Strongboxes Guide - Path of Exile 2

In Path of Exile 2 you'll encounter special types of chests called Strongboxes. Strongboxes are able to be Normal, Magic, Rare and Unique Rarity and can even be affected by different Currency items to change their Rarity or Modifiers.

On top of that, you'll also encounter Strongboxes of different types that contain items of a specific type, such as Currency, Waystones, or Jewellery.

This guide will cover the various Strongbox types, the associated Atlas Passive Points and suggestions on how to interact with them to get the most out of them.

Strongbox Types

There are several different types of Strongboxes in PoE 2 that contain different item types.

Strongboxes can be opened by clicking on them, which will cause a wave of monsters to spawn. After the Strongbox monsters have been defeated, the items from the Strongbox will drop

*Confirmation is needed to see if Belts have a higher chance from dropping from Jeweller's Strongboxes. Belts are considered "Jewellery" items

Different Strongbox types have a higher or lower chance of being spawned, with some being more valuable than others. For example, the Researcher's Strongbox is especially sought after as it can drop high-value Currency items such as Divine Orbs, or large numbers of Exalted Orbs. You can improve your odds of finding specific Strongbox types which will be discussed later in this guide.

Strongbox Modifiers and Rolling Strongboxes

Strongboxes can be affected by Currency items to change their Rarity and modifiers, improving the challenge and rewards. Using a Currency item on a Strongbox is as simple as using it on any other item - right click it from your inventory, and click it on the Strongbox to apply it. In Patch 0.2.0h, this will be easier as you will won't need to open your inventory to apply relevant Currency items to Strongboxes. Strongboxes can have up to 3 Prefixes and 3 Suffixes at Rare Rarity, or 1 Prefix and 1 Suffix at Magic Rarity

Let's have a look at the types of modifiers they can have

Like other items in Path of Exile 2, the Rarity of Strongboxes affects how many modifiers they can have

• Rare (Yellow): 3 Prefixes, 3 Suffixes
• Magic (Blue): 1 Prefix, 1 Suffix

As you can see above, most Suffixes are beneficial, whereas most Prefixes are negatives (the opposite of Waystone Modifiers), meaning that there's very little use to continue adding modifiers to a Strongbox with items such as Exalted Orbs if the Strongbox already has 3 Prefixes.

A regular Strongbox that has been affected by an Orb of Transmutation and then an Orb of Augmentation

What to Look Out For

• Researcher's Strongboxes with More Rarity and Increased Quantity can drop a high amount of Currency, and occasionally very Rare Currency with high value such as Divine Orbs. For this reason, it is very much worth using an Orb of Alchemy and possibly even Exalted Orbs to Craft a Researcher's Strongbox
• Ornate Strongbox with More Rarity and Quantity can also be good, especially in Solo Self Found game modes to find better Rare items or even Uniques
• Contains an Additional Unique Item - this modifier isn't too uncommon and doesn't often drop a high-value Unique item, but it is possible to hit the jackpot. This is also a useful modifier in SSF.
• Cartographer's Strongboxes with Increased Item Quantity can spit out a massive number of Waystones, helping you to sustain your Waystones more easily or possibly even find some useful Precursor Tablets

Strongboxes can also be affected by Vaal Orbs, which will cause all contained items to drop Corrupted

As with other items in Path of Exile 2, you can even find Unique Strongboxes on Rare occasions.

Ixchel's Torment

Ixchel's Torment guarantees a Unique, Corrupted item with a guaranteed Enchantment. This Strongbox rarely has good results, but is always worth clicking on just in case you get lucky.

Note: This particular Strongbox has a weird interaction where you need to click it and allow an animation to play out for it to trigger. If you spam click it, it will constantly restart the animation and never open.

Ogham's Legacy

Ogham's Legacy will spawn a single Rare monster, and each time you defeat it, it will drop items and respawn with an additional modifier. This will increase the difficulty of the monster, but also (at least in theory), improve the items it drops. This is a fun one with a very wide variety of outcomes, but be warned: the monster can gain an absurd number of modifiers, making it extremely dangerous!

The Rain Festival Beetle

Upon clicking The Rain Festival Beetle Unique Strongbox, it will stand and start running away, spitting out lightning as it flees from you. Slaying the Beetle will cause it to drop 4 Jewels with a higher chance of being Rare. This is a fun Strongbox, but with little value beyond the early Endgame, especially for players in Trade league.

Ventor's Contraption

Ventor's Contraption Strongbox is one of the most well-designed, fun mechanics in all of Path of Exile 2. This Unique Strongbox can be opened up to 5 times, but has an associated Gold cost. This Gold cost starts out low (around 2000 Gold), but is scaled up by up to 1050% with each opening, eventually resulting in the fifth open costing potentially over 2 million Gold.

The items that can drop from Ventor's Contraption range from a lowly stack of 10 Orbs of Augmentation, up to Perfect Jeweller's Orbs and Ventor's Gamble Rings. This Unique Strongbox seemingly has high odds of getting high-value items so it is always exciting worth stumbling across and clicking.

The big question: Should I spend 2 million Gold to open it a fifth time, and are the items that drop from the fifth open better? Currently there is no substantiated evidence to indicate that the fifth open of this Strongbox has notably higher odds of dropping valuable items, so it isn't recommended that you spend this much Gold to open it just one more time. However, if you're swimming in Gold and want to roll the dice, go for it.

Image Source Ventor's Contraption Strongbox: Reddit, User Opening-Service-834

You can improve your chance of encountering Strongboxes in Waystones with the Atlas Passive Tree. The Tree also allows you to increase your chances of encountering specific Strongbox types, as well as Strongboxes with higher Rarity and even Unique Strongboxes.

The above image shows all of the Atlas Passive Points associated with Strongboxes. There are also some small Passive Points that grant a hybrid modifier that increases the chance to find both Shrines and Strongboxes in your Waystones, up to a total of 340% increased chance. Do note that this is an increased chance, that improves the base chance to find a Strongbox in your Maps. For example, if you ordinarily would have a 20% chance to find a Strongbox in a Map, selecting all Passives that increase it up to 300% would give you an 80% chance to find a Strongbox in your Map.

Which Strongbox Atlas Passive Points should you take is up to you, but it makes sense to invest in at least the bottom side of the Tree taking Likely Ambush, High-Value Thefts, and Strongbox Type Selector to improve your chance of finding a Strongbox of a specific type. It is recommended you select Researcher's Plunder as this gives you an increased chance to gain high-value Currency items.

If you'd like to learn more about Path of Exile 2 and some of its Atlas mechanics, check out some of these guides below:

• Essences Explained
• Fracturing Orbs and How to Get Them

Or maybe you'd like to learn more about the basics of the game

• Path of Exile 2 Crafting for Beginners
• PoE 2 Trade Site Guide