This Guide is about Path Of Exile Orbs in general. Pretty much everyone knows how they work, but knowing what to do with certain orbs or using the right is a much harder task. I won’t get into meta-crafting (although if you would like to learn about that let us know in comments below) but rather give tips to casual players to simply do it right. From my experience, most of the players that are still new to the game have no idea what to do with certain PoE Currency. With Path of Exile looting system it is highly unlikely, but possible, for low-level players to loot items like Exalted Orbs and ruin them by “upgrading” worthless equipment. Majority of those players unwittingly dispose of currency that would let them finish the story mode on Merciless difficulty and start mapping in PoE.
I will list all of the currency, and next to each add a short comment, and certain tips and tricks I have learned along the way on my Path of Exile adventure.
Please note: all the ratios mentioned in this Guide are based on current exchange rates for Legacy League Standard Orbs and may differ on other game Modes as well as they fluctuate over time.
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Scroll of Wisdom |
Most players at some point stop picking Scrolls up because there is just so many of them. However, if you are a casual player, I suggest collecting them anyway. Eventually, when you reach level 66-70 and want to buy your starting gear for low tier maps this can come in handy. If you have identified only items that you could have possibly used for your character, at that point you should have hundreds (if not thousands) of Scrolls. You can also trade around 300 Scrolls of Wisdom for 1 Chaos Orb. |
What should beginners do with it? |
Identify possible gear upgrades Collect and trade them in big quantities for other Orbs |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
- |
What do pros do? |
Ignore them |
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Portal Scroll |
Same as above. They are worth around 4 times more than Scrolls of Wisdom though, staying at around 80:1 exchange rate to Chaos Orbs. Cumulatively, if done right, you should be able to fill about 2-3 item slots at level 66 with a decent piece of equipment, just from the Scrolls. |
What should beginners do with it? |
Keep some of them to allow you porta back to Town Collect and trade them in big quantities for other Orbs |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
- |
What do pros do? |
Ignore them |
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Armourer’s Scrap |
This orb is used to improve the quality of an armor piece. I suggest not using it until late game. |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs, after all, they have a value on their own. You will get 1 Chaos Orb for about 160 Armourer’s Scraps |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
Upgrade your own gear, to increase armor/energy shield or evasion bonuses Upgrade decent gear you find, that you want to sell for a better price |
What do pros do? |
Ignore them |
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Blacksmith’s Whetstone |
This orb is used to improve the quality of a weapon. It has very similar usage as Armourer’s Scrap but additionally can come in handy when leveling new characters. You will squeeze out most of the value from this Orb by using the "Hammer Recipe" |
What should beginners do with it? |
Store them until you are able to loot low-level maps. It's most efficient to upgrade normal quality hammers ( Stone Hammer, Rock Breaker, Gavel ) with 4 Blacksmith's Whetstones, and vendor it with a random map (only normal low-level ones, you do not plan on running). You will be getting Cartographer's Chisel for every Hammer traded that way |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
Upgrade your own gear, to increase damage on weapons (only Physical and Elemental Damage, does not improve affixes values) Upgrade decent gear you find, that you want to sell for a better price Upgrade normal quality weapons when leveling new characters, which you will use to craft relatively high damage weapons. Bows and Two-handed melee weapons are good examples. You can make a high damage blue (magic) weapon relatively cheap that will obliterate enemies at Normal difficulty Trade them directly for Chaos Orbs. You should get 1 Chaos for around 70 Whetstones (Still, turning them into Chisels is much more rewarding) |
What do pros do? |
Ignore them |
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Orb of Augmentation |
This Orb adds a new property (affix) to a magic quality item. This orb has several uses, although mainly related to the late game activity. |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 55-60 Augmentation Orbs. This can also be traded with vendors and eventually get you Orb of Fusing. You will need 32 Orbs of Augmentation to get 1 Orb of Fusing. This is a rather negative ratio but is much faster and there is no limit to the vendor’s Orbs stock. Use them to craft affixes on magic potions and possibly low-level blue maps |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
Use them to craft low-level high damage weapons for leveling. This is the only use for the Orbs of Augmentation I suggest doing before you reach the Merciless difficulty |
What do pros do? |
Use this Orb for Meta-Crafting. They will need hundreds of them for that purpose and that is just a small percentage of Orbs that are usually spent when crafting end-game gear |
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Orb of Transmutation |
Used to improve normal item to a magic item. Has multiple uses, but rather irrelevant on low levels, except for maybe crafting a decent high damage magic weapons (bows, two-handed melee weapons). I suggest storing them until later on when you can vendor them for Orbs of Fusing, or eventually craft quality magic potions, low-level maps. |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Orb of Fusing for 128 Orbs of Transmutation from vendors. Yes, it sounds harsh, but you should have so many of them it will be nearly impossible to find a better use for them |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
Crafting high physical damage bows or two-handed melee weapons while leveling. You basically find the highest iLvl normal quality weapon you can get, improve its' quality with 4 Blacksmith Whetstones and hope for an increased physical damage % roll. |
What do pros do? |
They are used for meta-crafting. Each craft starts with Orb of Transmutation, and after you use Orb of Scouring on a failed craft. |
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Orb of Alteration |
