Both of Last Epoch's Item Factions are getting their biggest overhaul since launch in Season 5: Rage of the Frostborn, which arrives October 1, 2026. The Merchant's Guild is gaining automated pricing tools that remove the need to manually babysit your listings, while Circle of Fortune's notoriously frustrating Prophecy system is being redesigned so you can target the exact rewards you want. This guide covers every confirmed change heading into Season 5 and what it means for your Season 5 start strategy.
Quick Answer (TLDR): Season 5 reworks both factions. Merchant's Guild gets price suggestion tools and automatic price reduction over time (less listing management). Circle of Fortune gets a redesigned Prophecy system where you pick the exact rewards you want, with more targeting options unlocking as you rank up. Both factions still have 12 ranks. Season 5 launches October 1, 2026 at 16:00 UTC on patch 1.5.
Why Are the Factions Changing in Season 5?
Season 5 Game Director Mike Weicker put it plainly during the official reveal stream: "there's a lot of friction that can happen inside" both factions. Despite being popular systems that players generally enjoy, the day-to-day management demands of the Merchant's Guild (manually adjusting listing prices, babysitting stale listings) and Circle of Fortune (random Prophecy rerolling with no guaranteed targeting) had been long-standing friction points.
Season 4 (Shattered Omens) ran from March 26, 2026 through October 1, 2026 — over six months — giving the community plenty of time to identify exactly where each faction frustrated players. EHG took that feedback directly into the Season 5 redesigns.
The faction reworks are confirmed in the official Season 5 trailer released September 19, 2026, and detailed in EHG's interview with PCGamesN. Full patch notes are expected September 25, 2026, four days before Season 5 launches.
What Is Changing for Merchant's Guild in Season 5?
Price Suggestion Tool
The Merchant's Guild Bazaar is getting a price suggestion feature. When listing an item for trade, the system will now suggest a market-appropriate price based on comparable listings already active in the Bazaar. This addresses one of the most common friction points: new or returning players had no easy way to gauge what an item was worth without manually checking the Bazaar first.
Automatic Price Reduction Over Time
Listings can now be configured with automatic price reduction settings. You set a floor price and a schedule, and the system will gradually lower your asking price over time until the item sells. This means you can list a batch of items and walk away — the Bazaar does the price management for you rather than requiring daily check-ins. Per Weicker: it removes the need to "constantly babysit listings."
Rank Requirement Changes
Per coverage from Inven Global, the rank-gated purchase restrictions on certain item types are being removed or adjusted in Season 5. In Season 4, buying Exalted gear at the Bazaar required reaching Rank 5–8 depending on item type, and Legendaries with LP required Rank 10+. The exact scope of these changes will be confirmed in the full September 25 patch notes, but if the gates are lifted, new Season 5 characters will have earlier access to the Bazaar's top-tier inventory.
What stays the same: The core Merchant's Guild loop (earn Favor by killing monsters and completing quests, use Gold + Favor to buy items) is unchanged. The Bazaar remains the central hub. MG still has 12 ranks.
What Is Changing for Circle of Fortune in Season 5?
Circle of Fortune's Prophecy system is receiving its most significant redesign to date. The core complaint in Season 4 was that rerolling Prophecies was too random — players would spend huge amounts of Favor cycling through Telescope offerings without being able to reliably target a specific item type they needed.
Pick Exact Prophecy Rewards
In Season 5, you can select the exact rewards you want from your Prophecies rather than cycling through a random pool hoping your target appears. This is the central change. Instead of the system offering a random set of options to reroll into, you have direct targeting capability.
More Options at Higher Ranks
Deeper into the CoF rank track, more targeting options unlock. Weicker described the design intent: "once you have it set the way you want, you can walk away from it and just enjoy it" (PCGamesN, September 2026). The system is designed to give players the ability to configure a target-farm setup and then let it run, rather than requiring constant Telescope micromanagement.
Telescopes and Lenses Remain
The four Telescopes (Arctus for Armor, Eos for Weapons/Offhands, Mesembria for Jewelry, Dysis for Crafting/Idols) and their three Lens slots remain. These still serve as the macro filter layer — they tell the Prophecy system which gear category to focus on. The new targeting change operates at the Prophecy level within each Telescope's domain.
The result: Telescopes set the category, the redesigned Prophecy system lets you pinpoint specific reward types within that category. The passive rank bonuses (such as the R8 bonus that doubles LP chances on item drops) are not mentioned as changing in any confirmed sources — treat those as unchanged until the September 25 patch notes.
What stays the same: Favor is still the only currency CoF uses. The faction remains the SSF-style alternative to MG trading. CoF still has 12 ranks.
Which Faction Should You Play at Season 5 Start?
The faction reworks shift the balance slightly toward earlier Season 5 accessibility for both paths, but the core decision framework remains the same:
Pick Merchant's Guild if:
- You want to buy specific items (LP Uniques, Exalted gear) directly from other players
- You want to accelerate toward 400 Corruption for the Morditas Woven Echo pinnacle fight
- You plan to sell high-quality drops for Gold to fund your build
- You have gold available from Season 4 rollover (note: seasonal characters reset gold to Legacy, but Legacy characters keep their Gold)
Pick Circle of Fortune if:
- You prefer self-found progression without trading
- You want to target-farm specific item types via the new Prophecy system
- You enjoy optimizing a passive loot-filter setup and checking back to collect rewards
- Your build works well before acquiring top-tier Bazaar items
The S5 meta shift: If the MG rank-gate changes are confirmed in the September 25 patch notes, new characters will be able to buy higher-tier inventory earlier in the season — which slightly favors MG for players who want to fast-track into endgame gear. For the Morditas Woven Echo specifically (requires 400 Corruption), the MG path of buying power-spike items to accelerate your corruption push has historically been the faster route. See our full Last Epoch Merchant's Guild vs Circle of Fortune guide for the complete Season 4 breakdown of both factions.
