Path of Exile 2 Crafting Guide - Basics of Crafting in PoE 2

Introduction

Welcome to our guide about the crafting system in Path of Exile 2. We will take a look at all the intricacies of items and the crafting systems available in the game, providing you with valuable insights, strategies, and tips on how to create the best items in PoE 2. If we’ve piqued your interest, follow us in the journey of exploring the complexity of crafting in this ARPG.

Path of Exile 2 has one of the most complex and fun crafting systems across all ARPGs on the market. Items can be crafted from a starting base with no modifiers, using a variety of currencies that alter the modifiers, making gear accessible for everyone, as it doesn’t require endless farming to drop powerful items.

Basics of PoE 2 Crafting

In Path of Exile 2, crafting starts off from a base. This will decide the affixes that can be rolled on items based on the item level and stat requirements. For example, an intelligence base will provide Energy Shield affixes, while a dexterity base will provide Evasion affixes. If the base has hybrid attributes, such as dex & int, you can roll modifiers from both the dexterity and intelligence modifier pools.

Normal items have no affixes, magic items can have up to 1 prefix and 1 suffix, and rare items can roll 3 different prefixes and 3 suffixes. During the crafting process, you will apply a variety of orbs to the item, with each type of orb having a different outcome.

Compared to Path of Exile 1, PoE 2 will simplify the crafting system, meaning that players will have a higher chance of finding upgrades by picking items up from the ground, then enhancing them or finishing them using crafting, at least during the early stages of the game.

Importance of crafting in Path of Exile 2

Crafting is essential in Path of Exile 2’s world, as Oriath is an unforgiving and punishing place, often rewarding the players with sparse loot, and generally bad modifiers on items picked up from the ground. Since the main power of a build stems from a combination of the passive skill tree & gear, having equipment that benefits you is a must.

Finding this equipment can be challenging, and that’s where crafting shines. You will often find yourself picking up an item and thinking it has some good affixes but also useless ones. That is where crafting comes in, allowing you to mold the item to your character’s needs, with random chances of either improving or destroying the item.

Can you craft items in PoE 2?

Yes, Path of Exile 2 allows you to craft items. While you can’t build an armor piece from scratch by using materials to forge a piece of armor or a weapon, you can fully modify any non-unique equipment by changing the modifiers on the item. Item bases are common, so you don’t have to worry about finding the item itself.

When can you start crafting?

In Path of Exile 2, you can start crafting as soon as you acquire your first gear piece & crafting material. This would be very early in the campaign, as you can commonly drop Orbs of Transmutation and Orbs of Augmentation in the first acts. Both of these currencies are related to Magic items, with the first upgrading a normal item to Magic and the second adding an additional modifier, which is only useable if there are open slots.

PoE 1 vs PoE 2 crafting

Crafting in Path of Exile 2 will take a completely different approach than in the first game. While the first game is ridden with complex crafting features, massive RNG, and the use of multiple external tools, the developers are aiming to simplify the process and remove some of the randomness from this core aspect of the game, making it more enjoyable for the player base.

In the following subchapters of our guide, we will analyze the crafting system from each of the two games, mentioning all the major aspects and changes.

Crafting in PoE 1

In Path of Exile 1, the crafting system is complicated and involves a lot of RNG, making it time-consuming to craft some endgame items. Failing specific steps can make the player start all over from the beginning or a few steps back.

The name of the game is time and currency efficency when trying to figure out how to craft an item. Most of the time, the crafting process for any item is very similar. It usually comes down to locking in either two prefixes or suffixes by using various currencies, such as essences, to guarantee one of the affixes, hoping to hit the other one through RNG.

After completing this step, you will start working on the other category of modifiers, while locking down the two previously obtained using metamods such as “Cannot change prefixes” and “Cannot change suffixes”. Generally, in this step, you will use Exalts or currencies with similar effects to obtain one or two more good modifiers.

