Eleventh Hour Games has officially started their usual Hype Week for Last Epoch‘s upcoming Season 3 – Beneath Ancient Skies! They shared the first big reveal ahead of launch on August 21. Over the next five days, the developers will share daily information about new features, changes, and more! And of course, the full patch notes will release on Friday, August 15.
During this Hype Week, you can expect:
- New Ancient Era zones
- A new Lich skill – Flay
- Updates to Necromancer and Minion AI
- Quality-of-life improvements
- And more surprises
For Day 1, the focus is on the season’s new major gameplay system, The Primal Hunt.
The Primal Hunt – New Random Encounter
Launching with Season 3, The Primal Hunt is a new random encounter similar to the Nemesis mechanic. It can appear during the normal Campaign, or in the Monolith of Fate. You will have the chance to hunt down Rift Beasts. Those are unique enemies that can literally tear through reality to hunt across time.
When you find a Mysterious Rift, you will be transported to an ancient cave and meet Skarven Bloodhorn, the Wengari Hunt Master. He will guide you, and teach you how to track your prey. The goal is to fight through enemies that drop Ancient Bones instead of gold. This is a new material that you can trade for unique, powerful gear.
Rift Beasts & Evolution
When you enter Ancient Caves, you will encounter a Rift Beast nest. Defeat the Rift Beast, and you can spare one of its hatchlings, beginning an “evolutionary lineage“. By hunting more Rift Beasts in Torn Rifts and returning to Mysterious Rifts, you can keep evolving your beast.
Each evolution changes the Rift Beast’s abilities, increases loot quality, and guarantees one Primordial Material type. You can restart a lineage at any time to breed a new, stronger beast (or one that is easier to kill).
Primordial Items
The Primal Hunt also introduces Primordial Uniques and Primordial Exalted items. Those will be some of the most powerful gear ever added to Last Epoch.
- Primordial Exalted
- Standard Exalted items upgraded with a T8 Primordial Affix via the new Rune of Evolution.
- T8 affixes can offer up to 100% more effect than T7s.
- Primordial Uniques
- Enhanced versions of Unique items, often stronger than standard Uniques, with a chance to roll Legendary Potential.
You can only equip one Primordial Item at a time per character, but you can collect as many as you want.
The Hunt Master
At the start of Mysterious Rifts or in The Garden in Chapter 10, you can find Skarven Bloodhorn, the Wengari Hunt Master. He will trade your collected Bones, Feathers, and Fangs for:
- Primordial Unique items
- Runes of Evolution
- Grab bags of Uniques, Gold, Shards, or Memory Amber
Twitch Drops & Creator Support
To celebrate Season 3’s launch, Last Epoch will also start its biggest Twitch Drop campaign! You can also expect a Support-a-Creator cosmetic program.
Season 3 – Beneath Ancient Skies launches August 21, 2025. Tomorrow’s Hype Week post will reveal more about the new Ancient Era zones and Chapter 10 of the campaign, so stay tuned for more!
You can also take a look at the official post from EGH, if you want more details about each system mentioned in this news.
