Creating or improving items through adding, removing, swapping or altering modifiers in Path of Exile is referred to as Crafting. The Crafting system is so expansive that many pursue it as a separate endgame to specialize in. This article covers the various Crafting options and how they can help with your own projects.

Most of Path of Exile's in game currency is used to both craft and trade for items. There are many methods to crafting, including: Orbs and other currencies, Vendor Recipes, the Crafting Bench and Delve Fossils. While crafting outcomes are usually unpredictable, there are set ways to guarantee certain items. For inexperienced crafters it's often easier and cheaper to purchase an item from trade rather than crafting it yourself. Do not start an advanced crafting project before diligently researching how to maximize the odds of getting the desired result and ensuring the correct crafting base / item level can roll the desired tier of modifiers on the item. A simple, negligent mistake can prove extremely costly and potentially ruin an entire item!

Successfully completed high-end crafts are highly valuable and expensive to purchase. Under some circumstances (such as for non-meta builds or when trying to create the perfect item for your build) an item with the desired mods may not exist yet. This means the only way to obtain it is through crafting. At the high-end, especially in niche item markets, many players are willing to pay more than the crafting amount invested to acquire what they need, making crafting a profitable endeavor.

Some items are extremely difficult to make and can cost more than a Mirror of Kalandra, allowing owners of such prestigious items to set up a so-called "Mirror Service" to create an unmodifiable copy of said item at a fee. Hint: Whenever you see a godly item listed on the trade site for the price of 1 Mirror, that means the owner is open to be contacted for Mirror Service. It's not the actual price of the item. Nonetheless, Crafting is important at all steps of your character's journey. Even if you don't intend to craft Mirror-worthy items yourself, you need to know the basics in order to understand the value of items. Let's jump in!

Basic currencies can modify items of varying rarities. Magic items can only roll up to two random modifiers, while rare items can roll up to six (exceptions exist, e.g. Jewels can usually only have 4). There are many different types of currencies to choose from. These currencies' intrinsic values are directly linked to their usefulness.

Essences are part of a complex group of currency items used in crafting. Essences can be used to upgrade a normal rarity base to a rare with one guaranteed affix. Higher tier Essences can be used to reforge the affixes of rare equipment.

Corrupted essences do not appear naturally on monsters trapped within Essence crystals, and can only be obtained by corrupting an Essence monster with a Remnant of Corruption.

Tags are a way of identifying modifiers. They also allow for deterministic outcomes with the use of bench crafts such as Cannot roll Attack Modifiers "of Spellcraft" & Cannot roll Caster Modifiers "of Weaponcraft". Tags also allow you to target specific modifiers thanks to Harvest reforges and augments, as well as Fossils. If you wish to see what tags are present on any particular item, refer to its respective page on Craft of Exile.

Not all modifiers can roll on all item bases. There are a great variety of item bases which can roll different mods, with some being unique to that type of base. Make sure to refer to the PoEWiki before undertaking a crafting project to make sure you are using the best Helmet, Body Armour, Gloves, Belt, Ring, Amulet, Weapon and Shield bases. Additionally you can also visit Craft of Exile as it provides a list of all possible craftable modifiers on all item bases. Good bases are identified by their high base defense values. The inherent defensive values of an item have a variance of 20%. Sacred Orbs randomize the numeric values of the base defenses on an armour piece, allowing players to further optimize their character's defensive stats.

Synthesised Items are special bases that have new, typically unobtainable implicit modifiers (up to 3 at a time). The full list and their ranges are massive (check them for each base type here). They are not necessarily better than regular items - in fact, these implicits can be a direct downgrade from the standard ones on some bases. Synthesised Items have a distinct blue glow and cannot be upgraded into unique quality using an Orb of Chance because their new base types don't have any valid uniques.

There is no way to reliably target-farm a desired Synthesised base anymore. You have to rely on the law of large numbers and hope to hit the jackpot. The main sources of Synthesised Items are the Synthesised Maps (with the Atlas Passives allocated) and their corresponding Maven Invitations.

Advanced crafting techniques revolve around the interaction of craftable Meta mods and basic currencies. Keep in mind that these techniques of crafting require multiple Exalted Orbs.

Cannot roll Attack Modifiers "of Spellcraft"

This craft blocks any Caster modifier from being augmented onto an item. It also ensures that modifiers with the "Caster" tag cannot be removed when using an Orb of Annulment. This can be extremely useful when trying to augment a random non-caster modifier on an item, or alternatively target removing a non-caster modifier from an item. Note: Harvest reforges, Fossils and the Chaos Orb do not respect this meta mod, i.e. the item will be reforged unpredictably.