This entire process is complicated, as you have to figure out each step individually and analyze the best way to approach it so you can save as much currency and time as possible.

Crafting in Path of Exile 2

When it comes to crafting in PoE 2, GGG is aiming to simply the crafting process, try to minimize RNG, while still leaving a luck factor, overall making crafting more accessible to players who don’t have the time to invest in scouring through hundreds of videos and guides about crafting to learn each gimmick, but also let veterans experience the same highs and lows as in Path of Exile 1.

While most basic crafting currencies from PoE 1 will also see an appearance in the sequel, the devs have yet to announce what crafting methods related to league mechanics will come to PoE 2 as well. While for example Essences, which are one of the most used and basic crafting currencies, will be part of PoE 2’s crafting repertoire, powerful crafting methods like Harvest may not be implemented, or reworked as a weaker version.

Also, we expect to see major changes in regard to bench crafting for Path of Exile 2, as the developers are not happy with the state of this powerful tool from the first game, with players sinking massive amounts of currency into meta-mods which were essential to any craft.

Path of Exile 2 Crafting Currencies

Crafting currencies are the main way of modifying items in Path of Exile 2. There is a large variety of currencies, each having a different effect once applied to an item, allowing for a various outcomes. Mixing and matching all the available effects lets you craft almost any desired item, allowing for endless possibilities in the world of crafting.

In the list below, we will showcase each basic currency and their effect:

• Orb of Transmutation – Upgrades a Normal item to a Magic item with 1 modifier
• Orb of Augmentation – Augments a Magic item with a new random modifier
• Orb of Alchemy – Upgrades a Normal item to a Rare item with 4 modifiers
• Regal Orb – Upgrades a Magic item to Rare
• Chaos Orb – Removes a random modifier and augments a Rare item with a new modifier
• Exalted Orb - Augments a Rare item with a new random modifier
• Vaal Orb - Corrupts an item unpredictably
• Divine Orb – Rerolls the values of modifiers on an item
• Orb of Chance – Upgrades a Normal item to a random rarity
• Orb of Annulment – Removes a random modifier from an item

Item Modifiers in PoE 2

In Path of Exile 2 items work based on a modifier system, with different types of affixes. Each category of mods has a limited pool of available affixes, and in this part of our guide, we will explore the stats for each category, alongside brief overviews of how they can be modified or affected by certain league mechanics or currencies.

Implicits

Implicits are almost always present on any item in the game. These modifiers will usually grant small bonuses, depending on the equipment type. Jewelry will increase resistance to elements, gloves will have increased attack or cast speed, and boots will give increased movement speed.

Additionally, these can be modified in multiple ways using a variety of currencies:

• Blessed Orb - rerolls the range of the stats found on the implicit modifiers.
• Vaal Orb - Corruption can add or replace an implicit modifier depending on the item type.

Explicits

Explicits are the primary modifiers you will find on gear, with the most considerable benefits regarding the stats they provide. These are split into two types, prefixes and suffixes, with each sub-category hosting a different pool of modifiers.

These are procedurally generated when an item drops or is crafted by using a currency item; depending on the item’s rarity, the maximum number of prefixes & suffixes changes. Magic items can have up to one prefix and suffix, while Rare items can have up to three prefixes and three suffixes.

Prefixes

Prefixes are one of the two main categories of affixes available on items. These modifiers usually grant defensive stats, such as increased or flat armor, evasion rating, energy shield, and maximum life. Other than these, you will also commonly find flat or percentage damage increases for all types of damage, such as physical, chaos, or elemental damage.

Suffixes

Suffixes are the other category of explicits you can find on items. Suffixes will usually grant bonuses such as elemental or chaos resistance and a variety of attack and cast-related modifiers like increased attack speed, cast speed, critical strike chance, and critical strike damage.

Enchants

Enchantments are similar to implicit modifiers, but are granted to the item by specific means. Enchantments have their own mod slot on items and do not use the implicit mod slot. Most items can have up to only one enchantment at a time.

