How to Get Essences in Path of Exile 2

Discover essential tips on how to acquire essences in Path of Exile 2. Enhance your gameplay and maximize your loot with our comprehensive guide!

Essences are special crafting materials in Path of Exile 2 that can be incredibly valuable for creating powerful endgame gear. While they can be prohibitively expensive to acquire through the player market, understanding how they work and the methods to obtain them directly can significantly enhance your crafting capabilities. Here's a comprehensive guide to Essences in PoE 2.

How to Get Essences in PoE 2:

There are two primary ways to acquire Essences in Path of Exile 2:

Essence Trapped Monsters:

• Throughout the campaign and within endgame maps, you will occasionally encounter monsters trapped within stone prisons.
• Some of these imprisoned monsters are Essence monsters. Defeating an Essence monster guarantees a drop of the Essence they are imbued with.
• You can easily identify an Essence monster by the context menu that appears above their head, clearly indicating which specific Essence you will receive upon defeating them.
• While these encounters are not exceedingly rare, they are not frequent enough to rely on for amassing a large quantity of Essences through regular gameplay alone.

Farming the Silent Cave (Endgame Unique Map):

• The most efficient method for farming a significant number of Essences is by running the endgame unique map, Silent Cave.
• This specific map guarantees the presence of multiple Essence monsters within its layout.
• Additionally, the Silent Cave features a boss encounter that becomes progressively stronger for each Essence monster you defeat within the map. This unique mechanic allows players to choose their level of risk versus reward, potentially leading to more Essence monster spawns and a more challenging but rewarding boss fight.

Corrupted Essences (Vaal Orb Upgrade):

• In addition to the regular and Greater tiers of Essences, there are four special Corrupted Essences.
• These unique Essences can only be obtained by using a Vaal Orb on a Greater Essence monster before you free it from its stone prison.
• Corrupted Essence monsters possess unique and often more challenging combat mechanics compared to their regular counterparts, making them riskier to defeat.
• Corrupted Essences offer distinct and powerful ways to craft on gear, making them exceptionally valuable for specific endgame builds. The four Corrupted Essences are:
  • Essence of Hysteria: Upgrades a normal item to Magic with one Item Rarity modifier. Can only be used on Helmets, Rings, or Amulets.
  • Essence of Delirium: Upgrades a normal item to Magic or a Magic item to a Rare item with one random notable passive as a modifier. Can only be used on Body Armour.
  • Essence of Insanity: Upgrades a normal item to Magic or a Magic item to a Rare item with one guaranteed property. Can only be used on Belts. On Corruption (using a Vaal Orb on the item after applying the Essence), the item gains two Enchantments.
  • Essence of Horror: Upgrades a normal item to Magic or a Magic item to a Rare item with one guaranteed property. Can only be used on Gloves or Boots. Provides 100% increased effect of Socketed Runes and Soul Cores.

Currency Exchange (Player Trading):

• Essences can also be acquired through the player-driven Currency Exchange.
• You can access the Currency Exchange by speaking to Alva within your personal hideout.1
• However, as the initial prompt of this guide mentioned, Essences are often abhorrently expensive to purchase from other players due to their scarcity and crafting power. Therefore, relying solely on trading for Essences can be costly.

How to Use Essences in PoE 2:

Aside from the unique Corrupted Essences, there are two primary tiers of Essences: regular Essences and Greater Essences.

• Regular Essences:
  • Used to upgrade a Normal (white) item to a Magic (blue) item.
  • Applying a regular Essence to a Normal item will also add one specific modifier to the item, and this modifier will always have a specific tag associated with the Essence type.
  • Example: Using a Lightning Essence (Essence of Electricity) on a Normal itemwill upgrade it to a Magic item with a modifier that has the "Lightning" tag.
• Greater Essences:
  • Function identically to regular Essences, with one key difference.
  • Greater Essences can be used to upgrade a Magic (blue) item directly to a Rare (yellow) item.
  • Applying a Greater Essence to a Magic item will add one specific modifier (with a specific tag) and also grant the item one additional random modifier.

Understanding Modifier Tags and Potential Outcomes:

It's important to understand that while an Essence guarantees a modifierwith a specific tag, it doesn't always guarantee the exact modifier youmight be hoping for.

• Example: If you use a Lightning Essence (Essence of Electricity) on a Normal Boot, there are at least two possible outcomes for the guaranteed Lightning-tagged modifier:
  • It might roll a +#% to Lightning Resistance.
  • It might roll a #% reduced Shock duration on you. Both of these modifiers have the "Lightning" tag.

Utilizing Craft of Exile for Information:

The best resource for checking the tags associated with specific modifiersand viewing all possible modifiers that any given item base can roll isthe external website Craft of Exile.

• Simply search for the specific item base you are crafting on within Craft of Exile.
• The website will clearly display all possible modifiers for that base,separated into prefixes and suffixes, along with their associated tags.This information is invaluable for making informed decisions when usingEssences.

By understanding the different ways to obtain Essences, particularlyfocusing on farming the Silent Cave, and by utilizing resources likeCraft of Exile to understand the potential outcomes of using specificEssences on different item bases, you can effectively leverage thesepowerful crafting materials to create potent endgame gear in Path ofExile 2. Remember that Corrupted Essences offer unique and powerfulcrafting avenues worth exploring as well.

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