News Tag: Path Of Exile 2

Mysterious Shade is the third quest we have to do in Path of Exile 2 Act 1. This interesting quest takes you to a graveyard to collect some keys. In this guide, we will cover how to collect two keys and defeat three separate bosses with similar mechanics to complete this quest. If you are still stuck on this quest, then don’t miss this guide!

How To Start?

First, let’s see where to start this quest. You can get this quest after completing Secrets in the Dark quest or discovering Grim Tangle in Grelwood.

Note that you must complete Secrets in the Dark quest, otherwise the tree roots will block your path and you will not be able to proceed.

Secrets In The Dark Quest

To start Secrets in the Dark quest, talk to Una in Clearfell Encampment. You will then need to explore Clearfell until you reach the entrance to Grelwood. The exact location varies per instance, so you’ll need to explore and find it on your own. There’s no predefined method.

Entering Red Vale

Once you’re in Grelwood, you’ll need to find a tree with three glowing runes at its roots, then summon Una and she’ll send you to Red Vale. Again, you’ll need to explore Grelwood to find the entrance. You can also kill Forgotten Witch and Brambleghast for some extra POE 2 Currency and loot.

Finding Obelisks Of Rust

In Red Vale, you’ll need to find these structures called Obelisks of Rust, interact with them, and clear the monsters that spawn after the interaction. After clearing them, be sure to loot the green items that drop. Repeat the above steps for the second Obelisk as well. However, at the third Obelisk, you’ll need to defeat the Rust King instead of a normal monster. So be prepared ahead of time.

Defeating Rust King

Since Rust King is vulnerable to lightning damage, it’s best to prioritize using lightning attacks if you have any. I must say, don’t skimp on your Chaos Orbs, using them to scale your lightning damage stat as much as possible can help you kill Rust King as quickly as possible. It’s definitely worth it.

Rust King’s attack pattern is pretty simple. First, he’ll create some spikes around him that will shoot out 360 degrees in all directions. You can avoid them by simply placing yourself between two spikes, though.

Then, he’ll raise his axes high and smash them in front of him, while you can duck behind him and sneakily deal some damage.

His last move is to summon an army and smash his weapons. If you’re a melee character, you can keep them close to the boss and clean them out while you attack the boss. If you’re a ranged character, you can lure them out of the area a bit and get some cover from the boss while you clean them out.

Once everything is done, grab the green item that the boss drops and open the portal to Clearfell Encampment, interact with Renly. He’ll give you some spikes and use Waypoint to return to Grelwood. Then pierce each rune with the spikes given by Renly, interact with Una, and return to Clearfell. You will then have completed Secrets in the Dark quest!

Mysterious Shade Quest

Once you have completed the above quest, you can officially begin your Mysterious Shade quest. Head to Grim Tangle, which you can find through Waypoints, or while exploring Grelwood. As mentioned before, the map is always random, so the map described here will not be the same as yours.

Draven

Una will help you clear the roots, and now your goal becomes to continue through Grim Tangle. This means you need to explore Grim Tangle until you find the exit to Cemetery of the Eternals.

Find that exit, then talk to Lachlann the Lost, who will let you find two keys in two different Mausoleums.

Explore the cemetery until you find the first one. In this instance, our first key is found in Mausoleum of the Praetor. Here you need to find the boss room, the center of Mausoleum, where you will fight Draven.

Draven’s main mechanic is that he attracts those little green ghosts, and when he attracts three of them, he gains power. To stop them, you just have to step on them. It is worth noting that in addition to his basic attack, he will also send out a barrage of projectiles, so dodge them in time.

In phase 2 of the battle, he will summon his girlfriend Asinia to help him. She will draw some circles on the ground, and the player will be damaged shortly after entering the circles. So when you see Asinia, start moving around to avoid the circles.

After defeating Draven, grab Memorial Key and use the portal that appears in the boss’ room to go to the cemetery.

Then explore the cemetery until you find the second tomb. Here we will encounter Tomb of the Consort. Go in, repeat the above steps, and explore until you find the boss room, marked as Heart of the Tomb on the map.

Also Read: Path of Exile 2 Currency Free Giveaways & Promotions

Asinia

This time, you’ll fight Asinia, the Praetor’s Consort. The same ghost mechanics work here, too, with Asinia also attracting green ghosts and gaining power, and again, you can stop them by simply stepping on them.

In the first phase of the fight, she mainly does melee attacks and summons circles on the ground. Then in the second phase, she summons Draven to help her, who fires a barrage of projectiles when he appears, so dodge in time.

Then you need to watch out for her two attacks. The first is when she puts her hand over her chest and bow and then sends out a barrage that deals a lot of damage, and the second is when she launches an attack on a cage. When she puts the cage down, break it with your attack and then walk away, or dodge it because there will be a barrage soon after. After defeating her, take her key and return to the graveyard to talk to Lachlann.

Lachlann

Open the gate, and then you’ll start the final boss fight of this quest, defeat Lachlann.

Firstly, don’t stand behind the boss at first, because he will slam his weapon in front and then slam it in the back, which can do quite a bit of damage. Then another attack he does with his weapon is a wide swing, which is pretty easy to dodge, though.

He has two main Souls attacks. First, a giant green circle appears on the ground where he summons souls and then shoots them straight at you, which is also pretty easy to dodge. Then, the hardest to dodge is when he extends his arm out in front, then brings souls out of the ground and then quickly drops towards you. You’ll need to time this well to dodge. What’s more, the souls will also leave frost trails behind them, so when the big green circle appears, be sure to position yourself carefully so that the frost trails don’t get in your way.

After defeating Lachlann, you can get Count Lachlann’s Ring and a bunch of loot, and this ring is a necessary quest item that you need to complete Mysterious Shade quest.

Anyway, that’s it for this Mysterious Shade quest guide. Hopefully, these tips will help you get through all the boss levels more smoothly. However, I must remind you that it is essential to prepare some suitable equipment and items before starting the mission. If you are currently suffering from a lack of resources, you might want to pay attention to some exciting giveaways that are often launched in IGGM Discord. If you stay active in the group, you may be able to get a bunch of excellent resources for free! Try it now!

