Endgame Power Leveling and Experience Gain

This guide covers some methods that can be used to solo power level a second character, through the endgame in Path of Exile 2. This requires that the player has pre-prepared gear, Currency and Precursor Tablets, but many of these methods can be employed to quickly level new characters during PoE 2 league starts.

In order to level as quickly as possible, players need to defeat as many monsters as quickly as possible at the correct area level which can be done in a number of ways:

• Increased Experience Gain and Experience Curves
• Pack Size and Monster Density
• Monster Effectiveness
• Preparation

The end of this guide will include a full suggested setup for XP power leveling in the endgame and how to go from Level 60-90 very quickly.

Increased Experience Gain

There are several ways to increase the amount of Experience your character gains in PoE 2, which will rapidly increase the speed at which you level up

Precursor Tablets

Precursor Tablets can roll with 10-20% increased Experience gain in Maps. By running Rare Waystones with 6 modifiers, 3 of these can be used for a total of up to 60% increased Experience gained in every single Map.

To further improve this, there are four points on the Atlas Passive Tree that each grant 8% increased effect of Precursor Tablets for a total of 24% increased effect [img]. Assuming you are using three Tablets with 20% increased Experience Gain, this means that each Waystone can grant up to 74% increased Experience Gain

On top of that, the Remnants of Power grants a 20% chance for double Effect of Precursor Tablets in your Maps, meaning that every fifth map, on average, will grant 149% increased Experience gained.

Make sure that you have defeated the Arbiter of Ash to unlock the ability to add four modifiers to your Tablets

Monster Effectiveness

Effectiveness is a new form of difficulty/rewards scaling in PoE 2 that grants monsters increased Life, but causes them to have increased Quantity of items dropped, but also increases the amount of Experience granted to players. This modifier can be found in a few places

• Precursor Tablets can roll modifiers that grant increased Monster Effectiveness, improving the amount of XP that slain monsters grant
• From Out of the Pit, an Abyss Atlas Passive Tree Point grants 25% increased Effectiveness of Abyssal Monsters in your Maps
• Xesht's Madness from the Breach Atlas Passive Tree grants 50% increased Effectiveness of Rare Breach Monsters in your Maps

Monster Rarity

Magic and Rare Monsters will grant a greater amount of Experience. There are several ways to increase the number of these found in your maps, mainly with Waystone modifiers and points on the Atlas Passive Tree, discussed in the section below.

Other Sources of Increased Experience Gain

• Alima's Disgrace: There is a Permanent Buff Quest in Qimah, the Khari Bazaar Interlude that grants 5% increased Experience Gain for a set of downsides
• Cornathaum: The Cornathaum Helmet also has 5% increased Experience gain which can be corrupted to grant 6% increased Experience gain.
• Enlightening Shrines can be found in Maps and with the Prayer for Wisdom and Seasonal Blessing Notables on the Atlas Passive Tree, finding an Enlightening Shrine will grant you 250% increased Experience gain for 2 minutes and 15 seconds

Experience Penalty

Higher level monsters will grant a greater amount of Experience, but only to a point: if you are too many levels above or below the Area Level, you will start incurring a heavy Experience Penalty, massively reducing your XP gain.

The basic idea is: don't be more than 1 level above or below the XP penalty threshold, which is 3+1 per 16 character levels. For example, this means:

At Character Level 60, you will be granted full Experience in Areas with a Level 6 above or below you. 3 + (60/16=3.75). This means you'd be safe to run areas with an Area Level of 66 (Tier 2 Maps) at Level 60

This might look something like this:

• Level 60: Tier 1-2 Waystones (Area Level 65-66)
• Level 64: Tier 1-7 Waystones (Area Level 65-71)
• Level 70: Tier 1-13 Waystones (Area Level 65-77)
• Level 72 to 88: Tier 15 Waystones can be run without an XP penalty

In order to gain the maximum amount of Experience, you want to be in the highest Area Level that you can be without hitting the XP penalty. Around Level 90, the XP penalty will be unavoidable as there aren't any areas with a high enough Level to keep up, but you're safe until a very high level.

