Path of Exile 2: 5 tips for navigating the Atlas

Path of Exile 2 Atlas map (Image via GGG)

The Atlas map and the skill tree take up almost 80% of the endgame playtime in Path of Exile 2. Between those and other things, players can easily invest hundreds of hours before figuring out the basics of each league mechanic, gear piece, build crafting, and more. The one aspect that may seem overwhelming to several players is the Atlas map, and figuring out a way for efficient farming.

This article lists five helpful tips to navigate the Atlas map efficiently.

Precursor tablets, Citadels, and three other things to look for in Path of Exile 2 Atlas

Here is a summary of things you can do while running through the Atlas map:

Using Precursor tablets
Looking for The Burning Monolith to progress the quest
Looking for Citadels for fragments
Looking for boss maps for better loot
Using rare or corrupted Waystones on map nodes

The Atlas map branches infinitely, and each node requires Waystones from Tier 1 to 16. The tilesets/layout of these nodes remains constant, with only the Waystones changing and modifying the difficulty, loot, and enemy behavior.

1) Using Precursor tablets

Precursor tablets are smaller currencies that can modify several map nodes at once. These tablets can be put in the Tower in different portions of the Atlas. Depending on the modifiers, you can influence the surrounding nodes to have guaranteed league mechanics, increased monster packs, increased EXP gain, and much more.

Precursor tablet in Path of Exile 2 (Image via GGG)

For example, you might want the Ritual League mechanic to appear in all the maps. For this, your first task is to complete a "Lost Towers" node, which will unlock sockets for the tablets. Next, farm for a Precursor tablet with the implicit "10 maps in a range contain Ritual Altars," and then use that tablet on the Tower socket.

This will have a guaranteed chance for the surrounding 10 maps to have the Ritual mechanic. The same can be done for Breach, Delirium, and other modifiers.

2) The Burning Monolith

Once you start your journey and have made it through a few maps, start looking for The Burning Monolith near the edges of the starting point. The Monolith is huge, so you can even spot it within the undiscovered fog of war. Based on our experience, The Burning Monolith was located to the south of Zigurrat Refuge on the Atlas map. For you, it can be random, at any given direction.

The Burning Monolith on the map (Image via GGG)

Once you locate the Monolith, your first objective is to progress towards it and follow the objective given by Doryani. The Burning Monolith holds the Pinnacle boss of the Atlas map.

3) Citadels

After finding the Burning Monolith, you must unlock it using three Fragments. These Fragments can be found on three different Citadels placed randomly on the Atlas map. They are Iron, Stone, and Copper. You will encounter the final Act bosses within these maps, and defeating them drops the Fragments for that respective Citadel.

Look for a Pyramid-like structure on the map, and hover over it to check if it is a Citadel.

However, running a Citadel should come towards the endgame, as they can only be unlocked using a Tier 15 Waystone.

4) Boss maps

Boss maps paired with some decent Atlas strategies can drop a great amount of currencies, higher Waystone tiers, and gear pieces. You can identify a boss map by looking at the yellow icon on top of the node.

Boss node on the map of Path of Exile 2 (Image via GGG)

A map boss contains almost 80% of the entire map's loot pool, meaning that players have a better chance of getting rare currencies and higher tier items after defeating a boss than what they would get on a normal map.

5) Rare or corrupted Waystones

Whether it is a Tier 1 or 15 Waystone, it is always important to upgrade a normal/blue Waystone to a rare/yellow tier. Doing so not only increases the drop quantity of Waystones from maps but also adds modifiers that further increase the rarity drop rate in the entire map.