Path of Exile 2: How to sustain Waystones

Waystone in Path of Exile 2 (Image via Bungie) — Waystone in Path of Exile 2 (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

Sustaining Waystones is one of the most important processes in the endgame of Path of Exile 2. Getting a higher tier Waystone after running a particular map is important for the endgame flow, as zero drops will result in you getting stuck. While Waystones can be purchased in bulk from other players, it is important to form a strategy to get these map currencies as drops and avoid spending precious Exalted Orbs.

This article provides the basics of Waystone sustaining in the endgame. There are four points listed for the Atlas boss tree, which helps further boost the Waystone drops from map bosses.

Waystone sustaining in Path of Exile 2

After the campaign, your first task is to complete a tier 1 map via a tier 1 Waystone. This is also the start of a long questline, requiring the completion of 15 tiers of Waystones in each step. While getting through the first six tiers is easy enough, getting the rest as drops without proper help from the Atlas tree will be challenging.

The High Road passive node on Atlas tree in Destiny 2 (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

With the Atlas tree points, you can invest in 'Constant Crossroads,' 'Fortunate Path,' and 'High Road' passive nodes. This will require eight passive points, for which you must complete the quest steps with only the first four tiers of Waystones. Here's what each node provides for your map runs:

Constant Crossroads: 20% increased quantity of Waystones found in your maps.
Fortunate Paths: 100% increased rarity of Waystones found in your maps.
The High Road: Waystones found to have a 20% chance of being one tier higher.

You can use these nodes to get more Waystones in the next few runs and gather enough to move up a few more tiers. This will grant you even more Atlas points, which can be further used to travel to the "Unstable Energies" node from Constant Crossroads.

Unstable Energies in Path of Exile 2 (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

You will need four points from "Constant Crossroads" to "Unstable Energies." Here's what the latter passive node does:

Unstable Energies: Waystones have 25% more effect from prefix and suffix modifiers when opening maps.

This directly affects the drop quantity and rarity, stacking on top of the previous nodes you unlocked on the tree.

You can use any further points to get the minor "Higher Tier Waystones" node. You will need eight points to take all five nodes on the tree. Lastly, there are three passive nodes at the bottom called "Waystone Quantity," which will give you an 18% boost in the quantity of Waystones from maps.

High Quantity Waystones in Path of Exile 2 (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

The optimal Atlas strategy for sustaining Waystone has been laid out in the following image.

Atlas strategy for sustaining Waystones (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

Note that the upcoming patch 0.1.1 will make it significantly easier for you to find a Citadel on maps. Defeating Citadel bosses provides two boss points for a special tree on the Atlas. Your task will be to collect four of these points after defeating two bosses and get the "Spoils of War" and "Radiant Waystones" nodes.