Enchants have fixed values, so Blessed Orbs have no effect on them. Also, applying an enchantment on an already enchanted item replaces the old enchantment with the new one. This does not include maps, they can only be enchanted once.

For example, amulets can be instilled with Distilled Emotions to give them an enchantment.

League-specific modifiers in PoE 2

Other than the modifiers you can craft on items, Path of Exile 2 may see the reappearance of modifiers that can only be obtained randomly on items dropped in specific areas or crafted by interacting with specific league mechanics. These modifiers are usually powerful variants of basic modifiers and are hard to craft around, as RNG can easily remove the modifier.

In this chapter, we will cover all of the league mechanics that could drop items with such modifiers from the first game, and we hope to see them in PoE 2 as well.

Delve & Incursion Modifiers

Delve and Incursion modifiers both fall under the same category, with each only obtainable as a random mod on a dropped item from the league mechanic. Delve items usually had minion and skill gem-related modifiers that were very powerful for specific builds, with affixes such as “+1 to the level of all skill gems” or “+1 to maximum number of raised zombies”.

On the other hand, Incursion provided generic modifiers, such as “ % increased maximum life & + to maximum life” in the same modifier, basically being an empowered version of the maximum life modifiers that could roll on any item.

Fractured Modifiers

Coming up next, we have fractured modifiers. Fractured modifiers were one of the most powerful tools for crafting endgame gear. These could be randomly obtained as drops in-game, from delve nodes, and most commonly, by using Fractured Orbs on an item.

What makes fractured mods unique is that they are permanently engraved on the item. No matter what currency or crafting method you use, these modifiers cannot be removed from the item. Getting a rare modifier as fractured would simplify many crafts, removing the chance of deleting the modifier at any point in the craft.

Veiled Modifiers

Veiled modifiers are the last type of affixes part of this category. They were introduced with the Betrayal league, providing either unique effects or a combination of two different basic affixes into a single one, such as “chaos and fire resistance” or “increased attack speed & + strength".

These could be obtained either on veiled items, dropped by betrayal NPCs, or by using a Veiled Orb to add one of these modifiers, then unveiling them at Jun and picking one of the three available choices. In most cases, players used veiled mods to finish up crafts, filling the 5th slot of the item.

Local & Global modifiers

In Path of Exile 2, modifiers can be categorized into two types based on how they apply their effects: local and global. Local modifiers only affect the item they are applied on, such as increased defense modifiers on armor pieces, while global modifiers affect your entire character.

Suppose you want to check out which modifiers will be applied to your entire build and which are limited to specific items. In that case, we recommend checking out the Path of Exile 2 database, where you can find all modifiers that have the local tag.

Gear Rarities in Path of Exile 2

Items in Path of Exile 2 can have four different rarities: Normal, Magic, Rare, and Unique. Out of these four, players can completely alter all items except Uniques, which generally provide powerful effects, and sometimes even affixes that are exclusive to that Unique.

The rarity of the item determines the amount of explicit affixes the item can have, with Normal items having no explicits. In the sections below, we will take a look at the other two rarities that allow crafting: Magic and Rare.

Magic Items

Magic Items are the second tier of gear, which you can find as early as the first zone in the campaign. These are generally considered starter items, can have up to two affixes (one suffix & one prefix), and are replaced by Rares in the middle of the campaign.

Magic items also have a niche use in crafting, spamming Orbs of Transmutation, Orbs on Augmentation and Orbs of Annulment on a Magic item to obtain a rare modifier, which will usually net the player with a clean base that can be used for crafting end-game gear.

Rare Items

Rare items are the bread and butter of Path of Exile 2, being used across all builds, alongside powerful or build-defining Uniques. They can have up to six explicits (three prefixes & three suffixes), which makes them highly versatile due to the large amount of affixes available in the game.

