Every item in Path of Exile has an item level. This is not to be confused with the level requirement on a piece of equipment, or the level of a normal item, which are both separate statistics.
Finding an item's item level
There are two ways to find the item level of an item:
- Lift the item onto the cursor, and type the /itemlevel command into the chat box, while the item is held on the cursor. The item level will be reported in chat.
- With the trade screen open, hold down the ALT key while hovering over an item in the trade panel. The item level will be shown near the mouse cursor.
All skill gems have an item level of 1. For all other non quest items, the item level is determined by:
- For items dropped by monsters, the level of the monster that dropped it. Normal monsters have a level equal to the monster level of the area. The level of magic monsters is monster level +1, and the level of rare and unique monsters is monster level +2.
- For items dropped by chests, the monster level of the area that the chest is in
- For quest rewards and items purchased from vendors, these items have predetermined item levels depending on vendor or quest. For example items bought from vendors in merciless difficulty will have a higher item level than those bought in normal difficulty.
- For items created using a vendor recipe, the item level of the resulting item varies depending on the recipe. For example, there is a recipe that returns one new random magic item in exchange for five magic items of the same base item type. For this recipe, the created item has an item level equal to the lowest item level of the five magic items consumed by the recipe.
What item level affects
Item level restricts which random properties an item can receive.
- Affixes
- Magic and rare items can only receive affixes whose level is less than or equal to the item's item level. This is true for all items that can receive affixes, such as weapons, armour, flasks, maps, etc.
- Sockets
- The number of sockets that can appear on an item is determined by its item level. Items with a higher item level can receive more sockets. For instance with an item level of 1, an item can have no more than two sockets. Item level has no effect on the number of socket links that an item receives.
(NB: the max number of sockets an item can have are 4 for headgear/gloves/shoes, 3 for one handed weapons such as swords/maces/shields/knives/wands and 6 for chest armour and bows, having a very high item level doesn't mean higher number of sockets are possible)