In Last Epoch, the Monolith of Fate stands as the primary endgame system where players push their builds against escalating challenges for valuable loot, experience, and crafting materials. One of the most important mechanics tied to Monolith progression is Corruption. Understanding how to increase Corruption efficiently is vital to unlocking better rewards, tougher enemies for challenge seekers, and more chances at powerful Legendary gear.

In this in-depth guide, we'll break down exactly how Corruption works, why it matters, and what tools and strategies you can use in Season 2 to push it fast. From Glyphs of Envy to Harbinger Needles and the Confluence of Oblivion, we'll cover it all. We'll also include crafting tips to help ensure your gear can keep up as Corruption ramps up.

What is Corruption in Last Epoch?

Corruption is a mechanic that determines the difficulty and reward level within a timeline in the Monolith of Fate. As Corruption increases, enemies get stronger—gaining more health and dealing more damage—but the loot also improves, including:

• Increased item rarity

• Higher chance of finding Exalted and Unique items

• Increased odds of Uniques rolling with Legendary Potential or Weaver's Will

• Improved guaranteed echo rewards, especially in Empowered timelines

In other words, pushing Corruption means greater risk, but also much greater rewards.

Corruption Mechanics Explained

There are two types of timelines in the Monolith of Fate:

• Normal Timelines start at 0 Corruption and have a cap of 50 Corruption

• Empowered Timelines start at 100 Corruption and have no upper limit

To raise Corruption, you'll mainly interact with a boss called the Shade of Orobyss, who can appear the further you venture from the center of a timeline.

Defeating the Shade of Orobyss

• When you defeat a Shade, Corruption is added to your timeline.

• This increases enemy strength and rewards moving forward.

• Killing the Shade resets your web of echoes (nodes) but keeps your Stability and active modifiers.

Bonus Corruption

If you have Gaze of Orobyss stacks when fighting the Shade, you earn bonus Corruption. These Gaze stacks act as multipliers for corruption gain and can dramatically speed up progression when used wisely.

Best Ways to Farm Corruption in Season 2

To effectively increase Corruption, you'll need to use several tools and strategies introduced or improved in Last Epoch Season 2. Let's go over them one by one.

1. Use Glyphs of Envy

Glyphs of Envy are essential for quickly building Stability in your timelines. While Stability isn't Corruption directly, it allows you to unlock timeline bosses faster, which is the gateway to gaining Gaze of Orobyss and increasing your Corruption.

How It Works

• A Glyph of Envy increases Stability for the last timeline you completed, not necessarily the one you're in.

• You don't need to complete the entire timeline again—just run a single node while the Glyph is active.

• For example, using a Glyph might give you 205 Stability, enough to trigger a boss fight in a few quick runs.

Strategy

Always use Glyphs of Envy early to farm bosses more frequently. Every boss fight offers the chance to build up Gaze of Orobyss, setting the stage for big corruption gains when you fight the Shade.

2. Equip Harbinger Needles

Harbinger Needles are unique Season 2 items that drop from Harbingers and can significantly accelerate your Gaze of Orobyss stack gains.

Why They Matter

• When equipped, they grant 3 extra Gaze stacks if you kill a boss with at least 90 Corruption.

• This means you effectively gain 4 Gaze stacks in a single boss kill (1 base + 3 bonus).

Strategy

• Equip a Harbinger Needle only before boss fights to preserve its power.

• Don't waste them on low-Corruption fights; aim for battles where you're already at 90+ Corruption for the full benefit.

• Rotate in fresh Needles as needed to maintain this advantage.

Because Gaze stacks are capped at 4 per run, this strategy lets you hit the cap in one boss fight instead of four, massively improving your efficiency.

3. Leverage the Confluence of Oblivion

The Confluence of Oblivion is part of the Weaver Tree, and it plays a huge role in speeding up corruption gains without having to fully progress timelines repeatedly.

What It Does

• After defeating a Shade of Orobyss, the Confluence resets your web of echoes.

• You gain additional corruption based on the highest Corruption any of your characters (on the same stash) have reached.

• You don't need to move far on the web to find another Shade—new echoes can spawn Shades quickly.

Why It's Useful

This means you can essentially loop Shade fights and continually raise your corruption without clearing dozens of nodes. It's one of the most efficient methods in Season 2 for farming high Corruption.

Best Practice

• Use Confluence when your current web feels too spread or inefficient.

• Reset the web after every Shade kill to keep the process fast and clean.

• Stack this with Harbinger Needles and Glyphs of Envy for the best results.

4. Stick to an Efficient Gameplay Loop

To climb corruption levels efficiently, you should adopt a tight, repeatable loop that combines all of the mechanics above.

Step-by-Step Loop

1. Use Glyph of Envy to build Stability quickly.

2. Fight timeline bosses to earn Gaze of Orobyss stacks.

3. Equip Harbinger Needles before boss fights to gain bonus Gaze stacks.

4. Find and defeat a Shade of Orobyss to convert Gaze into Corruption.

5. Reset the timeline web using Confluence of Oblivion.

6. Repeat the process.

This loop minimizes the number of echo nodes you need to clear while maximizing corruption gain per action.

5. Crafting Tips for High Corruption Gear

As Corruption increases, so does the difficulty. To keep up, you'll need high-quality gear with powerful affixes. Thankfully, Last Epoch's crafting system gives you control.

Use Rune of Havoc

• Shuffles the tiers of non-sealed affixes on an exalted item.

• Ideal when you find an item with the right base and good affixes, but poor tier distribution.

• Can help transfer high-tier affixes to the stats your build uses.

Use Rune of Refinement

• Re-rolls the values of all affixes on the item (within the same tier).

• Great for upgrading low-roll items to more potent versions.

• Example: If your body armor has 120 Health on a tier 5 affix, you can re-roll it for a chance at 160+ Health within the same tier.

Additional Crafting Tips

• Focus on defensive stats first in high corruption (resists, health, endurance, crit avoidance).

• Use Rune of Ascendance on bases that can become Uniques if you're fishing for powerful season-specific gear.

• Consider using the Rune of Creation to duplicate valuable crafting bases or idols.

Final Thoughts

Corruption in Last Epoch Season 2 is more than just a difficulty slider—it's a key to better loot, deeper progression, and ultimately, a test of your build's strength. By understanding how the Shade of Orobyss, Gaze stacks, and timeline resets work, and by combining powerful tools like Glyphs of Envy, Harbinger Needles, and Confluence of Oblivion, you can significantly accelerate your journey.

Add in smart crafting strategies to keep your gear strong enough to survive the onslaught, and you'll be pushing 300, 400, or even higher Corruption levels in no time.

For more guides and the latest updates on Last Epoch Season 2, visit ELD.GG. You can also buy Last Epoch Gold through their trusted service.