Atlas in Path of Exile 2 — the main part of the late game, in which you have to travel across an endless map, opening up different locations with many modifiers that allow you to increase the difficulty and increase the rewards you receive. The late game opens up a special ive skill tree, upgrading which you can customize the Atlas for yourself.
In this guide, we'll tell you what leveling up your atlas skills in PoE 2 gives you, as well as help you understand the new late-game tree and upgrading your waystones to get the most out of your maps.
All objects on the atlas in PoE 2
To unlock the atlas, you must complete the story campaign on Brutal difficulty. After waking up in the Ziggurat Vault, a general late-game hub location, approach Map machine and interact with her.
A large map will open with many different interaction points connected by a dotted line. By default, the character is located in the central location of the Ziggurat Sanctuary and can move around the atlas in any direction, opening maps and other atlas objects in order.
Cards
Maps are locations to be completed, marked with a slightly raised circular marker. Entering such an area will open a randomly generated dungeon for clearing with a set of random enemies, the level and strength of which depends on the entered waystone and modifiers of the map itself. To complete the location, find and kill all the rare and unique enemies in it.
For convenience, the atlas map markers are visually highlighted in different colors:
- blue locations that can be accessed at the moment are marked;
- green completed maps are highlighted;
- yellow The location where the character is currently located is highlighted.
- do not have backlighting cards that are too far away and cannot be moved are visually just grey.
Above the waypoint, you can see icons of bonuses that are inside. These can be bosses, expeditions, rifts, shelters, delirium, and so on. When you hover over the map itself, you can read in more detail about the additional activities in the dungeon.
Waystones
Waystones are special items that drop as loot. They are the keys to unlocking atlas maps and can have a set of properties that directly affect modifiers when ing a location. Like equipment items, they have a rarity and can be recrafted using various spheres. Waystone modifiers can change the amount of rewards dropped, as well as the strength and number of monsters on the map.
In addition to recrafting, waystones can be sold and bought, which makes it possible to significantly speed up personal progression through the atlas, eliminating the need to obtain tablets of the desired tier and rarity by grinding.
Biomes
Biomes are specific zones of the atlas with different landscapes and natural formations. A map located in a particular biome will have a corresponding design and look like a location belonging to this natural zone. This can be either an outdoor location or a corresponding cave. Simply put, choosing a map from the Forest biome will move the character to a location with lush woody vegetation or inside a forest cave.
The biome affiliation is indicated in the map description, in addition, it can be determined visually by assessing the landscape on which the waypoint is located. The choice of biome does not affect the type of monsters that can be encountered at the level, they are all randomly placed, so in the forest of Act 1 you can easily meet warriors of the tribe from Act 3.
When unlocked in the skill atlas tree Local knowledge The choice of biome begins to directly affect the loot that drops.
Corrupted Zones
Corrupted zones appear as biomes covered in red corruption. Cards in these areas have a special red corruption icon that imposes a difficult effect. "Condensed Corruption", which with a certain probability creates powerful enemies instead of several killed nearby. In addition, in such zones the level of enemies is increased.
Towers of the Forerunners
Towers are one of the most prominent objects on the atlas map. Within a certain radius around them, they are able to change properties on maps depending on what is placed inside tiles of the forerunners. In order to be able to place a bonus sign in a cell, you will first need to clear the tower using one of the waystones.
Once you reach the end of the tower, find and activate the device. Ray of the Forerunners. After that, use the map device and place the precursor tile with the desired effects in the slot of the cleared location. As soon as you press the button "Influence", the bonuses from the tile will spread to the cards around it.
It is also worth noting that activating the tower dispels the fog of war on the atlas throughout its entire radius of action.
Gates of the Worlds
The Gate of Worlds is a special portal located near the Ziggurat. It is used to travel to one of the late-game bosses by bringing a certain number of items. Unlike any other map in the atlas, the gate can be accessed at any time without clearing the surrounding areas. To enter, you will need to collect rift fragments on maps with the corresponding icon or fragments of simulacrum in Delirium.
Burning monolith
A special location that hides one of the strongest bosses of the atlas. When you first get to it, return to the shelter and talk to Doryani. The character will ask you to investigate the monolith.
You don't need a waystone to enter, but inside you'll come across a door locked with three seals. You'll need to get them in high-level locations. To open the age to the monolith, find three citadels and defeat the bosses in each of them. You can only get into the citadels with level 15 waystones.
How to level up cards in PoE 2
You can give your cards permanent properties by upgrading a special tree that opens up in the late game. To open nodes in it, you will first need to earn atlas points, which are awarded for progressing through the late game. The main way to get them is by completing Doryani's quest. "Consequences of the Cataclysm", in which you will have to go through maps, gradually increasing their difficulty. For each stage you will receive book of knowledge, containing 2 atlas points. Completing various activities will help you progress faster and get more valuable rewards.
