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Reaching the ninth Chapter inLast Epoch’scampaign will present the opportunity to join a faction. These factions fundamentally change the way you interact with Last Epoch’s endgame systems by adding new ways to deterministically chase items.
The Merchant’s Guild and Circle of Fortune are two powerful factions in Last Epoch that enable item trading, Prophecies, and much more. Whether you prefer to play ARPGs for monster drops or the trading economy, Last Epoch’s factions have something for everyone. Read on to learn how each faction works, their unique reputation systems, and reasons for why you might want to join either faction.
Updated June 21, 2025, by Charles Burgar:The factions of Last Epoch received a few small updates in Patch 1.1, notably the inclusion of two new rank bonuses for the Merchant’s Guild and Circle of Fortune. We’ve updated this guide to include these new rank bonuses, and all faction rewards have been updated to reflect this cycle’s latest changes.
How To Join Factions In Last Epoch
To join a faction, you must firstreach Chapter 9 in Last Epoch’s campaign.This is the last Act of the game as of Patch 1.0. Once you reach the city of Maj’elka, you will unlock the quest"Merchants and Fortune Tellers.“Speak with Zerrick in the upper district, and he will give a brief explanation of each faction’s benefits.
Your decision isn’t locked in until you speak with that faction’s representative, so you have an opportunity to learn more about how the Merchant’s Guild and Circle of Fortune operate before locking in your decision. We’ll cover the exact differences between each faction in a second, but for those who want a brief overview, here is what each faction offers:
It is possible to change your faction allegiance, so don’t worry if you want to swap faction types later.
Regardless of which faction you side with, you will need to build Favor to access any of these features.Killing monsters, completing quests, and beating endgame activities will earn Favor with your aligned faction. That Favor can then be exchanged for goods and services for that faction. Think of it as a currency type that’s passively earned as you play Last Epoch.
For the Merchant’s Guild, Favor is required to make trade listings and purchase items from other players. For the Circle of Fortune, you will need Favor to purchase Prophecies and Lenses.
Viewing Your Faction Favor
You can open the faction panel at any time by pressing “Y” on M&K. This lets you preview your current faction benefits, upcoming rewards, and grants the ability to leave your faction.
The Merchant’s Guild
The Merchant’s Guild is Last Epoch’s solution to player trading.As you level the Merchant’s Guild, you will unlock the ability to buy and sell items in the Bazaar, a trading hub in Maj’elka that acts similarly to an auction house.Each stall in the bazaar acts as a filter for the auction house, separating listings based on item type. There’s a stall for weapons, specific armor pieces, accessories, etc.
Interacting with the stall’s respective vendor will bring up the auction house. From here, you can browse current listings,apply filters to quickly search for certain items, buy items from other players with Gold, or post your own items for sale.Buying and selling items will incur a small Favor tax with the Merchant’s Guild, so you can’t spend hours exclusively trading. If you want to keep trading, you’ll need to keep playing.
Trade listings persist even when you’re offline. Once the purchase clears, the item (or Gold) will be sent to your inventory immediately.
Unlike most ARPGs, Last Epoch’s trading economy has some unique checks and balances to ensure that market manipulation is a non-issue:
You can buy and sell Normal, Magic, and Rare items.
you’re able to buy and sell Set items.
Rank 3
you’re able to buy and sell Uniques items with no Legendary Potential.
You can buy and sell Idols.
You can buy and sell Exalted weapons.
You can buy and sell all Exalted armor.
You can buy and sell Unique weapons with Legendary Potential.
You can buy and sell all Exalted items.
Rank 9
You can buy and sell all Unique items, including those with Legendary Potential.
You can buy and sell Legendary weapons.
You can buy and sell all Legendary armor.
You can buy and sell all Legendary items.
The Circle Of Fortune
The Circle of Fortune is a faction tailored for fans of solo self-found and group play.As you level the Circle of Fortune, you will gain the ability to seek Prophecies from Maj’elka’s Observatory.AProphecyis a short quest that guarantees a certain reward type, such as a bundle of Exalted jewelry or a cache of Idols. This faction also allows you to target-farm certain Uniques throughLenses.
When you first enter the Observatory, you will be presented with four telescopes. Each telescope reveals a unique constellation that contains a series of Prophecies.Activating a Prophecy will cost a small amount of Favor,a currency earned by slaying monsters and completing quests. Once started, simply fulfill the Prophecy’s quest step (such as killing a certain boss) to receive your reward.
Each telescope may also be installed with up to three Lenses. These Lenses can alter the drop rates of certain items, adjust the spawn rate of certain activities, and modify Monolith Corruption. Great Lenses can even influence your Prophecy objectives. If you’ve playedPath of Exile, Lenses fill the same role as the Atlas Passive Tree. Lens sockets will unlock as you increase your rank with the Circle of Fortune.
you may purchase Lenses from Galila in the Observatory. Each Lens costs a small amount of Favor.
If you just joined the Circle of Fortune and can’t access Galila’s inventory, simply relaunch Last Epoch and her inventory should appear.
+35% chance for enemies to drop 2x loot.
Rank 2
Runes of Ascendance have a 45% chance of being preserved when used on Circle of Fortune gear.
Rank 6
Affixes are 50% more likely to be Exalted.
Exalted items can drop with 3+ Exalted affixes with this rank bonus.
T7 Affixes are 2x as common.
Rank 10
Bosses have +150% increased drop rate for any specific rewards they have.
Prophecies grant twice as many items.
Should You Join The Merchant’s Guild Or The Circle Of Fortune?
As with most things in Last Epoch, the faction you pick will mostly depend on your personal preferences and overall playstyle. In general,we recommend the Circle of Fortune over the Merchant’s Guild for most players.Its loot bonuses make target-farming certain Uniques and Set items significantly easier, and it actively rewards you for playing Last Epoch’s endgame content. This is also a much better faction foroffline charactersthan the Merchant’s Guild.
With that said, being able to buy and sell items adds a whole new layer to Last Epoch’s itemization. If you find a powerful item that you don’t need, you can sell it and earn enough Gold to help fund your next build.If you frequently create alternate characters or love trading, then side with the Merchant’s Guild.There isn’t a bad faction here, and you can switch between factions with minimal friction.
