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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.
With Path of Exile 2 0.5 Return of the Ancients, many endgame systems are being overhauled with new mechanics, new Atlas Trees and new bosses and as a result, many parts of the information in this guide may be out of date.
Major changes in particular are coming to Breach. You will now be able to craft special Jewellery items and Currency with a brand new system: The Genesis Tree. Players will be able to collect Graftblood and use Wombgifts alongside their Genesis Tree in order to customise the outcomes of the Tree. Brand new bases can be found, brand new Caster and Minion Jewellery modifiers can be crafted, and players should have much more control over the outcomes of their endgame gear with this system.
New and old Catalysts will now also be created using the Breach Genesis Tree and items with Catalyst Quality can be Salvaged to return a portion of the Catalysts applied to that Jewellery item.
Players will also be able to encounter new bosses who provide new challenges to experienced players, and special Unique Rewards that can entirely transform the way the game is played
The information in this guide will be updated as soon as possible after the launch of 0.5 to be made accurate
While in the Atlas, players will notice small, purple Hand icons on some Waystones. These icons indicate that that Map contains a 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.
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.
The Genesis Tree can be found at the Monastery of the Keepers in Path of Exile 2's endgame Atlas. 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
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
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
Icon | Catalyst Type | Adds Quality that Improves |
|---|---|---|
| Adaptive | Attribute Modifiers |
| Carapace | Defence Modifiers |
| Chayula's | Chaos Modifiers |
| Esh's | Lightning Modifiers |
| Flesh | Life Modifiers |
| Neural | Mana Modifiers |
| Reaver | Attack Modifiers |
| Sibilant | Caster Modifiers |
| Skittering | Speed Modifiers |
| Tul's | Cold Modifiers |
| Uul-Netol's | Physical Modifiers |
| Xoph's | Fire Modifiers |
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%!
There are also a series of Jewel Catalysts that improve the effectiveness of their modifiers
Players can further improve the loot they receive from their Breaches by making use of Breach Precursor Tablets. There is also a Unique Breach Tablet that can change the way Breach functions entirely. Breach Tablets will add up to 12 to 18 Breaches to Surrounding Maps and can be made Magic and have up to 1 Prefix and 1 Suffix. For more information on Towers and Tablets, read our guide here: PoE 2: Towers and Tablets
Breach Tablets share the same Prefixes as other Tablets and provide generic increases to loot found within maps affected by them. They include:
Suffixes on Breach Tablets will affect the difficulty and rewards of Breaches specifically
A Breach Precursor Tablet can have a combination of one Prefix and one Suffix, and up to three Breach Tablets can be placed on an individual Tower, allowing players to thoroughly juice their Breaches
There is also one Unique Breach Tablet known as Wraeclast Besieged. This Tablet reduces the number of monsters found in your Breaches, but changes their function so that they will not closed until you have slain all the monsters in that Breach
Courtesy to poe2wiki.net for the list of Breach Tablet affixes and image of Wraeclast Besieged
If you'd like to learn more about Breach or Path of Exile 2's endgame systems, check out some of our guides below!
Or maybe you'd like to learn more about another endgame mechanics
