How to summon more minions in Path of Exile 2
Minion builds are fun and popular in Path of Exile 2. There are few things more enjoyable than sitting back and relaxing, while your horde of mindless killers do all the work for you. Not everyone enjoys this build, but it’s one of my personal favorites. Often seen as an “easy” or “mindless” way to play PoE 2, it can be a little confusing to people new to the sequel ARPG. That’s because minions and how they work have changed a little bit.
Most of the minion skills are in the Witch skill tree, but that doesn’t mean only those characters can use them. With the right gear, stats, and patience, other classes can have fun summoning minions to aid them in Path of Exile 2.
How do minion summons work in Path of Exile 2
Minion summons in Path of Exile 2 require you to have the Spirit stat, for the most part. If you have a weapon — typically a Sceptre or Wand — that has a Summon Skill on it, that doesn’t check, or save up Spirit. That’s the only time we’ve seen where you do not need Spirit to have summoned minions in play.
All characters start with 0 Spirit, but through equipment, or permanent stat-boosting items, you can gain more Spirit. As far as equipment goes, there are a few pieces of armor that have Spirit as a default stat.
Scepters are the primary way to get Spirit. They usually show up with a 100 Spirit base but can have affixes that give +% Spirit, or something similar. We’ve also seen Solar Amulet that has Spirit as an implicit stat (base stat), not an Affix (extra stat).
If you have equipment that grants a summon skill in Path of Exile 2, just equip it, and the minions will spawn! Otherwise, you need to go into your Skill Tree, select the summon skill, and select Set Minion Count. As long as you have the Spirit, you can make use of them.
You also have some temporary minions that you can summon — these typically come through the process of using a corpse to make a limited-time minion. These don’t take Spirit but are important for your success.
These include Summon Zombie and Unearth. Normal summoned minions, if they die, have a cooldown timer, and then automatically summon themselves back to the field of battle, so you don't have to do anything but wait.
All minion-granting skills in Path of Exile 2
The occult tree of Path of Exile 2 has plenty of options for players who want to summon minions to fight for them. It’s worth noting that all Skeleton summons require a set amount of Spirit, which changes depending on skill level.
There are other “summon” spells too, such as the Offerings, which sacrifice a minion to them. You also have temporary summons, such as Zombie, which hang around for a while to help, then disappear. Then there’s Unearth, which will summon potentially huge groups of minions if the spell crosses over corpses as it is cast.
- Skeletal Sniper: Summons Archers that can create Poison gas.
- Skeletal Warrior: Standard skeleton fighters.
- Unearth: Creates temporary bone construct minions that fight for you, if cast across corpses.
- Skeletal Arsonist: Summons bomb-throwing skeletons, that can detonate other minions on command.
- Raging Spirits (buff): When casting a fire spell, Raging Spirits, which are short-lived flaming skulls that rapidly attack enemies.
- Raise Zombie: Requires a Power Charge or Corpse to temporarily summon a temporary zombie. There is a cap on how many can be out at once.
- Skeletal Frost Mage: Summons Skeletal Frost Mages that can create Icy Explosions on command.
- Pain Offering: Counts as a minion. Impales a Skeleton on a spike to empower nearby minions to use skills more quickly and deal more damage.
- Skeletal Reaver: Summons aggressive skeletal warriors that can enrage on command.
- Skeletal Storm Mage: Summons skeletal storm mages that can conjure a lightning storm on command.
- Bone Offering: Counts as a minion. Impales a skeleton on a bone spike to shield all other nearby minions. The shield explodes after taking too much damage.
- Skeletal Brute: Ultimate hard-hitting skeletal warriors that can Stun Primed enemies.
- Skeletal Cleric: Ultimate magical skeleton can heal other minions and revive fallen skeletons.
How to increase summon numbers in Path of Exile 2
There are several easy ways to increase your summon numbers in Path of Exile 2. The first is to simply increase your skill levels with the summons of your choice. That means you need higher level Uncut Skill Gems.
You’ll get plenty of these as time goes on, so don’t worry too much about those. Leveling up your summon skills lowers the overall Spirit you need, which means more can be out at once.
You’ll also want to increase your total spirit. This means killing specific bosses that can increase your Spirit, as well as having +Spirit gear. You can wield a scepter, or you can hunt for gear that has +%/flat +Spirit on it as well. The more Spirit you have, the more summons you can have out at once.
Check out our other Path of Exile 2 guides and features
- Path of Exile 2: All Buff Gems (and Metagems)
- How to upgrade Skill Gems in Path of Exile 2
- Path of Exile 2’s new SKill Gem system, explained