Exiles, I believe you have had a great time during the early access release of Path of Exile 2, but this does not mean that POE 2 is problem-free. Fortunately, GGG is always actively listening to player feedback and looking for solutions. Recently, Path of Exile 2 released Patch 0.1.1, which aims to solve some problems that can be solved relatively quickly without creating a new league or a new economy immediately.

Here, we will discuss some of the issues that have been discovered in POE 2 and the measures the developers plan to take in Patch 0.1.1. It’s worth emphasizing that if you find a particular issue is not on this list, it doesn’t mean that GGG is not aware of it or that it won’t be fixed, it just means that they either can’t fix it quickly or can’t fix it without the need for a new economy. So we just need to wait and let time solve all the problems.

Map Basic Experience Improvements

First of all, one of the main areas that needs a lot of attention is the map basic experience, and the developers have made a lot of changes here.

Endgame Balance

It is worth mentioning that the number of monsters, chests, magic and rare monsters, Essences, Strongboxes and Precursor Artifacts in endgame maps have been balanced. With these adjustments, you should find that map farming is more valuable than before, because maps are usually focused on one or more particularly valuable elements. So you can farm POE 2 Currency in a targeted way without wasting more time getting a bunch of useless items.

Added Tower Map

Now, Towers are very important for players because we need to run a lot, but there is only one Tower map at present, which makes many mechanisms for this useless.

Shortly after Early Access was released, many players gave feedback that they hope to add more changes here as soon as possible, so Patch 0.1.1 added four Tower maps: Alpine Ridge, Bluff, Mesa, and Sinking Spire.

Lost Towers Map Rework

In addition, the developers have reworked the existing Lost Towers Map to make playing there less boring. At the same time, since some maps cannot spawn bosses, the probability of loot drops is much lower than we expected at the beginning. Therefore, they chose to compensate for this problem by increasing the drop probability so that they can get the actual expected probability. Then, the developers also added a new type of Tablet that allows you to add bosses to your map using your own mod pool.

Strongboxes Changes

Of course, Strongboxes also need some attention. They now spawn monsters faster, the fog effect is less annoying, and the timing and effects of the mods have also been changed. Players can get a better gaming experience here.

Adjusting Effect Visibility

Now, let’s talk about the visibility of effects. Because many maps are too cluttered, the effects on the ground cannot be rendered, and you can’t see and dodge them in time. For these reasons, the developers have changed both the clutter level of some maps and some effects to ensure that they are always visible.

In addition, the visibility of elemental explosion effects has been improved, and they will last longer before exploding. If rare monsters die, they will disappear without exploding. What’s more, Volatile Plants are also easier to see before exploding.

They have also now increased the zoom level of Atlas and fixed various terrain collision issues on many maps. They have also shortened the loading time for opening World Map and Atlas panel to show the map’s biome on hover. For other in-game content systems, there is a greater focus on making all rewards consistent with what they should be.

Endgame Fixes

For Delirium, the developers recently fixed a bug that caused Delirium monster to not spawn after the opening section. Additionally, Simulacrum will now appear 20% less often to make it more consistent with the pace of finding Expedition and Ritual bosses.

For Ritual, Omens now appear 60% more often in Ritual Tribute window. For Expedition, the rarity of items in the store has been increased, but we hope that GGG will make some more substantial changes to the rewards for this league later.

Improved Pinnacle Bosses Experience

Right now, one of the main issues we still see regularly is that it takes too long to play through the Pinnacle Bosses content, and when you finally get there, you only have one attempt and no chance to get to know the boss.

To address these issues, the developers have made the following changes:

First, Citadel spawn points are closer to the center of Atlas, and they’ve also added an effect so that you can see them from farther away in the fog of war. This makes them easier to find.

To address the issue of only having one attempt, you can now get up to six respawns on Arbiter of Ash. However, respawns can only be triggered by the person who puts the key in, and everyone in your squad will respawn at the same time. Note that leaving the map will still lose your respawns, so you still need to fight the boss with the build you entered the map with.

Although the higher the difficulty of the boss, the fewer times you will respawn, but by then you should know the mechanics of the fight.

Another thing that players noticed was that there were fewer keys from Faradun Citadel on the market, and they thought it was because Citadel spawned less frequently. But it turns out that this was just because this boss killed players more often than other bosses. Still, the developers made some changes to this boss to bring it in line with other bosses.

Unique Item Buffs

On the other hand, it has to be said that many unique items in POE 2 feel unsatisfactory. Although unique items are generally designed to enable builds at high levels, they really need to ensure that more unique items also feel powerful when players first get them at low levels.

For this reason, GGG has buffed a lot of unique items in this patch. These changes should make it more fun to find POE 2 unique items at low levels. More importantly, subsequent games will also be more fun when you have some great unique items available.

In addition to this, the developers also changed a few other things to make it easier to find rare items at high levels. Not only did they slightly change the mod weights to ensure that there are fewer bad mods, but they also made it so that high-level items no longer cull the highest level modifiers for a given mod type. This means you no longer have to invest in more Exalted Orbs to re-roll modifiers to own a splendid piece of gear.

Boss Difficulty Adjustments

Now, as we continue to play, we still find many balance anomalies with specific monsters or bosses that can be annoying if you encounter them. Don’t fret now, because Patch 0.1.1 contains adjustments to a large number of these monsters and bosses. These changes should solve many cases where monsters or bosses feel too difficult in certain situations.

Item Filter System

One big issue for console players is that the web-based item filter system is currently not working properly. This means they can’t use item filters like PC users can. However, in Patch 0.1.1, the same item filter system as Path of Exile 1 will be activated again, which allows you to subscribe to item filters on the website.

Other Fixes

Of course, this patch also contains many other smaller changes and bug fixes, such as strengthening armor and Scavenged Plating, showing the number of uses left on an amulet and the effect when it is triggered, fixing the music that Una plays in town, and many other small fixes and improvements throughout the game.

