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Last Epoch 1.2 Tombs of the Erased brings a sentinel rework, Weavers endgame Faction, revamped Monolith of Fate experience, and much more. This is Last Epoch’s biggest update yet and IGN has teamed up with the ARPG experts at Maxroll to prepare detailed guides on all of the new content along with excellent builds for leveling and endgame alike. Before we get to the builds, here’s all the new stuff coming in 1.2:

New 1.2 Tombs of the Erased Content

Woven Faction

One of the biggest changes in 1.2 is the new Woven Faction. They provide a deeper endgame experience by adding Woven Echoes to your Monolith of Fate. Begin interacting with them by finding a Cemetery of the Erased on your Echo Web, after completing the mini-boss at the end you can enter the Haven of Silk and speak to Masque to join the faction. Gain ranks with the Woven Faction by completing Woven Echoes to add points to your Weaver Tree then use these points to customize your endgame experience.

Champions & Mini-bosses

As you explore the Echo Web, you may also find some fun new surprises in the form of Champions, and new weaver mini-bosses. The Champions are larger, more powerful versions of rares, immediately visible due to their angry red glow. Defeating them is tricky but if you persevere you’re sure to be duly rewarded. There are also several new mini-bosses you can encounter in 1.2, so keep an eye out for a scary-looking boss as you explore the Monolith of Fate.

Set Item Crafting and LP Changes

Last Epoch has an in-depth Crafting System where you use Affix Shards, Glyphs, and Runes to heavily customize your items. This popular system is straighforward to understand and has a fair bit of depth to master.

In 1.2, crafting in Last Epoch gets even better. You can break Set items down to obtain crafting shards and then use those to craft set bonuses on your items. This gives you the best of both worlds where you have the power of a set bonus and the flexibility to craft your own gear with the affixes you need. EHG has also made a big change to how you use Unique items with Legendary Potential (LP) to craft Legendary items. In the past, when interacting with the Eternity Cache the modifiers added to your Legendary Items were chosen at random. So if you used a 1LP Unique, you get a Legendary with 1 random affix, if you use a 2LP Unique, you get a Legendary with 2 random affixes.

Now, if you complete a Temporal Sanctum of level 2 or higher you can choose 1 affix to transfer to your Legendary! This means you get to pick what you want when using a 1 LP Unique, if you use an item with 2-4 LP, then you get to pick 1 affix and the remaining modifiers are chosen at random.

Uber Aberroth

Last Epoch’s ultimate boss is getting even tougher with 1.2. In addition to the normal version of this encounter, there is a special Uber Aberroth encounter. Very little is known about this foe beyond the fact that he is the most dangerous being in Eterra. Challenge him at your own risk!

1.2 Tombs of the Erased Leveling Builds

Use Maxroll’s leveling builds to cruise through the campaign with ease. Season 2 introduces the ability to switch your Mastery so you can level with the most efficient build for the campaign, then respec your mastery upon reaching the endgame. Here are the best ways to level each of the game’s 5 classes, straight from Last Epoch’s top speed runner Terek!

Primalist

The best way to level a Primalist is by playing Druid. This build has good damage, it’s very cozy as you can use transformations to spam your skills during the campaign, and gets quite tanky thanks to Werebear form.

Mage

The Spellblade mastery seamlessly weaves blades and spells to decimate foes using Shatter Strike. You are reliant on spells in the early game but once you get Shatter Strike most of your time is spent rotating between Shatter Strike for damage and Mana Strike to recover your resources to continue dealing damage. Don’t be fooled by the Mage’s health, you can easily generate tons of Ward just by hitting enemies.

Sentinel

Hot off the rework, Sentinel is stronger than ever. The most efficient way to level is by playing Paladin to get easy access to Resistances and Holy Aura for both offensive and defensive bonuses. Crusade your way through the campaign burning enemies in the holy fire of your Judgment!

Acolyte

As an Acolyte you are a master of the undead and the profane. Embrace your inner darkness and become a Warlock to create rifts in reality which unleash a volley of Chaos Bolt. The Chthonic Fissure skill provides great persistent damage for clearing while your Summoned Infernal Shades melt bosses with their hellish assault.

