The single most consequential decision you make in Last Epoch's endgame is not which ascendancy to pick — it is which Item Faction you join. The Merchant's Guild and Circle of Fortune operate on completely different loot philosophies, and joining the wrong one for your playstyle slows your character by dozens of hours.
This guide covers both factions in full for Season 4: Shattered Omens (patch 1.4.7), with a clear recommendation for each player type and a note on how the choice will land heading into Season 5: Rage of the Frostborn (launching 2026-10-01).
TLDR: Choose the Merchant's Guild if you want to buy specific items and use gold as a power lever. Choose Circle of Fortune if you want a self-found experience with target-farming tools and no need to interact with the player market. Both reach endgame; the gap only appears at the highest corruption levels and BiS min-maxing.
What Are Item Factions in Last Epoch?
Item Factions are a core endgame system in Last Epoch that locks your character into one of two loot philosophies: player-driven trading (Merchant's Guild) or amplified self-farming (Circle of Fortune). The factions are mutually exclusive per character — you choose one, and switching requires starting a new character or completing a specific quest line that resets your faction rank.
Both factions are accessed in Upper Maj'Elka in Chapter 9 of the campaign. Your first contact is Zerrick, a shady local fixer who starts the quest "Merchants and Fortune Tellers" and points you toward both faction hubs. You can preview each faction's offers before committing.
How Do You Join a Faction in Last Epoch?
Both factions are located in Maj'Elka, close to each other on the map. After speaking to Zerrick and receiving the introductory quest:
- Merchant's Guild: Head to The Bazaar and speak with Nama, the Merchant's Guild faction leader.
- Circle of Fortune: Head to The Observatory and speak with Galila, the Circle of Fortune faction leader.
Joining is free — no gold, no Favor, no prerequisites beyond reaching Chapter 9. Your Faction Rank is account-wide but separated by game mode (Standard, Hardcore, etc.), so a character in Softcore Standard and a Hardcore character each have independent Faction Ranks.
How Does the Merchant's Guild Work?
The Merchant's Guild is built around the Bazaar: an asynchronous auction-house where Merchant's Guild members buy and sell items using Gold and Favor. According to the Maxroll.gg Merchant's Guild Overview (updated for Season 4): "Your Faction Rank unlocks the ability to Sell and Buy items through an auction house style system called the Bazaar. A higher Faction Rank also opens up the ability to Buy higher qualities of items."
Favor is earned by killing monsters and completing quests. It is spent to list items for sale and to purchase items from the Bazaar.
Gold is the pricing currency in the Bazaar — sellers name their price in Gold, buyers pay it.
Merchant's Guild Rank Progression (12 Ranks Total)
The Merchant's Guild has 12 Ranks. You can sell all item types from Rank 1. Buying improves with each rank:
| Rank | Unlock |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sell everything; buy Normal, Magic, Rare items |
| 2 | Buy Set items |
| 3 | Buy Unique items (no Legendary Potential) |
| 4 | Buy all Idols |
| 5 | Buy Exalted Weapons and Off-hands |
| 6 | Buy Exalted Armor |
| 7 | Buy all Unique Weapons/Off-hands including LP |
| 8 | Buy all Exalted items |
| 9 | Buy all Unique items including Legendary Potential |
| 10 | Buy Legendary Weapons and Off-hands |
| 11 | Buy Legendary Armor |
| 12 | Buy all Legendary items |
At Rank 3 you can buy uniques for the first time, which is the inflection point where MG starts to feel meaningfully different from self-found. Reaching Rank 9 — where you can buy any unique regardless of Legendary Potential — is the real min-maxing gate.
Merchant's Guild Tokens
Two token types drop as loot when you are in the Merchant's Guild:
- Merchant Token: Removes the Favor cost from any single Bazaar purchase.
- Black Market Token: Removes the Favor cost AND lets you purchase items above your current Reputation Rank, then lowers the equip requirement to Rank 1. A lootable Black Market Token drops when you first reach Rank 6 and Rank 12 (updated in Season 4).
