All new Crafting options in Path of Exile 2 Dawn of The Hunt

Item Crafting in Path of Exile 2 has been at a barebones state with its Early Access launch. Dawn of The Hunt, its first major update (0.2.0), is going to change that with the addition of brand-new crafting currency types, as well as improvements to existing ones. Too many deterministic crafting choices can backfire on the game, but GGG is certainly threading the needle with this update.

Here's a rundown of all the new crafting currencies and mechanics coming to Path of Exile 2's Dawn of The Hunt update on April 4.

Every new crafting mechanic coming in Path of Exile 2 Dawn of The Hunt (patch 0.2.0)

Greater Runes and new Rune types

Runes with flat stat increments are quickly outclassed by percentage-based increases. At any point past the mid-game, Physical damage Runes make for far better choices over Added Fire Damage Runes for a martial weapon, for example.

To make these ignored Runes a relevant crafting choice, Path of Exile 2 is introducing Rune tiers (Normal, Greater, and so on). The same goes for already meta Runes, though. Iron Runes will also get their Greater Iron Runes, which might yet outperform an equivalent flat damage rune of its tier, so some balance tuning might also be in order.

On top of this, a new boss-rush edngame mechnaic exclusive to the Phaaryl Megaliths map will now drop fresh types of Greater Runes.

New Socketables: Talismans

Alongside Runes, we are also getting some more distinct socketables called Talismans. These provide specific conditional buffs and benefits. For example, the Rabbit Talisman will make you immune to ailment from Corrupted Blood, while a Boar Talisman will simply add 1 Rage on hit to a martial weapon.

Unlike Runes, specific Talismans can only be socketed into specific gear types.

This new crafting item is tied to the headliner league mechanic of Path of Exile 2 Dawn of The Hunt: the Azmeri Wisps. Only Wisp-possessed rare monsters in the campaign and endgame can drop Talismans.

New Item Base types for Amulets and Rings

In the new Fractured Lake map, there is a Fragmented Mirror at the end that rewards you with exclusive Amulet and Rings. These are new item bases for the trinkets, with a crafting gimmick, where they can have additional Prefixes or Suffixes at the cost of the other.

Tenebrous Amulets, for example, can only have one Prefix but five Suffixes (as opposed to the normal 3/3 split). While it's still the same amount of item affixes, this does allow for some unique stat spread possibilities that have never been seen before.

However, this is only limited to trinkets. No new armor or weapon bases will inherit this gimmick.

New Essences

All Crystallized Essence monsters in Path of Exile 2 can now be corrupted with a Vaal Orb before you break them free. This has a chance of upgrading normal Essences to Greater Essences and turning Greater Essences into one of the four new pinnacle Essences:

Essence of Hysteria
Essence of Delirium
Essence of Horror
Essence of Insanity

These new Essences add some deterministic crafting options related to corruption, the same as Omens. For example, the Essence of Insanity will guarantee that your next Vaal Orb application to an item results in two explicit Enchantments.

The Silent Cave is a new unique map completely based on Essences ripe with the possibility of obtaining these new ones.

Fracturing Orbs

After you clean a Corrupted Nexus to create Cleansed maps, the boss specific to this map can drop Fracturing Orbs. This is yet another deterministic crafting currency that Path of Exile 2 is adding with Dawn of The Hunt.

A Fracturing Orb can fracture a modifier on a Rare item, which locks it in place. Further alterations to the item, such as rerolling affixes with Chaos Orbs, will never affect the fractured modifier, identifiable by its golden font.

Item Recombination (Expedition)

The Expedition League in Path of Exile 2 finally has an exclusive crafting mechanic: the ability to Recombine items. By talking to Gwennen, you can now access item Recombination with Broken Circle Artifacts.

This is a mechanic ported from Path of Exile, so those who played the Settlers of Kalguur league in the old game will know what it's all about. Long story short, this process lets you fuse two different items of the same base type with the potential to achieve the best modifiers from the two.

Other than this, other miscellaneous changes will also make crafting more accessible than it used to be. For example, crafting-related Omens in Path of Exile 2 will now be a much more common Ritual drop. Check out the 0.2.0 patch notes for a more comprehensive list of the new things.

Meanwhile, here are some of our other guides on the game:

Edited by Aatreyee Aich