Rogue

The Rogue levels with her trusty Falcon Companion, flying through levels with ease and grace. This Falconer build is easy to scale with great sustain thanks to the Melee Leech affix on gear. With a bit of investment into Health, Regen and Physical Resistance, this Rogue becomes a well-rounded beast of a build.

1.2 Tombs of the Erased Endgame Builds

After you complete the campaign, you enter Last Epoch’s endgame. Maxroll’s Last Epoch team has been extensively testing a wide variety of endgame builds to dominate in the Monolith of Fate. While all of these builds are powerful, you can use Maxroll’s tier lists to see how they compare across different kinds of content.

Heartseeker Marksman

The Heartseeker Marksman uses a new skill which seeks enemy targets and triggers a spectacular display of Fire and Cold Projectiles that cover the entire screen. Watch your enemies evaporate as they get blasted by your Attacks and Spells!

The build revolves around dealing Damage with Heartseeker and proccing an insane amount of Dragonfire from Dragonsong. Heartseeker also triggers Burning Dagger for even more craziness. This Marksman has incredible mobility and utility thanks to Shift, Smoke Bomb, Shurikens, and unspecialized Decoy.

Pros

✔️ Amazing DPS

✔️ Fast Clear Speed

✔️ Deals Damage While Moving

✔️ Insane Scaling with Gear and Uniques

Cons

❌ Active Playstyle

❌ Needs Uniques to Shine

❌ Survivability Relies on Gear

❌ Defensive Tools Require Timing

Judgement Paladin

The Judgement Paladin creates Consecrated Ground with Judgement, to burn enemies with holy fire. Become the Judge and cleanse your foes of impurity, as they hopelessly try to break through your immense defenses. This build is a natural continuation of the Paladin Leveling Build, making it extremely easy to play as your first character of the season.

The Judgement Paladin deals Fire Spell Damage Over Time with Consecrated Ground and generates Mana with Vengeance. Consecrated Ground also grants massive Healing, since multiple instances can stack on top of each other. Use Holy Aura and Symbols of Hope for great passive buffs. Healing Hands grants Ward and Healing, while acting as your Movement Skill.

Pros

✔️ Insane Tankiness

✔️ Exceptional Sustain

✔️ High Single Target DPS

✔️ Amazing Scaling With Gear and Uniques

Cons

❌ Limited AoE

❌ Average Clear Speed

❌ Needs Legendaries To Shine

❌ Generator/Spender Playstyle

Warpath Void Knight

The Warpath Void Knight uses Warpath to wipe the battlefield clean of enemies. Stay spinning to increase your Damage and AoE until Warpath almost covers the whole screen. Unleash the Spin-to-Win playstyle with this build!

The Warpath Void Knight specializes into Warrior’s Fury to reach amazing levels of Void Melee Damage and Area of Effect. Warpath costs more Mana every second, but thanks to the Void Well Passive and Mana stacking, you can stay spinning for a long time. The Void Well Passive is mandatory when you have Warrior’s Fury allocated. Devouring Orb, Anomaly, Symbols of Hope, and Abyssal Echoes grant powerful buffs.

Pros

✔️ Amazing AoE

✔️ Extreme Clear Speed

✔️ Very Simple Gameplay

✔️ Excellent Single Target DPS

Cons

❌ Gear Dependent

❌ Average Tankiness

❌ Needs Legendaries To Shine

❌ Requires Mana Investment

Tornado Shaman

Summon the fury of the storm with this Tornado Shaman Guide as you strike down foes from afar. This build invokes Tornados onto the battlefield that rapidly calls Storm Bolts down on enemies in an enormous area. Speed through monoliths and destroy bosses with this outstanding build.

Place down long-lasting Tornados on the battlefield that rapidly cast Storm Bolts thanks to Charged Storm for huge Lightning damage. Gathering Storm allows you to drastically increase the damage of those storm bolts while Summon Spriggan, Warcry, and Maelstrom offer you some amazing offensive and defensive bonuses. Since you are not casting Gathering Storm manually, you can equip an unspecialized Fury Leap for mobility.