While these fixes won’t solve all the problems, and it will take some time, GGG still hasn’t given up on finding things that cause frustration and trying to fix them. Hopefully, they’ll do more of this in the future, and look forward to the full release of Path of Exile 2 giving us a better gaming experience!

While waiting for the full release of POE 2, we need to be prepared for it, whether it’s completing a top-level build that suits our play style or preparing a lot of rare resources. If this is the case for you, then you might as well enter IGGM Discord, where there are often giveaways that allow you to get some great rare items for free. As long as you’re active here, lucky opportunities will always come to you.

There are currently 6 classes available for you to choose and experience in POE 2 Early Access. Each of them has its own unique characteristics, and the way the available skills work is also very different. If you like to summon something to help you in battle, then Witch may be the best POE 2 class for you.

Path of Exile 2 provides Witch with a combat ability similar to that of a necromancer, allowing you to not only use many elemental and chaotic spells when playing this class but also summon the dead as minions to fight for you. With this help, you will farm POE 2 Currency more efficiently, so that you can strengthen your equipment in time before entering the endgame and calmly deal with more difficult game content.

However, after choosing to play POE 2 Witch, whether you want to play the role of a commander on the battlefield or cast spells and cause damage to the enemy by using spells, minions are an important part of your equipment. Only by bringing the most suitable minions based on your combat habits and other foundations can you achieve victory more easily.

Based on this, we will introduce you to the 5 most useful Witch minions in POE 2.

1. Skeletal Brute

This is a relatively large minion in terms of size. He can cause a lot of damage to the enemy with melee attacks, and can further cause tremendous damage to the enemy within the effect range while stunning the enemy by creating a shock wave.

However, along with the above advantages, summoning Skeletal Brute requires more spirit than other summons. This means that although it is a minion with an excellent tank and damage output capabilities, it is not completely worth your priority because of the excessive spirit required.

The best way to use this minion in Path of Exile 2 at present is to combine it with several ranged and magic minions to create a special build. In addition, although Skeletal Brute shows good lethality, it seems a bit weak when you enter the late stage of the game. Fortunately, if you can provide it with enough spirit, it is still very useful in the early stage.

2. Skeletal Reaver

As an upgraded version of Skeletal Warrior, since Skeletal Reaver is easier to obtain in the early stages of POE 2, you may tend to use it frequently in the early stages. In addition, although Skeletal Warrior can withstand more attacks from the enemy, Skeletal Reaver requires fewer summoning materials and can also cause more continuous damage.

It is worth noting that this minion can also be angry. During this period, although it loses health points every second, the damage it causes to the enemy is greatly increased. In order to make full use of this feature, it is recommended that you use it in combination with Skeletal Cleric, so that you can cause greater damage through Skeletal Reaver while letting Cleric continue to heal it, so that you and these minions can survive smoothly until the end of the battle.

3. Skeletal Frost Mage

As you know, the characteristics of Witch class are to combine spell-casting and summoning the army of the undead. If you want to play these two advantages in battle, the appearance of Skeletal Frost Mage minion may do this.

After summoning an army of mages and casting spells for them, the Skeletal Frost Mage can fire ice bombs at enemies for you, which can not only cause considerable area damage but also slow down enemies by applying cold to them, reducing the possibility of them getting close to you to hit you.

However, you need to be aware that Skeletal Frost Mage is more suitable for supporting roles in combat rather than being used as a primary damage dealer. The best way to use it is to use a powerful melee unit such as Skeletal Brute or Skeletal Reaver to attract the enemy’s attention, and then let Skeletal Frost Mage’s ranged ability provide them with damage bonuses.

4. Skeletal Cleric

Like Skeletal Frost Mage, this is also a minion suitable for playing a supporting role. Skeletal Cleric cannot cause damage to the enemy and may not seem powerful, but it can heal and even revive other minions for you, allowing other more powerful minions to last longer in combat, which is very useful for challenging higher-level POE 2 content.

In addition, although summoning Skeletal Cleric does not require you to consume too much spirit, the fact is that running many Clerics at the same time is not entirely conducive to your dominance. The best way to use this minion at present is to add it to your existing builds and mix melee and ranged units for support.

5. Skeletal Arsonist

As a minion that can be unlocked by you early in the game, you will fully feel their power when you first experience the game plot. In specific battles, Skeletal Arsonist mainly causes area damage to enemies by throwing bombs or exploding other minions nearby.

If you can summon other minions as allies for Skeletal Arsonist besides making your gear get more spell power by consuming POE 2 Regal Orbs, then Skeletal Arsonist can play a role beyond your imagination. For example, if you combine it with Skeletal Cleric, you can form a cycle between continuous detonation and revival of minions, so that you can always make enemies be killed by explosions. However, it should be noted that this method may not work well when there are too many enemies.

Also Read: Path of Exile 2 Currency Free Giveaways & Promotions

No matter which minions you choose as your helpers in the end, it is still necessary to continue to upgrade your gear or other items through orbs, so it is recommended that you take the time to participate in the POE 2 Currency giveaway event on IGGM Discord, you may can get a lot of orbs!

In Path of Exile 2, unique items are a good way to improve the strength of your build, but not every unique item will improve your build. Players who often study builds know that the best one is the one that suits you.

The number and density of monsters in Path of Exile 2 are not as many as those in POE 1, but they are still very tricky. Their individual strength has been improved, and they have gained stronger health and attack power, which makes players have to be careful when dealing with monsters on each map. This is indeed in line with what Elon Musk said. The characteristics of monster layout in Path of Exile 2 are like a combination of Diablo 4 and Dark Souls series.

Unique items include weapons and accessories, most of which have unique effects or can improve your attributes. Players can basically get several unique items during the game, because some levels or bosses will drop them fixedly. There are more than 100 unique items in the entire POE 2 now. It is too difficult to collect all the unique items, but there are still many ways to get some of them.

