In Season 3, Last Epoch introduced an addition: the Primal Hunt. The Wengari Hunt Master, Skarven Bloodhorn, tracks Rift Beasts. These powerful predators tear through Rifts in reality to invade our world. These Rifts transport you to a cave deep within the Ancient Era, where you battle a Rift Beast and choose to spare one of three offspring.
You'll gather Ancient Bones and special materials as you fight through hordes of monsters and defeat the invading Beasts. These materials let you trade them for game-changing gear and loot like Primordial Uniques and runes that buff your Exalted items.
What Is The Primal Hunt?
The Primal Hunt is a random encounter system similar to the game's Nemesis system, introduced in Last Epoch's Season 3. It serves as a powerful, late-game reward loop.
During the Campaign starting at level ten, or in the Monolith of Fate, you may stumble upon a Mysterious Rift. Stepping through throws you into a cave in the Ancient Era, where you meet Skarven Bloodhorn, the Hunt Master. Your goal is to track down and defeat a Rift Beast in the cave. Once you do, you can spare one of its three hatchlings to forge your own evolving bloodline.
These Rift Beasts evolve with each defeat in a Mysterious Rift. Their offspring show up after interacting with Torn Rifts, spawning directly inside your echoes or zones as repeatable challenges. Every kill rewards Primordial Materials, which you exchange with the Hunt Master for powerful loot and crafting materials.
How To Find The Hunt Master
Once inside a Mysterious Rift, you’ll meet Skarven Bloodhorn, the Wengari Hunt Master, waiting to kick off your Primal Hunt. The Hunt Master trades your Rift Beast trophies in exchange for various Primordial Beast Parts, Primordial gear, Runes of Evolution, or lucrative grab bags filled with Uniques and crafting goodies.
Item
Cost
Description
Bag of Amber
One Crystallized Heart and ten Primordial Horns
Gives you 5,000 Memory Amber. You can only open this bag if you are a member of the Weaver Faction.
Bag of Glyphs
Ten Primordial Fangs
Gives you a random number of Glyphs.
Bag of Gold
Five Primordial Feathers
Gives you a random amount of Gold.
Bag of Primordial Materials
10,000 Ancient Bones
Gives you a random assortment of Primordial Fangs, Feathers, Horns, and Petals, with a small chance to get a Crystallized Heart.
Bag of Shards
Ten Primordial Petals
Gives you a random number of Shards.
Bag of Uniques
Ten Primordial Fangs and ten Primordial Feathers
Gives you a random number of Unique items.
Crystallized Heart
20 Primordial Horns and 30 Primordial Petals
Traded with Skarven for Runes of Evolution or Primordial Items.
Rune of Evolution
One Crystallized Heart and 35 Primordial Feathers
Turns an Exalted Item into a Primordial one.
Primordial Beast Parts
Varies
Gives Primordial Beast Parts like Fangs or Bones.
Unique Primordial Gear
Varies
Specific Unique Primordial gear only obtained through the Hunt Master.
How To Access The Primal Hunt
Primal Hunts start when you step through a Mysterious Rift that spawns during regular play, either through the Campaign or in Monoliths. You'll initially run into these beginning around the time you enter level ten zones.
How To Find A Rift
Mysterious Rifts appear as yellow portals shaped like massive claw marks. In contrast, Torn Rifts show up as green claw fractures. Torn Rifts instantly summon a Rift Beast of your existing lineage, letting you farm for lineage‑specific drops and Ancient Bones without leaving whatever Echo or zone you're already clearing.
Rifts can show up early in the campaign and also during Monolith runs. Mysterious Rifts are rarer than Torn Rifts, so keep moving through standard zones and echoes to roll more chances to spawn them.
Echoes
Monolith of Fate echoes can spawn Mysterious Rifts or Torn Rifts, opening the door to Primal Hunts. However, Rifts don't appear in Quest Echoes or Arena Echoes.
In Monolith gameplay, the process works much the same as in Campaign zones. While working through timeline echoes, you may encounter either type of Rift. Just keep in mind that Tombs and Cemeteries cannot spawn alongside a Rift, since each of these is classified as a side area in the zone and only one can appear per echo.
Weaver Support
The Weaver Faction brings a fresh dimension to Primal Hunts and offers new ways to buff your lineage and reward farming through the Weaver Tree. By investing points earned from completing Woven Echoes or spending Memory Amber, you unlock nodes that help streamline Rift success and buff loot.
Woven Echoes
Three new Woven Echoes have been introduced to interact with the Primal Hunt system. These echoes are obtained like normal Woven Echoes, and add Rift encounters and loot opportunities directly into your Monolith timeline.