Pros

✔️ Insane Tankiness

✔️ Exceptional Sustain

✔️ High Single Target DPS

✔️ Amazing Scaling With Gear and Uniques

Cons

❌ Limited AoE

❌ Weaker Defensively While Moving

❌ Optimal Play Requires Standing Still

❌ Summon Spriggan Dies Often And Needs To Be Resummoned

Stygian Coal Lich

The Stygian Coal Lich Guide harnesses the power of undeath in the form of Stygian Beams. This Lich transforms into its horrific Reaper Form to unleash a barrage of deadly Necrotic Stygian Beams. Hit your enemies with Rip Blood to empower yourself, and generate Mana and obliterate everything around you.

Turn Drain Life into a DPS powerhouse thanks to the Stygian Coal Unique Catalyst. Death Seal provides powerful buffs and releases pulsing Waves of Death around you while it’s active that kill any enemies near you. The build has great mobility thanks to Reap and Transplant.

Pros

✔️ Good Tankiness

✔️ Exceptional Sustain

✔️ Insane Single Target DPS

✔️ Deals Damage While Moving

Cons

❌ Limited AoE

❌ Mana Management

❌ Unique Heavy Build

❌ Generator/Spender Playstyle

Umbral Blades Falconer

The Umbral Blades Falconer calls down its Falcon from the skies to spawn Umbral Blades, which are Throwing Attacks that detonate into giant Cold explosions and decimate your enemies. Watch your foes die as you swiftly cruise through the battlefield with this amazing build that focuses on maximizing the destructible power of the Twilight Strike Node inside the Aerial Assault Skill.

Thanks to the Cooldown Reduction from Free Lofting Bird, you can spam Explosive Trap to cycle through Dive Bomb and Aerial Assault almost non-stop. Smoke Bomb is your Movement Skill and Shadow generator.

Pros

✔️ Very Fast

✔️ Amazing AoE

✔️ Insane Burst Damage

✔️ Multiple Defensive Layers

Cons

❌ Cooldown Based DPS

❌ Mana Management

❌ Can’t Leech From Crits

❌ Requires Uniques to Shine

Frostbite Frost Claw Sorcerer

The Frostbite Frost Claw Sorcerer strides into battle wielding the potent Frost Claw as its Skill of choice. With each swift cast, Frost Claw releases a barrage of projectiles, all capable of converging upon a single target. This relentless assault not only deals Damage but also has the power to Freeze foes in their tracks. Thanks to its high Cast Speed, it can maintain a relentless offensive assault, while also accumulating Ward to fortify its Defenses.

This is an Ailment-based build that scales Frostbite and Cold Damage Over Time. Its Damage primarily comes from Frost Claw, Elemental Nova, and Ice Barrage. The build also has amazing CC thanks to the ability to Freeze enemies reliably.

Pros

✔️ Easy to Play

✔️ Incredible CC

✔️ Flashy Visuals

✔️ High Scaling Potential

Cons

❌ Visual Clutter

❌ Average Survivability

❌ Requires Uniques to Shine

❌ Mana Intensive Without Proper Setup

Last Epoch 1.2 Tier Lists

If you want to see the best performing builds of the patch, here are Maxroll’s Tierlists to help you decide what to play depending on your goals and taste! The best ones stand in S-Tier and are expected to outperform others. Choose wisely, read the guides, and defeat all content!

Corruption

Maxroll’s Corruption Tier List categorizes the performance of all builds against any high-end challenges, taking into account all their strengths and weaknesses. Builds are compared based on their Endgame Planner Setup.

Bossing

Use Maxroll’s Bossing Tier List to see which builds excel at taking down Monolith Bosses, Dungeons Bosses, and Pinnacle Content. Maxroll considers many factors when placing the builds but mainly focuses on Overall reliable DPS. Builds are compared based on their Endgame Planner Setup.

Hardcore

Maxroll’s Hardcore Tier List ranks a build’s suitability for the optional permadeath mode “Hardcore”. Therefore the builds are primarily ranked based on their raw survivability and reliability, even on their Starting Planner Setup. Unlike the other tier lists, the early game gearing is given higher weight here, because a single death means losing your character when playing on Hardcore.

