Breach Guide - Path of Exile 2

Breach is an endgame mechanic in Path of Exile 2 which causes a temporary expanding ring to spawn hundreds of monsters that players must slay to acquire special loot drops, such as Breach Rings and Catalysts. There is also an associated endgame encounter called The Twisted Domain which can be accessed by spending Breach Splinters at the Realmgate

This guide will cover the basics of the Breach mechanic in PoE 2 and the rewards players can find by completing Breaches.

Breach on the Atlas

While in the Atlas, players will notice small, purple Hand icons on some Waystones. These icons indicate that that Map contains a Breach Encounter

Breach Encounters

There are currently two types of Breach Encounters: Unstable Breaches and Breach Hives

Unstable Breaches

Unstable Breaches are the classic type of Breaches in which a small tear in the fabric of reality opens in a circle for a short type. By killing Breach monsters, the timer will be extended. By defeating enough monsters, the Breach will Stabilise, spawning several Rare monsters at the centre and after defeating these Rares, the Breach will collapse

Starting an Unstable Breach Encounter

While in one of these Waystones, players will encounter a large Breach Hands, which can be run over to begin a Breach Encounter. This will cause an expanding ring to open for a duration, and cause Breach monsters to pour out and assault the player

Breach Hand in a Map, with the Breach Minimap icon on the bottom left

The Breach Hand has been interacted with and the expanding circle has begun to open

The Breach will continue to expand from this central point, and players can slay monsters within it to extend the duration. However, the Breach duration can not be extended indefinitely and will eventually begin to close. While the Breach is closing, players have a short amount of time to defeat any last few monsters, or touch any Clasped Hands to claim more rewards.

As well as special monsters exclusive to Breach, players will also encounter Clasped Hands. Running over or clicking these Clasped Hands will contribute to the number of Breach Splinters dropped at the end of the encounter.

Don't worry, and items that drop while in the Breach can be collected after the encounter finishes, so you don't have to worry about picking everything up while the Breach is still open.

Because of the nature of Breach encounters being an expanding ring, it's generally preferred to run Breaches on Maps with open layouts such as Savannah as monsters will not be able to spawn if the ring crosses a wall. Maps such as Forge or Crypt aren't as ideal for Breaches because of their narrow layout, but are still always worth running to get whatever rewards you can out of them.

Breach Hives

A Breach Hive encounter is a tear in reality that has already grown out of control and features several walls that need to be run through to destroy before you return to the centre of the encounter to assist Ailith in closing the Breach. Instead of expanding outward, monsters will run toward the centre of the Breach, and Ailith will be able to assist you with special abilities. Players will need to defeat the waves of monsters while defending Ailith and completing the encounter will result in a pile of reawrds.

Breach Rewards

Breach Splinters

At the end of the Breach Encounter, a pile of Breach Splinters will drop at the player's feet. The number of Splinters a player receives depends on the Waystone Tier, how many Breach monsters were slain, how many Clasped Hands were open as well as the Map Modifiers that increased Item Quantity.

A specific number of Beach Splinters will allows players to access the Twisted Domain, the Pinnacle encounter of Breach, and fight Xesht, We That Are One for some special rewards.

Wombgifts

Another item that drops at the end of Breach encounters is Wombgifts, which can be used to craft items at the Genesis Tree, which is discussed next

Endgame Breach Questline

By heading to the Monastery of the Keepers players can begin the Breach Questline. Nearby Maps will be consumed by a Breach Stronghold, and by completing Maps in this area, players can unlock additional Points on their Breach Atlas Tree

Additionally, 6 Points can be acquired by deafeating Breach Pinnacle Bosses.

Make sure to turn on Quest-Tracking in Options -> UI in case you're ever unsure what to do next, but this one is fairly straight-forward!

The Genesis Tree

The Genesis Tree can be found at the Monastery of the Keepers in Path of Exile 2's endgame Atlas, which is currently situated to the South of the Ziggurat Refuge

The Genesis Tree can be used to craft several items, such as Catalysts, Breach Rings, Rings and Amulets with special Caster Modifiers as well as Belts with Minion Modifiers.

Genesis Tree Sub-Trees

The Genesis Tree is broken up into four smaller Trees, and Points can be unlocked by performing crafts on each section, and up to 15 Points can be allocated to each sub-Tree

In order to perform a craft at the Genesis Tree, players will need to provide a valid Wombgift

Rings (Signet Wombgift)

Breach Rings

Breach Rings are a special Ring Base that can have up to 40% Quality instead of the regular amount of 20% that Rings and other pieces of gear can usually acquire. Up to this point, you may not know how to apply Quality to Rings as the only Currency items you've used are Armourer's Scraps, Blacksmith's Whetstones and Arcanist's Etchers. This is where Catalysts come in

In order to craft Breach Rings, players will need to allocate the Otherworldly Clutch passive

Caster Rings

Passive Points on the Ring section of the Breach Tree allow for some exclusive Caster modifiers on Rings, such as #% increased Spell Damage, #% Critical Hit Chance and Bonus for Spells, and rarely players can even find the rare "of Jordan" modifier that grants +1 to Level of All Spell Skills

Catalysts (Lavish Wombgift)

Catalysts are a special Currency item, exclusive to Breach that allow players to improve the Quality of any Amulet or Ring (all rings, not just Breach Rings). Each Catalyst will improve the Quality of a specific item modifier, allowing players to fine tune their Jewellery and Jewels

You can see which Tags a modifier has by hovering over an item and pressing Alt and reading the grey text next to that modifier. For example, if you see the word "Fire" next to a modifier when pressing Alt, a Xoph's Catalyst would improve the quality of that Catalyst

Using a different Catalyst on a Ring or Amulet will replace any existing Quality types, so players aren't able to apply multiple types of Catalyst to an individual item.

