Reforging Bench Guide

The Reforging Bench in Path of Exile 2 allows you to combine various items together to create a new item. You can recycle unwanted gear for a chance at something better and, in some cases, it allows you to upgrade items.

With this guide you learn:

• How to unlock the Reforging Bench.
• How it works and what you can Reforge.
• When you should Reforge unwanted items and when to Sell or Disenchant them instead.

When you discover The Drowned City zone in Act 3 of the Campaign search the area for the entrance to The Molten Vault. This area contains the Unique Boss Mektul, the Forgemaster, who is the target of the Treasures of Utzaal sidequest. Proceed through The Molten Vault until you hear a metallic pounding sound. Nearby is an elevator to descend to the Mektul fight. This is a tough boss with a guaranteed death mechanic if you cannot kill them fast enough. They are resistant to Fire Damage and have high Armour. It's a good idea for you to overlevel the Molten Vault and prepare for this fight, especially in Hardcore mode. For more information on the campaign consult the campaign guide and for extra tips on the Mektul boss fight check out our boss guide.

Once you have defeated Mektul, the Forgemaster you can claim the The Hammer of Kamasa Quest item and return it to Oswald in town for a reward, including unlocking the Reforging Bench. The Reforging Bench is then be available in any campaign Town Zone and in your hideout (place it via the decorations menu).

Check this quick reference guide to see what can be Reforged (and what the result is). Later in this guide is much more detail on each option and what strategies you can use to take advantage of them.

The primary function of the Reforging Bench is to take three similar pieces of gear and destroy them to create a new version of that same gear. In order to Reforge pieces of equippable gear they must be:

• The same item base-type: For example, three Gold Rings can be reforged into a new Gold Ring.
  • You cannot mix base types, even if they are the same item class (such as "Rings"). For example, a Gold Ring + an Amethyst Ring + an Iron Ring would not work.
  • This includes "Advanced" or "Expert" items, which are considered different base item types.
• The same Rarity: For example, Magic or Rare.
  • You cannot reforge two Rare Gold Rings and one Magic Gold Ring. In this instance you would have to use a Regal Orb to turn the Magic one into a Rare (or find another).
• Uncorrupted: None of the items can be Corrupted, whether by Vaal Orb or any other means.

Unique items are also reforgeable but follow their own rules, see the Unique Items section below for more information.

Should You Reforge Gear?

It is worth Reforging gear pieces under the following conditions:

• You need a specific item type, especially rare ones.
  • For example, you desperately want Chaos Resistance and are searching for a decent Amethyst Ring. You would collect them, identify, and craft them where relevant. If your attempts are crafting fail, you would then collect the failures in your stash until you had three Amethyst Rings of a Rarity to reforge for a chance at something better.
• You can't easily just trade for the item you need.
  • If the item base type is limited in availability then you can collect and reforge them to progress towards you goals a bit faster.
  • If you are playing Solo Self Found or similarly restricted modes then you would collect as many items of desired types as you can, craft them and Reforge the failures. You should customise a Loot Filter to highlight the item base types that you want.
• The time and effort is worth it.
  • Collecting items and reforging them takes time. Consider only doing it for the rarest and most desired gear pieces and saving time to farm or trade more efficiently for everything else.

Think of Reforging Gear pieces as recycling — you can reclaim every failed regal at a ratio of 3:1. This gear Reforging method works for: Flasks, Charms, Jewels, Weapons, Amulets, Armour, Rings, and Belts.

Note: You can reforge three Rare items with only three affixes each into an unidentified Rare with 4 affixes (saving you 1 Exalted Orb)!

Suggested Gear Reforging Strategy

• Collect and craft desired rare bases like Rings, Amulets, Jewels and high end Body Armour like Expert Shaman Mantles.
• Stash the failures in Public Trade Stash Tabs (see the Trading Guide for more information).
  • Put complete failures in a tab marked for the lowest price you are willing to sell for (your 2 Exalted Orb "dump tab"). They may occasionally surprise you with bonus sales.
  • Put anything that rolled decent affixes (but that aren't what you want) in appropriate bulk priced tabs (5 Exalted Orb Tab etc). If they sell — that's great!

• When your Sale Stash Tabs get full reforge items in bulk by taking them out three at a time and filling up your inventory.
• Craft and stash any failures in trade tabs once again to repeat the process.

The benefit of this strategy is you're also casually crafting items for sale with low effort on your part, which helps offset crafting costs while you work towards your goals. You don't even have to price check these lower-end crafts, rough guesses for anything under 5 Exalted Orbs is reasonable. You use reforging to keep getting more chances to craft and clear things that aren't selling.

You can Reforge Unique Items, but they must be the exact same Unique item (not just the same base item type). They also must not be Corrupted. The result is a new version of the same Unique item back, unidentified and randomised.