Influences

Items in Path of Exile 2 can have various influences based on the area or mobs from which they are obtained. While in Path of Exile 1, we had the Elderslayers and influences from Pinnacle bosses such as the Eater of Worlds, Searing Exarch, Shaper, and Elder, we are currently waiting to see what new bosses and enemies we will have to face in PoE 2 and if their influence will seep into the items from Oriath.

Influenced items have access to an additional pool of modifiers, providing unique and powerful bonuses related to the boss they were influenced by. For example, if we are to have a boss that is related to necromancy and minions, we may see items influenced by this boss have a series of minion and summon-related affixes.

PoE 2 Item Crafting Restrictions

In Path of Exile 2, an item's base type and ilvl are heavily tied to what modifiers can appear on said item. The base type decides what kind of modifiers can appear on the item when created or crafted, while the item level has two different purposes: first, depending on the item level, only certain tiers of modifiers may appear, and second, locking certain modifiers behind a specific item level.

Base Item Restrictions

Base items decide which modifiers can appear on an item in two different ways: first, by the equipment type (armor, weapon, jewelry, etc.) and by the stat requirements (dexterity, strength, or intelligence). Weapons will have attack-related modifiers, armor will have defensive modifiers, and jewelry will have a combination of both.

At the same time, depending on the stat requirements of the item, available modifiers will branch out even further: DEX items will have evasion and attack related modifiers, STR items will have armor and attack related modifiers, while INT items will have spellcasting and energy shield related modifiers.

Items that have hybrid stat requirements will be able to roll mods from both pools, so selecting a base with the stat requirements that benefit you is essential in crafting, so you don’t overload your modifier pool with useless mods or altogether remove the ability to roll some that may be useful to you.

Item Level Restrictions

Item level is the second stat of the item that has a deciding factor in what modifiers can roll. At the same time, ilvl restricts both the maximum tiers of a modifier the item can roll, and also locks affixes behind an ilvl requirement.

Each modifier has multiple tiers, with each individual tier having a specific item level after which they can be obtained. Additionally, some modifiers also require a specific item level for you to be able to obtain them on your gear. These two aspects are both crucial when crafting.

First of all, when picking out a base, you must ensure it’s the correct item level, so you can roll the modifiers you need. Additionally, you can use the ilvl restrictions to grab lower ilvl bases to have a smaller pool of modifiers, allowing you to more easily obtain rare modifiers, as long as it doesn’t affect other parts of your craft.

How to benchcraft in Path of Exile 2

Path of Exile 2’s crafting bench is one of the most essential aspects when creating items. Currently, the crafting bench is yet to be released, but the devs have confirmed it will be added at some point during development. We can expect it to be very similar to the one from the first game, being used as a method to finish up items when crafting.

Using the crafting bench is as simple as it comes; all you have to do is go to your hideout and interact with the object. Then, a list of available crafting modifiers will appear. You can put any item that has an open explicit modifier in the crafting window and apply an affix of your choice by paying a tax in crafting currency.

Benchcrafting modifiers

We expect the crafting bench in PoE 2 to offer a variety of modifiers, generally being weaker versions of affixes you can normally encounter on items. These modifiers range from maximum life, defenses, increased damage, increased attack speed, with the exception of meta mods from PoE 1.

While having a more powerful version of a modifier through other crafting methods seems like a better choice, using the bench to craft a guaranteed modifier to fill in gaps in your build or finish up items is always the safer choice, with the differences being minimal most of the time.

How to unlock bench crafts

At the time, we don’t have any concise information on how players will unlock bench crafts in PoE 2, but we expect similar methods to those in the first game. You will naturally encounter crafting recipes through the campaign, with the most powerful ones being locked behind specific maps or endgame activities.

Gathering all crafting recipes will come naturally as you progress through the game, so unless you specifically need a strong craft, you can enjoy the game at your own pace, and you will eventually collect every single crafting recipe within one or two weeks of the launch of the game or a new league.