Astramentis

Astramentis is a Unique Stellar Amulet that increases all your attributes. There are many amulets in POE 2, and each amulet can bring different benefits to the player. For example, Witch usually chooses Solar Amulet to match her build. Solar Amulet is a common amulet that can directly increase 10 to 15 Spirit, which is very helpful for improving Witch’s summoning of minions.

Astramentis is a unique item, and the benefits it can bring to the player are even more amazing. Its basic effect is to increase all attributes by 5 to 7, and its unique effect is to increase all attributes of your character by 80 to 100, and also provide you with 4 points of physical damage reduction.

Providing all attribute increases to the character, this unique effect is destined to make Astramentis a very versatile amulet. Since each character can only equip one amulet, if you can’t decide which amulet to choose when matching equipment for your build, you can use this a Unique Stellar Amulet first. Replace it when you find a more suitable item. After all, this amulet that increases all attributes will never let you suffer.

However, this amulet requires you to reach level 24 to equip it, so don’t ignore its level requirement.

How To Get It?

If you are lucky enough, you can find it in the drops of rare monsters or bosses with unique modifiers. However, not all players are so lucky, and the drop system of POE 2 has always been criticized. Usually, finding a complete POE 2 Currency in the drops can make players happy. Even for bosses, players often see fragments of Exalted Orb, not to mention a Unique Stellar Amulet.

Since this amulet is almost impossible to obtain it when you sweep the monsters on the map, what else can be done? Here we have to mention a magical currency in POE 2, Orb of Chance.

If you feel that currency is scarce in the usual game, you can enter IGGM discord, where there will be some giveaways, and maybe you can get an Orb of Chance.

Orb of Chance can destroy ordinary items or transform them into unique items. This process is random. It is not difficult for players to get an ordinary amulet, because ordinary amulets can be dropped by defeating monsters on the map. The only difficulty is how to get Orb of Chance. However, players can also get a complete Orb of Chance by stacking 10 Chance Shards in their backpacks. In any case, the difficulty of getting Orb of Chance is much lower than the difficulty of accurately dropping a Unique Stellar Amulet from countless drop pools. Therefore, even if it may not succeed at once, using Orb of Chance to bet on an Astramentis is the fastest way. Because there are only two Unique Stellar Amulets in Poe 2 at present, the probability of betting on an Astramentis is almost 50%.

Compared to other unique items, Astramentis’s effect seems a bit plain, but this is also good because it is generally suitable for various builds. Unless a certain build absolutely needs a certain amulet, Astramentis can be your first choice for other builds. The only disadvantage of Astramentis is that as a unique item, it is not so easy to obtain it, but in fact, as long as you have Orb of Chance, it is not too difficult to obtain it. The good news is that it is not difficult to get Orb of Chance, so after reaching level 24, players can try to gamble an Astramentis, which is enough for you to use for quite a long time.

The above is all about how to get Astramentis in Path of Exile 2. Players should not miss this very commonly used amulet, but here is another reminder for all players. Although Orb of Chance can convert ordinary items into unique items, some unique items cannot be converted. They are special drops from Boss. Therefore, players must check whether the unique item is within the conversion range of Orb of Chance before using it.

In POE 2, you will often encounter monsters and bosses that need to be fought, and as the game progresses, the difficulty of the battles will increase. Here, besides using the right builds, you also need to obtain some gear or items that can perfectly cooperate with your builds.

Although some gear may require you to exchange by specific POE 2 Currency, some will be provided to you as loot after you complete a task or defeat a boss, including Ingenuity Utility Belt.

Based on this, we will introduce you to how to obtain Ingenuity Utility Belt and its main functions.

What Is Ingenuity Utility Belt?

In fact, you can think of this belt as a highly universal ultimate item in Path of Exile 2, because its unique effects not only make it compatible with most builds but also interact well with your other gear to create more combat benefits. So once you reach POE 2 endgame, you’ll definitely want to incorporate this belt into your endgame build.

Of course, as useful as this Path of Exile 2 item is, it’s usually difficult to obtain. To get Ingenuity Utility Belt, you’ll need to track down a difficult endgame boss, and there’s no guarantee that the belt will drop even if you defeat it. But given how effective the belt is, you should still try.

How To Get It?

The prerequisite for getting this belt is to defeat a boss called King in the Mists, but before you can start that fight, you’ll first need to collect An Audience with the King. Like Ingenuity Utility Belt, this is a rare item that can only be obtained after you win the campaign on both Normal and Cruel difficulty and reach the endgame through Atlas of Worlds.

Once you reach the endgame, you can unlock Altar of Favors, which is actually a store that sells map nodes and events instead of items - fortunately, you may also meet An Audience with the King in it.

It should be noted that Altar of Favors only accepts tribute as currency, and it usually takes 2,900 to 3,700 tributes to exchange for An Audience with the King, so you need to accumulate tributes for a long time before you can get An Audience. The current way to farm tribute is to complete Ritual events on Atlas.

But if you think this is troublesome, you can also try to exchange POE 2 Chaos Orbs for An Audience with other players through Path of Exile 2’s trading system - you may think, then why not just exchange it to get Ingenuity Utility Belt? This is of course possible, but the orbs required will also be more.

However, no matter how you get An Audience with the King, you will be asked to bring it back to Realmgate, which will allow you to enter The Crux of Nothingness, where King in the Mists will appear.

How To Defeat King In The Mists?

This boss battle consists of two phases, with many complex mechanisms. First, in the first phase, you must destroy the totems he spawns as soon as possible, otherwise you will be continuously damaged by them. As for the attacks launched by the boss, you can avoid them by continuing to move to avoid being trapped in place.

Another thing worth noting in this phase is that the boss will occasionally teleport around the arena and spawn monsters around. At this time, you need to destroy them quickly to avoid being attacked by these monsters. When the boss’s health drops to 25%, you will be teleported to a maze. Just follow the floating lights to find a way out and you will enter the second phase of the battle.

In the second phase, the boss will focus more on outputting AOE damage, so you need to be careful to avoid the tornado he summons. If you are hit by it, your armor will break. While dodging his normal attacks, be sure to avoid the frogs and exploding purple blocks he summons.