Speed Farming

Maxroll’s Speed Farming Tier List ranks a build’s ability to speed through content. Naturally, speed is the main factor, which means the ability to AoE down mobs, move quickly, and maintain this speed even at high corruption. Builds are compared based on their Endgame Planner Setup.

This article was created by IGN Staff with help from the Maxroll Last Epoch Team.

If you somehow haven’t gotten your fill of Nintendo Directs over the last few weeks, don’t worry, there’s yet another one tomorrow. This one is focused on Mario Kart World only. It’ll be at 6 a.m. PT / 9 a.m. ET / 2 p.m. BT, and will last about 15 minutes.

Nintendo actually announced this Direct last week during its Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, but has just confirmed the length as-of today. You’ll be able to watch the Direct in a number of places, including Nintendo’s official channel or right here at IGN. Our Nintendo Voice Chat crew will be doing a live reaction to the Direct, which you can catch here on the website, or on our YouTube channel.

As for what we’re expecting to be there…well, Mario Kart World! We already got a look at the game at last week’s Nintendo Direct and our subsequent hands-on preview, but there’s still so much we don’t know. One big question we’re hoping to hear more about is how the game’s Free Roam mode will work that lets players just drive around the world. Though we’ve seen a tiny bit of it in action, we don’t fully know just how it will work yet.

We’re also curious to see more about the character roster and how costumes work. Again, this is something we’ve seen some of in trailers and previews, but there are still a lot of lingering questions on what the different character outfits do, why some characters have them and others don’t, and so forth. And of course, we’re hoping to see more new courses…maybe even a brand new Rainbow Road?

Mario Kart World continues to be the subject of consternation among fans due to its $80 price, which many fans are concerned heralds a new era of even more expensive games that may price them out of the Nintendo Switch 2. Hopefully, tomorrow’s Direct will give plenty of reasons to justify spending that much on the game.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

The first four episodes of Government Cheese are now streaming on Apple TV+. One new episode will debut every Wednesday through May 28.

It’s 1969, and God wants Hampton Chambers (David Oyelowo) to invent a self-sharpening drill. So sayeth the Lord that His loyal follower shall disrupt and innovate the field of handheld machinery—or so Hampton believes, anyway, having found religion while in prison for check fraud. With plot points like this, you can tell that Apple TV+’s new series Government Cheese wants so deeply to be weird. But the show never amounts to more than a bundle of affectations, the equivalent of watching somebody “cut loose” by coming into the office with, like, a slightly louder tie or something.

To get an idea of the tone here, picture a game of telephone that starts at the broader comedies of the Coen brothers – big personalities against a backdrop of screwy Americana, like Raising Arizona or O Brother, Where Art Thou? Somewhere in the middle, already warped and diluted into semi-recognition, is the Coen karaoke of the Fargo TV series. Government Cheese exists at the end of the line, visiting mildly wacky circumstances on a cast of quirky cardboard cutouts.

Hampton, after all, does not get out on parole with only designs on a divine drill; he’s also in hefty debt to the Prevost brothers, a family of French-Canadian gangsters operating out of an orange grove. There are seven of them. He does not tell his wife, Astoria (Simone Missick), who’s already – and quite understandably – peeved at having to raise their teenage sons alone during Hampton’s three-year imprisonment while also pursuing a college degree. Their youngest, Harrison (Jahi Di’Allo Winston), is openly hostile to his father’s return, retreating into an odd fixation on indigenous Chumash culture. The oldest, Einstein (Evan Alexander Ellison), is more genial but also now really into pole vaulting.

To varying degrees, these details are at least a little bit funny, and they play out against a handsome backdrop of pastel colors and manicured suburban lawns (production designer Warren Alan Young has credits on several seasons of Fargo). Every so often, you can even glimpse what the show is going for – each Chambers is striving for fulfillment, whether spiritual or professional (or, in Hampton’s case, both), from the meager hand they’ve been dealt. Hence the title: “government cheese,” in reference to the processed food given to impoverished people so they can make something from what is functionally nothing.