Guythatdies has a brilliant guide on this based on work from CrimsonCasts and Lundburgerr that I recommend reading: How To: Campaign XP

Area Level

Building on the previous section, there are a few ways to increase the Area Level in which you find yourself. The most obvious way is with higher Tier Waystones. Waystone Tier 1 starts at Area Level 65, but increases to Area Level 79 by Tier 15. How do you get beyond that?

• Precursor Tablets that apply Irradiation to areas will grant +1 to Area Level, changing a Tier 15 Waystone with an Area Level of 79 into 80
• Waystones can also be Corrupted, giving them a chance to be increased by 1 Level up to a maximum of Tier 16 (Area Level 80)
• Organised Forces can increase the Area Level of non-Irradiated Maps by +1
• Cleansed Areas occasionally spawn with a +1 to Area Level bonus

All this means is that with a Tier 16 Map, Irradiated and Cleansed with +1, you can fairly consistently run Area Level 81-82 zones.

The next way to further increase your Experience gain, is by slaying more monsters. This can be done in a few ways

• Increased Pack Size
• Additional Content
• Cleansed Zones

Increased Pack Size

You can increase the size of Monster Packs in your Maps in several ways:

• Omen of Chaotic Quantity will reroll your Waystone modifiers to ones that only grant Increased Pack Size
• On the Atlas Passive Tree, there are several Points that grant increased Pack Size, such as
• • Pack Size: The small Pack Size travel Points (totaling to 30% increased)
  • Increased Monster Packs: two small Points grant 3% each
  • Bountiful Bloodlines and Expanding Hordes for increased number of Magic Monsters
  • Twin Threats and Rising Danger for increased number of Rare Monsters
  • Waystone Modifier Effect: several Points on the Atlas Tree increase Waystone modifier effect, improving the amount of Pack Size granted from your Waystone modfiiers
• Cleansed Zones always contain packs of additional Cleansed Monsters. Corrupted Zones also spawn more monsters and can be used instead. Just make sure to not run Cleansed Zones that grant REDUCED Experience gain for increased Rarity of items found.

Additional Content

By adding additional mechanics into your Maps with specific Tablets, you can ensure a greater number of Monsters in your Maps

• Abyss and Breach Precursor Tablets can be used to ensure you find Breaches and Abyss in your Maps. These mechanics both spawn a large number of enemies, and points on their respective Atlas Trees can further boost their Effectiveness and number of Rare monsters spawned
• Delirium is another mechanic that spawns a large number of monsters that can be slain for increased Experience, but can make Maps quite challenging, especially on underlevelled characters
• Expedition and Ritual can also be used, but can be quite slow and result in less Experience gained when compared to Abyss and Breach. However, don't be afraid to experiment - many people report that running Logbooks and hitting every Remnant that grants Increased Experience Gained is another excellent way to power level in the endgame

Shrines

Shrines are another big power boost and can be found in Maps more often in a few ways:

• Atlas Passive Tree: Small Shrine Chance Passives and Places of Worship can be allocated to increase the base chance to find Shrines in your Maps up to a total of 340% increased chance to find Shrines in your Maps. Along with the Prayer for Wisdom Notable, several of these could end up being Enlightening Shrines, granting up to 250% increased Experience gain for over 2 minutes
• Precursor Tablet Suffixes can roll 70-100% increased chance for your Maps to Contain Shrines, or even guarantee that your Maps contain an additional Shrine

Strongboxes are also an option, but don't spawn as many monsters when compared to other mechanics.

If you intend to power level a second character, preparing ahead of time is extremely important. You'll be running Area Levels far higher above your character, full of dangerous monsters and you'll need to be prepared

Gear Preparation

• Prepare Gear Upgrades before you start. If you have enough Currency, have both your final endgame gear ready, but also a middle tier set of gear ready that you can equip between your end-of-campaign gear and your final endgame gear.
• Take note of the Level and Attribute requirements to equip your prepared gear, and make sure to equip it once you hit that Level
• Don't forget to include your Flask and Charms in this!

