A Casuals Guide to Farming (Farming Strategies)

The Early Atlas Progression is divided into 3 Sections:

Map Tier Progression, Exploring & League Mechanics

Map Tier Progression

Your primary Goal is to progress into T15 Waystones, there are 2 Ways to get to the next Map Tier.

1. Complete a Map with a Powerful Map Boss
2. 1. While Every Map contains a Map Boss and they all have a high Chance of dropping a Waystone. Only Powerful Bosses can drop a Waystone of the next Tier.
   2. When exploring your Atlas, always go for these Maps when you feel ready Gear Wise.
2. Reforge 3 Waystones of the same Tier
3. 1. Reforging 3 Waystones of the same Tier returns 1 Waystone of the next Tier. I recommend to do this whenver you have 4 Waystones of your current highest Tier, to keep 1 of that Tier as a Reserve.

When you run your Waystones early on I highly recommend running them 2 Mod Blue, this gives you 4 Attempts at the Map and Chance for additional Loot. Once you feel comfortable Mapping and have Alchemy & Regal Orbs consider rolling your Waystones to 4 Mod Rare.

What to do if you lost your highest Waystone

Sometimes a Map Boss does not drop a Waystone or you died and have no Retries left. If this happens go to Doryani and buy Waystones of 1 Tier below your current Highest Completed Waystone. (If you have attempted your first Tier 6 Waystone, but failed your current Highest would have been a Tier 5 so Doryani offers T4 Waystones) You can then recombine 3 of them to get back to your current Tier Waystones.

Accelerate your Atlas Progression

You can also buy 9 Waystones of Doryani to recombine 3 Times into 1 Times to get one Waystone of the next highest Tier, do this only if you have a lot of spare Gold and are done with Respecing and early Gear Buying.

Another Option is to force Powerful Map Bosses with a Overseer Tablet to accelerate your Progression, on the condition that your Build / Character is ready for it. Consider buying one to accelerate your Map Tier Progression.

Atlas Boss Passive Points

To get 2 of your 10 Atlas Boss Passive Points you will have to kill a Tier 15 Map Boss with a 6 Mod Waystone and a Tier 16 Map Boss with a 6 Mod Waystone. To gurantee a Tier 16 Map Boss just use a Precursor Tablet, which increases the Area Level by 1.

Exploring

Your secondary Mission is to explore the Atlas, Progress to the nearest Corruption, specificly the Corrupted Nexus. You need to complete 6 of these at progressivly higher Map Tiers (1,3,6,9,12 and 15) to get most of your Atlas Passive Points. Whenver you completed a Corrupted Nexus look for the Next one at the Edge of the Fog and inside of it. Keep an Eye out for Towers with Red Tendrils around them or Mountains with Red Tendrils inside the Fog.

Corrupted Nexus

Your main source of Atlas Passive Points, you get One per Corruption, completing or failing this turns the Corruption into Crystalisation. The Crystalised Area is good for later farming, but for now just focus on B-Lining from Nexus to Nexus to get 30 of your 40 Atlas Passive Points. Don;t forget to progress your Map Tier, every 3 Map Tiers gets you another Set of 5 Atlas Passive Points.

You need to run the Corrupted Nexus at 4 Mods, the Game allows to run them at any Tier, but make sure you run them at the required Tier or above for your Quest State.

Be carefull though, if you die during your first Attempt at the Boss Fight, the Corrupted Nexus will vanish and the Map turns into a normal Boss Map. So make sure you are prepared for the Fight.

Citadels

While Citadels do not give Atlas Passive Points, they are needed to unlock Boss Atlas Points and get Access to the Arbiter of Ash Fight. Which unlocks the Ability to create Rare Precursor Tablets and granting 2 of the 10 Boss Atlas Tree Passive Points.

Citadels only spawn further away from the Center of the Atlas. While Exploring your Atlas keep an Eye out for Red, Blue and Orange Beams inside the Fog. These are indicators for a Citadel.

