2019, Beginner - Path of Exile Valuable Currency and Items Guide
Path of Exile's core gameplay is simple: kill things, get loot, become stronger, kill bigger and scarier things. But that's sort of like saying a Mario game is about jumping - it's the core around which the rest of the game is built, but it provides a scaffolding for all sorts of other gameplay.
In broader terms, PoE is an action RPG, divided between fairly fast-paced combat and more thoughtful character building. Almost everything in the game, from zones to items, is procedurally generated, meaning it tends to have a lot of replayability.
Unlike most games, Path of Exile does not have a single currency. Alternatively, PoE includes a range of currency products that, also to becoming tradeable, are also used to modify things in several methods. Some are very frequent and quick to obtain, other individuals are exceptionally uncommon (as well as the rarest is so uncommon most players will in no way see one particular drop).
Currencies are often found as drops or obtained by selling items to vendors. Additionally, some currencies could be bought from vendors for other currencies, while this is just about often a negative concept: you may typically get a far far better exchange rate from a further player.
It's essential to be acquainted with the other pages in this section before reading this one considering the fact that currencies interact with the mechanics already discussed. The currencies below are listed in rough order of value, while markets can shift over time. This can be not an exhaustive list of all attainable currencies, but most other individuals have some specialized goal and are only located in particular ways.
You don't require to know this whole list - it's right here as a reference, and as a warning in order that you avoid utilizing high-tier currencies without the need of realizing it.
In general, if you're not positive, you'll be able to ask in-game chat and they'll probably tell you. Most typical currencies are not terribly valuable, and you won't burn a thing as well rare by utilizing one particular. Having said that, some are substantially rarer and worth saving. You are able to uncover a complete list under, but recognizing when and ways to use currencies properly is amongst the core capabilities of becoming better at PoE.
Very Common Currencies
If you're in desperate need of more, you can get them at no major loss by selling Armourer's Scraps, Blacksmith's Whetstones, or Orbs of Transmutation to a vendor for 2, 4 or 4 Scrolls of Wisdom each, respectively. This is often better than bothering to pick up every Scroll of Wisdom you see since they're worth almost nothing.
Portal Scroll: Opens a portal to the town associated with the area you're in. Useful when your inventory is full since you can pause and drop off items in your stash. You'll almost always want to carry a few.
Orb of Transmutation: Converts a Normal (white-rarity) item into a Magic (blue-rarity) item with either a prefix, a suffix, or both. Does not change other characteristics of the item, like socket number, color, links, etc.
Orb of Augmentation: Adds an additional affix to a Magic (blue-rarity) item. Since a Magic item can only have one prefix and one suffix, this item can only be used on a Magic item that has only a prefix or only a suffix, but not both, and will always add the other. For example, when used on a Magic item with a prefix, it will always add a suffix. Does not change other characteristics of the item, like socket number, color, links, etc.
Orb of Alteration: Rerolls the affixes on a Magic (blue-rarity) item. This removes any existing affixes and replaces them with a random prefix, a random suffix, or both on the new item. Does not change other characteristics of the item, like socket number, color, links, etc.
Common Currencies
Not as dirt-cheap as the ones above, but you'll see them in every zone or two. Safe to use, but in bulk can be of some value so you may not want to burn them with complete abandon.
Armourer's Scrap: Improves the Quality of an Armour item. Quality improves the number of defenses a piece of armour has - for example, armour that grants Energy Shield will grant more of it with its Quality improved.
A white-rarity item will gain 5% Quality, a blue-rarity one 2%, and a rare- or unique-rarity one 1%. Quality caps at a total of 20%, meaning you'll need 4/10/20/20 of these to cap quality for each rarity respectively.
Blacksmith's Whetstone: Improves the Quality of a Weapon. Quality improves the amount of physical damage a weapon does but does not affect any added Elemental or Chaos damage on the weapon.
A white-rarity item will gain 5% Quality, a blue-rarity one 2%, and a rare- or unique-rarity one 1%. Quality caps at a total of 20%, meaning you'll need 4/10/20/20 of these to cap quality for each rarity respectively.
Chromatic Orb: Rerolls the colors of the sockets on an item. Does not affect the item's affixes, how many sockets it has, or how those sockets are linked. Obeys the usual rule for sockets that sockets whose color matches the Attribute required by the piece of equipment are more likely to appear (for example, Intelligence equipment is more likely to roll blue sockets; higher Intelligence requirements skew harder towards blue sockets).
