PoE 2: Culling Strike Explained

Culling Strike, also known as Cull, is an on-Hit effect in Path of Exile 2.

What is Culling Strike?

Culling Strike is an on-Hit effect that causes the Hit to immediately kill a target if they are at or below a specific Life Threshold.

Note: Culling Strike does not interact with Damage over time in any way.

Importantly, Culling Strike does not count as Damage dealt to a target and will not contribute to Overkill Damage.

Note: Culling Strike fully bypasses Energy Shield and only accounts for maximum Life Threshold.

The default required Life Threshold to Cull is based on the rarity of the Monster.

• Normal Monsters are Culled at 30% of maximum Life or lower
• Magic Monsters are Culled at 20% of maximum Life or lower
• Rare Monsters are Culled at 10% of maximum Life or lower
• Unique Monsters are Culled at 5% of maximum Life or lower

Note: some Unique Boss Monsters have special death animations or scripted content that prevents them from being Culled, such as Jamanra, the Abomination.

A Hit with Culling Strike is calculated prior to the Damage of that Hit impacting the target, and therefore the Damage dealt does not factor in to the Threshold calculation. This means that a Hit with Culling Strike must Hit a target that's already at or below the Threshold to Cull them. However, this also means that a Hit with Culling Strike is not required to deal any Damage to a target in order to Cull them.

Note: as Culling Strike is an on-Hit effect, the Hit can be Evaded, Dodged or otherwise avoided, resulting in Culling Strike having no effect. However, a Blocked Hit is still considered to be a Hit.

Effective Damage Multiplier of Culling Strike

As Culling Strike allows you to bypass a percentage of a target's maximum Life, you can calculate the effective Damage boost gained from utilising this mechanic.

• Normal Monsters Culled at 30% of maximum Life provides an effective 42.8% more Damage
• Magic Monsters Culled at 20% of maximum Life provides an effective 25% more Damage
• Rare Monsters Culled at 10% of maximum Life provides an effective 11.1% more Damage
• Unique Monsters Culled at 5% of maximum Life provides an effective 5.2% more Damage

The effective Damage multiplier only takes into account the Damage you've already dealt to a target's Life pool. For example to Cull a Magic Monster, you need to deal Damage equal to 80% of their maximum Life for them to be at the required Cull Threshold. You would normally need to deal an additional 20% of their maximum Life as Damage to kill them, which is equal to 25% of the Damage you've already dealt, and therefore Culling Strike provides an effective 25% more Damage.

Enabling Culling Strike

Culling Strike cannot be caused by default and instead requires a modifier on a Skill, Support Gem or otherwise to enable this mechanic. For example you can support Attack Skills with the Culling Strike Support Gem, which allows the supported Attack to cause Cull, but only against Rare or Unique Monsters.

Some Skill also have Culling Strike built into their mechanics, such as Lightning Warp which additionally also provides the benefit of highlighting nearby Monsters that are at or below the Culling Strike Threshold.

Improving the Culling Strike Threshold

You can invest into rare modifiers which allow you to scale the default Culling Strike Thresholds.

A good example is the Myris Uxor Unique Helmet which provides the modifier '100% increased Culling Strike Threshold'. This modifier alone will effectively double the default Culling Strike Thresholds. For example Unique Monsters will now be Culled at 10% of their maximum Life, whilst Magic Monsters are Culled at 40%. In turn, this drastically improves the effective Damage boost provided by Culling Strike.

Witchhunter

The Witchhunter Mercenary Ascendancy Class has access to the Pitiless Killer Notable, which enables Culling Strike on all of your Hits.

Doomgate

The Doomgate Unique Shield has the rare property of applying Culling Strike in a non-Hit capacity. Blocking an incoming Hit from a Monster will attempt to Cull them, only succeeding if they're at or below the Culling Strike Threshold.