The Monoliths represent a significant part of what Last Epoch is today and where we spend most of our game time. However, this system has faced many criticisms over time. I love Last Epoch. It’s the best ARPG I’ve played since Titan Quest, which is the best game ever. Fight me, I will die on this hill. But I don’t want LE to fall into the same trap as Diablo 4. It’s been eight seasons and one expansion, and they keep making changes around the problem without tackling it directly—it’s itemization. I don’t want LE to reach Season 8 and still be making changes instead of additions to Monoliths. So let’s face it right away—Monoliths are not fun.
That being said, some changes have been made to Monoliths with patches, and they are in a better state now than before. However, D4 tried to fix its itemization by giving players more drops, which clutter inventories, requiring an auto-salvage feature; by allowing players to break out aspects—but the one you need for your build still doesn’t drop. You see, the more you address things around the problem without fixing the problem itself, the more you slice up the game until there is nothing left but the problem you were supposed to fix in the first place. So, despite the changes to Monoliths being very positive for the game, reaching higher corruption faster only means you moved the problem elsewhere instead of solving it. Sooner or later, you’ll have to address it again—hopefully without slicing up the game even more.
The problem with Monoliths is a problem that haunts the modern RPG genre. Repeating the same task without a clear sense of progression gets stale quickly. In a broader sense, Monoliths have three main issues: a lack of unique visual identity, unengaging player progression, and an overall absence of an “endgame” feeling.
Unique Visual Identity
Despite using different layouts and map styles randomly picked from a pool each time the player loads in, this complete randomness does more harm than good. When you load a map, you have no idea what it will be—desert, snow, forest. There is no sense of continuity, progression, location, environmental logic, or storytelling. A player tackling corruption 900 in Age of Winter or corruption 0 in Fall of the Empire will experience no meaningful difference.
Unengaging Progression
Monoliths are also designed to hold players back and reset their progress. Despite the strength of your character, you have no control over the content you are engaging with and are still expected to play for hours to reach the desired level. Moreover, the fact that there are ten different Monoliths separated only by name—where you have to grind the same thing ten separate times—only adds to the frustration. Instead of fostering a sense of progression, players experience regression, a feeling of wasted time. All of this was greatly improved in Season 2 with the addition of catch-up mechanics, both for reaching higher corruption and spreading your highest progress to other Monoliths. However, refer back to the second paragraph.
True Endgame
Regarding corruption, the way it is represented in the game is just a numerical value in the corner of your screen. You hardly notice it, as it makes little difference —well, aside from making monsters so strong that they will one-shot you if you don’t one-shot them first. With so many abilities and effects occurring simultaneously, you often can’t even see the screen. This results in an environment that overly emphasizes speed, negating several aspects of gameplay and design— but that’s another topic entirely. There is no real incentive for players to push corruption, as they are merely repeating content they have already played and seeing things they have already seen. As mentioned, there is no noticeable difference between corruption 900 in one Monolith and corruption 0 in another.
My Idea to Improve Monoliths
My approach to improving the Monolith system is to create an environment where players have more control over the content they play, fostering a sense of progression as they advance both in corruption and further from the starting point, while still (trying) to preserve the core systems. Is it feasible? I have no clue.
Visual Identity
First things first, I propose eliminating the idea of ten separate Monoliths—frankly, it sucks. There is no real benefit to having them separated, while it creates numerous issues. My idea is to retain the concept of distinct areas with their own unique visual identity, bosses, and target farming, but to unite them all within a single screen. It will be THE Monolith—one, with all areas included.
https://i.imgur.com/J59jCEt.jpeg
This way, players will have the ability to choose a direction, and that choice will actually matter. Heading north-east leads to Age of Winter maps, north-west to Spirits of Fire, west to Fall of the Empire, and so on. As players progress deeper into these sections of the Monolith, visual changes will begin to occur, enhancing their sense of progression. For instance, Age of Winter maps will start with gentle snowfall; further in (5th map), snow will accumulate on the ground; later on (10th map), there will be towering ice walls and frozen lakes. The weather could even grow more severe as players approach the “border” of the Monolith or its respective boss.
Establishing a unique visual identity would serve both to provide a sense of progression and break the monotony of repetition. Players would still traverse random maps, but maps with distinct flavor. With this layout, they could shift from one area to another—advancing deep into Age of Winter and then pivoting sideways to Spirits of Fire, completing some maps there before returning to Age of Winter. They would always know where they are because the maps would have clear visual differences.
Additional Monolith rewards could further diversify the experience—perhaps a black hole transporting the player to a random location within another Monolith, or a mirror taking them to the opposite side of the board, among other possibilities.