But those glimpses are as good as it gets with this series, which has only a tenuous grasp of the characters beyond their surface-level quirks. For a story built on Hampton’s homecoming and his determination to walk the righteous path, there’s precious little insight into what the Chambers household was like before or during his incarceration. We don’t get a sense of shared history between the family, don’t feel the lives they’ve lived. It’s not in the acting, not in the otherwise striking set design, and certainly not in the writing, which has everyone declaring their feelings and aspirations to the various sounding boards meant to pass for supporting characters.

In one episode, Hampton has a heart-to-heart with a strange woman (Sunita Mani) stuck in a vent. She’s implied to be some kind of ethereal messenger, mysteriously vanishing once Hampton looks away. But she’s really no different from the other, more earthbound characters, because their own existences all seem to begin and end at what they can do for Hampton. His childhood friend and known associate Bootsy (Bokeem Woodbine, who you might also recognize from a season of Fargo) simply hands him a car, hoping to lure him back to a life of crime but otherwise with no strings attached. The youngest Prevost brother, Jean-Guy (Louis Cancelmi), offers to cancel Hampton’s debt in exchange for the self-sharpening drill, and then exits the whole middle of the series while Hampton thinks on it.

What really spoils Government Cheese, though, is just how safe it manages to be in its reheated imitation. Here is a show for anyone who ever wished that the Coens would tone down their abrasive weirdos, or that Wes Anderson would chill out with the fussy aesthetics. Hampton doesn’t react with anger or disbelief toward his family’s chilly reception of him – Oyelowo is given no material that might endanger our sympathy for him. Even when he’s more openly conniving, he operates exclusively at a low, dull hum of protagonist likability. Harrison needles him about all the “Yahweh stuff” (which Hampton prefers to the more formal title of “God”), but his newfound faith rarely comes up. Here’s a guy who thinks God has given him a mission, yet he goes for long stretches without talking about it at all. He doesn’t proselytize, doesn’t yammer on about Yahweh’s plan, doesn’t even corral his kids into going to church.

For a little while, I wondered if this was intentional, an expression of how flimsy and self-serving Hampton’s faith is. But the handful of seemingly divine occurrences in Government Cheese simply demonstrate its lack of imagination, grounding any flights of fancy by tagging them with a plausible explanation. No strange happenings may simply exist as an expression of character and circumstance. The Lord has to be giving Hampton a sign, and the vent lady has to be some ethereal messenger setting him straight. If Government Cheese won’t take a chance on making us disapprove of Hampton’s actions, why would it ask us to suspend our disbelief about his situation, too?

Think you’ve seen 1977’s Star Wars? Think again. What you’ve most likely seen is one of several altered versions that went into distribution after the film’s original theatrical run, versions tweaked by George Lucas himself that would eventually come to comprise a set of “special editions” of the beloved epic. But here’s a new hope for ya — now it seems some fans will be able to feast their eyes on the actual original cut of the film that Lucas left behind so long ago.

This June, the British Film Institute’s will open their Film on Film Festival with a screening of one of the few Technicolor prints produced for Star Wars’ initial run that still remains intact, according to The Telegraph. This is the first time this print has been screened publicly since December 1978, the outlet reported, though it has been made available on VHS offerings in the past.

Lucas started making tweaks to the film with the first theatrical re-release of Star Wars in 1981, and since then, Lucasfilms has only allowed various “special editions” of the movie to screen. Fans seem to be in for a real treat specifically when it comes to the print they’ll be screening at the upcoming festival; For the last forty years, it has been stored at 23 degrees Fahrenheit to preserve quality, so needless to say it should be a near impeccable viewing experience.

In the past, Lucas has been pretty unshakable in his stance against screening his original cut of what we now know as Episode IV: A New Hope, and has even spoken out about the decision over the years.

“The Special Edition, that’s the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it’s on VHS, if anybody wants it. I’m not going to spend the — we’re talking millions of dollars here — the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn’t really exist anymore,” he told the Associated Press back in 2004 about not releasing the original cut. “It’s like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I’m sorry you saw a half-completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. I’m the one who has to take responsibility for it. I’m the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they’re going to throw rocks at me, they’re going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished.”

Who knows why Lucas is having a bit of a change of heart with this screening — but we certainly aren’t complaining.

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.