How to Prepare Before Season 5 Launches (October 1, 2026)
Season 5 starts at 16:00 UTC on October 1, 2026. All characters from Season 4 move to Legacy at that point. New seasonal characters start from zero — no gold, no faction rank, no gear.
If you plan to play Merchant's Guild in Season 5:
- Your S4 gold stays on your Legacy character, not on the S5 seasonal one
- Your faction rank does NOT carry over between seasons — you will re-rank from 0
- Plan your S5 build now and identify which item slots benefit most from early Bazaar access
- The Temporal Sanctum shortcut (boss: Chronomancer Julra) unlocks Chapter 9 / Upper Maj'Elka faster than completing all campaign chapters — use it to reach the faction NPC Zerrick sooner
If you plan to play Circle of Fortune in Season 5:
- Configure your Telescope setup before reaching your target loot tier — knowing which Telescope category you want to focus speeds up early-season Prophecy targeting
- R1 CoF already grants a 35% chance for enemies to drop 2x items — the faction is strong from rank 1
Universal prep for both factions:
- The Temporal Sanctum key drops from Wengari in the Ruined Coast; having one queued shortens your path to faction unlock
- Corruption push to 200 unlocks the 5th Blessing slot and enables the Omnis unique to drop from the Shade of Orobyss — prioritize this in early S5 before attempting Morditas content (which requires 400 Corruption). See our Last Epoch Corruption Guide for how to scale past 200 efficiently.
Want a headstart on Season 5 faction progression?
- Last Epoch Merchant's Guild Rank Boost — rank up MG for full Bazaar access
- Last Epoch Gold — secure trading power for S5 Day 1
- Last Epoch Leveling — push corruption and reach Morditas content faster
Season 5 Context: Other Key Changes Arriving October 1
The faction reworks are one piece of a larger Season 5 update. Other confirmed changes:
Rage of Morditas mechanic: A kill-speed event appearing in both the campaign and endgame Echoes. For more on how to reach the 400-Corruption entry point for Morditas, see our Last Epoch Gold Farming Guide for currency strategy and our Season 5 overview for the full feature breakdown. High kill counts generate Bloodrage Charges that improve the reward pool at the event's end. The Bloody Ritual removes an unwanted reward type from future drops; the Frozen Ritual locks an item type so upcoming drops cluster around it. Both rituals also grant crafting bonuses: bloodforging potential (higher critical success chance) and iceforging potential (chance to craft without consuming Forging Potential).
New pinnacle boss: Defeating Morditas grants access to a Woven Echo with a fixed-difficulty encounter rated between Abberoth and Uber Abberoth. Entry requires 400 Corruption.
New class skills: Paladin gets Radiant Lance (block-chance scaling, Void Knight and Forge Guard can also use it, replaces Symbols of Hope in the tree); Bladedancer gets Dreamslash (dashing melee, shadow copies create a projectile version); Shaman gets Summon Tide Elemental (high-end tree caster, flexible build support).
New chase items: Death Dance boots (removes evade cooldown entirely), Eternal Font amulet (generates potions every second), Gift of the Eidolon gloves (haste + frenzy stat stick).
Full patch notes arrive September 25, 2026.
FAQ
What is changing with the Merchant's Guild in Last Epoch Season 5? The MG is getting two new seller tools: a price suggestion feature that recommends a market price when listing items, and an automatic price reduction setting that lowers your listing price over time so items sell without manual management. Per Inven Global, the rank requirements to purchase certain item types may also be removed — full details arrive with the September 25 patch notes.
What is changing with Circle of Fortune in Last Epoch Season 5? The Prophecy system is being redesigned to let you pick the exact rewards you want instead of rerolling randomly. More targeting options unlock as you progress through CoF ranks. The four Telescopes and their Lens slots remain, with Telescopes still handling the macro item-type filter. The goal, per Weicker, is a system you can configure once and then "walk away from."
Do faction ranks carry over from Season 4 to Season 5? No. Faction rank is per-season. Your Season 4 character moves to Legacy when Season 5 launches on October 1, and your new S5 seasonal character starts at Rank 0 in whichever faction you choose. Your Legacy character retains their rank and gold.
Which faction is better for reaching Morditas in Season 5? Morditas's Woven Echo requires 400 Corruption. Merchant's Guild lets you buy items directly from the Bazaar to accelerate your build and your corruption push, which historically gives MG characters a faster path to high-corruption content. CoF players using the new targeted Prophecy system can also accelerate gear acquisition, but MG's ability to target-buy specific items (LP Uniques, Exalted gear) at Bazaar ranks provides a more direct power lever.
When are the full Season 5 patch notes releasing? September 25, 2026 — part of the Season 5 "hype week" schedule (September 21–25). Season 5 launches October 1, 2026 at 16:00 UTC.
Where do you unlock Item Factions in Last Epoch? Both factions unlock in Chapter 9, Upper Maj'Elka. The quest NPC is Zerrick ("Merchants and Fortune Tellers"). The fastest route is the Temporal Sanctum shortcut using a Temporal Sanctum Key (farmed from Wengari in the Ruined Coast) to reach this area without completing every campaign chapter.