• This lets you take three poorly rolled Unique items and "Divine Orb" them.
• You can do this if there is a large difference in prices of poorly-rolled versions of a unique compared to the well rolled version. Uniques with important affixes that have wide ranges often end up being very cheap for low end rolls but very expensive for near perfect ones.
• Economically, this stops being worth it the poorly-rolled unique costs more than half a Divine Orb via trade! In that case you are better off simply buying one and using Divine Orbs on it (or just buying an already-good one!).

Reforging Waystones is likely the most common way to use Reforging Bench.

• 3x Waytones of the same Tier become 1x Waystone of the next Tier!
  • 3x Waystone (Tier 5) become 1x Waystone (Tier 6).
• You do not have to use the same Rarity Watchstones, but they cannot be Corrupted.
  • The Rarity of the Waystone you receive is based on the lowest Rarity Waystone you consumed, so don't waste Rare Waystones by accidenlty Reforging them with a Magic one!
• Reforging Waystones is time consuming and you should only upgrade Waystones a couple of tiers at a time. It would take you 9841 reforges to go from tier 1 Waystones to a single tier 10 Waystone. You have better things to be spending your time on.
• Reforging Waystones is a good practice when they have modifiers that are dangerous for your build. Set badly rolled maps aside and reforge them up to the next tier to also have a chance at better modifiers!

• You can also reforge Precursor Tablets. They must be 3x of the same Tablet and all must be Magic Rarity. You should only do this if you have many more Tablets than you have Towers to place them in.

Relics are an incredibly powerful tool for conquering the Trial of Sekhemas to claim your Ascendancy powers, or even to farm for endgame wealth. Well-rolled Relics make a huge difference and Reforging plays a vital role in obtaining them.

• Augment all Relics you find and evaluate the good and bad ones.
  • See the Trials of Ascendancy guide section on the Trials of the Sekhema and Relics for what makes a good Relic!
• Reforge any three of the same kind of Relic from your pile of bad ones.
• Augment again if needed and repeat the process.
• Sell via trade or use your good relics.

You can recycle three-of-a-kind Essences into one random Essence. The strategy here is very simple:

• Reforge cheap, unwanted Essences for a chance of getting a more valuable one. What is cheap and what is valuable often depends on what builds are popular at the time — check the Currency Exchange to see current values.
• Reforge Essences in Solo Self Found modes to try and luck into what you need.
• Fun fact: You do not have to unstack the Essences!

There is a very small chance of the returned Essence being a Greater Essence. Cross your fingers for a Greater Essence of Torment Spoiler: it's an Essence of Electricity.

You can recycle three-of-a-kind Catalysts into one random Catalyst. The strategy here is, again, very simple:

• Reforge low value Catalysts for a chance of getting a more desired one. Check the Currency Exchange to see current values. If the ones you don't want are valuable you may be better off selling them and buying what you need.
• Reforge Catalysts in Solo Self Found modes to try and luck into what you need.
• Fun fact: You do not have to unstack the Catalysts!

You may take three of the same Soul Core, such as 3x Soul Core of Opiloti, and Reforge them into one random Soul Core.

• Recycle your low value or unwanted Soul Cores to attempt to get a better one.
• Speculative: There are reports that this may ignore drop weighting of Soul Cores to be truly random.

Note: You cannot currently reforge Attribute Soul Cores such as: Soul Core of Atmohua, Soul Core of Cholotl and Soul Core of Zantipi. This may be a bug.

Distilled Emotions have tiers and Reforging three of the same Distilled Emotion returns 1x of the next tier.

The Tiers of Distilled Emotions Are:

• Distilled Ire (Lowest)
• Distilled Guilt
• Distilled Greed
• Distilled Paranoia
• Distilled Envy
• Distilled Disgust
• Distilled Despair
• Distilled Fear
• Distilled Suffering
• Distilled Isolation (Highest)

Distilled Emotions are typically three times the price of the previous tier, with some variance due to market demands. This means its likely not worth you reforging to upgrade for more Currency returns — you're more likely to make a loss as anyone can upgrade but there is no way to downgrade! Upgrade only if you need the next tier of Emotion and cannot otherwise obtain it.

If you reforge three of the same type of Rune you get a random Rune back. Runes are relatively common but this is useful to know for fresh starts and Solo Self Found where you might need a specific Resistance and do not have the required Runes. Recycle what you have for a chance to get what you need!

The Reforging Bench is a time-consuming but powerful tool that you can use to supplement your crafting, advance your Waystone progression and recycle unwanted resources into more desirable ones.

• Recycle bad Gear on desired and rare bases to have more chances to get something good and to save yourself some crafting Currency.
• Upgrade your Waystones from one Tier to the next.
• Recycle your cheap and unwanted Essences, Catalysts and Soul Cores for a chance at better, more valuable ones.
• Take advantage of the ability to Reforge Runes and Essences to help with your crafting in Solo Self Found modes or in a fresh start.

Written by: ZIGGYD

Reviewed by: Tenkiei, XaiTV