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The Circle of Fortune and Merchant's Guild are two Last Epoch item factions that set the stage for how trading and gear economy will work between players. Generally, the endgame in ARPGs is all about min-maxing gear. The title also has an additional layer of a value system if you fancy setting up shop for late-game stocks and battle-wrought relics.
Player-to-player trading tends to take center stage as an invaluable part of this economy. However, it is not every player's cup of tea. Some players want to take things at their own pace and not bother with the item meta, while others find trading to be a recreational activity.
Thankfully, Eleventh Hour Games has a creative solution to cater to both preferences. The Last Epoch item factions division lets you choose between an abundance of rare drops and mercantile freedom — by siding with the Circle of Fortune or Merchant's Guild, respectively.
Circle of Fortune vs Merchant's Guild: Last Epoch item faction dichotomy explained
A surface-level summary of Last Epoch item factions would be:
- Circle of Fortune lets you obtain powerful items through 'prophecies' that you can purchase with Favor.
- Merchant's Guild lets you freely trade any item of any rarity with any other Guild-aligned player globally.
Why Circle of Fortune is better for most players
Generally, you should pick Circle of Fortune if you are not planning to spend a lot of time trading. Here's what it offers:
- Circle of Fortune provides a significant drop rate boost at its very first rank.
- It also mitigates the grind for specific uniques and legendaries.
- Circle of Fortune has no downsides if you mostly play solo or with friends.
However, one's Last Epoch item faction choice is more nuanced than this. Can't you, for example, get the benefits of both factions by swapping between them? The answer is both yes and no, as we will explain soon.
Can you change factions in Last Epoch?
Yes. You can press Y to go to the faction menu anytime, leave your faction, and enlist in the other. But there is a catch: you cannot use your current items.
The item faction system in Last Epoch tags all items with either the Circle of Fortune or the Merchant's Guild tag. You can only use a faction-tagged item when you are in that faction. In other words, changing your faction means your old gear becomes unusable.
Note that you also lose all outstanding favors, so make sure to spend it before you change factions.
Other than this, there are no downsides to switching factions. Your reputation with either is unaffected by this switch.
What are Favor and Reputation in Last Epoch item factions?
Favor is a currency that drops when you complete tasks for a faction. Reputation is your total progress through the ranks of a faction. Each rank unlocks unique bonuses.
Is Last Epoch item faction reputation permanent?
No, reputation progress towards both factions resets with every Last Epoch cycle. However, as all your old cycle characters become legacy characters, they also carry over their faction progress. Reputation shared between Legacy characters is permanent.
Are there items without item factions in Last Epoch?
Items that drop when you are factionless will not have a faction tag. However, whenever it goes to another player's inventory via trading, it will get tagged with the Merchant's Guild.
How to join Merchant's Guild in Last Epoch
To join the Merchant's Guild, talk to Zerrick, who can be found in the Maj'Elka Upper District (Divine Era, Chapter 9+).
Does siding with the Circle of Fortune disable trading?
Strictly speaking, no. You can still trade items with your friends or players in the same session. However, only Circle of Fortune-aligned players can equip and use Circle of Fortune items.
How to join Circle of Fortune in Last Epoch
To join the Circle of Fortune, talk to Galila, found at the Observatory in Maj'Elka Upper District (Divine Era, Chapter 9+).
Check out our other guides on Last Epoch:
Last Epoch Mastery tier list || Which version of Last Epoch should you buy? || Major differences between Last Epoch Early Access and 1.0 || Last Epoch build tier list for levelling