Jeweller's Orb: Rerolls the number of sockets on an item. This can, and often will result in fewer sockets than the item had before. Cannot exceed an item's maximum socket limit, and attempting to use a Jeweller's Orb on an item that already has its maximum socket count will fail. Does not affect the colors of any surviving sockets, but if it adds sockets they will be freshly generated, possibly with different colors than sockets lost to a previous orb. Similarly, links among the new sockets will be randomly generated. Does not affect the item's affixes.
Items with higher Quality (which can be improved with other currencies like the Blacksmith's Whetstone and Armourer's Scrap) will, on average, roll more sockets, so it's almost always a good idea to upgrade the Quality of an item before using Jeweller's Orbs on it.
Orb of Chance: Converts a Normal (white-rarity) item into a Magic, Rare, or (rarely) Unique item. Magic items are far more common, of course. Will have appropriate affixes for its new rarity: a Magic item will get 1-2 affixes, a Rare 3-6, and a Unique will get its normal list of pre-determined affixes. Does not affect sockets or other characteristics of the item.
Usually used on base items that have some extremely powerful Unique item associated with them. For early play, save these, since Chancing most of the highest value Uniques requires some special conditions to be present.
Uncommon Currencies
A white-rarity item will gain 5% Quality, a blue-rarity one 2%, and a unique-rarity one 1% (Flasks cannot be Rare-rarity). Quality caps at a total of 20%, meaning you'll need 4/10//20 of these to cap quality for each rarity respectively.
Silver Coin: Exchanged for Prophecies, which can trigger various effects, some valuable, some not. There are too many of them to list here, but the coins are not so valuable that you'll really hurt yourself by just using them.
Cartographer's Chisel: Improves the Quality of a Map. Quality on a Map increases the number of drops from monsters inside the zone that that Map opens when consumed.
A white-rarity item will gain 5% Quality, a blue-rarity one 2%, and a rare- or unique-rarity one 1%. Quality caps at a total of 20%, meaning you'll need 4/10/20/20 of these to cap quality for each rarity respectively.
Orb of Fusing: Rerolls the links between the sockets on an item. Does not change the number or color of sockets, or any of the item's other characteristics. Trying to use an Orb of Fusing on a fully linked item will fail.
Items with higher Quality (which can be improved with other currencies like the Blacksmith's Whetstone and Armourer's Scrap) will, on average, roll more links, so it's almost always a good idea to upgrade the Quality of an item before using Orbs of Fusing on it.
Orb of Alchemy: Converts a Normal (white-rarity) item into a Rare (yellow-rarity) item. Adds up to 6 random Affixes to the item, as would usually be found on a rare drop. Does not affect sockets, Quality, implicit, links, or other characteristics of the item.
Typically used on items with a desirable combination of socket colors and links to try to get a good rare item, or on Maps to add modifiers that increase the danger (and reward) of the map.
Orbs of Alchemy are the standard medium of exchange for low-tier items. If you see a price listed as "2 Alc", that means "2 Alchemy Orbs". More expensive items are usually priced in Chaos Orbs or Exalted Orbs, found below.
Orb of Scouring: Removes all affixes (but not sockets, links, or quality) from an item. Typically used to remove bad affixes from an otherwise good base - say an item with 6 linked sockets but terrible affixes.
Orb of Regret: Grants an extra Passive Respec Point, allowing you to remove one of your allocated Passive Skill Points (usually in order to re-allocate it elsewhere). Unlike most currencies, is not used on an item, and instead grants an effect immediately to your character.
Valuable Currencies
All the currencies in this category are of approximately equal value, within a factor of 2 of one another, as of this writing.
Chaos Orb: Rerolls the affixes on a Rare (yellow-rarity) item, removing its current affixes and applying new ones. Does not affect its sockets, quality, or other characteristics.
Chaos Orbs are the normal medium of exchange for mid-tier items. If you see a price listed as something like "10C", that means "10 Chaos Orbs". Cheaper items are usually priced using Orbs of Alchemy (see above), and more valuable ones are usually priced using Exalted Orbs (see below).
Gemcutter's Prism: Improves the Quality of a Skill Gem. Depending on the gem, this can have various effects, but they are almost always beneficial. Regardless of the gem, using one of these on it will always grant it 1% Quality.
Quality caps at a total of 20%, meaning you'll need 20 of these to cap quality. Usually, however, you'll upgrade a gem to 20% quality using other methods, and should not use these directly.
Possible effects include: rerolling an item entirely, replacing an item's implicit with a powerful Vaal Implicit not attainable in other ways, doing nothing, changing socket colors to white, and other effects. Regardless of the effect, the Corrupted modifier is always applied.
Blessed Orb: Rerolls the Implicit property of an item, within the range possible for that item. For example, a Rustic Sash has an Implicit (12-24)% Increased Physical Damage, and using a Blessed Orb on a Rustic Sash will roll a new value within that range. It will not change the type of implicit present.
