Crafting is an important part of any build in Path of Exile, as it allows players to customize their gear. This process involves using various currency items to modify and improve gear. The crafting system in Path of Exile is complex and can be confusing to new players. This guide will help to explain the basics of the crafting system and its interactions.
Fossil Crafting
Fossil crafting allows you to more deterministically craft items. You can use fossils to block modifiers from rolling on an item, guarantee that certain types of modifiers roll on the item and more. Fossils are used like the other currency orbs such as Blacksmith’s Whetstone and Armorer’s Scrap but they can have a much more powerful impact on the outcome of an item. A Pristine Fossil for example can block the weight rolls towards stats you don’t want on an item, such as defense related mods (energy shield, armor and evasion). It can also ensure that the item won’t get any of these mods rolled on it, but will instead receive something else like more links or additional damage.
Other fossils can do things such as change the amount of abyssal sockets on an item, or increase the number of links on it by one. It can also change the resonator cost or type of a particular resonator. It can even act like a Chromatic Orb and reroll the socket color of an item.
You can now also enchant items with Fossils, similar to how you would with an Orb of Chance or Orb of Glint. You can enchant any item level up to tier 5 with Fossils, although you will have a slightly higher chance of getting a good affix on an abyssal or unique item. This is great as you can now enchant your favorite weapon, axe or bow with any mod you want. This is particularly useful now that the game has removed hybrid crafting and you can no longer craft weapons with caster and attack modifiers on them. Using the right combination of Fossils and resonators can ensure that you get exactly what you want. This is a huge boon for hardcore players as it means that you don’t have to waste Orbs of Glint on your favourite weapon and can still rely on the power of the bench to give you good modifiers. This will make it easier to get the elusive abyssal caster affix for example, or a high level weapon with the best spell damage.
Essence Crafting
Essence crafting is an important part of a player’s progression in craft of exile. They are used for re-rolling items with desirable mods, as well as unlocking certain rare mods that cannot be obtained from other methods, such as the “Cast Level 20 Fire Burst on Hit” modifier found on wands. Essences are available from monsters and in containers, requiring a varying amount of experience to acquire. The most common way to get them is from completing the Crypt of Doom quest in Act I, but they can also be acquired by killing certain rare bosses or even just playing through the game.
Essences are available in multiple tiers, with each one having different types of modifiers and different effect strengths. The most basic essences are those that upgrade normal items to rare, guaranteeing a single stat that is stated on the item’s description (such as +1 Life or +1 Spell Damage). The higher-tier ones, such as Shrieking and Deafening, offer more oomph and can be used on any item, regardless of its level. These basic essences are useful for early-game gear, allowing players to obtain mods such as +1 Life and a high flat phys value. However, their use becomes limited as the player progresses in the game and more desirable modifiers, such as a +2 level to socketed gems, become available. In these cases, it is often more beneficial to spend the time obtaining scorched fossils instead of trying to reroll an item with an essence for a very specific modification.
Alternatively, Essences can be corrupted with a Remnant of Corruption to upgrade them to a higher tier. This method is most commonly seen with the purple Essences, usually abbreviated MEDS, such as Misery, Scorn, Envy, and Dread. These upgraded Essences have a one-in-four chance of transforming into an unique Essence that grants special, unobtainable mods, such as Horror, Delirium, Hysteria, and Insanity. The higher tiers of Essences are often worth more than a single Divine Orb and can be used to make endgame equipment. This makes them a popular choice for many players, who will often purchase them in bulk on the marketplace to try and obtain a desirable outcome.
Catalyst Crafting
For players looking to expand their crafting knowledge beyond fossils and essences, there are a few other items in the game that allow for more advanced manipulation of modifiers. These are called catalysts. They are only consumed under specific circumstances, but can be an effective way to increase the odds of getting the desired prefixes and suffixes on items. The most common catalysts are abrasive and fertile, but there are others as well. Each type of catalyst boosts a particular set of modifiers, but they don’t affect the same ones (for example, an abrasive catalyst only enhances attack-related mods). They also have varying effects, such as increasing the quality of a normal item by 5% or boosting the probability that an item will get a specific modifier when it is augmented or annulled.
To obtain a catalyst, you can sell any three of the same type of item to a vendor for a random one. However, you can only apply one catalyst to a single ring, amulet, or belt. It is also possible to purchase them from a merchant for some amount of money. While they may not look flashy, catalysts are a useful tool for fine-tuning your jewelry, especially when you’re considering annulling or augmenting. They can make it less likely that you’ll lose a valuable modifier by enhancing it, and they are a must-have for anyone trying to maximize the value of their gems.
A few other important tools of the trade include the Orb of Scouring, which erases all modifiers from an item and returns it to white, allowing you to start over if you’re not happy with your result. Another useful option is the Orb of Alchemy, which turns a white item into a rare item with a full set of modifiers. This is a good way to upgrade a unique item to its full potential without using a Vaal Orb, which corrupts an item in unpredictable ways. Finally, the Orb of Chance can be used to reroll implicit modifiers, such as gem damage or socket connections. This can be a very useful tool, but it’s risky and not recommended for novice players.
Metacrafting
In addition to the standard methods of currency item crafting, there are additional ways to shape and upgrade items in Path of Exile. These advanced methods, called Metacrafting, allow players to customize and personalize their gear by modifying the basic rules and interactions of currency and tools. In some cases, these advanced techniques can be more cost-effective than purchasing items in the market. The core of metacrafting is the Crafting Bench, a special station that is located in the player’s hideout and allows them to add crafted modifiers to items. These mods are not the same as those found on items after a player uses a Chaos Orb, but they can be quite powerful and add new lines of power to an item.
These crafted modifiers can be used to protect specific aspects of an item while players reroll or add other mods. For example, the “Cannot Roll Attack Modifiers” metacraft prevents an Orb of Scouring from removing the prefixes or suffixes on an item, even though this is normally the case. The bench also offers other meta-crafting options, such as preventing sockets or links from being modified, removing all of an item’s mods, or adding new ones.
While the various forms of crafting are powerful and useful, there is also a great deal of randomness in crafting in Path of Exile. This can result in expensive and disappointing results, especially if an item fails to meet the player’s needs. For this reason, it is important to plan out the use of currency items and make wise decisions about which modifiers to include in an item.
Conclusion
In addition, it is also a good idea to experiment with different techniques and learn from the community to improve one’s crafting skills. This will increase the chances of a successful outcome and make items more desirable in the market. In addition, players should be aware of the values of the items they are attempting to craft, as the value of currency items can greatly impact the overall value of an item in the market. In particular, a player should avoid trying to create extremely high-level items with the use of basic currency items unless they are willing to invest significant amounts of resources into their creation.
