Echo
A dark reflection of one of the old gods, still standing in a realm long after the god has gone. It waits among the ordinary battles on the map with nothing to mark it out, and it hits far harder than anything else you meet on the road to a boss. Beat one and it gives up a hero or a relic. They only begin to appear once you have cleared a realm, and if you keep walking past one, or it puts you down, it comes looking for you.
In detail
One combat node per map is seated with an echo. Echoes are skipped on challenge and co-op runs, and do not appear at all until you have cleared a realm. Any echo mirroring the hero you are playing is dropped, so you never fight your own. Its rewards are granted in priority order, one per win; once you have claimed them all, the kill pays 1 platinum plus elite-weighted loot. Miss the node 3 times, or lose to it, and it turns pity-active: forced into your next eligible map and given a visible marker.
More in glossary
From the current development build. Content and balance may change before release. This public reference includes discoveries and does not reflect your personal unlocks.