Even before Last Epoch launched in February 2024, items were constantly evolving. All the way back in 2021, the devs introduced a new stat called Legendary Potential, which has a chance of appearing on Unique items.
Legendary Potential may seem confusing, but we’ve got all the details you need to know to get your head around this mechanic.
What is Legendary Potential in Last Epoch, explained
Legendary Potential is a stat found only on Unique items in Last Epoch. If an item has the Legendary Potential stat, this means it has the potential to be upgraded into a Legendary item.
Before you get too excited, it should be noted you can only transform a unique item into a Legendary one by merging the Unique item (the one with the Legendary Potential stat) with an Exalted item of the same type. On top of that, you can only transform your Unique item with the Legendary Potential stat in the Eternity Cache within the Temporal Sanctum dungeon. You can technically enter the Temporal Sanctum dungeon during the campaign and potentially use it as a campaign skip. However, I recommend leaving this activity for the late game, as the boss at the end of the dungeon is quite challenging.
Added through Patch 1.1, there’s also another method to get Legendary items. This is through the newly introduced Nemesis system. In higher-level areas, your Nemesis can have Egg of the Forgotten as one of the four items. You can replace it with a Unique item (that has no LP) you already have in your inventory or stash, and then empower the Nemesis two times before finally slaying him. Once that’s done, you’ll get either of the two: that Unique now having Legendary Potential or a Legendary affix. As you can guess, this is very much a gamble, but early into late-game Monolith farming, it’s worth a shot.
You can merge a Unique Glove with the Legendary Potential stat with an Exalted Glove, but you can’t merge a Unique Glove with an Exalted one-handed Axe.
If that’s not complicated enough, not all Unique items have Legendary Potential, and there are tiers to it. So, you may have to spend time farming for items with the Legendary Potential stat and affixes you need for your character.
What is the number beside Legendary Potential?
Beside the Legendary Potential stat on an item, you’ll see a number ranging from one to four. This number determines how many of the Exalted item’s affixes will be added randomly to the Legendary item.
So, if you have a Three Legendary Potential, this means three affixes from your Exalted item will be added to the Legendary one. The affixes from your Exalted items don’t replace the ones on your Unique item. They will either increase the affixes already on the Legendary item, or you’ll gain more.
How to increase Legendary Potential in your Unique item
Since the 1.2 update, you can increase the Legendary Potential in a Unique item that already has at least one LP.
If you have at least one Legendary Potential but are trying to gain more in your Unique item, you can gamble it with the Farsight Turtle Woven Echo. However, if the gamble fails, the Unique will lose all Legendary Potential.
Unlike the Nemesis method which only works on Uniques with no LP, this one works on Uniques that already have one to three LP.
Factors in getting Unique drops with Legendary Potential
There are primarily four factors that determine whether your Unique will have LP and, if it does, how much it will be. These are:
- Every Unique has a Legendary Potential level associated with it. A higher level Unique means it is less likely to have Legendary Potential.
- The level of the Zone has sway on whether Unique drops there will come with LP. Higher-level zones are more likely to drop Uniques with LP.
- Corruption up to a certain point (in my testing, it has diminishing returns after 300) increases your chance of getting Legendary Potential Uniques.
- Reaching Rank Eight in the Circle of Fortune faction doubles the Legendary Potential chance of dropped Uniques.
How to get the best Exalted items to slam with your Legendary Potential Uniques
Getting a high LP Unique of your choice is only the first step in your quest to get the best in slot Legendary item. The second step is to get the best Exalted items, preferably with Tier 7 affixes, that you want to slam onto your Unique.
To have the best chance at getting your Exalted item of dreams, here are the factors you need to note:
- You need to be in areas above Level 90 for Tier 7 Exalted items to drop.
- Higher corruption means more chances at juiced-up Exalted items.
- Circle of Fortune prophecies can net you high quantities of Exalted items. So, more chances of getting the one you’re after. If you are on the Merchant’s Guild, however, you can simply buy your Exalted of choice with gold.
- The Weaver Tree from The Woven Faction, added via Patch 1.2, gives you multiple methods to up the drop rates of Exalted items. Imprinting nodes are remarkably efficient in helping you target-farm specific Exalted items.
- The Lightless Arbor dungeon is a good place to farm lots of Exalted items once you have enough gold to juice the vault.
Getting to the Eternity Cache and merging two of the same items, with one being a Legendary Potential Unique and the other being Exalted, can be time-consuming. But getting a Legendary item is definitely worth the effort in your next Last Epoch playthrough.