Skill Gem Preparation

Gem Level is currently one of the best ways to scale your damage in PoE 2 and ensuring that you are upgrading your Skill Gems to their highest available level is extremely important. Below is a list of Breakpoints, but this is easy to remember past Level 16 as each next Breakpoint is +6 Levels

Likewise, make sure that you have all of your Support Gems ready and enough Jeweller's Orbs to Socket your Skills

Don't forget to add Quality to your Skill Gems with Gemcutter's Prisms!

Map and Tablet Preparation

You should prepare a series of Maps ahead of time that all are Rare with 6 modifiers and affected by Omen of Chaotic Quantity to increase the Pack Size in your Maps. If you set everything up correctly, your Experience gain will be rapid. The next section of this guide will discuss a full setup with suggestions for Map Level setup

Tablets can be self-crafted, or bought from the Trade Site and a search might look something like this: XP Tablet Trade Search

The following is a suggested method for maximising solo Experience gain in the endgame

Gear and Gem Preparation

1. Prepare your Gear upgrades ahead of time and take note at which Level this Gear can be equipped. You can even keep this Gear in your Inventory and equip it as soon as you reach the required Level.
2. Add as many Sockets to your main Skills as necessary and add the required Support Gems. If there are any Lineage Gems in your build, make sure to add these in at Level 65
3. Apply Gemcutter's Prisms to your Skill Gems

Waystone Preparation

Assuming you have just completed the campaign and are Level 60, this is the set of Waystones I would prepare ahead of time. These Maps should all be Rare with 6 modifiers and affected by an Omen of Chaotic Quantity.

This is a rough outline and can be adjusted depending on the performance of your build and confidence as well as the Level your character reaches by the end of each Map. If you find yourself constantly dying, don't jump up Map Tier too quickly, especially if you aren't able to equip your prepared gear ahead of time.

You can also choose to leave a Map before completing it if you want to maximise your Experience Gain. For example, if you hit Level 64 halfway through the first Map, you could leave it and then open a Tier 7 Map immediately.

Waystones to Prepare

• 1x Tier 3
• 1x Tier 7 (in case you want to max XP gains after hitting Level 64)
• 1x Tier 9
• Several Tier 15 Maps
• 3+ Tier 16

You can add in a few Waystones with Tiers in between in case you die, or in case you don't reach certain level breakpoints along the way, or just because running Tier 15s at Level 72 is too much for your build to handle that early on. It isn't possible to know the exact XP curve of every player, but this is a rough guideline

Tablet Preparation

Breach is probably the best mechanic to gain XP, but can be challenging at a lower level and for certain builds with lower clear speeds. I recommend the following:

• Prefixes: Every Tablet MUST have 19-20% increased Experience Gain and 9-11% increased Monster Effectiveness
• Abyss Tablet Suffixes that increase number of Monsters spawned from Abyss, or increase the number of Abysses in Maps are excellent. Getting this on top of Effectiveness and XP gain will be expensive or hard to roll yourself
• Breach Suffix modifiers that increase monster density, the number of Magic or Rare monsters or number of Breaches in Maps are excellent. Getting this on top of Effectiveness and XP gain will be expensive or hard to roll yourself
• Additional Shrines are great as Suffixes and often undervalued
• Abyss and Breach Tablets are highly recommended, but get an Irradiated Tablet prepared too for once you reach Level 73

Tablets to Prepare

Run 1x Breach and 2x Abyss until Level 73 and then swap one Abyss Tablet for an Irradiated Tablet if you're comfortable running Tier 15 Maps Irradiated

• 1-2x Breach Tablets with the above Prefix modifiers
• 1-2x Abyss Tablets with the above Prefix modifiers. If you have excellent clear speed, you could swap this for an additional Breach tablet, or Delirium Tablet. I avoid Delirium entirely because it is depressing.
• 1-2x Irradiated Tablet with the above Prefixes for once you hit Level 73 and are running Tier 15 Maps

This should be enough to help you reach Level 90 fairly comfortably, but you can overprepare with additional Tablets

Atlas Tree Preparation

Make sure you have all your Atlas Points ready for allocation, especially your Abyss and Breach Points which can be acquired by following these guides:

• Abyss Guide
• Breach Guide
• Atlas Passive Tree Guide