For example: if a Ring had +100 to Maximum Life and you applied 20% Life Quality with a Catalyst of Flesh, that Ring would instead grant +120 to Maximum Life. If the item had multiple modifiers with the Life Tag, all of those modifiers would be increased by 20%

Hopefully this illustrates the potential power of Breach Rings that can have up to 40% Quality instead of 20%!

Refined Catalysts

There are also a series of Jewel Catalysts that improve the effectiveness of their modifiers and players can craft these by allocating Enhanced Creation on the Lavish Tree

Altered Collarbone

By allocating Curse of the Abyss, players have a chance to birth Altered Collarbones, which function similarly to other Abyss Currency, with the chance to reveal special Caster- and Minion-related modifiers. You can see the full list of these modifiers under "Otherworldly Prefix/Suffix" on PoE2db

Belts (Banded Wombgift)

Minion Belts

By allocating Stench of Carrion, players can roll special Minion-related Modifiers on crafted Belts made with the Genesis Tree

Minion Modifiers on Belts include things such as #% increased Minion Life, Movement Speed, Area of Effect, and very rarely +1-2 to Level of all Minion Skills.

With Altered Collarbones, modifiers such as "Minions' Strikes have Melee Splash" can also roll, making for some extremely strong Belts for players who choose to play Minion builds

Caster Belts

By allocating Imperfect Sacrifice, players can roll Caster-related Belt Modifiers

Caster Belt modifiers include things like #% increased Spell Damage/Cast Speed during Flask Effect, Spell Skills have #% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate and Mana Regeneration Rate and Remnant-related modifiers

Amulets (Ornate Wombgift)

The Amulet Tree allows for crafting of special bases as well as some special modifiers that cannot be found elsewhere.

With Forms Beyond Understanding, Lament Amulet, Portent Amulet and Absent Amulets can be crafted. Each of these Amulets grants a specific Permanent Buff Skill that players will be able to use without having to reserve any Spirit. The downside for these Amulets is that they have -1 Prefix and Suffix Modifier Allowed, meaning they can only have a maximum of four modifiers, even when Rare.

With The Burden of Authority, Corona Amulets can be crafted, which are Amulets with a Socket that can be filled with an Augment that grants bonuses as though it were a Helmet

Other Notables on the Amulet Tree allow for blocking of specific Amulet and Modifier types, as well as guaranteeing specific Modifier types or an empty Prefix or Suffix

With Jewel of the Lords, special Modifiers can be rolled

• "of Xoph" (Suffix): +(4-5)% to Fire Spell Critical hit Chance
• "of Esh" (Suffix): Sealed Skills have +1 to Maximum Seals
• "Tuls" (Prefix): Gain (10-20)% of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage
• Uul-Netol's (Prefix): Inflict Anaemia on Hit. Anaemia allows +(2-3) Corrupted Blood debuffs to be inflicted on enemies

Grasping Orchid

A part of the Genesis Tree is the Grasping Orchid. Clicking this brings up a new and mysterious window. Within this window, players can place 60 Breach Rings to create a Grasping Mail Body Armour which can roll Ring Modifiers and have Catalysts applied to it.

The Grasping Orchid can be unlocked after defeating Vruun, Marshall of Xesht in a Breach in a Map and delivering The Head of Vruun to Ailith at the Monastery of the Keepers

Genesis Tree Quality of Life

There are many things that make using the Genesis Tree easier

• Ctrl-click a Wombgift in your inventory to instantly place it into the appropriate Tree
• At the top of the Genesis Tree window, there is an Open Stash button. From here, you can ctrl-click a Wombgifts in your Stash, then a new cursor will appear that allows you to rapidly open Wombgifts en masse

Breach Strongholds

If you'd like to seek out more endgame Breach content, this can be done by collecting 300 Breach Splinters into a Revelatory Wombgift and bringing it to the Genesis Tree to be birthed into a Breachstone. Once you have a Breachstone (or two with Tear Open the Rift: Major Breach), you can place it on a section of your Atlas that allows for it to reveal a new Breach Stronghold.

This Stronghold will feature a series of Maps, similar to the Quest version, with a Hive Colony at the centre that leads to the fight against It That Was Tul and It That Was Esh. Defeating these bosses will grant players a Breachlord Sac which can then be taken to the Monastery of the Keepers to access the Twisted Domain to fight Xesht.

How to Fight Xesht

With your Breachlord Sac in hand, you might not know where to go. Beside the Genesis Tree is hidden doorway with an invisible wall that you can pass through to find a passageway to The Dreamer

Behind The Dreamer you will find a slot in which you can place the Breachlord Sac, which will open the way to the Twisted Domain, at the end of which players can fight Xesht, We That Are One

Players can further improve the loot they receive from their Breaches by making use of Breach Precursor Tablets, which will add an additional Breach to all Maps that they are used on. These can also be stacked together to add even more Breaches, and can be crafted to add additional modifiers to improve the difficulty and reward of Breach encounters in Maps.

For a full list of Breach Tablet Modifiers, you can click the link here: Breach Tablet Modifiers PoE2DB

Unique Breach Precursor Tablet

There is also one Unique Breach Tablet known as Wraeclast Besieged. This Tablet adds additional effects to both Unstable Breaches and Breach Hives

If you'd like to learn more about Breach or Path of Exile 2's endgame systems, check out some of our guides below!

• Xesht Boss Fight Guide
• PoE 2 Towers and Tablets Guide
• PoE 2 Endgame Atlas Tree Guide

Or maybe you'd like to learn more about another endgame mechanics

• Delirium Guide
• Shrine Guide
• Strongboxes Guide