Tokens are critical for snagging high-LP uniques before you reach Rank 9 — they effectively let you shop above your tier when you find one.
How Does the Circle of Fortune Work?
The Circle of Fortune takes the opposite philosophy: it amplifies the loot you find yourself, without involving other players at all. As the official Last Epoch Support documents state: "The Observatory is a town area where players aligned with Circle of Fortune are able to seek out Prophecies from Telescopes for Favor."
Instead of the Bazaar, CoF players use two systems: passive Rank bonuses that improve global loot quality, and Prophecies — targeted objectives that reward specific item types on completion.
Circle of Fortune Rank Bonuses
CoF rank bonuses stack as you progress. Key milestones:
| Rank | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 1 | Enemies have a 35% chance to drop twice as many items |
| 3 | When an Idol drops, 25% chance two more drop at the same time |
| 4 | When a Set item would drop, the entire set drops |
| 5 | 35% chance for double Monolith Echo rewards |
| 6 | Affixes are 50% more likely to be Exalted |
| 8 | Uniques are twice as likely to have Legendary Potential |
| 9 | T7 Affixes are twice as common |
| 10 | Bosses have 150% increased drop rate for their unique rewards |
| 12 | Prophecies grant twice as many items |
The double-LP chance at Rank 8 and doubled Prophecy rewards at Rank 12 are the two headline features for endgame CoF players.
The Prophecy System
The Observatory contains four Telescopes, each associated with a loot category:
- North (Arctus): Armor
- East (Eos): Weapons and Off-hands
- South (Mesembria): Jewelry
- West (Dysis): Crafting Materials and Idols
Each Telescope offers Prophecies purchased with Favor. A Prophecy has three parts: an Event (what to do), a Condition (where or at what corruption), and a Reward (what you get). You can hold up to 48 active Prophecies at once.
Lenses are permanent modifiers slotted into Telescopes to customize what Prophecy types appear. You have three Lens slots per Telescope (unlocking at Rank 2, 5, and 9), allowing precise control over what loot categories your Prophecies target.
Merchant's Guild vs Circle of Fortune: Head-to-Head
| Merchant's Guild | Circle of Fortune | |
|---|---|---|
| Loot source | Player Bazaar (auction house) | Self-found with passive buffs |
| Currency | Gold + Favor | Favor only |
| Trading | Yes (buy and sell freely) | No |
| Target farming | Gold-efficient buying | Prophecy system |
| Best for BiS items | Yes — buy exact LP/affix combinations | Possible, but RNG-dependent |
| SSF / casual play | No | Yes |
| Gold importance | Critical | Irrelevant |
| Time to first major gear upgrade | Faster if gold-rich | Slower but consistent |
| Endgame min-maxing ceiling | Higher | Lower |
| Season-start pace | Slow (Bazaar needs supply) | Consistent from day 1 |
Which Faction Should You Choose?
Choose the Merchant's Guild if:
- You enjoy playing the player economy and flipping items
- You want to buy a specific BiS item with a specific LP tier rather than farming for it
- You play multiple alts and want to trade gear between characters
- You have gold available from efficient farming or an external source
- You are targeting the highest possible corruption levels where exact stat rolls matter
The Merchant's Guild is objectively more powerful at endgame min-maxing. When the entire playerbase is farming and listing items, the collective supply of high-LP, perfectly-rolled gear far exceeds what any single player can self-farm. If your goal is peak character power in the shortest time, MG is the correct choice.
The one catch: gold is the limiting factor. Early in a season, good items are expensive and gold is thin. Players who reach MG Rank 7-9 quickly can buy items others cannot yet access, which creates a genuine advantage for players who can farm gold efficiently — or supplement it.
Need gold fast? Our Last Epoch Gold service delivers directly to your character so your Bazaar budget is never the bottleneck.