Upgrade Waystones
Even before entering the atlas, the game begins to generously shower the character with ages to level 1 maps, which is why the question of where to get waystones does not arise. However, a little later, when access to level 2 and higher maps is needed, there may not be so many of the necessary stones in the inventory.
Low level waystones can be purchased from Doryani and then placed in reforging workbenchto increase their tier by 1. To increase their rarity and get modifiers, use spheres. Each of the regular waystones can easily be upgraded to at least a magic one with two modifiers by using spheres of transformation and amplification. At this stage of the game, this currency drops very often, and most likely there is already quite a lot of it.
It is best to look for waystones that have modifiers that increase the value of dropped loot, the total amount of loot, increase the number of rare monsters, and also have a high chance of dropping a waystone.
Destroy all rare monsters
Try to destroy as many rare enemies as possible, as they drop the most loot. Before entering the map, try to pick up a waystone with an increase in the number of such monsters.
Each map has a certain number of rare enemies. To complete it, you need to find and kill each of them. Just explore the location, destroying groups of monsters. As soon as there are fewer on the map two hundred mobs, the game will mark all rare enemies on the minimap with yellow skulls.
Open the towers
Activating towers will help dispel the fog of war in a large radius and plan your route more effectively. In addition, a plate placed in a tower can grant useful properties to the cards around it.
Find shelters
Shelters are optional, but are a nice enhancement to the gameplay experience. Once found on the map, they are easy to open: just use the lowest tier waystone and kill all the monsters in the location. After that, a personal location will become available, customizable to your taste. All objects and characters in the shelter can be placed in such a way that you don’t have to run between them, thereby optimizing and speeding up the gameplay.
In a separate article they described in more detail, how to get and change your own shelter in poe 2.
Defeat bosses
Bosses drop the most loot, so try to look for maps with the corresponding icon. After entering such a location, in addition to the standard elimination of all rare enemies, you will also need to find and destroy the boss. As a reward, you can often get unique items, currency, and waystones.
How to level up the atlas skill tree in PoE 2
The Atlas tree, unlike the standard skill tree, does not affect the character's skills, but rather the properties of the cards. By opening nodes in the branches, you can improve your game experience, for example, optimizing the value of dropped trophies or the number of rare monsters. Understanding the strategy of leveling the Atlas tree is very important for speed and farming in the late game. There are several ways to progress through the Atlas tree, suitable for getting the most out of the cards.
To open the tree, use the map machine and find the corresponding button in the upper right corner, or use the key combination «Ctrl+U».
For newbies
The first thing new players should do in the late game is to increase the consistency of waystone drops. To do this, the first two atlas points should be invested in nodes. "Advanced Waystones", each of which gives a 10% increase to the chance of increasing the level of the stone found.
The next step is to get a node "A Permanent Crossroads", increasing the chance of getting waystones by 20%.
Next, level up the branch with higher-tier waystones to reach a 50% chance of getting a higher-tier waystone.
Invest all the atlas points you get to reach the nodes "Number of waystones".
After increasing the total amount of gems dropped by 18%, complete the upgrade of the central tree by reaching the node "The Noble Path". It will add another 20% to the chance to increase the level of the dropped stone.
For currency farming
Having figured out the mechanics of the atlas and received a sufficient number of waystones that allow you to move freely around it, there is a need to increase the value of the loot you receive. One way is to increase the amount of currency that drops. This can be achieved by increasing the number and strength of rare monsters on the maps.
The example of a pumped tree in the screenshot above is suitable for most players and helps to increase the amount of currency dropped. Do not forget ing effects with an increase in the number of rare monsters and loot from them. Use the appropriate waystones and precursor tiles.
To increase the density of monsters
Another way to increase the loot from maps is to increase the density of monsters on them as much as possible. To do this, simply focus on getting the appropriate nodes in the atlas tree. List of nodes to increase crowds:
- Size of monster groups;
- Rich pedigrees;
- Growing threat;
- Groups of magical monsters;
- Groups with a rare monster;
- The approaching hordes;
- Double threat.
They are all in the main tree branch, southwest of the center. Distribute the remaining nodes at your discretion. The best combinations will be to increase the rarity and quantity of items.
To obtain valuable items
In the final stages of leveling, you can maximize the amount of valuable items you drop to sell and farm Divine Orbs. One way to do this is to invest your Atlas Points into obtaining nodes that affect the modifiers of Waystones and Precursor Tiles. In this case, the most important nodes are:
- Unstable energy;
- Remnants of Power;
- Enigmatic Intensification;
- Influence of the Forerunners.
The screenshot above shows a rough tree setup suitable for mining valuable items in this way.
We hope this guide helped you understand the main mechanics of the late game and what to level up in the atlas in PoE 2. Write comments, if you have any questions on the topic, we will definitely answer them. More game guides can be found in relevant section of the website.