These are shared between all characters in a league, but if you play on a newly released trade league, you will have to gather them all again.

Path of Exile 2 Crafting Methods

In this category we will cover crafting systems and currencies from PoE 1 that we are expecting to see a reappearance of in Path of Exile 2, with their effects being exactly the same or very similar. All these ways of crafting had powerful effects, mostly in the starting part of the craft, with the exception of harvest, which was widely used at any point in a craft due to its various possibilities and outcomes.

Harvest Crafting

Harvest was the most powerful crafting method in the first game, and we expect a tuned down version of the crafting method to see a reappearance in PoE 2 as well. Harvest offered a variety of crafts, from guaranteeing a specific type of modifier, changing elemental resistances into other elements, or adding a modifier of a type while removing a modifier that is not of that same type.

While we don’t expect powerful crafts like ‘’add & remove’’ or the quality enchants to be available in the second game, we do hope that we will see the guaranteed crafts and the elemental resistance swaps make a reappearance in Path of Exile 2.

In order to use harvest crafts, players had to farm a currency called lifeforce, which was obtained by entering the Sacred Grove inside your maps and killing a variety of mobs. Three types of mobs could appear, each related to specific crafts.

Each craft has its own cost, with the powerful craft requiring much more lifeforce than the generally useful ones. This currency was tradeable, so you were not forced to interact with this league mechanic to be able to harvest craft.

Fossil Crafting

Fossils are another crafting method that was commonly used at the start of crafts in the predecessor. We are unsure if fossils will return in PoE 2 since they were tied to a league mechanic that would take the player outside of maps and the regular content, but there is always a chance they will keep this fun and unique currency.

Fossil crafting worked uniquely compared to other currencies, as they required two parts to be able to use them: the fossils and a resonator. Fossils would decide the crafting outcome, with each fossil having a positive and negative: the positive side would increase the chances of getting a specific type of affix, while the negative side would reduce or make receiving a different kind of affix impossible.

You could combine up to 4 fossils at once by using resonators. By combining various fossils together, you could remove or lower affix types you didn’t need altogether while maximizing the chances of getting ones that you can use for the craft. This would be often done by spamming until you had a desirable base.

Players could obtain fossils by interacting with the Delve league mechanic. This mechanic required them to collect sulphite and then dive in the depths of Oriath to mine for fossils and azurite. The amount of rewards and difficulty directly scaled with the depth.

Essence Crafting

Essences are one of the crafting-related league mechanics we expect to see in Path of Exile 2, with them being a powerful crafting method in Path of Exile 1. Essences reroll the modifiers on a rare item, guaranteeing a specific modifier as the outcome among all the newly obtained ones.

They had multiple types and tiers, with the type of essence determining the modifier, varying based on the equipment type of the base item. In contrast, the tier of the essence was directly related to the tier of the modifier they applied.

These were usually used as a first step in crafting, guaranteeing a desired modifier on the highest tier available, with the maximum tier being more powerful than any normal modifier, by spamming them on an item until you would get a second desired affix of a high tier, alongside the essence mod.

Beast Crafting

Beast crafting is the final league mechanic related crafting method we will cover in this guide chapter. This crafting method is one of the earliest introduced in Path of Exile 1, and we firmly believe it will appear in PoE 2 as well since it was neither the most powerful nor weakest form of crafting.

This crafting method revolved around collecting beasts, with the players having a wide array of recipes available by combining different beasts together. For most recipes, you would require one rare beast and three common beasts, with the rare one deciding the outcome.

Some of the most used crafts from this category are the beast imprint and the add/remove crafts, which we expect to have in Path of Exile 2, but most probably with a more negative downside.

FAQ

1. How does crafting work in Path of Exile 2?

Crafting in Path of Exile 2 comes down to two main factors: a combination of the usage of crafting currencies and various league mechanics that can affect items. All you have to do in most cases is either use a currency on the item, or put the item in a crafting window and press craft, which will reroll the modifiers on your item, add extra ones, or remove some.