Prefixes Cannot Be Changed "of Prefixes" & Suffixes Cannot Be Changed "Suffixed"

In the majority of advanced crafting projects, crafters focus on finishing either Prefixes or Suffixes first before moving on to complete the other. This is because it is much easier to focus on getting three useful affixes on an item before moving on to the final 2+ affixes. A typical scenario is crafters use the use the Prefixes/Suffixes Cannot Be Changed meta mod to protect either the prefixes or suffixes before reforging with Harvest to have increased odds at rolling the desired 4th modifier. Alternatively Prefixes/Suffixes Cannot Be Changed allow for an Orb of Scouring to remove undesirable modifiers from an item. Note: the crafted modifier will also be removed as the prefix craft is a suffix, and the suffix craft is a prefix. So it must be crafted again after every reforge attempt, or every time the crafter wishes to revert to the prefix/suffix base. This makes it an expensive crafting method!

Can have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers "of Crafting"

Allows for two additional crafted modifiers to be added to an item. This allows for mid tier items to be finished into 5 useful mod items at relatively low cost compared to their non bench crafted counterparts. This craft also has uses outside of finishing items such as when a crafter wishes to augment a 5th modifier on an item with the Veiled Orb.

Veiled Orb

When players run the Mastermind encounter they are guaranteed to drop a Veiled Orb. This orb removes one random modifier from an item at random while also augmenting a Veiled affix onto it. This Veiled affix varies depending on that item slot you applied the craft to. It is possible to block an undesired modifier from being unveiled by crafting a modifier of the same mod group on the item before unveiling. Therefore it is essential to first look at the possible outcomes when unveiling. The result is a more powerful version of a craftable veiled modifier. In some niche situations or for certain builds veiled modifiers can be best-in-slot, however most are not as good as the best possible modifier.

The current most common way of crafting 5+ modifier items outside of Eldritch crafting is through the aforementioned meta crafts Veiled Orb. Combining the different methods described above is key to creating a great outcome. Projects should only be undertaken when you have sufficient spare currency as they easily go into the dozens of Exalts. Here's an example:

Eldritch Crafting refers to the use of Eldritch Currencies. These currencies present a new immensely powerful way to improve conventional items. They add powerful Implicits and modify the prefixes or suffixes of an item depending on which influence is dominant. This method can be used on non-Conqueror influenced Body Armour, Boots, Gloves or Helmets. The Eldritch Crafting process can drastically cut the cost of a craft by replacing the need for Meta mods to lock Prefixes or Suffixes through it's dominance mechanic. Additionally adding implicits can be done relatively cheaply, making this crafting method the most cost effective method for gaining power. Follow these links to find a list of all Eater of Worlds & Searing Exarch modifiers.

The new Eldritch Implicits allow for Eldritch modifiers to be applied to already good items that you may have found or bought. This gives another avenue for creating useful items for your build. These currency items, as well as items with already present Implicits, start dropping consistently in Tier 14+ Maps. This allows you to gain a substantial power spike before taking on Tier 16 Maps and bosses. Eldritch Implicits replace existing Implicit mods on items which have one already present, and allow for two Implicits to be present on a single item.

The maximum rollable Tier is Exceptional (Tier 4), however they can be upgraded to Exquisite (Tier 5) and finally Perfect (Tier 6) with the use of the Orb of Conflict. The best possible outcome on an item is to have a Perfect (Tier 6) and Exceptional (Tier 4) implicit modifier at the same time. Be aware that this process can be very expensive! If you're on a budget you can instead go for Lesser (Tier 1) and Greater (Tier 2). A desired mod has 3-5% chance to be rolled with Lesser currencies and 1-3% chance with Greater currencies and above as more mods are introduced into the pool. The process of achieving this as cheaply as possible is:

Ichors & Embers are used to provide "Dominance", i.e. if a Lesser Eldritch Ember is applied to an item without any Eater of World influence, then Searing Exarch will be dominant. If a Greater Eldritch Ichor is applied to an item with a modifier granted by Lesser Eldritch Ember, then Eater of World will be dominant. This allows for items to be modified by Eldritch Chaos Orb, Eldritch Exalted Orb & Eldritch Orb of Annulment which provide a much more affordable way of crafting compared to meta-crafting with Exalted Orb & Orb of Annulment. Note: Eldritch influence cannot be applied to Shaper, Elder, or Conqueror influenced items.

The process of crafting items with Eldritch Currency is reversed whether you begin on it's prefixes or suffixes. Let's consider the example of crafting a Helmet with (9-10%) increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills , obtainable as a Suffix through Deafening Essence of Loathing. This is a powerful mod for many builds, but doesn't constitute a good item on its own. Here are the steps to create a great outcome:

Influenced base types have an extended pool of exclusive modifiers. They can be recognized by their visual effect, icons, and their appearance on custom loot filters. Shaper and Elder Influenced items are primarily found in their respective boss fights and invitations, but also on Shaper/Elder occupied maps or if you use Rusted Shaper Scarab or Rusted Elder Scarab. Conqueror influenced items can be found in Conqueror occupied maps as well as in their respective boss fights and Invitations.

