Path of Exile 2 Crafting Overview

You use crafting to progress your character in Path of Exile 2 by improving your gear to prepare for the game's challenges. PoE 2's crafting is designed to be approachable and provide complexity at the top end, without being overwhelmingly complicated. Based on what we know so far, improving items is the core of Path of Exile 2's crafting system. You start from a desirable base and then add or change affixes to achieve an end result.

Crafting Currencies

Path of Exile 2 has currency driven crafting systems. Different Orbs modify items in unique ways, typically by adding or removing affixes. But not all orbs from the original Path of Exile exist in PoE 2. The most notable change is that Orbs of Scouring do not exist in Path of Exile 2! This means you cannot "scour away" an undesirable affix, which increases the value of White (uncrafted) items because there's no way to revert a Rare or Magic item to a White uncrafted state. Members of the Maxroll team with hands on experience with Path of Exile 2 noticed that White items are exceptionally rare.

Socket Modifying Currencies

Your sockets are now present on Gems, rather than gear. Furthermore, sockets are automatically considered linked meaning you don't need to use Orbs of Fusing. This should make gearing in the early game much easier! Instead of worrying about sockets, links, and colors on gear you simply need to focus on Resistances, Life, and damage.

Chromatic Orbs no longer exist in Path of Exile 2. However, Jeweler's Orbs of varying levels will exist to add sockets directly into existing Gems. There will be separate orbs for adding each socket.

Basic Currencies

Here are some of the basic crafting currencies you can use in Path of Exile 2:

• Scroll of Wisdom - Identifies an item.
• Transmutation Orb - Transforms a normal item to a Magic item with 1 Affix.
• Augmentation Orb - Adds 1 Affix to a Magic item.
• Alchemy Orb - Transforms a normal item into a Rare item with 4 Affixes.
• Orb of Chance - Randomly transforms a normal item into a Magic, Rare, or Unique item.
• Regal Orb - Transforms a Magic item into a Rare item, adding 1 Affix.
• Exalted Orb - Adds 1 random Affix to a Rare item.
• Orb of Annulment - Removes 1 random modifier from a Magic or Rare item.
• Chaos Orb - Removes 1 random modifier and replaces it with another random modifier.
• Divine Orb - Randomizes the numerical values of an item.
• Vaal Orb - Unpredictably changes the item and prevents the item from being crafted further.

Unknown Orbs

There are many other orbs in Path of Exile 1 like Sacred Orbs, Veiled Orbs, and Fracturing Orbs. So far, none of these have been confirmed to exist in Path of Exile 2.

Vaal Orbs

Vaal Orb are powerful crafting items that corrupt your gear with random, mysterious outcomes, and the chances of each are currently unknown. Since corruption prevents an item from being modifier further, it should be the final step of your crafting process. So far, the following corruptions can result from the use of a Vaal Orb:

• Add an Enchantment
• Reroll up to 3 modifiers
• Add a socket, ignoring the Socket Limit
• Break the item

Disenchanting

Items you find on the ground can be sold for gold. Alternately, Magic items can be disenchanted at a Vendor for parts of a Transmutation Orb. Rare items can be disenchanted at a Vendor for parts of a Regal Orb. Disenchanting allows you to craft items even when you're not finding the currencies you need on the ground.

Salvage Bench

Weapons and Armour pieces with quality can be salvaged at the Salvage Bench for Armourer's Scraps or Blacksmith's Whetstones. Adding quality to an item increases its base stats.

Basics of Crafting

Crafting in PoE 2 begins with a base. The affixes you can roll vary based on the item level and attribute requirement for the base. For example, Dexterity gear has modifiers related to Evasion, whereas Intelligence gear provides Energy Shield. Hybrid bases, roll modifiers from both pools, so a Jacket can roll modifiers from both the Dexterity and Intelligence pools. Normal items have no affixes, Magic items have up to 1 Prefix and 1 Suffix, whereas Rare items have up to 3 Prefixes and 3 Suffixes. During the crafting process, you apply currency orbs to add, remove, or modify the affixes on an item.

