Path of Exile 2 is a long, complicated and sometimes difficult game that can be somewhat demanding of the player. You’re expected to understand its systems and make use of them to succeed, and progression isn’t always straightforward or guaranteed - you might even have to replay some areas and grind a bit to gain extra EXP and loot to gain sufficient power to overcome challenges! Whether you find this appealing or not is a matter of preference, but this page will provide useful starter tips for new players to help patch over the rough spots and hopefully allow you to enjoy Path of Exile 2 on its own terms!

Page Breakdown¶

Equipment and Inventory¶

• Skills gained via equipment are important, especially to casters, replacing standard weapon attacks with a core spell you can cast, often free of any resource cost. If you ever find yourself low on your primary casting resource, fall back on these skills to keep up the fight while you recover!

• You can equip two weapon sets at once. Say, a ranged set (bow) and a melee set (sword and shield), or a staff in one set and a scepter and focus in another. You will not receive bonuses from both weapon sets at the same time - only the currently held weapon(s) will yield whatever bonuses normally apply. Weapons with inherent skills (say a staff that gives Lightning Bolt and another that gives Frost Bolt) can have both their skills equipped to the skill bar(s) at the same time. To switch between weapon sets, use a skill unique to that weapon or customize your skill set bar by adding the “Toggle Weapon Set” option - depending on your class this function may not be assigned to a skill set hotkey by default.

• Magical items (blue) can have up to two random properties. Rare items (yellow) typically have four to five random properties. Unique items vary considerably - they’re handcrafted items with set stats.

• Rings and amulets are a bit different from other gear - they can have one random property even when they’re of common quality, otherwise following the rules listed above - one to two extra random properties when magical quality, four to five when rare, etc.

• Potions aren’t just throwaway consumables in Path of Exile 2, like in the previous game, the flasks from which you draw succor are noteworthy bits of equipment in their own right! Different potions may have different qualities - recovery amount and duration, charges consumed on use and max charges, and magical variants may yield more random properties.

• Using a potion consumes charges, and different potions can have different amounts of charges per use, varying max charge capacity, and may recover charges in different ways. Typically you recover potion charges when using a well in town or by killing enemies, but random properties can further increase your chance to gain potion charges on kill, or passively over time.

• When equipping a new potion, it will lose all its charges! This is likely done to prevent stockpiling potions in your inventory and swapping them out as needed. Simply put, do not change potions unless you are in town!

• Belts have varying numbers of charm slots - the more charm slots, the better, so keep this in mind when balancing out what belt to wear, in addition to whatever magical properties a weapon has.

• Charms are similar to potions in that they’re rechargeable equipment that provides various boons, but unlike potions, charms function passively and automatically under specific conditions to produce their effect - usually boosting a resistance to damage or nullifying a debuff. Like potions, their charges are restored when you slay foes or refill at a well.

Skills and Combat¶

• Once unlocked early in the game, you can return to town at any time via a Town Portal. These are not consumables, it’s an innate ability you can use at almost any time - just press the button and after an animation the portal will appear.

• Common enemies generally fall into two categories: 1) numerous, tanky but not terribly dangerous and 2) uncommon but surprisingly dangerous.. The latter often feature delayed AoE attacks that can kill in a hit or two, while the former mostly exist to box you in and distract you. Learn what your foes can do and don’t take them for granted! For example, Lumbering Dead and Rotten Wolves aren’t dire threats on their own, but a Vile Hag’s AoE attack is quite potent - the latter enemies exist to distract you and box you in while the Vile Hag’s attack charges.

• The concept of “trash mobs” has spread for good reason, but underestimate foes at your peril. Trash mobs certainly exist in Path of Exile 2, but quite a few common enemies are capable of dealing damage spikes or leave damage-over-time effects during their attacks or upon their deaths. Especially be wary of enemies your own level lest some “fodder” enemy gets the best of you!

