Path of Exile 2: Item rarity and affixes, explained

Path of Exile 2 uses the color-coded item rarity system commonly seen across most ARPGs. There are four rarities: white (common), blue (magic), gold (rare), and orange (unique) — a cut-and-dry internal language popularized by the classic Diablo games. Even though it follows the same principle of each successive rarity getting better, there's a great deal of nuance in practice.

If you're new to Path of Exile 2, or coming from another ARPG, here we'll go over what item rarity determines, and how affixes work in Path of Exile 2.

Note: Item Rarity is not to be confused with "Increased Item Rarity" (IIR). In the latter, better item rarity essentially means better loot, including better chances for higher-rarity currency items.

What are Affixes in Path of Exile 2?

Simply put, affixes in Path of Exile 2 are various stat boosts provided by items in addition to their innate purpose. These are a range of modifiers that come attached to your item. The number of explicit affixes an item can have depends on its rarity.

White items do not have explicit affixes. They can, however, have implicit affixes - more on this later.
Magic items can have up to two explicit affixes: One prefix, one suffix
Rare items can have up to four explicit affixes: Three prefixes, Three suffixes
Unique items are generally considered the same tier as Rare. However, they have fixed affixes and the only thing that varies is their values (within specified value ranges).

What are prefixes and suffixes?

Prefixes and Suffixes can be revealed with Alt (Image via GGG)

To give some degree of determinism to what kind of affixes can roll on an item in Path of Exile 2, affixes are divided into prefixes and suffixes. The pool of possible prefix modifiers and that of possible suffice modifiers are mutually exclusive, so you cannot ever get more than three affixes that are categorized as a suffix (or prefix).

For example, the table below shows the possible prefixes and suffixes that a Magic or Rare Mace in Path of Exile 2 can roll (courtesy of PoE2DB):

It is impossible to craft or get a Rare One-handed Mace that has Increased Attack Speed, Crit Hit Chance, Crit Hit Damage Bonus, and increased Strength at the same time. All four of these are in the suffix pool, so you can only have three of these four.

Note that affixes tend to vary by weapon type in Path of Exile 2, but martial weapons so far share the same pool.

Innate stats and implicit affixes

As we mentioned earlier, implicit affixes and innate effects are fixed modifiers and stats that you find on any white-rarity variant of an item. The gist is that weapons deal damage, armor protects, and trinkets come with implicit affixes.

Weapons: Arcane weapons such as wands and staves grant Spell, martial weapons come with damage (generally Physical, but can also be Elemental or Chaos).
Body Armor, Gloves, Boots, Helmets: A combination of the three main defense stats - Energy Shield, Armor, Evasion
Trinkets, i.e. Rings and Amulets: These are pure stat sticks, meaning they will comes with an implicit affix based on their subtype
Belt: Innately unlocks one Charm slot, and provides one implicit affix

While this categorization makes it seem like weapons and armors cannot have implicit affixes, this is not always the case. Certain subtypes of weapons and armors do have fixed implicits in addition to their innate damage/defense. For example, Keth Raiments (ES chestpiece) always come with Increased Mana Regeneration as an implicit modifier.

Affix tiers

The final piece of the puzzle to understand about affixes is Tiers. Hover on a Magic or Rare item to learn the tiers of its affix, which appear towards its right as T1, T2, etc. Basically, these are the value range of that specific affix for that weapon type, and higher-Tier affixes allow for greater values. Higher Tiers naturally start appearing on higher base item levels, which leads to an organic item progression as you get into the endgame.

Are Uniques the best rarity of item in Path of Exile 2?

If you're coming to Path of Exile 2 from Diablo 4, the answer is a direct no. This distinction, in fact, is central to understanding Path of Exile 2's take on Item Rarity. Uniques in Path of Exile 2 are self-explanatory to a fault: they are built around a specific unique effect as their gimmick.

Sometimes, this will be an effect that you can get from Keystone Passives or elsewhere. In other cases, it will be a gimmick that cannot be replicated elsewhere. A minority of these gimmicks are good enough to become build-defining (example: Hand of Wisdom and Action).

In the majority of cases, though, Rare items are far more important to round up your build. While Uniques can come with some very decent stats oftentimes, they are pre-defined affixes. Meanwhile, the six affixes on (uncorrupted) Rares have a far greater degree of flexibility, and they can be potentially far stronger and more expensive than Uniques.

Check out our other guides on the game:

Edited by Abu Amjad Khan