HP.
Implicits
These are modifiers baked into the item itself, listed under the item’s name.
Implicits are not random, but their stat valuesmightbe random based on the item type.
Tiers
The stat range a particular affix can roll with. Higher tiers are better.
In Last Epoch, Tiers 1-5 can be crafted, while Tiers 6-7 only appear on Exalted items.
Item Affixes And Shards
Once you stumble upon some shards,you can open the Forge menu by pressingthe “F” key.This will reveal a crafting interface with a blank socket for your item. Place your item into the forge, and you will see your item’s affixes (if applicable) and a circular socket below.
This socket is where you can modify the item. You can insert affix shards to upgrade pre-existing affixes or add entirely new affixes onto the item. Runes can also be socketed in place of affix shards to perform more advanced crafts, but we’ll focus on affix shards for now.
If an affix has a glowing arrow next to it, you may upgrade it by clicking the arrow icon.This will socket the necessary shards and display a Forging Potential cost. Click “Upgrade Affix,” and you’re done. The process is similar for adding affixes. Simply click an empty prefix or suffix slot, select an affix shard you wish to install, then add the craft.
Every craft you perform will drain an item’s Forging Potential.If this value reaches zero, you may no longer modify the item. Your item’s current Forging Potential can be seen at the top of the Forge UI. All crafts in Last Epoch willdrain a random amount of Forging Potential.The game will give you a range (such as 1-14) and pick a random number.The success of your craft is guaranteed; it’s only the potential drain that’s random.
Critical Success
There is a rare chance that a craft will be a critical success. A critical success will drain zero Forging Potential, upgrade all of your affixes by one tier, and refund all crafting materials used.
For example, let’s say that you want to upgrade an affix from T1 to T2. This process will drain 1-18 Forging Potential. One craft might cost 11 Forging Potential, while the next craft might cost a lower value like three or two.Regardless of what number you roll, the craft will succeed.Fortunately, there are crafting materials you can use to bias these rolls to your favor.
Glyphs And Runes
Every craft you perform in Last Epoch can be modified with aGlyph.These scrolls can be inserted right below your item in the Forge panel to alter the outcome of a particular craft. For example, the Glyph of Hope gives your next craft a 25% chance to drain zero Forging Potential. If you find an item with a T3 or T4 affix you don’t care about, you’re able to also use a Glyph of Chaos to upgrade that affix while simultaneously changing it into a different affix type entirely.
Generally,Glyphs inject some randomness into your next craft, but the potential outcome is usually worth the risk.you may also use Glyphs with any crafting technique in Last Epoch, as they take up their own slot in the Forge menu. Click on the scroll icon in between the item and crafting material, then perform the craft when you’re ready.
Glyphs arenotremoved from the Forge after you perform a craft. Be sure to clear your Glyph slot after each craft to prevent a crafting accident—for example, rerolling an affix with the Glyph of Chaos when you didn’t mean to.
If you want to modify your item in a more deterministic fashion, you can use aRunein place of an affix shard.Runes allow you to perform advanced crafting techniques in the Forge. For example, the Rune of Discovery can be used to fill an item’s empty affix slots with new modifiers. Other techniques include removing a random affix, rerolling affix values, and converting the item into a Unique of the same base type.
Unlike Glyphs,Runes are socketed in the same slot as affix shards, meaning you can’t use Runes to augment a craft. And just like affix shards,Runes drain Forging Potential.Thankfully, Runes can also be supported by Glyphs if you wish to perform a highly advanced craft.
As you reach the endgame of Last Epoch, you will start to see Unique items with Legendary Potential.Legendary Potential is a variant of Forging Potential that appears on Unique items only.The process is a little different from creating a Rare item, but the result is virtually the same. You need two things to forge a Legendary:
Once you have both items, you will need tocomplete the Temporal Sanctum dungeonin the Ruined Era. At the end of the dungeon, you will be able to interact with a crafting device that will synthesize your Unique and Exalted item into a new Legendary.
The Legendary Potential on your Unique will determine how many affixes are carried over from your Exalted item.For example, if your Unique has one Legendary Potential, only one of the Exalted item’s affixes will be infused into the Legendary. If the item has four Legendary Potential, then all four affixes will appear.Stat values arenotrerolled when a Legendary is created.
Weaver’s Will
It is also possible to obtain a Unique with the Weaver’s Will modifier. This will automatically turn the Unique into a Legendary as you kill enemies with the item equipped. The more Weaver’s Will stacks it has, the more affixes the Legendary can add or upgrade.
