Hello everyone, and welcome to the Legendary item dev blog! Legendary items in Last Epoch have evolved heavily since we first concepted them a few years ago. We are very excited to say that you will be forging your own legend by completing the first dungeon and creating a Legendary item of your own. A Legendary item is a composite item made up of a unique and exalted item. You however may not use just any unique and exalted item, it requires specific criteria to be met.

Legendary Potential

Unique items can now drop with a new property called Legendary Potential. This is a new stat that ranges from 0 to 4 and determines the uniques ability to be transformed into a Legendary Item in the Eternity cache.
High Level Uniques will generally drop with no or with low Legendary Potential. Low level unique items will generally roll with more Legendary Potential than end game uniques. Finding a low level unique with 4 legendary potential will still be very rare, but not as astronomically unlikely as finding an Omnis with 4 legendary potential.
Low-level uniques have much higher chance of rolling high Legendary Potential.

How do I get a Legendary Item?

To create the Legendary Item, you need a Unique Item with Legendary Potential and an Exalted item of the same type with 4 unsealed affixes. This means that you can use any exalted, 4 affix Shield to create a Legendary Bastion of Honour.
To create a Legendary Item, you need a Unique Item with Legendary Potential and an Exalted item of the same type with 4 unsealed affixes. It takes time to forge a legend into the record books. So, youll have to employ a new mechanic in our Temporal Sanctum dungeon to create a Legendary Item. At the end of the dungeon, you will be rewarded with the ability to access the Eternity Cache in 2 different eras. You place your two items into the cache in the past and when you return to it in the future you will be greeted with your new Legendary item. Legendary Potential determines how many affixes will be extracted and transferred from the Exalted item into your Unique - making it Legendary.
Process of creation of a Legendary Item in the Eternity Cache
The Legendary Item we have just created To guarantee that everyone who completes the dungeon has some Legendary to make, the boss will always drop some combination of items which can be used to make a Legendary item. However, we cant guarantee the quality of this legendary so you might want to prepare your own ahead of time.

Goals of the System

When designing our loot system in general, we quite often look for ways to make loot drops exciting. You may have noticed that a large number of unique items are going largely unused. Many of them have very cool mechanics on them but they just lack the stats that end game items have. So, we wanted a way to bring some of these items into a spot where they have the potential to become something amazing.
We didnt want to completely invalidate exalted items as a rare and exciting drop to get so we decided that we would incorporate exalteds in as an ingredient needed to make a Legendary item. Another big advantage here is that it doesnt invalidate our crafting system. We wanted to make sure that this would feel like a natural extension of the current crafting system rather than a replacement. One thing we have felt that we were missing was multiple large drops which fit together. Where you can see tangible progress towards one super item. This system combines multiple drops into a more powerful whole in a directed way. Making this is the most number of different items weve ever had to get really excited about dropping.
We are very excited to see all of the very powerful, and perhaps some not so powerful, Legendary Items that you all create. We know there are some unexpected and fun builds that are waiting to be unleashed with the addition of Legendary Items.

FAQ

Can I use an exalted item with only 2 affixes on it to improve my chances of pulling the right affix?

No, it doesnt matter how much Legendary Potential the unique item has, the exalted item must always have exactly 4 unsealed affixes.

Can I use an exalted item with a sealed affix and is that affix able to be moved to a Legendary item? Can I use an Exalted item with 3 regular affixes and 1 sealed affix?

You may use an exalted item with a sealed affix. The Eternity Cache ignores sealed affixes. The exalted item must always have exactly 4 unsealed affixes, regardless if it has a sealed affix or not.

Do tiers of mods on the exalted item weight which mods get transferred to the legendary item?

No, each affix has the same chance to be chosen. Get them all up as high as you can before you use it.

Can I use an exalted item with 0 remaining Forging Potential?

Yes! So make sure to get those affix tiers up as high as possible before using it. This also means that you can use a Rune of Creation on a particularly epic exalted item to get 2 shots at making the Legendary of your dreams.

Does level requirement of a Legendary item go up to the level of the exalted item?

Yes, the item level is recalculated based on the affixes brought over.

Will my existing uniques gain Legendary Potential?

Sorry, no. Youll have to hunt down some new ones.

Do I have to bring the unique and exalted item with me into the dungeon?

No, there is a stash in the Eternity Cache room.

Can I do any more crafting on the Legendary Item after its been made?

No, we currently dont have and dont plan to add any way for you to further improve Legendary Items after they are made. This isnt set in stone but its unlikely to change.

What exactly affects the amount of Legendary Potential that a unique item gets?

Being in a higher level zone is the only thing that you can do to increase the chances of getting Legendary Potential on an item that drops. If a certain zone has a higher chance to drop the specific unique you are looking for and is a couple levels lower than an alternative zone, its probably better to farm where more of that unique drops. This might not always be true but dont expect to frequently find even 3Leg uniques in a level 100 zone. These high potential items are very rare.

Can a Legendary Item be reforged as a unique into a new Legendary using a new exalted item?

No, only unique items may be placed in the Eternity Cache with an exalted.

Do all unique items drop with at least 1 Legendary Potential?

No, most unique items will not drop with any Legendary Potential. Each unique item is eligible to drop with some amount of Legendary Potential but it is far from guaranteed.