Overall the changes to crafting mean you are more likely to pick an upgrade off the ground, and then enhance it through crafting, especially during the early game. You can start with either a White item, a Magic item, or a Rare item, but most players are likely to begin with a Magic or Rare item that already has some desirable Affixes.

Starting from a White base means building an item up from nothing, though some currencies, like an Orbs of Alchemy, allow you to shortcut this process. With a Magic base, you can start with two desirable Affixes on the item. Then you could use a Regal Orb to upgrade it to Rare and add more Affixes, though this requires a significant investment. Finally starting from a Rare item gives you the largest number of initial Affixes, but a good Rare item is going to be considerably more expensive than a White base.

Finishing an Item

The next step is using currencies to finish the item. We don't know the details of how this works yet, but it's most likely going to involve Chaos Orbs, Exalted Orbs, and Orbs of Annulment. If you start with 4 good Affixes you can add a 5th with an Exalted Orb. Alternatively, if your item has an undesirable modifier you can use an Orb of Annulment to attempt to remove it, or a Chaos Orb to try to replace it with something better. But there's an element of randomness with all of these Orbs, you might remove an Affix you want to keep or add something that makes the item worse. Other crafting systems (tied to League mechanics) may offer more focused ways to craft or finish items.

Other Crafting Systems

Path of Exile 1 also has a lot of other crafting systems like the crafting bench, Beastcrafting, Fossil crafting, Eldritch implicits, Harvest crafting, and Rog crafting. There's a good chance some of these crafting systems are coming to PoE 2. However, GGG is also working to simplify crafting while maintaining depth. Here are some of the systems we know are coming to PoE 2.

Essences

Essences are returning in Path of Exile 2 with a twist. Essences no longer reforge normal or Rare items into new Rare items. Now, there are two types of Essences that modify Normal and Magic items. Regular Essences upgrade a Normal item into a Magic item with a single modifier of a certain type, such as Life or Cold. Greater Essences add a modifier in the same way, but to a Magic item, making it Rare.

Sockets & Runes

In Path of Exile 1, your sockets hold Skill Gems and Supports. In Path of Exile 2 you can instead socket Ezomyte Runes into your items. Chestpieces and 2-handed weapons can have 2 sockets, all other items can have 1. Later on in the endgame you can use a Vaal Orb to add more sockets, or add powerful Soul Cores for better bonuses. Runes cannot be removed after placing them in an item, so choose carefully! Further, items with sockets can be salvaged at the Salvage Bench in order to generate the Artificer's Orb to add sockets to other items.

Soul Cores

Soul Cores are a stronger version of Runes that have modifiers that cannot be found on their lesser counterpart. These powerful items are socketed into weapons and armour. Similar to Runes, Soul Cores cannot be removed after placing them in an item, so choose wisely!

Omens

Omens are found when doing Rituals throughout Path of Exile 2. Omens are a form of meta-modifier. These are designed to modify the way your crafting currency affects your item. Below, the Omen of Dextral Annulment causes your next Orb of Annulment to only remove a Suffix modifier. There are many more Omens that you can find each of which has a meta-crafting effect!

Catalysts

Catalysts are returning to Path of Exile 2 as a reward from Breaches. These currency items can add quality to Jewelry that increases modifiers, such as Life, by up to 20%. This can be even higher on the new and improved Breach Ring.

Video Guide

Summary

Crafting in Path of Exile 2 involves using currency orbs to build an item up from trash into treasure. You use different Orbs to transform your base from White to Magic or Rare, add affixes, or remove and re-add them in an attempt to reach a desirable outcome. The goal here is an additive system with few ways to remove modifiers from an item, which encourages players to pick items up off the ground. There are additional crafting mechanics, tied to Leagues which give you a different set of tools to modify your items or create new crafting bases. The Affixes you can roll depends on the item's base, with different pools being assigned based on whether the item requires Dexterity, Strength, or Intelligence.

Written by: aer0

Reviewed by: Crouching_Tuna, Havoc616, Palsteron