Crafting



Crafting refers to creating or improving items by adding and removing modifiers. There are a variety of methods to do this, including randomly with certain orbs and other currency, and sometimes with the help of fixed vendor recipes, the Crafting Bench, or masters.

Path of Exile's in-game currency is required for both crafting and trading items. Since most crafting techniques are costly and unpredictable, only the most succesful crafting attempts are cost-efficient. As a result it is often preferable to buy a desired item from another player instead of crafting it yourself. As a rule of thumb, advanced crafting for equipment and weapons should also be avoided until the player has access to high level items (with an item level of 80 or more) to make sure the highest tier of modifiers is available.

Despite its unpredictability and high initial capital requirement, successful crafts can be very lucrative for the player(s) involved. There might be a buyer willing to pay more than the initial investment and allow you to make a profit. Owners of the crafted item can also set up a mirror service, through which other players use their Mirrors of Kalandra to make a copy of the crafted item. The owner of the crafted item is paid a fixed mirror fee everytime a player mirrors his item. This repeated income can be used to earn back the crafting investment.

Under some circumstances, an item with the desired combination of mods may simply not yet exist. In that case crafting it is the only way of obtaining it.

Crafting techniques
There are a number of crafting techniques that you can choose from. They differ in terms of the amount of orbs required, as well as the rarity of the base item and the item you're going to craft.

Basic crafting techniques
You have a few options to directly upgrade a Rarity (normal) item to either a Rarity or Rarity item. They don't require very expensive currency, but don't have much customization possible either. One orb will usually do the job.

There are three ways to do this (taken from Invalesco's Crafting Guide )


 * Use an on a  item (Normal/Common) to upgrade it to a  item.
 * Use a on a  item to get either a,  or  version of the item. The rarity is chosen completely randomly (although higher rarities are less likely).
 * Use an . This makes your item.

These basic methods are inexpensive but their outcome is arbitrary.

Advanced crafting techniques
Instead of changing all the modifiers on an item at once, you can also add each one separately. This is a more reliable way of crafting and you can make sure that you add only desirable mods. This is however quite pricey and therefore you are recommended to only use these techniques to craft high-level gear. These methods are taken from Invalesco's crafting guide.


 * crafting: after you have alched an item, you use chaos orbs until you get the desired mods. You can also use +  to get the same effect. This method is not recommended for getting specific modifiers.


 * The Systematic Alt/Rega l/Exalt Method: an effective method to get the mods you want. It consists of a series of steps you follow.


 * 1) Start with a  item (preferably with a high item level)
 * 2) Use an
 * 3) Keep spamming  until you get the two mods you want.
 * 4) Use . If you roll an unwanted mod,  the item and start over at step one.
 * 5) (Use  to make an imprint of the item. Although it isn't essential to use an eternal at this step, it is the safest way to craft. If your exalts turn out bad, you have something to fall back on.)
 * 6) Use three . (If you roll an unwanted mod, restore the item with the Eternal Orb.)
 * 7) If necessary, use a  or  to alter the mod values.
 * 8) (Corruption, see below.)

Master crafting
Using the Crafting Bench located in your hideout, it is possible to craft a specific modifier. Crafting recipes can be found in certain areas and maps, as well as via master content. By default, every item is limited to one of these mods, but there are ways to bypass that limit.

Master crafting common stats like life or resistances is relatively inexpensive and is not exclusively done in the endgame. Even on lower-level characters, adding stats for some more survivability is worthwile and can help the player greatly.

The existence of a crafted master mod on an item prevents a mod of the same type from being added via an. This means that master mods can be added to an item temporarily to block that type, effectively removing it from the pool of possible mods. This is a very useful technique to increase the odds of getting a desired mod.

Meta-crafting modifiers
The more advanced master crafting techniques mainly revolve around the interaction between meta-crafting mods and. Although the orb's description says it Removes all properties from an item, modifiers protected by meta-crafting mods will remain untouched. This way, players can lock in modifiers without losing all the other modifiers. Meta-crafting recipes can be found in the last chain of each Pale Council prophecy.

