News Tag: POE 2 Endgame

After you complete all the game content in Normal and Cruel difficulties provided to you by Path of Exile 2 Early Access, you will enter the second half of the entire game, which is the endgame content that most players are very troubled by. In this content that differs completely from the first half, you will need to learn new ways to navigate the game, judge the value of items, and learn the ability to use new functions to ensure that your exploration is in the best state.

Generally speaking, when players reach the endgame stage, they are already familiar enough with most of the mechanisms and builds in POE 2 to cope with most challenges. However, given that the difficulty here is several times that of the previous game content, you may need to learn about some of the special mechanisms and knowledge in advance according to the introduction in this guide. The tips and strategies provided here may bring you a better endgame experience.

1. Use Some Loot Filters

As you explore the endgame in POE 2 and explore Atlas of Worlds, enemies or bosses here will drop a lot of loot. At this time, you need to learn some loot to judge which loot will have a greater benefit to your build, such as POE 2 Currency, which can be used to upgrade gear, and Magic-quality Flask, which is very important in combat.

In general, it is difficult for you to see what specific effect this item will have on your build directly, so you can use some loot filters. They will highlight those valuable or useful loot in a pile of loot and hide those that are not suitable for your build or not worth picking up.

But here I need to remind you that it is best to use loot filters in some maps that use advanced Waystones, because with the help of this Waystone, the map you explore will become more difficult, but the loot provided to you will also be a lot, and even cover your entire screen without filtering.

2. Focus On Gear With Rune Sockets And High Quality

Although I just said that you don’t need to pick up all the loot, gear with rune sockets or high quality deserves your special attention. After you obtain these items and salvage them, you will obtain Armorer’s Scrap, Blacksmith’s Whetstone, and Shards, which can be used as materials for Artificer’s Orbs that can add rune sockets to any of your gear.

By the way, these crafting materials are useful in themselves and can be exchanged for some currencies you often use when making builds. For example, 2-3 Armorer’s Scrap plus 5-6 Blacksmith’s Whetstone can be exchanged at Currency Exchange for a POE 2 Exalted Orb, which can add a useful affix to the gear in your build and make it more effective.

If you follow the first tip, you can set these items with high quality or rune sockets as exceptions when using the loot filter to avoid missing these important items. Or if you don’t have much help, you can choose based on the description of the item: the little white square on the description means it has a rune socket, and then see if the item has Superior in the title. You can also see if the loot has these two important pieces of information on their description by hovering your mouse over them.

3. Use Portals Early

In the endgame in POE 2, after you activate a Waystone for a map on Atlas, six portals appear in Ziggurat Refuge, each representing an opportunity to use a Town Portal to return to Refuge during exploration. Generally, you can use this as an opportunity to refresh Flasks and Charms, clear inventory space, or readjust your build to handle more difficult map challenges.

When you die on a map, all portals are closed, and you can only use a Waystone to return to Ziggurat Refuge and try again, but only if you don’t destroy the map node. So you should use the portals as early as possible in the process of exploring the map, so that there is a low probability of running out of resources.

4. Add Some Gear With Elemental Resistances

When you are playing the previous game content, you may have always adhered to the rule of standardizing Elemental Resistances, which can help you deal with most situations. However, some maps or enemy types in the endgame will threaten you with specific and very high elemental damage, so you should try to use some gear with specific Elemental Resistances to counter them before exploring.

For example, high Fire Resistance will be suitable for areas with a lot of Fire enemies, and high Poison defense stats will be suitable for areas with a lot of Poison enemies. If you don’t need these gears in your current exploration, you can save them in your Stash, because you never know when you will encounter a map that can cause 200% specific elemental damage and a lot of elemental enemies. These gears will increase your survivability far more than those combat modifiers.

5. Select Atlas Skills That Have Buffs To Waystone Rarity & Drop Chance

Once you enter Atlas and complete ten Tier 1 or higher Waystones in a map, an NPC named Doryani will give you a book that grants you 2 Atlas Passive Skill Points, which are only applicable to maps in Atlas.

While nodes on Atlas Skill Tree affect maps in a variety of ways, you should prioritize two points of gain, the rarity and drop rate of Waystones. The more Waystones are valuable and available, the more rewards you will get from exploring maps here. Generally, these passive skill nodes are to the right of the starting point of Atlas Skill Tree and in the lower right corner.