Corruption Progression
Now, let’s talk about the bosses and how to progress to higher corruption. It would be more engaging if players had to locate the boss within the Monolith web, much like finding Orobyss now, guiding themselves through environmental changes, perhaps, instead of simply building up stability.
There could be a set number of maps required before encountering the boss. For example, at lower corruption levels, players might find the boss after around ten maps, with this number increasing at higher corruption levels. A player at 500 corruption would need to move farther from the center to find the boss.
When a boss is defeated, it drops a shard that attaches to the central crystal, allowing players to challenge Orobyss by clicking on the crystal and advancing corruption. We could introduce a mechanic where the number of bosses defeated affects the corruption gained—lower corruption levels might require fewer boss shards, while higher corruption levels demand more. Additionally, defeating extra bosses beyond the minimum requirement could provide scaling corruption bonuses: 1 boss shard equals +10 corruption, 2 shards equal +22 corruption, 3 shards equal +34 corruption, and so on, much like what the eye of orobyss is today.
https://i.imgur.com/Caphxz4.jpeg
Regarding overall Monolith stability—frankly, it should be removed, as it serves no real purpose. However, map-based stability should remain. Currently, completing a map (filling the stability bar) grants double or triple overall Monolith stability. Instead, this mechanic could be adjusted so that stability boosts map rewards.
This change would add meaning to a player’s choice between completing or rushing a map. If a map offers gloves as a reward, but the player doesn’t need them, they can rush through and move on. But if the next map offers unique rings, something they do want, they can fill that map’s stability gauge—allowing them to receive two or even three unique rings instead of just one.
Advancing to the True Endgame
Now, to wrap this up (my God, it’s five pages long), let’s make corruption more compelling. I had to ask myself—what comes to mind when I think of corruption? At first, it was the government, so I had to reframe the question: What do I think of temporal corruption?
The timeline is falling apart—it’s chaotic, illogical. So, once again, we return to visually representing high corruption. At the base levels of 0 and 100 corruption, we could experiment with saturation: 0 corruption features high saturation, making colors pop, while 100 corruption has lower saturation, giving everything a dull, grayer look.
At 300 corruption, environmental changes could begin to appear. Imagine traveling through the Age of Winter, surrounded by snow—until, suddenly, you stumble upon a random patch of sand, and the enemies surrounding it don’t belong to this region. Instead, they come from an entirely different section of the Monolith—perhaps Fall of the Empire or another timeline. What would normally be a normal tree is now lifeless—or perhaps even transformed into stone, coral, or something else.
Even enemy designs could shift in some ways—combining existing creature designs to create something weird. Picture the satyr-like creatures (Wengari) fused with the mosquito enemies, their would have mosquito heads and wings but a body of a Wengari.
These distortions would intensify as corruption increases. At 500 corruption, the ground could open up into massive void-like holes, with surreal backgrounds like the one in The End Times—swirling void, distant stars. An even wilder possibility: glimpses into another timeline. In the middle of a snow-covered map, you might peer down into the hole and see a desert map. Bonus points if you can spot monsters and a player fighting in that alternate timeline (not actual enemies and players, just a visual effect).
This approach would not only create a striking sense of progression but also instill curiosity in players—watching as the maps break apart in front of their eyes, reinforcing the feeling that they are truly venturing deeper into a realm of increasing corruption.
Playing at higher corruption needs to be more interesting. We could explore the idea of detaching Harbingers from the timeline boss or have them be just smaller and weaker versions of a real Harbinger that only appear at higher corruption levels. Imagine a rare boss spawning in the middle of a random map—something powerful that drops tons of loot, including exclusive, boss-only rewards from the timeline in which you find it.
The higher the corruption, the stronger the Harbinger becomes; it should be a truly difficult fight, possibly second only to Abby. Players should feel like a level 20 hardcore character suddenly encountering the Butcher—do you fight? Do you flee? Do you attempt to complete the map while it chases after you? It should be something that even seasoned, well-geared players hesitate for a moment.
The element of surprise and discovery is important—it is needed to keep exploration exciting and maintain the thrill of not knowing what’s around the next corner. However, at the same time, it shouldn’t be so common that it simply becomes another obstacle, like Champions currently are in the game.
I love Last Epoch, and I want to see it succeed—it’s the best ARPG I’ve played in over a decade. I had a great time brainstorming ways to improve Monoliths and thinking about what would make reaching 500 corruption exciting. I hope you liked these ideas! If not, feel free to disagree with me and share your own take. This took me hours to write, so I’d love to hear different perspectives.