Rarer than its position here would suggest, but not in high demand.
Extremely Rare Currencies
If you're new, just do not use these. You will regret it dearly later.
These are exceptionally rare drops; the most common of them is the sort of thing a serious player might see once or twice a week, and the rarest is so rare most players have never seen one. Even the least valuable of these is worth around five to ten times the value of anything in the previous category.
Orb of Annulment: Removes a random affix from a Magic (blue-rarity) or Rare (yellow-rarity) item. Does not affect sockets, socket colors, links, quality, or other characteristics. Usually used to remove undesirable mods from otherwise spectacular items in the hopes of adding a better one with an Exalted Orb, but if you're new you should absolutely not do this until you know what you're doing.
Usually worth somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 Chaos Orbs, although this can vary wildly and should be checked before selling or trading.
Divine Orb: Rerolls the values of each mod on the item within the ranges available (which can be seen by pressing [Alt] while hovering over the item once you've enabled Advanced Mod Descriptions in the UI settings). Does not affect sockets, socket colors, links, quality, or other characteristics.
Note that if there are multiple "tiers" of a particular mod, Divine Orbs only reroll within the current tier. For example, if one tier of damage mod adds 11-20 damage, and another adds 21-30 damage, using a Divine Orb on one with the 11-20 mod only rerolls within that range (and cannot change it into the 21-30 mod).
Usually worth somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 20 Chaos Orbs, although this can vary wildly and should be checked before selling or trading.
Exalted Orb: Adds an additional affix to a rare item, subject to the usual limit of 3 prefixes and 3 suffixes. If an item already has the maximum number of prefixes, it will add a suffix (and vice-versa if it already has the maximum number of suffixes). If an item is maxed out on both, an Exalted Orb can't be used on that item. Used in very high-end crafting to add additional power to an item that already has many good mods and no bad ones.
Usually worth somewhere between 75 and 125 Chaos Orbs, although this can vary wildly and should be checked before selling or trading.
Exalted Orbs are the standard medium of exchange for high-tier items. If you see a price quoted in "Ex", as in "3 Ex", that means "3 Exalted Orbs". Cheaper items are usually priced using Orbs of Alchemy or Chaos Orbs (see above).
If you ever see one of this drop, you are instantly richer than almost all PoE players. Their value is typically on the order of 50 to 100 Exalted Orbs, or 3,750 to 12,500 Chaos Orbs, although this fluctuates and should be checked with extreme care before even considering a sale.
Mirrors are extremely rare: you will probably never see one yourself, nor will you likely know anyone who does. Based on what we know about their drop rates, I would see one on average every century or so - and I'm a fairly heavy player! Good hunting.
Path of Exile's reward system is built around dropped items, so it's probably a good idea to know how they work.
In PoE, items come in a few main types:
- Weapons: either 1-handed or 2-handed, of various types. Attacks with a weapon use its damage as a base; caster builds generally use a weapon with stats that boost their Spells' damage indirectly. Spells never use your weapon damage in any way.
- Armour: Helms, Boots, Gloves, Chestpieces, and Shields. Typically grant defensive bonuses, although there are offensive armour items as well.
- Jewellery: Belts, Rings, and Amulets. Offers a wider array of modifiers, both offensive and defensive, including some stats that are difficult to obtain on other pieces of equipment.
- Flasks: The equivalent of potions in most similar games. Flasks are not themselves consumable, but they have a limited number of charges that refill as you kill enemies.
- Currency Items: used to modify other items and to trade with other players. See the "Currency" section for more on these.
- Maps: Consumed to open endgame zones for players that have completed the storyline. You won't see these early on. See "Maps", included in the section on the endgame, for more on these.
- Jewels: can be slotted into special slots on the passive tree to provide bonuses.
- Gems: provide skills, or modify other skills, when socketed into equipment and equipped.
- Divination Cards: turned in in sets of a pre-determined number for specific pre-determined rewards. See "Divination Cards", included in the section on the midgame, for more on these.
Of these, weapons, armour, jewellery, jewels, flasks, and maps can come with Affixes that affect what stats they grant to you or (in the case of maps) what kinds of zones they open.
The rest of this page is mostly about these five item types.
Rarity
Weapons, armour, jewellery, jewels, and maps come in four possible rarities:
- Normal (white text): Has no Affixes or special effects beyond what is typical for the base item.
- Magic (blue text): Has 1 or 2 random Affixes.
- Rare (yellow text): Has 3-6 random Affixes.
- Unique (orange text): Has a special pre-determined list of effects.
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