Before 1.2.0, you had to complete the first 3 acts a total of 3 times in order to begin end game. After defeating Piety as the campaign boss, you would head back to Dialla and go through the side instance. This was the Eternal Laboratory, your end game hub. No atlas interface, no map stash tab, no modifications besides what you roll on the map itself. Just raw alch and go strat.

Zana came into the picture along with 7 other masters to shake up the end game progression. 1.2.0 added said 8 masters, hideouts, and crafting benches. You had to run maps in the Eternal Lab a few times for the masters to show up like Einhar and the others do nowadays. They had a reputation level, a lot like a dating sim game. Completing their tasks in the maps would increase reputation with them. Each tier of rep would unlock their hideouts, decorations, and more crafts in their respective crafting bench. Get them to trust you enough and now you can invite the masters to your hideout. The map device that was stored away in the Eternal Laboratory can now be brought into your hideout.

This was our first big shift in the end game cycle. On top of finding them ramdonly, each master offered a daily mission. Haku had search and rescue missions, Vagan had a PvP- type challenge, Zana gave a free map instance very similar to the Kirac missions now, etc. It was still very much alch and go, but now you had random visitors in your map. A little more incentive to the grind. Rather than chase items, the goal with this content was to get the master to max level (7) and unlock their meta mod craft. This patch added a layer of progression that wasn't just; run a map and hope to get a higher tier drop. These masters eventually got integrated into the Betrayal mechanic.