Using a combination of crafting currencies is essential to obtaining any powerful item, as the general process in PoE 2 is creating a base item with 1 to 3 good modifiers, then adding the rest through methods that are as deterministically possible to use as little currency as you can.

2. At what level should I start crafting in PoE 2?

There is no specific level at which you should start crafting in PoE 2. Starting to craft from the early game is very useful as it allows you to obtain powerful gear to breeze through the campaign. Even if it’s just using an alchemy orb to get a rare item or adding a modifier to a Magic item with an augmentation orb, they all increase your power, making your gameplay smoother and your character more powerful.

3. How to get more crafting recipes in Path of Exile 2?

Since the crafting bench is not yet released, we are unsure of how crafting recipes are obtained, but we expect players to find them passively by completing the story and progressing through the game. We believe crafting recipes will come in the form of tablets, totems, or ancient texts, which you can interact with across the world of Oriath, each teaching you a specific recipe.

4. How do you craft items in Path of Exile 2?

You can craft items in Path of Exile 2 by obtaining a base then using a combination of crafting currencies and league mechanics that enhance items to change the affixes of the base to a desirable item.

5. What is the best item level for crafting in Path of Exile 2?

When trying to craft, the ilvl of your Path of Exile 2 item is heavily dependent on what affixes you want on the item. Sometimes, you will need a high item level gear piece to have access to specific affixes, while other times, a low ilvl equipment is preferred, so the modifier pool is smaller, making it easy to get the affixes you want.

6. Where is the crafting bench in Path of Exile 2?

In Path of Exile 2, you can find the crafting bench inside your hideout. If the crafting bench is not there, check the edit menu and place it down; then you can interact with it.

7. How does the PoE 2 crafting bench work?

We expect the PoE 2 crafting bench to function similarly to the one from the predecessor, allowing players to choose a specific affix to add on the item in exchange for a certain amount of currency.

8. What is PoE 2 essence crafting?

Essence crafting in PoE 2 is a process where you use essences to guarantee a specific type of modifier on an item while rolling for a second or even two more useful modifiers to obtain a base for a higher-end craft. Also, you can use essences in the early game to create powerful leveling items, due to the high base damage values certain essences can offer on weapons.

9. How to craft using essences in Path of Exile 2?

Crafting with essences in Path of Exile 2 is as simple as it comes, you just have to right click the essence and then click on the desired item. This will apply the essence modifier to the item alongside up to 5 other random modifiers.

Generally, players will try to roll a second affix alongside the essence modifier and then clean up the item using orbs of annulment to have an excellent base for crafting further.

10. Can I upgrade essences in Path of Exile 2?

Yes, essences can be upgraded in Path of Exile 2. You can trade three essences of a lower tier to a vendor, and in exchange, you will obtain an essence of the next tier. If you own a premium essence tab, you can use the upgrade function directly from your stash.

11. How to get essence modifiers in PoE 2?

Essence modifiers can be obtained by using an essence of the highest tier on an item. Each essence has its own unique category of modifiers, with the “essence” tag showing that the modifier was explicitly obtained by using an essence.

Conclusion

We designed our PoE 2 Crafting Guide to help you understand the crafting system and familiarize yourself with all the currencies and league mechanics that enhance crafting. Our crafting tips & tricks will help you create your own items and enjoy this fun aspect of the game.

Related Guides

Now that you have learned about the basics of crafting in Path of Exile 2, how about you check out our related guides for this ARPG?

• Path of Exile 2 Leveling Guide
• Path of Exile 2 Best Classes Guide
• Path of Exile 2 Gearing Guide
• Path of Exile 2 Beginner Guide
• Path of Exile 2 Trading Guide
• Path of Exile 2 Money Making Guide

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