Once you successfully survive both phases and defeat this boss, you will have a chance to obtain one of the following five unique items:

• The Burden of Shadows Chiming Staff
• Pragmatism Explorer Armor
• Beetlebite Velour Shoes
• From Nothing Diamond
• Ingenuity Utility Belt

Although the higher the difficulty level of this boss fight, the higher the chance of obtaining these items, the overall drop rate of the Ingenuity Utility Belt is still relatively low.

Use Of Ingenuity Utility Belt

After obtaining this belt, you can equip it like equip any other gear. It gives you an amulet slot to equip your favorite amulet and also provides you with two permanent effects:

• 20% of the flask’s recovery is applied immediately
• The bonus provided by the equipped ring is increased by 40-80%

The first buff means that whenever you use Life or Mana Flask, you will get some healing immediately; the second buff increases the effectiveness of your equipped ring, making it synergize well with most POE 2 builds, allowing your ring to fully utilize its own value.

Related: Path of Exile 2 Currency Free Giveaways & Promotions

If you don’t have time for a boss fight and want to exchange orbs for this belt, you should take advantage of this opportunity - POE 2 Currency giveaway event in IGGM Discord! The event will draw 20 players to share 4000 Exalted Orbs, 4000 Chaos Orbs, 5,000 Orbs of Alchemy and 6000 Regal Orbs! I believe you will have this good luck!

As you know, the endgame of Path of Exile series is not only difficult but also has complex mechanics. Besides various monsters and bosses for you to challenge, you can also map Atlas during the endgame stage as a kind of personal endgame progress.

When mapping Atlas in POE 2, you may encounter four special events, namely Delirium, Rituals, Expeditions, and Breaches. They will spawn on the endgame map and are marked with a unique symbol. These can be viewed by hovering over each map node on Atlas map screen. After completing the challenges, you will also receive POE 2 Currency as one reward.

Since it may be difficult to know what to do with a Breach once you find it on the map, we will expand on multiple aspects to provide you with a comprehensive guide to Breaches.

What Is Breach?

Breaches, as one of the special events, will be highlighted for you on Atlas map. The icon looks like a glowing dark purple area with a giant hand in the middle. Click on the giant hand and a huge crack circle will begin to expand outward.

You will then see a new progress bar appear in the lower left corner of the screen. As long as this progress bar is not cleared, the crack circle will continue to expand outward, and you will participate in Breaches event.

Although the progress bar will slowly deplete over time, the enemies within the crack circle range that you kill while participating in Breaches event will also fill the progress bar synchronously, making it end as late as possible. However, the number of enemies killed to maintain the progress bar will increase as you go to the end, and when you can’t maintain it, the crack circle will begin to shrink inward.

It is worth noting that the circle will not only affect existing monsters, but will also continue to spawn new monsters, thereby increasing the number of enemies you may encounter in the affected area. However, when you interact with the clenched hand generated in the crack circle, you will also can obtain Splinters, Catalyst and other rewards.

When the circle finally shrinks back to its original position, Breaches event will end, but the dropped loot will still be there. Therefore, to avoid losing the rewards you have obtained because of unexpected deaths during the event, it is recommended that you save them for later, unless the drop is the precious POE 2 Exalted Orb.

What Is The Use Of Breach Passive Skill Tree?

The main function of the current Breach passive skill tree is to modify the event for you, which can increase its value and enhance your gaming experience. Now just open Atlas passive skill tree after opening Atlas map, and then scroll to the left. You can view the passive skills of Breaches, which mainly include the following skill effects:

• Rising Pyre and Interdimensional Assault: By increasing the number of enemies that can be spawned by Breaches, you can get more rewards.
• Crumbling Walls: There is a small chance that the number of available Breaches will be greatly increased for the affected map.
• Grasping Hands: By increasing the number of Grasping Hands and the number of magic enemies, you will increase your chances of getting high-level loot.

If you want to Breach through the above passive skill points and make them play a greater role, you can do so by defeating Pinnacle boss. Combine 300 Breach Splinters and turn them into a full Breachstone to spawn this boss, then take it to the Realmgate near the beginning of Atlas map to activate it, and you can start the official battle.

This boss has four difficulties, and completing each difficulty will allow you to gain 2 Breaches passive skill points, but you also need to consume Breaches passive skill to gain difficulty increases.

What Specific Rewards Can Be Obtained?

Among all Breaches rewards, there are two main Breach-specific currencies that you should pay most attention to, namely Splinters and Catalyst.

Among them, Catalyst can increase the quality of jewelry you have, such as amulets and rings, but different Catalysts can affect different types of modifiers. For example, Carapace Catalyst can only improve the quality of Defensive modifiers, while Neural Catalyst only affects Mana modifiers. The active Catalyst effect always applies to the most recently applied Catalyst.

Read More: How Can You Play The Latest Path Of Exile 2 With Your Friends? - Through Multiplayer & Couch Co-op

As another unique Breaches currency, multiple Splinters can be combined to create Breachstones, which can lead you to Warp Realm to fight the unique boss Xesht, We That Are One. The boss will drop higher-level loot upon death, including 2 Breaches passive points, but if you die in the battle, you must start again by farming summoning materials.

Besides Breaches, Atlas has 3 other events waiting for you to explore. If you want to improve your weapon strength by getting more orbs, to move these events forward more quickly, you may wish to enter IGGM Discord to participate in the recent POE 2 Currency giveaway event! We will draw 20 players to distribute 4000 Exalted Orbs, 4000 Chaos Orbs, 5,000 Orbs of Alchemy and 6000 Regal Orbs evenly! Good luck!

When playing POE 2, especially after entering the endgame, you may find that you often need to return to town to rest or sort out the loot in your inventory. However, this trip will interrupt your battle rhythm on the one hand, and it is also quite time-consuming on the other hand, so Path of Exile 2 Hideout came into being.

Because the map in the endgame stage of the game is large, and the battles and challenges are too rich and complex, sometimes you have to return to Hideout in time after a certain number of battles to pick out unnecessary items from the loot to sell or discard to clean up the inventory, and use POE 2 Exalted Orb to upgrade your equipment in Hideout to better deal with subsequent battles.

