Path to Grinding: How to Farm POE Orbs

If money makes the world go ‘round, then in Path of Exile’s case, it’s orbs that do! Funnily enough, they are also round. So, need a bit more PoE orbs than the usual? Farm them. Not just harder, but also smarter. To help you out with that, check out these tips.

Drop It Like It’s An Endgame Orb

Before going off to some map to clear hordes upon hordes and get a few orbs, you need to remember the common knowledge that not all PoE Currency have the same drop rates. Usually, these orbs have a lower drop rate because of how important they are in crafting endgame gear:

Orbs that changes an item’s rarity into Rare:

  • Orb of Alchemy – normal to Rare
  • Regal Orb – magic to Rare

Orbs that affect sockets and links:

  • Jeweller’s Orb – changes the number of sockets on an item at random
  • Chromatic Orb – changes the color of sockets at random
  • Orb of Fusing – changes the number and configuration of links

Orbs that affect a Rare item’s mods:

  • Chaos Orb – changes modifiers of a Rare item
  • Exalted Orb – adds random modifier on a Rare item

Unrelated:

  • Mirror of Kalandria – duplicates an item
  • Orb of Regret – refunds a skill point

You can farm all sorts of POE orbs, but it’s highly recommended that you focus on these if you’re looking to sell POE orbs or use them for your own consumption.

A More Educated Grind

Now we go to farming! To oversimplify things, farming is just killing plenty enough enemies to have a chance of dropping PoE Currency, thus the reason AoE builds continue to dominate. But without gaming the system, farming is very tedious, to the point that you might consider resorting to PoE trade instead. To farm effectively, one must look at the factors involving drop rates and make them work in your favor.

The first of which is level. Unless you’re concerned with Exalted Orbs, which only drop when you’re at level 35, you don’t need to achieve a specific level. Rather, you only need to keep in mind that monsters two or more levels below you have a reduced drop rate. So rather than go to maps with low-level enemies that you can easily farm, it’s better to take on enemies of the same level as you using those PoE Uniques.

On a related note, don’t go into thinking that the game will reward you with higher drop rates for taking on monsters with a higher level than you. While this won’t penalize you, this won’t get you anything extra either. The game incentivizes safe farming instead of a high-risk high-reward play style.

Take a (Modified) Chance

Another way to improve drop rates would be through the following gear mods:

  • Increase Quantity of Items Found
  • Increase Rarity of Items Found

These two work synergistically. The latter ups your chances of getting rare items simply by increasing the number of items you get, while the former increases the rarity of said drops. It takes high rates of that mod before you notice that it’s working, so if you can have the two or two of your gears having either one of the two (preferably the latter), that would be great!

Mapping Your Progress

Last but definitely not least would be maps. Aside from the average monster level in a map, the quality and the behavior of its spawns also matter. The more the monsters tend to gather in an area, the more likely it is to be a better farming spot.

Map quality also matters. The higher it is, the likelier you are to get rare drops. Ironically, to improve map quality and get more of these PoE orbs, you’ll have to use a PoE currency called the Cartographer’s Chisel.

So, there you have it–orb farming in Path of Exile! Will you continue farming for PoE orbs, or just call it quits and buy from others instead? The decision is yours.