Choose Circle of Fortune if:
- You prefer finding your own gear without relying on other players
- You dislike managing gold or don't want to deal with the auction house
- You are a new or returning player who wants a structured self-progression system
- You value the Prophecy objectives as a goal layer beyond raw monolith pushing
- You play casually or in short sessions and won't generate enough gold to make MG worthwhile
CoF's Prophecy system is genuinely excellent for directed play. Rather than mindlessly killing trash to accumulate gold, CoF players pick specific telescope objectives — "find a T10+ Amulet in a Tier 4 Dungeon" — and complete them intentionally. Players in the community consistently call CoF's Prophecy system one of the best SSF implementations in any ARPG precisely because it gives structured direction without requiring market participation.
The trade-off is the ceiling. Community consensus is consistent: at the highest corruption levels, no amount of CoF passive bonuses can replicate what tens of thousands of MG players collectively farm and list. CoF closes the gap meaningfully, but does not eliminate it.
Fast-track your progression: Our Last Epoch Leveling service pushes your character through the campaign and into corruption quickly, so you reach the faction's endgame mechanics faster.
Faction Strategy for Season 5: Rage of the Frostborn
Season 5: Rage of the Frostborn launches on 2026-10-01 (24 days from the date of this article). A secondary reveal — expected to be a season calendar or roadmap drop — is anticipated around 2026-09-14. Season 5 features are still being teased and are UNCONFIRMED until the official patch note release.
Why this matters for your faction choice:
Season starts always reset Bazaar supply to zero. In the first 48-72 hours of Season 5, almost nothing will be listed at the Bazaar, and prices for the few items listed will be extremely high. CoF players benefit on season day 1 because their passive rank bonuses and Prophecy access kick in immediately — they do not need external supply.
MG players who reroll for Season 5 should plan to level quickly, push Rank 3 to access Unique buying as fast as possible, and expect to spend 2-4 hours into the season before the Bazaar has meaningful supply.
CoF players rerolling for Season 5 should line up Lenses for their primary gear slot (Eos for weapons, Arctus for armor) and push Prophecies hard in the first week when loot density from rank bonuses compounds fastest.
Want to start Season 5 with gold banked? Our Merchant's Guild service can boost your faction rank so you unlock higher Bazaar tiers from the moment trading opens.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I switch factions after joining? Yes, but there is a cost. Leaving the Merchant's Guild or Circle of Fortune removes items tagged to that faction from your character and requires a quest reset. You keep your account-wide Faction Rank, but the rank is stored separately per game mode and character slot, so switching effectively means restarting your faction progression for that character.
Is Circle of Fortune really good enough for endgame? Yes for the vast majority of content. You can complete all Monolith timelines, T4 Dungeons, and push into high corruption on CoF without ever touching the Bazaar. The gap only appears at the very top tier of min-maxing where specific LP combinations on specific uniques become necessary.
Can I have both factions on the same account? Yes — but not on the same character. You can have one character in MG and another in CoF. Items earned in one faction cannot be equipped by a character in the other faction at high rank requirements, so there is effectively no gear sharing between the two.
How long does it take to reach Merchant's Guild Rank 9? In Season 4 at typical endgame pace (running Monolith timelines and dungeons), most players reach Rank 7-8 in 20-40 hours of gameplay. Rank 9 — where all uniques including LP are purchasable — typically takes 50-80 hours depending on how aggressively you spend Favor on Reputation.
Does the Merchant's Guild get gold duping issues? In past seasons (Season 2 and 3) there were gold duplication exploits that inflated Bazaar prices early in the season. Season 4 has not had a confirmed dupe as of patch 1.4.7. If one emerges in Season 5, CoF is temporarily more stable.
Which faction is better for Merchant's Guild rank farming specifically? If you want the Merchant's Guild boosted in Season 5 before launch or early in the season, our Last Epoch Merchant's Guild service handles faction rank progression so you can skip straight to buying BiS items.