Place a Marker or remember their Location to return later to once you have fully unlocked the Main Atlas Tree.

You need to challenge eahc one of them. One at Tier 15 with 6 Modifiers to get +2 Boss Atlas Passive Points and the other 2 at just Tier 15. I highly recommend challeging the Stone Citadel with 6 Modifiers, it is the easiest Boss of the 3 in my opinion. (Act 3 Doryani)

Unique Maps

The atlas contains a couple unique Maps, you need to complete any 5 of them for 10 additional Atlas Passive Points

Different Unique Maps require different tiers, they required Tier is written in grey at the Bottom of the Description if you hover the Map. Outside of Tainted Paradise I recommend running them White if you can, or Blue at most for a easy Completion.

Deadly Bosses

During your Exploration you encounter Maps that are not accessable. There are currently 4 of them. If you look closely you notice that some Maps surrounding them have a Special Animation.

Either something is drawn out of the Maps into the inaccesable Map or one Map has a Blue Circle around it. Completing the Maps unlocks the Deadly Boss Map.

A Deadly Boss gurantees a Lineage Gem Drop when killed, they all have 3 Lineage Gem of different Rarity they can drop. The PoE 2 Wiki has detailed Information on which one drops what.

I recommend the Mansion in the Mist to challenge for the 6 Mod Tier 15 Waystone to get another +2 Boss Atlas Passive Points. The Boss is an enhanced Version of Avinia and Draven, way easier than the other 3 and the Entrance to the boss Room is usualy right at the Entrance, so no Risk dieing while progression to the Boss.

League Mechanics

Right now there are 5 League Mechanics with their own Specialised Atlas Tree. To unlock the first 2 Points for each Tree simply complete the Mechanic once.

The Tree above recommend the first Node to get for each Tree, those help getting Access to furhter Points. I will not go into Details on the League Mechanics here, but will do in their specialised Variants.

Passive Tree Node Priority

Main Atlas Tree

The Priority on the Atlas Passive Tree Nodes are based on how much they add to our Waystone Sustain and easy access to additional Loot.

I also highly Recommend starting to use Abyss Tablets the moment you find them. Abyss is the Strongest Mechanic both Early and Late, giving a mix of Reward Boxes and guranteed Rares.

The highest Priority has Waystone Drop Chance, once we get more Waystones we do not run the risk of dropping a Tier and get the chance to recombine 3 Waystones to advance a Tier.

After we can get Number of Rare Enemies, our Main Source of Loot in PoE 2 and Strongboxes with a focus on Research Boxes for additional Currency Loot.

Finaly we want Tablet Effect and Map Effect to transition into our Lategame Farms.

Each Step is exactly 5 Points to allocate.

1. Treasure Coves and 4x Waystone Quantity Nodes
2. Precursor Influence, Constant Crossroads and 1 Waystone Quantity Node
3. Rising Danger & Twin Threats
4. Likely Ambush and 1 Strongbox Chance Node
5. High-Value Thefts, Strongbox Type Selector(Research's Plunder) and 1 Strongbox Chance Node
6. Hidden Horrors, Faith in Luck & Fortunate Path

As the Unique Maps arent timed within the rest of the Progression I recommend using the next 2 Points in the Main Progression then once all 30 Nodes are allocated, take the Nodes Below:

• Remnants of Power
• Enigmatic Intensification
• 2x Tablet Effect Node
• 2x Waystone Modifier Effect & Grueling Journey (unallocate 1 small Waystone Quantity Node)
• 2Pack Size Nodes & Unstable Energies (unallocate 1 small Waystone Quantity Node)

Map Boss Atlas Tree

We get a Map Boss every Map, so our focus on the Map Boss Atlas Tree is first on the generic Boss Nodes, and then the last 2 Notables are on Powerfull Map Boss Nodes.

1. Spoils of War
2. Radiant Waystones
3. Fit for a King
4. Old Pirate's Trick
5. Organised Forces

You can replace Fit for a King with Beyond Reality if you are targeting Powerful Map Boss Maps with Tablets.