Using the meta-crafting mod to combine multiple other meta-crafting mods allows for even more control of the item. This way the player can often limit the pool of possible mods so that outcome of the craft is almost guaranteed.

This table shows the available meta-crafting modifiers:

Keep in mind that this technique of crafting requires multiple.

Suffix or Prefix Wipe
After having rolled some desired affixes, one can utilize the meta-crafting mod to protect them while altering the item. In the example on the right, we're trying to improve a five affix amulet. We're pleased with the following modifiers:


 * of Penetrating (critical strike chance)
 * of Exile (chaos resistance)
 * of Destruction (critical strike multiplier)

These are all suffixes. We don't care for the other modifiers. In this case, since there's still one affix slot available, we can craft the to protect these mods and reroll the prefixes. We then scour the amulet, so only the suffixes remain. Note that this meta-crafing mod is also a prefix, so it will be wiped in the process.

The player can then attempt to exalt prefixes again and repeat the process if the results aren't satisfactory. Be warned that this technique is only worthwile when trying to isolate two or three affixes. In the case of only one wanted affix, spamming on a  item to get the affix is generally a cheaper option. Keep in mind that these meta-crafting mods cost two each time they are are crafted.

Single Mod Magic Item
For some crafting techniques the player might need a item with one specific affix, but with the other affix slot still available. This can be done by crafting a master mod onto the item. This will turn the item into with the master crafted mod. It can be any mod, as long as it is not the same affix type as the wanted mod (e.g. if the wanted mod is a prefix, master craft a suffix). Then use a. This may take many times, since the item needs to be scoured whenever an incorrect mod spawns. When the wanted mod spawns, remove the master crafted mod.

This item can be used as a base for further crafting using meta-crafting mods.

+3 to Level Weapon Crafting
Using the masters' meta-crafting mods players can relatively cheaply create bows and staves with or. In this example we'll craft a bow:


 * 1) Start with the preferred base bow with an item level of at least 64.
 * 2) Use  and  until the Sharpshooter's prefix (+2 to level) and a random suffix is rolled.
 * 3) Use a  hoping for a second suffix. If not, scour the bow and start over.
 * 4) Craft  for the cost of one.
 * 5) Use an  for a guaranteed Paragon's prefix (+1 to level).
 * 6) Remove the meta-crafting mod.
 * 7) The item can be finished to the player's liking.

A slightly different technique is used when crafting a staff with. In this example we craft a staff with.
 * 1) Choose the preferred base staff with an item level of at least 55.
 * 2) Craft it into a single mod  item with the Lava Caller's prefix  using the technique explained above.
 * 3) Craft, ) and  meta-crafting mods.
 * 4) Master craft.
 * 5) Craft the guaranteed Paragon's prefix  by using an.
 * 6) Remove all master crafted mods.
 * 7) Exalt or master craft the remaining affixes.

Cheap Off-Color Crafting
Using this method, you will be able to more easily craft your desired off-colors

In this example we want an Armour Helmet (Strength) with three blue sockets and one red socket.
 * 1) Start by putting the item in the Crafting Bench.
 * 2) Craft and then craft . This will result in an item with only two blue sockets.
 * 3) Craft (this will add an additional socket of a random color) and check the color, if the third socket has an undesired color, craft  (this will remove the socket we have added previously) and then craft  again. Repeat this step until you get an item with only three blue sockets.
 * 4) For the final step, you will do the same as the previous step but now with and . Craft  and check the color, if your item has three blue sockets and one red socket then you are done; if not, craft  and then craft  again. Repeat this until you have an item with three blue sockets and one red socket.

This method is normally a more reliable and cheaper process than using or using the  craft since you can obtain an undesired fourth socket.

Corruption
Using a it is possible to improve an item even more, but with the risk of losing important stats or links/sockets. After being corrupted, the item can't be modified anymore.

Vendor recipes
Some vendor recipes allow for a more controlled way of crafting items, like always adding a certain modifier to a normal item.

For a list of vendor recipes pertaining to Crafting, see Vendor Recipes.