Atlas Of Worlds And Mapping

For Path of Exile 2's primary endgame system you use the map device to travel to different worlds, exploring an atlas and building your progress. You need to combat the Beast's corruption, cleansing it from each zone you encounter.

Enter the Vaal Ziggurat and speak to Doryani to unlock access to the map device. This occurs around level 65 after you beat the final boss of Act 3 on Cruel difficulty.

The Atlas of Worlds is an ever-expanding map, but you only get 1 attempt for each node. This means if you fail a dangerous node during your exploration, you need to find another way to get to your desired goal. To enter the zone you need special items called Waystones. These are craftable and drop with specific tier attached to them which makes area more dangerous and more rewarding. You can use another consumable, Tablets, on precursor towers, to further customize the content you run. For example, you can add a Breach Tablet to add more breaches to your maps and make them more rewarding. These Tablets are self-reinforcing, so the more Tablets you use, the more Tablets you drop for that mechanic. During your exploration you might find zones with special encounters, below are examples of possible things you might find;

• Bosses - Very challenging and rewarding.
• Precursor Towers - Reveals large area and allows you to buff surrounding zones by using Tablets.
• League Mechanics - Unique endgame encounters. To learn more about them check out our Endgame Activities guide.
• Beast Corruption - Special zones with corrupted modifiers.
• Hideouts - Your home away from home.
• Nameless Seer - Offers 1 unique item for free.
• Cities - Find specific items hidden within the city.
• Special Maps like Untainted Paradise which gives a large amount of exp, or other unique rewards.

Use Waystones to explore the atlas. These are craftable and single use, but don't worry you get plenty of them as rewards for killing monsters and completing endgame activities. Each location has different monsters and 1 in every 4 zones is marked with a special boss icon which means that it contains a challenge against a deadly boss. Initially, you drop Tier I Waystones, but higher level monsters have a chance to drop the next tier, scaling all the way up to XVI.

Like with most things in Path of Exile 2 you can use a variety of currency items to craft on your waystones. Crafting a Waystone increases the danger and rewards.

• The prefixes are beneficial. This includes loot bonuses, more monsters, and much more.
• Whereas, the suffixes are penalties. Watch out for modifiers that lower your defenses or prevent your build from functioning as normal. Every suffix increases the chance to drop Waystones so making your maps harder is crucial to sustaining them.
• You can also craft Tablets before activating them in a Precursor tower, to add even more bonuses to adjacent maps.
• Crafted Waystones can become rare with up to 6 modifiers, where Tablets can only become magic with up to 2 modifiers.

In higher tiers of Waystone's, monsters become more dangerous, the level of the area higher and the rewards more numerous. Based on what we've seen so far (and the way maps work in Path of Exile 1) we can infer the following;

• Tier I to V Waystones are white.
• Tier VI to X Waystones are yellow.
• Tier XI to XVI Waystones are red.
  • XIV, XV, and XVI Waystones are particularly rewarding.

As you complete maps you gain atlas passive points. Use these to further enhance your endgame experience. There is a main tree which you progress by cleansing maps. In addition, there are trees for each of the league mechanics, one for bosses and one more dedicated to clearing Path of Exile 2's pinnacle encounter.

As you unlock different atlas passive points you gain more customization. However, you need to carefully choose what you want to invest in because you don't get enough points to unlock everything. Luckily each league mechanic has its own points so you don't need to pick and choose between them, but within the tree, you should specialize into things based on the rewards you're looking for.

There are several terrifying pinnacle bosses to challenge as part of PoE2's mapping experience. For example, the combined Breachlord "Xesht, We Who Are One", can be challenged via completing Breaches to collect Breach Splinters and form a Breachstone. Each of the pinnacle bosses offers their own unique items and some mechanic specific rewards. Pinnacle bosses have 4 difficulty tiers, with the final tier being especially challenging.

There's also a pinnacle boss for the atlas itself. This is found in a special citadel which sometimes appears on your Atlas. To enter, you need to collect 3 keys from the different warring factions on the outside of the citadel. This requires you to defeat their lieutenants before taking on the uber version of a campaign bosses. Should you die during this process you need to track the faction down and try again.

Summary

• Unlock the map device around level 65 by completing Act 3 on cruel difficulty
• Collect Waystones and use them to explore an ever-expanding atlas.
  • Craft your waystones to maximize the rewards, and be particularly mindful of the rewards offered by each mapping location.
• Progress your atlas by completing higher tier Waystones to gain access to more dangerous and more rewarding areas.
  • Cleansing the corruption gives you access to Atlas Passives, a meta-progression system that evolves your rewards.
• Eventually, you encounter dangerous pinnacle bosses. Challenge them for unique rewards.

Credits

Written by: Zen_M, Tenkiei