However, Hideout is not a setting that comes with the endgame map. You must unlock it specifically before you can successfully enter and use it. Based on this, we will introduce you to the specific way to unlock Hideout, as well as how to change and customize it.

What Is Hideout?

Based on the current early access setup, you can think of Hideout as your temporary shelter in Path of Exile 2, or as an important resource that you can return to again and again as you play the endgame content. In terms of specific functions, Hideout is more or less like a town that you can customize and always visit.

On the one hand, Hideout actually contains every possible crafting station in the game, as well as various merchants you can trade with, and you can even dress it up with any decorations you have obtained. But on the other hand, it is also crucial to improving your endgame experience, such as optimizing Atlas of Worlds mapping system that you use for travel and progress.

But before you can enjoy the benefits of Hideout, you must unlock it. Fortunately, this is not difficult, and the unlocking process is almost a must before you enter POE 2 endgame, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally missing the unlocking task.

How To Unlock Hideout?

To do this, you first need to understand Path of Exile 2’s endgame map, which is Atlas of Worlds. After completing the main quest Legacy of the Vaal, you will be directed back to Vaal Ziggurat, where Doryani will talk to you to understand your next move, after which Doryani will introduce you to Atlas of Worlds.

Atlas of Worlds actually means that you can steadily release corruption in each area by clearing enemies at various nodes on the map, while also obtaining POE 2 Currency dropped by these enemies. However, before engaging in these battles, you first need a base camp, which is a Hideout.

After a quick introduction to Atlas of Worlds, some nodes marked with blue irises will appear on the map, which are potential Hideouts. The game will then guide you to select a node on the map as a starting point. You don’t need to worry about the location, just choose freely, because you will unlock more Hideouts later.

After making your choice, you will be teleported to the starting node of your choice. You only need to clear the monsters in it to occupy it as your own, making it your first Hideout. From here, you can start moving towards the rest of the map, clearing more nodes and advancing Atlas to gain more Hideouts. In addition, over time, you will change and customize all Hideouts you have obtained according to your personal preferences.

How To Change Your Hideout?

If you just want to change the location of your Hideout, just use Waystone to unlock new Hideout nodes on the map and then eliminate the enemies in them. In fact, your hideout in POE 2 is basically always on the move and will appear in all the nodes you have conquered as you explore your path.

And if you want to change the visual effects of your Hideout, first you need to unlock different types of Hideout by exploring Atlas. In this way, when you clear more Hideout nodes, you will notice that the maps of some of them differ from each other. There are currently four node maps in POE 2, namely Canal Hideout, Felled Hideout, Limestone Hideout, and Shrine Hideout.

Once you have unlocked all the different node types, you can change the map of your Hideout by talking to the NPC Alva in Hideout and getting Select Hideout option. You can even customize any of the four Hideout maps individually and switch between them to change the available resources stored in different Hideouts quickly.

How To Customize?

As a more interesting part, you can actually customize your Hideout at any time by clicking the arrows at the bottom of the screen. Open the Edit menu and complete the customization by dragging, dropping and rotating NPCs, crafting stations and decorations. And over time, you will unlock more new NPCs or items and then add them to your Hideout as decorations.

In addition, the specific decoration method of Hideout is also relatively arbitrary, you just need to make sure you have enough resources. However, if you want to speed up the customization process, you can save some designs in advance so that they can be automatically imported into your new Hideout later. Although the current Hideout design options are limited, Path of Exile 2 may add more available designs through future game updates.

If you want to get more decorations for your Hideout, or are having trouble unlocking new Hideouts, maybe some Orbs can help you. Enter IGGM Discord now for a chance to get a lot of Orbs by participating in POE 2 Currency giveaway event! We will draw 20 players to share 4000 Exalted Orbs, 4000 Chaos Orbs, 5,000 Orbs of Alchemy and 6000 Regal Orbs. Maybe you will be one of these players!

In Path of Exile 2 early access released on December 6, 2024, besides 6 fun classes, you will also can experience 3 campaigns with rich plots and challenges. These campaigns can not only provide POE 2 Currency as loot but also drop some special items.

Some of these items may only be stored in your inventory as souvenirs, but some can provide you with some wonderful benefits after you consume and use them in the right way, such as Sacrificial Heart.

Based on this, we will introduce you to Sacrificial Heart from multiple aspects.

What Is Sacrificial Heart?

Before you can get Sacrificial Heart, you must first complete all the pre-game content and enter the third act, but you can’t take it lightly at this time, because you must continue to fight against specific enemies in the third act to have a chance to get Sacrificial Heart from them as one of the loot.

It is worth mentioning that the main story of this stage takes place after you use the portal in Ziggurat camp to go back to the past. During this period, all the areas available for you to explore and the NPCs to interact with will be new, including the loot you get from the enemy, Sacrificial Heart.

The game describes Sacrificial Heart as “a soul still clinging to fading shreds of life”. And if you want to obtain the eternal boon, it provides for your character, you must sacrifice the item “at the proper ritual site”.

Where Will Sacrificial Heart Appear?

In the current pre-experience, you can get Sacrificial Heart dropped by killing the enemies in the two areas of Utzaal and Aggorat. If you are lucky enough, those high-level enemies may also drop the rare POE 2 Exalted Orb.

As the first area you explore after using Ziggurat portal, you may need to defeat multiple enemies in Utzaal before you have a chance to pick up Sacrificial Heart. Although you may die during this period, don’t be afraid. As long as you keep resetting the areas where you may find Sacrificial Heart to reset the enemy spawns, you can get more drops. In addition, Vaal Goliaths and Vaal Overseers are the enemies with the highest chance of dropping Sacrificial Hearts in Utzaal, so you can focus on farming them.

Entering Aggorat from the portal is much more difficult than Utzaal, so it is recommended to reach this area by defeating the boss Legion Blockade in Utzaal - after winning the battle, you will hear chanting, and then walk behind the giant statue in the area to walk up the stairs to the new location.

