Shattering items is a core mechanic of Last Epoch and one of the key features that make crafting in the game approachable. Every item in the game has affixes – secondary attributes – that are randomly rolled whenever an item drops. These affixes are massively important for making optimal builds and maximizing your DPS in the game. You can use shards – which are essentially unattached affixes – to add specific affixes to any item by forging. There are very few limitations to this process, and it is what makes crafting so easy to approach in the game.

One of the main ways to get these shards is by shattering items that have affixes you want using the Rune of Shattering. The Rune of Shattering destroys the item (base) and gives you a random amount of shards for the affixes that were on the item in question. To understand everything about shattering and how the mechanic works in Last Epoch, here’s what you need to know.

How To Shatter Items

To shatter items, here’s what you do.

1. Open the Forge (F).
2. Drag and drop the item you want to shatter to the forge.
3. Click the smaller golden plus icon and select the Rune of Shattering (pictured above).
4. Click ‘Shatter.’

How To Get Rune Of Shattering

There are two ways to get Runes of Shattering.

1. Drops from enemies.
2. Buying from the shop.

While you’ll get plenty of runes during regular runs, it’s actually the shop that’s the best resource for keeping your stock of shatter runes in good shape. The shop resets every 10 minutes, and new items are restocked. 2000 Gold might seem like a lot of money in the early game, but as you progress, the amount of gold you’ll get starts to rise quite a bit.

Best Items To Shatter

Runes of Shattering might not be rare per se, but if you’re heavily invested in the crafting process, you’ll run out of these runes very, very quickly if you’re not picky about when to use these runes and when not to. I have three main questions I like to ask myself whenever I’m tempted to shatter an item for the shards.

• Do I need one or more of these affixes for my build?
• Are the affixes above T3?
• Are the affixes class-specific?

If the answer to questions one and two is no, there is no reason to shatter the item and waste a finite resource. Question three is more of a consideration for items you want to pay special attention to.

Rune Of Removal Vs. Rune Of Shattering

Rune of Removal works similarly to Rune of Shattering but has a distinct advantage over it in one aspect. The way this rune works is that each time you use it, it will remove a random affix from the item and give you back all of the shards on that affix. This means that if you remove a T5 affix with Rune of Removal, you get five shards of that affix. Four for T4, three for T3, and so on.

However, unlike Rune of Shattering, Rune of Removal uses up Forging Potential. This means each time you pop a Rune of Removal; it’ll consume a random amount of Forging Potential – within the range displayed – and remove a random affix, giving you back shards equal to the tier of the affix it removed.

If you keep getting unlucky and aren’t able to remove the specific affix you were aiming for, you might end up running out of Forging Potential before you’re able to remove everything. This is the trade-off of using Removal instead of Shattering. Also, remember that if an item falls to 0 Forging Potential, it cannot be Shattered either.

Last Epoch is a massive ARPG with tons to discover and dozens of intricate mechanics that might not immediately make senses. New players might find our how to unlock mastery and how to respec passives guides worth checking out.

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