• Your dodge roll is an invaluable tool, but it’s not perfect. You cannot dodge through enemies, and trash mobs can box you in, making you take hits for their stronger companions. Be wary and avoid getting boxed in at all costs, even if you do take more hits in the process!

• Damage over time effects are quite dangerous in Path of Exile 2, often moreso than the more obvious, telegraphed heavy attacks of some bosses. Watch the ground and keep moving to avoid taking heavy damage from DoT effects!

• You have numerous hotkeys at your disposal - twenty four skill hotkeys split among two skill sets. If that sounds like a lot, it is, but some basic functions will be set to some of these hotkeys, like expanding the minimap, quick-using potions, conjuring a town portal, and dodge rolling, to name a few. You can toggle skill sets by holding and you can assign skills and customize hotkeys via the skill menu. We recommend keeping a dodge roll on the same button on both sets, and it may be a good idea to put less used skills on the secondary skill set.

• Some skills and spells take longer to use/cast than others, and you may interrupt slower skills if you use another skill during the aforementioned slower skill’s animation. Some skills can (and should) be mashed, but others must be used more deliberately!

• While relatively unimpressive on their own, some skills synergize with each other in interesting ways. Fire Wall and Spark are both fine on their own, but if you can discharge a torrent of Sparks through a Fire Wall, each Spark will gain extra damage, increasing the spell significantly!

• Not all skills are useful in certain circumstances. If you’re facing down a host of melee enemies, you may want to spam AoE skills, even if doing so decreases your mobility - getting kills is more important than taking a bit of damage! Against bosses that hit hard and deal damage across the entire screen, channeling or spamming spells is a luxury you need to avoid in favor of dodging and keeping your distance. Spamming Spark might work in the former situation, but Ember Fusillade is better in the latter.

• There is no penalty for dying - you don’t lose gold or EXP, but you do lose progress inasmuch as every vanquished enemy will respawn. Persistence alone isn’t enough to progress in Path of Exile 2 - you must reach checkpoints to solidify your gains.

• Boss checkpoints will not only save your progress and allow you to continue from said checkpoint if you die, but they’ll replenish your potions and charms. Don’t be conservative when trying to reach a boss - if you make it to their checkpoint you’ll be fully restored for the upcoming fight.

NPCs and Merchants¶

• Loot drops aren’t uncommon, but getting an item that’s useful for your class, that has good random properties, which is also better than what you’re currently wearing can be distressingly rare. Supplement drop droughts by buying magic and rare items from merchants - a purchased rare weapon kills just as good as one dropped by a boss, even if its acquisition isn’t quite as triumphant.

• You can use Scrolls of Wisdom to identify magical (and rarer) gear. Buy more Scrolls of Wisdom from merchants like Una.

• Once you’ve progressed far enough in the game, The Hooded One will freely identify all unidentified items in your inventory.

• Some merchants, like Finn in Act 1, will allow you to gamble for random items. It’s expensive, but if you’ve more gold than quality gear and the other merchants aren’t offering something you need, a bit of gambling may get you something good.

• Find junk you don’t need? Sell it! Money can be used to buy new equipment or gamble!

• Find junk you don’t need? Disenchant it! Una and similar merchants will break down magical, rare and unique gear into shards, as follows:

• Quality items and socketed items can be salvaged for Artificer’s Shards, ten of which will merge into an Artificer’s Orb. Artificer’s Orbs can be used to add sockets to weapons and armor.

• Can’t find good gear? Create it! If you find a promising magical item, consider using an Orb of Augmentation to bring it up to two random modifiers. If it’s still good, you can use a Regal Orb to add a third random property. If the item still hasn’t rolled junk mods, use Exalted Orbs to add more mods! The odds aren’t on your side, but with a little luck a humble magical item with one good mod can turn into something special!

Stats and Progression¶

• Do not stockpile progression items, like skill gems! Do not save them for a rainy day - every day is rainy in Path of Exile 2! You can find more, and you’ll be more likely to find gear if you’re killing enemies faster than they kill you! Use your skill gems, upgrade your skills, augment them, give that magical ring a new modifier via an Orb of Augmentation, socket that rune!