The above is the preparation of information you need to know before exploring the endgame of POE 2. I hope that with the help of these strategies and tips, you can explore the second half of the game more easily and smoothly, and establish your own exploration awareness and playing style in the process. I wish you a happy game!

As the official release date of the early access of the new game Path of Exile 2 is getting closer, players are increasingly looking forward to some of the basic gameplay and combat methods. Among all the campaigns, the expectations for Endgame are far higher than other campaigns.

Therefore, this guide will summarize the methods for better exploring Endgame in POE 2 and the explanations of some specific names based on the leaked trailers and some player videos at this stage, so that you can get a head start in the early access version. However, it should be noted that what is introduced in this guide is only speculation, and it is subject to the eventual release.

What Is The Campaign In POE 2?

It should be noted here that since the early access of POE 2 will be released in a few weeks, it will not be a complete campaign, but only Acts 1, 2, and 3. Because this campaign is shorter, there will be a Cruel Mode in the early access version. In this mode, you can re-experience the game content in the 3 Acts you just explored, and then enter Endgame.

Cruel Mode

In the original game, you need to re-explore all the game content in the 3 modes (Normal, Cruel, and Merciless) at some point in the game before you can enter the Endgame. For the upcoming advance version, you only need to complete Cruel Mode to enter it.

Under normal difficulty, all the content of 3 Acts will take about 25 hours; but in Cruel Mode, because your character will be strengthened, the exploration time you need will be reduced accordingly. The specific exploration time may need to be determined according to your game ability and game style.

Endgame Overview

Atlas & Maps

After you have experienced all the above game content, you will enter Endgame. Then you will enter Atlas, which is a super large map that can be infinitely expanded in all directions, and it is also the core endgame system you need to explore.

You will find that there are many small circles in Atlas, each of which represents a portal to a specific map. For example, the blue circle represents the map you can currently access, the gray circle represents the map you can explore next, and the green circle represents the map you have explored.

In these maps, you will clear the corruption that affects the game time and fight powerful monsters. Of course, in the process of exploring these maps, you will be rewarded with a large amount of POE2 Currency and some loot that is useful for your construction.

Waystones

I believe that in the introduction to Atlas just now; you have discovered one of the most critical differences between POE 2 and the original: in the original, the map you explore is the item you get in other event explorations, and you can choose which maps to run; in POE 2, you can only explore in the order provided to you in Atlas.

And among them, Waystones play a very important role. First of all, before you explore a map, you need a Waystone, just like you need a key to open a lock. The level of Waystones you provide will determine the level or rank of the monsters on the map. In simple terms, the higher the level of Waystones you provide, the higher the level of the monsters you will encounter, the more experience points you will gain, and of course the better the quality of your loot will be.

Like most Path Of Exile 2 Items, you can also add prefixes or suffixes to your Waystones. Prefixes increase the rewards you will receive on the map, while suffixes increase the challenge of the map. This is also a key way to maintain your supply and obtain higher-level drops.

Endgame Map Mechanics

In POE 2’s Endgame map, you’ll encounter bosses, enemies, and mechanics. For bosses or enemies, all you need to do is increase your build’s damage and survivability. In contrast, it’s more important to understand the map mechanics. Here are three mechanics you may encounter in Endgame map.

Precursor Artifacts

It’s Shrines in POE 2, just with a new name. But it’s also where monsters gather. After clearing all the monsters here and pressing the Artifact, you will get a buff for a period.

Strongboxes

Fill these Strongboxes with loot and monsters, which will all depend on your luck. In addition, there will be special modifiers in Strongboxes that will increase the monster weight of the box or apply some debuffs to you. After you clear them of monsters, they will also drop some loot and POE2 Currency as your reward.

Essences

While exploring Endgame map, you will often find monsters trapped in crystals. After you free them and defeat them, they will drop Essences, which can be used for crafting. It will ensure that the crafted items have a type of modifier, allowing you to craft the effect you want most.

The above are some of the details we have learned about Endgame in the early access of Path of Exile 2. In general, after seeing a very perfect POE 2, our long wait will become very worthwhile. I hope you can have fun playing the new game in a few weeks!