The following are currencies used to augment and modify influenced modifiers and influenced crafting bases. Note: you cannot apply a Conqueror's Exalted Orb to an already influenced item.

The Awakener's Orb in combination with the Orb of Dominance can be used to create some of the most powerful items in the game. This method of crafting, however, makes it very difficult to finish items outside of two desired influenced modifiers. This results in a more expensive process if the item is to be finished. Its most common use is where certain modifiers heavily out-scale those of non-influenced modifiers, such as:

The Orb of Dominance can be used to substantially improve or transform influenced modifiers on an item. It requires at least 2 influenced modifiers to be present for it to upgrade one while deleting the other, giving you a 50/50 chance to hit the right one. This process gets very costly quickly, and is only used for the most endgame items that can potentially devour hundreds of Exalted Orbs. Once a modifier is elevated, a second base with an already elevated modifier can be bought or made with the same process for them to be merged together with an Awakener's Orb. The remaining modifiers on the item are then rerolled with an unpredictable outcome outside of the two influenced mods.

Harvest crafting has become one of the main ways to create Prefix or Suffix-loaded base items. It also finishes items thanks to the fact that Harvest reforges respects Meta-Mods unlike Fossils and Essences. This means if you craft Prefixes Cannot Be Changed on an item and use a Harvest reforge on it, your item will retain its Prefixes and roll Suffixes individually while guaranteeing a single modifier with the reforge's tag. Additionally Harvest offers so-called "more likely" crafts that boost the weight of a specific mod group by 10x on top of the already guaranteed tagged modifier. Lastly, augments are very rare crafts which can be found in Harvest. These act like Exalted Orb for a specific tag. For example, you may find a Life Augment allowing you to Exalt a life modifier onto a non-influenced item.

There are many great ways to use Harvest for advanced crafting, however it is also very useful for personal character progress and profit crafting. Harvest makes Medium Cluster Jewel & Large Cluster Jewel crafting easier as it guarantees specific mods and can also help grant more mods of a specific type. The type of craft varies depending on the type of Cluster Jewel you are trying to craft. Make sure to refer to Craft of Exile's Cluster Jewel section to get an idea of which reforge is best for the type of jewel you're trying to craft.

There are many more uses for Harvest that this guide cannot cover, so if you wish to learn more about its mechanics and offerings, read our in-depth Harvest Crafting guide!

Fossils are one of the many ways to create great items as they provide a 10x weight multiplier to specific tags which are relevant to the Fossil type used in a craft. They also allow for certain types to be blocked, allowing for interesting combinations to guarantee certain modifiers on specific item types. There are special types of Fossils which grant unique modifiers. A good example of a useful Fossil combination is: Corroded Fossil + Jagged Fossil + Metallic Fossil on an Item Level 64+ Bow for a 1/8 chance to land both +2 to Level of Socketed Bow Gems and and +1 to Level of Socketed Gems. Those two mods would cost 1,131 Chaos Orbs!

Here are the Fossils which can be found in Delve:

The modifiers listed below can only be found from chest drops in specific Delve camps:

If you wish to learn more about all the things Delve has has to offer, check out our in-depth Delve Farming Guide!

The concept is rather simple: you use a Vaal Orb on an item you want to corrupt, which produces a random effect on it with no possibility of going back.

In most cases corrupted items cannot be modified further, meaning you can't apply any crafting currency on them anymore. A corrupted item has the red Corrupted tag at the bottom of its modifiers list to notify the player.

There is one exception to that rule: you can still change sockets and links using your Crafting Bench at the cost of additional Vaal Orbs on top of the usual Orb of Fusing fee. This is usually referred to as Vorici Linking/Coloring as a remnant of the old Master system, when getting the master Vorici to level 8 was the only way to access these crafting recipes.

Corrupting an Item has several different outcomes weighted equally:

The emulator allows users to craft item the same way they would ingame, but without any of the costs. This removes much of the risk of experimentation and empowers users to seek out new crafting methods. This is the most important tool for any aspiring crafter and must be used before any project is undertaken!

To do this first select your preferred item base and type, then select your preferred crafting method as Fossils, and finally click on the compute best selection button. The website will undergo a simulation to find the best and cheapest combination of Fossils needed to obtain the selected mods.

Written by Crouching_Tuna.
Reviewed by Raxxanterax, wudijo.