• You will be very weak at the beginning of the game! It’s fine, it’s normal. We got killed by some crabs. Tough it out and get some gear and your survivability will radically increase to the point where you can face-tank mobs. The difficulty curve in Path of Exile 2 isn’t linear, there are mountains and valleys, growing harder as you encounter new, higher level enemies, and easier as you get better gear, stats and skills.

• While it has fallen out of vogue in recent years, Path of Exile 2 is a loot grind ARPG. You might be well-served clearing out areas again and defeating bosses (most of which respawn, given time). The extra EXP and loot can really make your life easier.

• The bigger the gap between your level and the enemy’s level, the less EXP you’ll earn.

• Even if lower-level enemies don’t give as much EXP and the loot the drop is increasingly redundant, they’ll still drop shards, gems, orbs, runes and other augmentation materials. An enemy a few levels below you might not drop a qualitatively better bit of gear, but they could drop a skill orb that allows you to level up a neglected skill or an Exalted Orb that adds a random property to some rare item you have.

• Victories can be hard-won in Path of Exile 2, and if you’re just plowing through the campaign you might not get a good sense of progression. Do yourself a favor: replay old areas once in a while and revel at how you bully foes that once gave you grief. Even if you don’t get much in the way of EXP out of it, the moral boost is worth it.

• There are three main attributes in Path of Exile 2 - Dexterity, Intelligence and Strength. Each of these attributes provides various boons, as follows:

• Attributes do more than boost derived stats - their most important gameplay function is to gate gear and skills. Some weapons and armor require varying amounts of each attribute to equip, and while for weapons this is pretty straightforward (big melee weapons = Strength, ranged weapons = Dexterity, staves and scepters = Intelligence), armor is a bit trickier. There are actually three types of defense in the game, armor, evasion and energy shield, and different types of armor specialize in these, and likewise have different attribute requirements. Robes with high energy shield stat have high Intelligence requirements, bulky plate with high armor requires Strength and supple leathers that assist evasion require Dexterity. The problem comes from hybrid armors - some types of armor boost two different defense types and require a mix of attributes. You can increase stats by equipping gear with attribute boosts or by purchasing passive skills that boost attributes.

• In addition to arms and armor, your attributes determine what skill gems you can equip. While there’s few hard barriers between the classes in Path of Exile 2 inasmuch as a Mercenary can learn Witch spells if he really wanted to, this is discouraged via soft caps. A Sorcerer could easily pick up a quarterstaff and start thwacking enemies with it, even unlocking quarterstaff-related skills, but higher level skills will require increasing amounts of Dexterity. Be prepared to hybridize your build or stick to your specialization. It’s also worth noting that some support gems may require certain attributes, especially as you level them up.

• When you level up you’ll gain Life, primary resource (Mana, etc.,) and a passive skill point. The gains are moderate, but they add up, and in the case of Life, level up gains will probably account for most of your total unless you focus heavily on Life-boosting drops.

• You can refund spent passive skill points by talking to The Hooded One, although this will cost gold - the more skill points you’ve assigned, the more expensive this will be.

• The offensive skills and spells you’ll use in Path of Exile 2 are largely a function of finding and using Uncut Skill Gems, which come in leveled tiers. A level 2 skill gem will create a skill gem of up to level 2 or boost an existing skill gem to level 2, serving to both unlock higher-level skills and increase lower-level skills. For example, a Sorcereress can use an Uncut Skill Gem (Lv2) to unlock a Lv1 skill, say Spark, or to increase an already unlocked Lv1 skill to Lv2. Uncut Skill gems are consumed upon use, but the resulting Skill Gem is retained forever and can be equipped or unequipped at will.

• You can mute the voice over on the skills screen by pressing the button. Sadly you have to do this every time you enter the skill screen, but… at least you can shut it up long enough to read.