Echo
Effect
Bloodline Glade
Great for farming items with Primordial Exalted Champion affixes. These special modifiers don’t occur naturally with Runes of Evolution.
Nesting Grove
Completing this echo adds Rift Beast encounters into adjacent echoes, making it easier to bulk up on key Primal materials.
Rampart Coast
Unlocks another Evolution slot for your Rift Beast bloodline and is a solid source of Crystallized Hearts.
Champion Affixes are permanent affixes dropped from Champion enemies.
Weaver Tree Nodes
The Weaver Tree introduces four specialized nodes that interact with your Primal Hunts. These are located along the left side of the Weaver Tree.
Node
Description
Age of Beasts
Puts Rift Beasts into your echoes more often.
Crystal Growth
Rift Beasts are more likely to carry Crystallized Hearts, with those that do gaining extra health and damage.
Primordial Ambush
Sometimes echoes turn into ambush zones filled with randomly evolved Rift Beasts, who have a higher drop rate for Primordial Uniques that the Hunt Master doesn’t sell.
Riven Gateway
When a Rift Beast appears through a Rift, it brings Ancient Era mobs with it. Slaying them nets you Ancient Bones.
How To Hunt The Rift Beast
When entering a Mysterious Rift, the Hunt Master will join you as you fight through the ancient cave system, battling monsters and eventually reaching the Rift Beast at the end. You can tell you're getting close if you see a three-egg symbol on the minimap or overhead map.
Evolution
When you face a Rift Beast in a Mysterious Rift and defeat it, you'll see three unhatched eggs nearby. Interacting with them, you’re given the choice to save one of three hatchlings to continue its lineage. That choice grants the Rift Beast a unique Evolution, buffing its traits and abilities, and dropping a unique crafting material depending on the lineage you choose.
Ending a fully evolved Rift Beast lineage grants you the Unique Primordial amulet, Evolution’s End.
You can stack up to four Evolutions per lineage, unless you extend the limit by completing Woven Echoes like Rampant Coast, which can raise the cap up to seven. With more than 60 Evolution options available, every branch of the lineage can feel drastically different.
Rift Beast Loot
Rift Beasts and the monsters lurking in their caves drop loot you can trade to the Hunt Master. Additionally, you can only get some Primordial Uniques from slaying Rift Beasts.
Item
Description
Ancient Bones
Dropped by Rift Beasts and creatures in the Rift, these are the core crafting currency required for trades with the Hunt Master.
Evolution’s End Unique
Awarded when you fully evolve a Rift Beast lineage and restart it.
Primordial Materials
Items like bones, fangs, feathers, petals, and crystallized hearts dropped from Rift Beast fights and used as currency for Primordial gear.
Primordial Uniques
Very powerful versions of standard Uniques, obtainable from the Hunt Master or rare Rift Beast drops.
Rune of Evolution
A rare crafting tool that upgrades a Tier seven affix on an exalted item to Tier eight.
What Are The New Primordial Items?
Season Three in Last Epoch has unleashed a whole new class of gear in Last Epoch: Primordial Items. Along with a specialized rune, these supercharged weapons and armor come in two flavors, Exalted and Unique, each packing seriously upgraded stats and wild effects.
Runes of Evolution
Runes of Evolution are rare crafting runes that increase the strength of exalted items. They randomly upgrade one Tier seven affix to a Tier eight Primordial affix, dramatically boosting power without consuming the sealed slot. To use one, slot it into the crafting panel with your exalted item.
The upgrade is completely random and irreversible, so planning wisely matters, though many players burn through a few before landing the perfect roll.
Primordial Exalteds
Primordial Exalteds are made using a Rune of Evolution on an existing exalted item with at least one Tier seven affix. When used, these weapons or armor gain a Tier eight affix that delivers a significantly stronger stat, often 50 to 100 percent more powerful than T7 versions.
What’s more, the new affix occupies an extra sealed slot, meaning your exalted gear can now sport six affixes instead of the usual five. This transforms your gear into a powerhouse.
You can only equip one Primordial Item at a time.
Primordial Uniques
Primordial Uniques are powerful versions of base unique items. You get them by trading Rift Beast materials with Skarven Bloodhorn, the Hunt Master. Once bought, these items bring extra effects tailored to their equipment slot. There are currently 25 Primordial Uniques in the game: 22 are purchasable through material exchanges at the Hutner Vendor, while Rift Beasts dropthe remaining three.
These Uniques can further be upgraded using Legendary Potential, which is assigned when you buy the item, allowing conversion into full Legendary gear.
