Last Epoch Season 5: Rage of the Frostborn Guide

Season 5 went live on PC and Steam on October 1, 2026 at 11:00 CDT (16:00 UTC) with Patch 1.5, and that patch is the season. Two more builds have shipped since — Patch 1.5.1 on October 2 and Hotfix 1.5.1.1 on October 3 — so the build you actually want as of October 3 is 1.5.1.1. Servers went down 24 hours early, on September 30, to prep the launch.

Short version for anyone deciding whether to come back: this is a season-sized patch, not a balance pass, and it is early enough that the first two weeks are worth playing. Everything below is PC/Steam as of Patch 1.5.1.1.

Season 5 launch date and what each patch is for

The three patches have very different scopes, and the official notes make that clear. Patch 1.5 is a full season drop. (A fourth, Hotfix 1.5.0.1, landed in the small hours of October 2 and fixed a Turkish-locale login failure plus a Rage of Morditas reward menu that could vanish before you picked anything.) Patch 1.5.1 is a narrow fix list whose headline item is that Pinnacle Morditas can now be challenged by Legacy and Offline characters, plus a corrected Lens of Tyranny tooltip and a fix for Dreamslash players getting caught inside Yrun's hitbox. Hotfix 1.5.1.1 is the one that matters for everyone: it fixed brief freezes when loading into Caves, Tombs and Cemeteries, fixed Rage of Morditas gauntlets sometimes spawning too few monsters to finish, fixed Yrun creating invisible damage zones, and gated the three rarest Season 5 Uniques to level 80+ zones only.

Official source: Last Epoch Hotfix 1.5.1.1 Notes, the full 1.5 patch notes and the 1.5.1 patch notes.

The three big changes inside Patch 1.5

1. Rage of Morditas is the new seasonal loop

You meet it as a Blood Crystal — interactable in the Monolith of Fate, and available in campaign from chapter 2 onward. You have to touch the crystal yourself; it does not trigger on sight. Phase one is a timed kill rush where every kill buys you time and stacks Bloodrage Charges at 20, 50, 90, 140 and 200 kills, handing you one of 28 random buffs per charge. Phase two is a blood-and-ice gauntlet where every enemy you killed in phase one comes back; step out of the arena for four seconds and it ends early.

The reward panel is where the real decisions are: five slots, and each Bloodrage Charge buys either one claimed item or one ritual reroll. It also introduces Ice Forging Potential and Blood Forging Potential, which only ever appear on drops from this encounter. The Rage of Morditas farming guide covers the panel.

2. Both tradeable item factions were rebuilt

Merchant's Guild lost its rank gates: every equippable item type is now purchasable simply by being a member, and ranks unlock bags of crafting materials and keys instead. Black Market tokens are gone. You also get historical-sales price suggestions and opt-in automatic price lowering. Circle of Fortune lost prophecy rerolls — you now pick a reward category up front, and it charges from Favor with two trigger conditions per slot across four slots, plus twelve Lenses purchasable from Galila that unlock between rank 3 and rank 9.

If you have to re-pick a faction for a new season character, the Item Factions in Season 5 breakdown has the tradeoffs side by side.

3. Three new skills, 18 new item subtypes, 16 new Uniques and 2 Set Items

One number correction before you go read item lists elsewhere: Season 5 added 16 new Uniques and 2 Set Items. The number 18 refers to the new item subtypes exclusive to the Rage of Morditas ritual encounter (Veinweave Belt, Icicle Sword, Frozen Skull and so on), all at Level Requirement 50.

The three new skills land on different classes and, more importantly, at very different costs:

Dreamslash is the cheap one and the obvious first target for a fresh character. Summon Tide Elemental needs 30 points in the Shaman passive tree and is effectively a late-season commitment. The Season 5 new skills reference breaks down what each one does in combat.

Town changes: Echo of the World is now Traveler's Rest

Per the official notes, Echo of the World has been renamed to Traveler's Rest, which now has a waypoint reachable from the End of Time Era. A new Nexus activity panel — surfacing endgame activities, Timelines, Dungeons and faction info — is accessible from Traveler's Rest and the world map, and you can change Timelines directly from the Monolith of Fate through it. A free back cosmetic was also added to the in-game store.

This is the one change that touches everyone's muscle memory, so spend five minutes in the hub before hunting. If the new panel makes the endgame look more complicated than it is, the Monolith of Fate starter guide walks the loop in order.

What a returning player should do first

What Season 5 did not change

The good news for anyone returning: the Monolith of Fate loop, the Weaver Tree and the Corruption system are all still there, structurally unchanged. Our Weaver Tree guide and Morditas boss guide still apply under the current version.

Two smaller changes are worth knowing before you set up a farm loop. Re-running an Echo you have already cleared now cuts XP and Favor sharply — the team said plainly it was aimed at stopping one Echo from becoming the optimal grind. And Omen Windows moved earlier in the level curve (area level 18, up from 10), but the Idol Altars they drop are now far less common at low levels: 40% from area level 32-49 and 80% from 50-79, both down from 100%. Loot filters also gained a new Variant affix group, which matters if you import a filter that predates Season 5.

Platform scope: PC and Steam only

The official launch announcement says Season 5 "is now live on Steam", and the Steam store page lists Windows as the only platform. The PS5 version was announced alongside the Orobyss expansion but has not been released and has no announced date, and there is no official Xbox announcement at all. Every date and mechanic on this page is PC/Steam.

FAQ

Is Season 5 out yet? Yes. Patch 1.5 launched October 1, 2026 at 11:00 CDT / 16:00 UTC, and the current build as of October 3 is hotfix 1.5.1.1.

Do I need to start over to play Season 5? No, but Season 5 characters and non-season characters are not the same progression tier. To compete in the First Blood race, the official rules require a Season 5 Online character.

Can I play Morditas if my character is Legacy or Offline? Yes, as of Patch 1.5.1. Pinnacle Morditas can now be challenged by Legacy and Offline characters. It could not before October 2.

How many new Uniques came with Season 5? Sixteen new Uniques plus two Set Items. The eighteen figure that circulates is the count of new item subtypes exclusive to the Rage of Morditas ritual encounter.

Is Season 5 on PS5? Not yet. The console version was announced but has not launched, so there is currently no Season 5 content on console.