But if you find that you can’t find Sacrificial Heart anywhere in Act 3, then it’s time to find a checkpoint to reset the enemies. The more checkpoints in Utzaal or Aggorat, the more places you can check or respawn. Or you may accidentally pick up a Sacrificial Heart while killing an enemy. At this time, you can try using the loot filter to check if you have a Sacrificial Heart stored in your inventory without knowing it.

Related: How To Defeat The Rust King In Path Of Exile 2 Act 1?

It is worth mentioning that while looking for Sacrificial Heart, besides various Orbs, you can also obtain other materials and loot for making equipment or upgrading your game character by killing related enemies.

How To Use Sacrificial Heart?

After obtaining Sacrificial Heart, in order to play its role, you first need to return to Aggorat and follow Trail of Sacrifice in the area to find Blood Sacrifice-here will be identified by many bleeding corpses. After that, you will find that the stairs here lead to a huge altar, on which there is an item called Sacrificial Dagger, which needs to be used with Sacrificial Heart.

Pick up Sacrificial Dagger and place Sacrificial Heart in the center of the altar to start the blood sacrifice. When you put these two items together in your inventory, you will see an option to Stab Sacrificial Heart. Clicking it will play a cutscene in the game, and your character will kneel down and pierce Sacrificial Heart, which means you will gain the following two permanent attribute bonuses:

• +2 Passive Skill Points
• +2 Weapon Skill Points

Whatever builds you use in POE 2, these skill points can further improve them and make you more powerful. And whether your character is injured or dies unexpectedly, these buffs will not disappear, so you have the freedom to use them to the maximum extent. For example, you can use them to invest in passive skills that reduce elemental damage, giving yourself more survival opportunities.

If you have the energy to spare and your character is high enough, you can try to collect Sacrificial Hearts again on Cruel difficulty and destroy it again on the altar. Although this action will not increase the rewards you have already received, it will provide you with a second instance.

Although these two skill point buffs may seem insignificant at first glance, they can actually play an important role in your subsequent Path of Exile 2 journey. If you want to seek more available gains, exchanging with Orbs is also a good choice.

Therefore, you can immediately participate in POE 2 Currency giveaway event in IGGM Discord. We will draw 20 lucky players to share 4000 Exalted Orbs, 4000 Chaos Orbs, 5,000 Orbs of Alchemy and 6000 Regal Orbs in the near future! Act quickly!

If you have played POE 1, you will know that this series of games requires you to invest a lot of time and effort to complete the game. Even POE 2, which is still in the early access stage, is no exception.

But in Path of Exile 2, if you want to enter the endgame for mapping successfully so that you can complete the game as soon as possible, besides completing the three-act campaign, you also need to have enough Waystones. Because as you explore the endgame more deeply, the mapping level will also be higher. Although this means that you have the opportunity to get more POE 2 Currency, it will consume more Waystones.

For this reason, you must know how to farm Waystones efficiently so that you can continue to map and get more loot. Based on this, we will introduce some methods to you.

Explore The Boss Map Of Atlas First

Although mapping will consume your Waystones, some maps will also drop Waystones after you finish the battle, so that your mapping journey can continue to operate. The absolute best way to maintain your Waystones through mapping in Path of Exile 2 is to use your rarest Waystones to unlock the endgame Atlas boss maps.

Because in these maps, the chances of them dropping Waystones for you after you kill the boss are very high. If you run out of high-level maps, you can also use lower-level maps to navigate to the boss node and fight it. After defeating it, you will have a chance to get 1 Waystone of equal or higher level, sometimes even more.

Utilizing POE 2 Orbs

As the most important type of currency in the game, you may be tempted to hoard all Exalted Orbs you have for trading or crafting, but in fact you can also use them to enhance Waystones.

If you can successfully survive each battle to farm currency, the more currency you use on Waystones, the more rewards you will get - it’s a virtuous cycle. But this cycle only works if you continue to invest in Waystones. In addition, different levels of Waystones have different types of enhancements and required orb types:

• Tier 1-5 Waystones: Upgrade to Magic items-Orb of Augmentation, Orb of Transmutation.
• Tier 6-10 Waystones: Upgrade to Rare items-Regal Orb.
• Tier 11-16 Waystones: Upgrade as much as possible-Regal Orb, Exalted Orb, Vaal Orb, Delirium Instills.

In addition, if you can increase the Waystone drop chance during the mapping process, set it to at least 200% or more, and increase the number of monsters that can drop rare items in the area, as well as the rarity of items found in this area, it will make your mapping results more valuable.

Unlocking Waystone Drop Chance Atlas Skill Tree Nodes

As you gradually unlock more advanced Waystone tiers and complete Doryani’s quests, you will unlock Atlas skill tree and gain related benefits by unlocking the nodes in it. If you can use the nodes that help you maintain your Waystones in the endgame wisely, you will get a vital benefit.

It is worth mentioning that if you think you may have trouble using Waystones in the future; it is recommended to unlock the following three nodes first:

• Constant Crossroads: Increases the number of Waystones available on the map by 20%.
• Fortunate Path: Increases the rarity of Waystones dropped in the map by 100%.
• The High Road: Increases the chance of Waystones you find to be higher level by 20%.

Fortunately, you will unlock these three nodes as long as you complete the level 4 map. And if you choose another node unlocking route on Atlas skill tree, don’t hesitate to use gold to re-assign it immediately. After all, Waystones are more valuable than gold.

Perfect Your Builds Before Entering Tier 5+ Maps

If you find that you have been dying from bosses, rare or even common monsters in the endgame, which has caused you to waste a lot of Waystones, it is likely that the builds you are using in battle are not compatible with the endgame difficulty.

If you find that this is the case after checking, you should immediately look for the builds guide for your current class so that you can change the build you are using in time to make it more suitable for your mapping progress.

Use Precursor Tablets

As one of the important props in POE 2, Precursor Tablets can be used to increase the rarity and number of monsters, as well as additional modifiers on towers. So you can stack them on towers close to each other, so that the current map gets the additional effect of two or even three Precursor Tablets, and get more Waystones by killing more monsters in a single time.

