Last Epoch Season 3: Beneath Ancient Skies – My First Impressions
Season 3 continues that trend, building on a solid ARPG foundation with meaningful additions that expand the endgame and offer new ways to play. Having enough Last Epoch gold will help you have a better experience. Let’s break down what’s new and how it all feels in action.
Chapter 10 and New Zones
The headliner for Season 3 is the addition of Chapter 10, which expands the base campaign with a new story arc. This chapter takes players into the ancient era, traveling through 17 brand-new zones that range from lush forests and icy mountains to volcanic lairs and crystalline caverns.
The new areas stand out thanks to improved visuals across the board. Everything feels brighter and more polished, with vibrant colors and sharper presentation. Even if you’re not here for the story, the fresh environments make the leveling journey more enjoyable.
Along the way, you’ll encounter 28 new enemy types, many of which are themed around prehistoric life. Expect to face dinosaurs, massive insects, and even hostile plant life. These enemies give the new chapter a distinct identity compared to earlier parts of the game.
Primal Hunts – The New Core Feature
The biggest addition in Season 3 is Primal Hunts, a new activity that functions a bit like Last Epoch’s take on the Nemesis system. While adventuring through the campaign or endgame monoliths, you’ll occasionally stumble across glowing claw marks. Interacting with them transports you to an ancient cave where you meet the Huntmaster, a new NPC who serves as both quest giver and vendor for hunt-related rewards.
From here, you begin a primal hunt: progressing through cave systems called “breeding grounds,” fighting off waves of enemies, and collecting resources like bones and dino parts. At the end, you face the Rift Beast, a dinosaur-like boss that evolves as you progress.
After each kill, you choose one of three possible evolutions for the beast. These transformations change its appearance and abilities—sprouting wings, growing extra heads, or adding elemental attacks—and determine the loot it drops. With 60 possible evolutions, no two Rift Beasts are quite the same.
The loop works like this: defeat the beast, choose its evolution, then encounter it again in future hunts as a stronger version until you eventually finish its lineage and claim a massive reward. It’s a clever system that blends progression, customization, and replayability.
Primal Uniques and Tier 8 Gear
Primal hunts tie directly into Season 3’s new loot: Primal Uniques. These powerful items come with unique effects, such as summoning a T-Rex companion, but with a catch—you can only equip one at a time. This restriction forces you to make meaningful choices about which primal power best suits your build.
There are 25 new primal uniques in total, along with five standard uniques added this season. On top of that, Last Epoch introduces the Rune of Evolution, a new crafting tool that upgrades tier 7 affixes to tier 8, effectively doubling their effectiveness. With the ability to seal this affix slot, you can create items with up to six modifiers, including a tier 8 powerhouse stat. It’s a big leap forward in item progression and late-game optimization.
Campaign, Monoliths, and QoL Updates
Beyond new content, Season 3 also includes a wide range of improvements:
Campaign polish: Several encounters and boss fights have been reworked for smoother pacing and better mechanics.
Monolith upgrades: Quest progression is now shared between party members, with new woven echoes and six fresh monolith zones inspired by Chapter 10.
Minion rework: The Lich and Beastmaster classes received significant updates, alongside broad buffs to minion AI, controls, and stats. Minions can now toggle between aggressive and defensive modes, and you can issue direct attack commands. Snapshotting gear swaps has been removed, but minions are generally stronger to compensate.
Quality of life: Loot filters now support custom beams and icons, new sound effects highlight valuable drops, stash macros make gear searches easier, and performance has seen broad improvements.
Altogether, these changes make the game feel more polished and responsive, both in moment-to-moment gameplay and in the endgame grind.
My Build: The Beastmaster Bear
For this season, I decided to try one of the newly popular Beastmaster Bear builds—and it’s been a blast. My bear companion does the heavy lifting, stomping through enemies with devastating Earthquake and Avalanche abilities.
I supplement this with Fury Leap to reposition quickly (which also teleports my bear to me), War Cry to group and stun enemies, and Maelstrom for damage buffs. While my own damage output is respectable, the real star is my bear, who can delete bosses almost instantly when fully stacked with buffs.
The reworked minion AI helps, though companions still occasionally wander off. Thankfully, the new aggressive/defensive toggles and attack commands make managing them much smoother than before.
Permanent Seasonal Content
One important note: unlike many ARPGs, Last Epoch’s seasonal content is permanent. Nothing here is temporary. Previous additions like Tombs of the Erased remain in the game, and Beneath Ancient Skies will as well. Each season builds on the game’s foundation, ensuring the world gets richer and more expansive over time.
Final Thoughts
Beneath Ancient Skies might not reinvent Last Epoch, but it meaningfully expands it. Chapter 10 adds fresh zones and enemies, and primal hunts introduce an engaging new activity. Having a large amount of cheap Last Epoch gold will help you complete the activities. Primal uniques bring exciting build-defining options, and tier 8 gear pushes item crafting to new heights. Combined with campaign refinements, monolith improvements, and sweeping QoL updates, Season 3 feels like a substantial upgrade.
Last Epoch continues to deliver excellent value. Every revisit has been worth it, and Season 3 is no exception. Whether you’re a veteran or someone who hasn’t checked in since launch, this update is a great reason to dive back in.