Basic Campaign Crafting in PoE 2 0.3

In PoE 2 0.3 The Third Edict, Essences received a major rework which massively improved their usefulness. We also received a new Desecration crafting system with the Abyss mechanic which allows players to add additional modifiers to their item to have a choice of three modifier options.

These two systems in tandem allow for players to craft extremely useful items fairly reliably

Make sure you understand the foundations of crafting before reading this guide with our Beginner's Guide to Crafting

Most early crafts will start with a foundation of either finding a Normal Base, applying an Orb of Transmutation and Augmentation and then deciding whether to keep it or not. You may also just find a Magic item on the ground that piques your interest but not know what to do next. Let's look at some options.

Let's say you're in the campaign and find a nice Magic Helmet with Cold Resistance and % increased Armour. What Now? You have a few options, but the new Essence system provides some good options

Lesser, Normal and Greater Essences

The most basic type of Essences you'll find are Lesser, Normal and Greater Essences. These function similarly to Regal Orbs, but guarantee a specific modifier. These can be used during the campaign and endgame to fill in gaps in damage or defense before moving onto future crafting steps.

Some different Essence types, in terms of quality, can be applied to different items. For example, in the below table you can see that while Lesser/Normal/Greater Essences have increasing values of # to Maximum Life, only Lesser and Normal Essence of the Body can be applied to Rings, meaning that they still have some use in the Endgame (Normal ones at the very least)

There are dozens of different Essence types, each granting guaranteed modifiers that can be useful to players.

As you can see, both damage, defence, resource and utility can be improved with various Essences. These all function like Regals and you should have a decent Magic item as a starting point, but these Essences can turn a previously useless item into something more powerful

Desecration Crafting

So what now? I have my cool Helmet with Cold Resistance, Armour and Life, but how do I make it better? You could just use an Exalted Orb and hope for the best, or you could make use of the new Desecration crafting system that comes from the Abyss mechanic. Using one of these new Currency items will add a Desecrated modifier to your item, which you can then reveal at the Well of Souls to gain you a choice of three options. Just a note: if your item has 6 modifiers, these Desecration Bones will first remove a modifier before adding one. If you have fewer than 6 modifiers, they will simply just add a Desecrated modifier

Let's apply a Rib to our Helmet

We can now take our Helmet to the Well of Souls to reveal the Desecrated Modifier. The Well of Souls is found in Act 2 in the Mastodon Badlands.

The Well of Souls offers up a few options - Strength and Intelligence looks pretty good, so let's take that.

What's Next?

Well, at this point in the game, our options are fairly limited, but there is more we can do

• Apply an Artificer's Orb to gain a Socket and use a Rune
• Apply Quality with Armourer's Scraps
• Exalt on two modifiers and hope for the best

Let's do that

Although this Helmet isn't the most incredible thing ever created, we were able to turn it into a fairly simple Magic item into something actually useful with the new crafting systems introduced in The Third Edict.

Make sure to pay attention to a few things to improve your gear early on

• Which Essences do I have that I can use to fill in gaps in my damage and defense?
• Which Runes could help my damage, defense or maybe even Attributes?
• Could this item improve with a Desecrated modifier?

Crafting in Path of Exile 2 is complex and will take time to understand, but starting out small with basic, fundamental systems and working your way up will act as stepping stones for tackling more complex crafts that use intricate systems like Omens, Perfect Essences and advanced Currency types. If you'd like to see an example of this, check out my guide on Crafting a Grenade Crossbow!