Trade On The Official Website

Sometimes, even if you take all precautions, you may still face the situation of running out of Waystones. At this time, in order to have a chance to start over, it is completely okay to rely on trading websites. After all, the meaning of its existence is to provide you with convenience, right?

Currently, all levels of Waystones can be exchanged by 1 Exalted Orb. If you plan to get them in bulk, you can use the in-game trading channel, and just type /trade 1 in the chat box to access the most active trading channel directly so that you can find sellers as soon as possible.

See More: Path of Exile 2 Currency Free Giveaways & Promotions

If you don’t have enough orbs to help you get more Waystones, why not join the latest POE 2 Currency giveaway event held by IGGM Discord right away! We will draw 20 lucky players to share 4000 Exalted Orbs, 4000 Chaos Orbs, 5,000 Orbs of Alchemy and 6000 Regal Orbs in the near future. I believe you will have this good luck!

There are currently 6 base classes you can play in POE 2 early access, but if you’ve experienced the game in depth, you’ll know that each of these 6 classes has two unlockable Ascendency classes. These Ascendency classes allow you to further specialize in specific play styles and abilities, broadening your options for POE 2 Currency farming.

Of course, no matter what abilities these 12 Ascendency classes have, you can only choose one of them for your single character in the end. Based on this, we have selected the top 8 for you based on aspects such as difficult to master and overall strength. You can choose to accord to your needs later.

1. Stormweaver

Based on player feedback and actual combat performance, you can completely believe that Sorceress class Stormweaver is currently the best Ascendency class in POE 2. As the master of thunder and lightning, you can trigger the active skill Elemental Storm with spell crits during combat by playing Stormweaver, which will set off a huge storm on the battlefield.

It is worth mentioning that Stormweaver also focuses on debuffing enemies through Elemental Storm skills, such as Chills and Shocks. And if you can also win more energy shields for your Stormweaver through Heart of Storm and improve the survivability of the basic class Sorceress, then Stormweaver is definitely the best Ascendency class choice in the current version.

2. Titan

If you choose to play Warrior, it is recommended that you choose Titan as your Ascendency class. This Ascendency can increase your armor capacity and maximum health, making you an indestructible tank in battle. What’s special is that it also allows you to carry a box with an additional 20 inventory slots, which is conducive to improving your inventory management experience.

Titan also allows you to counterattack enemies while taking more damage, because the available skill Earthbreaker gives you the opportunity to cause range aftershocks through Slam, and Crushing Impacts can make your blows a crushing blow, which can more smoothly stun the boss and obtain POE 2 Exalted Orbs that drop later.

3. Deadeye

As Ranger’s Ascendency class, Deadeye improves your projectiles and frenzy charges. This Ascendency allows you to hit and damage enemies from a safe distance accurately, and it also has good mobility, such as using skills such as Gathering Winds to stack buffs to increase your movement and skill speed.

While Ranger’s other Ascendency class Pathfinder is not far behind Deadeye, if you want to be an excellent damage dealer in combat and have high mobility, then Deadeye is your better choice.

4. Witch Hunter

Of the two Ascendency classes in Mercenary, Witch Hunter is better than Gemling Legionnaire. When playing as a Witch Hunter, you can better hunt down magical enemies and monsters, because one skill, Culling Strike, can help you automatically kill enemies when they are on the verge of death, and Decimating Strike makes it easier for you to slash a lot of health from enemies when they are at full health.

Besides being able to knock out enemies as quickly as possible with its own damage-based skills, Witch Hunter also allows you to protect yourself from elemental damage with Sorcery Ward spell. You even get an ultimate skill that gives enemies you kill a 10% chance to explode upon death, killing more enemies, making Witch Hunter a very destructive Ascendency class.

5. Chronomancer

Another Ascendency class that belongs to Sorceress, this one has the incredible ability to manipulate time. Chronomancer’s Now and Again skill gives you a chance to not consume cooldowns in combat, while Quicksand Hourglass gives you extra casting speed every 12 seconds.

However, the core skills of this Ascendency are actually Time Snap and Time Freeze. The former resets the cooldown of all your skills, while the latter freezes the actions of affected enemies, allowing you to launch more attacks. Although Chronomancer is not as popular as Stormweaver, it has its own unique features.

6. Blood Mage

If you are a Witch, then the best Ascendency class choice in Path of Exile 2 is Blood Mage. It allows you to use related skills to drain the health of enemies to improve your survivability, or to curse the enemy for an unlimited duration and increase critical damage.

Compared with Witch’s other Ascendency Infernalist, Blood Mage has better survivability, which is an important upgrade channel for Witch whose survivability is relatively fragile. And eventually you will get Crimson Power, which allows you to gain energy shields from equipped body armor and expand your maximum health.

7. Pathfinder

Although Pathfinder is not your best choice as a Ranger compared to Deadeye, it has its own strengths. Pathfinder focuses on damaging enemies through poisons and good mobility, while Connected Chemistry and Enduring Elixirs can increase potion recharge and consumption of health potions to improve your survivability.

Notably, Contagious Contamination allows poisons you used to spread faster to enemies, while Overwhelming Toxicity doubles the amount of poison you can inflict. These upgraded poison effects, combined with the improved Ranger movement skills, make Pathfinder a great Ascendency as well.

8. Invoker

As the only Monk Ascendency to make the top 8, Invoker allows you to unlock more builds while harnessing the power of the elements, dealing massive elemental damage to enemies while also improving your ability to dodge attacks. While not the best Ascendency class, Invoker can provide you with better mobility and attack power if your base class is Monk.

If you want to better utilize the power of Ascendency class after choosing and unlocking it above, sufficient POE 2 Orbs are necessary, so why not join POE 2 Currency giveaway event on IGGM Discord right away? Just leave a “Love” emoji and you’ll have a chance to share 4000 Exalted Orbs, 4000 Chaos Orbs, 5,000 Orbs of Alchemy and 6000 Regal Orbs with 19 other players! Act now!