Path of Exile 2 crafting currency guide: All known crafting materials and their uses
Much like the previous game, Path of Exile 2 has a wide assortment of crafting materials to enhance the equipment you find during your adventure. Otherwise known as crafting currencies, many of them are returning materials from the first game, where they became part of the currency exchange system since the Settlers of Kalguur League.
While they aren't directly tied to a similar system in Path of Exile 2 yet, we are certain some of them will become staple currencies of p2p trading, as they retain their value as crafting objects.
By the end of the campaign, you're likely to have an entire stash tab full of them — if you hoard them all. Naturally, doing that is not a good idea, so you should start using them to upgrade items more liberally once you hit Act 2.
That said, this isn’t always the case. Some of the crafting materials in Path of Exile 2 are notoriously rare, and shouldn’t be utilized unless you find the perfect piece of gear to use them on. Others are so rare that we cannot confirm the exact use for them, as of this writing; However, once we’ve found them ourselves, we’ll update accordingly.
All known crafting materials in Path of Exile 2
Some crafting materials in Path of Exile 2 simply do something like increase character stats, add more affixes, or even upgrade the rarity of the gear. When it comes to the more common items like Orb of Transmutation, you’re free to use those with reckless abandon.
They’re not hard to find, and make a Normal Item into a Magic Item with one Modifier. They may not be the best, but can turn a regular piece of gear into something you may actually want to invest effort into.
We left off the Mirror of Kalandra from the list below because we aren’t 100% certain it exists in Path of Exile 2 as a crafting material. It was incredibly rare and valuable in the first game, so if it’s here as well, it will no doubt be as worthwhile to have. The same goes for Chaos Orb, which has long been the gold-standard currency for p2p trading in the first game.
Even Normal Items can become incredibly powerful using these. If you find a decent Normal Item, with a powerful skill, such as a Sceptre with a high-level Occult ability, you can start upgrading it with an an Orb of Alchemy or a few Regal Orbs to increase its stats and Modifiers. The key thing to note here is that Magic (blue) gear can have up to two affixes, while Rare (gold) can have up to six.
There's theoretically more gambling involved in using up Orb of Alchemy, so right now, it can be considered an alternative to using the Gambler vendors (e.g., Finn in Act 1).
As you salvage items with Sockets, you’ll start to get Artificer’s Shards as well — 10 of those make one Artificer’s Orb. Instead of slotting skill gems into gear, you slot Runes, which are permanent once they’re added.
There are various types of Runes, granting defensive stats like Elemental Resistance, max Life, or extra percentage-based defenses while on armor. They also provide offensive stats if slotted on martial weapons.
Once you've identified a good base item in the late-game, the Orb of Transmutation > Regal Orb > Exalted Orb route is the more stable route for rolling the exact gear on your build, where you discard the item if an undesired roll is achieved in any of the stages.
That said, due to how expensive this is, we recommend that you wait till you get to the endgame and be completely sure of your base item choice before you try it.
All known crafting materials/orbs
Provided below are all the crafting currencies we’re aware of in Path of Exile 2, at the time of writing. We have also given them a rarity rating based on how commonly we've found them in our playthrough with the alpha review copy and Early Access.
- Orb of Transmutation (Common): Upgrades a Normal Item into a Magic Item with one Modifier.
- Orb of Augmentation (Common): Adds one Modifier to a Magic Item
- Orb of Alchemy (Common): Upgrades a Normal Rarity Item into a Rare Item with 4 Modifiers
- Exalted Orb (Common): Adds a random Modifier to a Rare Item.
- Orb of Chance (Uncommon): Randomly Upgrades a Normal item into a Magic, Rare, or Unique Item
- Chaos Orb (Uncommon): Removes one random Modifier from a Rare item and adds another random Modifier. This is also the long-standing accepted standard of currency in the first game.
- Artificer’s Orb (Uncommon): Adds a socket to an Armor slot or Weapon.
- Regal Orb (Uncommon): Upgrades a Magic Item to a Rare Item with an additional Modifier
- Orb of Annulment (Rare): Removes one random Modifier from a Magic or Rare Item
- Divine Orb (Very Rare): Rerolls the values of the Modifiers of an Item within their modifier tiers
- Vaal Orb (Uncommon/Rare): Corrupts an Item, modifying it Unpredictably (found in Trial of Chaos — other places unknown)
- Jeweller’s Orb (Unknown rarity, likely Rare): Adds an additional socket to the Gem of your choosing
In addition, there are also crafting materials to improve the Quality of your gear. These range from common to uncommon, depending on how lucky you are when it comes to RNG.
Using these on armor slots will increase their defensive capabilities, and weapons will hit harder. You can also get these items from the Salvaging Station, making finding the Smith’s Tools in Act 1 incredibly important.
- Armourer’s Scrap: Improves Quality of Armor (Salvage Boots, Gloves, Body Armor, and Helmets with Quality)
- Arcanist’s Etcher: Improves Quality of Wands, Staves, and Sceptres (Salvage Wands, Staves, and Sceptres with Quality)
- Blacksmith’s Whetstone: Improves all Martial Weapons (Salvage Martial Weapons with Quality)
Finally, another returning set of crafting materials from the first Path of Exile title is Essences. They can turn your gear into a Rare one with one guaranteed affix determined by the type of Essence, making them a more stable way of getting a good roll.
Check out our other Path of Exile 2 guides and features
- Path of Exile 2 review
- Path of Exile 2 Spirit resource guide
- Path of Exile 2 Class tier list (Early Access)