Changes affixes on a magic quality item. Vis-à-vis of the Chaos Orbs but for lower quality gear. This is the most popular low-level Orbs as has many usages both the early game, and thousands of those are required to craft end-game gear. Because of its’ rather good value, and popularity, we suggest you only to use them when in Merciless difficulty. |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 14 Orbs of Alteration This can also be traded with vendors and get you 1 Orb of Fusing for 16 Orbs of Alteration. Use them to reroll affixes on magic potions and possibly low-level blue maps |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
Can be used to craft low-level high damage weapons for leveling. However, it is much more effective to simply purchase interesting gear for those Orbs |
What do pros do? |
This Orb is used for Meta-Crafting. They are used literally in thousands during any Meta-Crafting processes |
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Silver Coin |
Used to get prophecies from Navali. I suggest collecting them on all difficulties and trade for other Orbs. Although if you are a gambler you might get some Prophecies on Merciless difficulty (but well, it's usually not worth it) |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 11 Silver Coins |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
Gamble for expensive Prophecies for sale, and have a little bit of variation while clearing game content |
What do pros do? |
Either ignore them or buy prophecies for it |
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Chromatic Orb |
Used to change the current colors of the sockets. A lot of those can be found during leveling and farming, from direct drops as well as from selling 3-linked R-G-B (red, green and blue sockets) items to vendors. Unless you play a very niche build you should have a lot of those lying around |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 11 Chromatic Orbs |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
Use during leveling and when changing gear and gems to get the right socket colors |
What do pros do? |
Pretty much the same as everyone else. However, getting the right socket colors on 6 linked items for certain builds can get very expensive. Some might skip them in order to clear content faster, hence getting to loot more valuable items |
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Glassblower's Bauble |
Used to improve the quality of a flask. It's advised to only upgrade the "final" flasks for your build and simply sell the rest. |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 14 Glassblower's Bauble |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
Use to get 20 quality of your flasks. It's advised to only upgrade flasks you use for mapping and end-game content. It's a waste to do that while leveling |
What do pros do? |
Ignore them, unless they need their own potions upgraded |
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Orb of Alchemy |
Used to transmute a Normal quality item into a rare quality item. I suggest only buying gear for this Orb while leveling, and later on, use them to create mid and high tier rare maps. Can be also used to improve the quality of strong boxes in higher-level areas. |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 4 Orbs of Alchemy Buy cheap leveling gear and gems (preferably with some quality points already) |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
Upgrade certain strongboxes to rare quality. For example, upgrading Arcanist's, Jeweller's or Gemcutter's Strongboxes might be rewarding |
What do pros do? |
Upgrade mid and high-tier maps to rare quality Upgrade Strongboxes |
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Orb of Chance |
Used to transmute a Normal quality item into a Random quality item. I suggest only buying gear for this Orb while leveling (a lot of pieces of leveling unique gear can be purchased for 1 Orb of Chance), and when you are mapping you can also try to use this Orb to get Skyforth Boots. It's a very expensive item (price is over 30 Exalted Orbs on Softcore League) and if you are lucky enough to roll a unique while using this Orb on Chance on Sorcerer's Boots (which have an item level of minimum 67) you are guaranteed to get Skyforth Boots. Obviously, you sell the Boots and get gear suitable for you. |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 6 Orbs of Chance Buy cheap leveling gear and gems (preferably with some quality points already) |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
- |
What pros (or simply high-level players) do? |
Gamble for the Skyforth boots, or people with level 8 Zana, can try to get the Headhunter belt (on Nemesis modded maps) |
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Orb of Regret |
Adds an extra passive respec point on use. You will usually need a bunch of them when you respec your leveling passives at a level around 65-68 (depending on your chosen build). Unless you want to play around with different builds later on you can save them, although they are rather valuable so I suggest picking one build that suits you, and after you are there just trade the rest of them. |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 1 Orb of Regret Respec leveling passives |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
- |
What do pros do? |
Alter their build for certain bosses or events Use them to change their build completely (it IS expensive) |
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Jeweller's Orb |
Changes the number of sockets on an item. During your leveling phase, I suggest storing those Orbs. It will be much cheaper to buy suitable 3 or 4-linked gear, than crafting it with Jeweller's Orbs and Orbs of Fusing |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 12 Jeweller's Orbs |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
Craft 4 and 5 sockets on your gear |
What do pros do? |
Craft 6 sockets on gear (will usually consume over 100 Jeweler's Orbs in the process) |
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Orb of Fusing |
Changes the number of links on an item. It's a rather expensive Orb, currently at around 1:3 exchange rate ratio to Chaos Orbs. My suggestion is to use them to buy properly linked gear until late game when you reach the mapping phase. When you get a hold of some valuable gear, you will have to craft the linked sockets on your own. You should keep in mind that the gear you craft should be worth more than average number of Orbs you will need to get it crafted, otherwise it's not worth it. |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 3 Orbs of Fusing Craft properly linked gear late game |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
- |
What do pros do? |
Craft 6 links on valuable gear (will consume around 1000 Orbs of Fusing in the process, it is a complete gamble) |
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Gemcutter's Prism |
Improves the quality of a gem. Unless you are starting your adventure on a new league, most of the gems with high quality will be cheaper than Gemcutter's Prisms required to improve its' quality to corresponding levels |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 1 Gemutter's Prism |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
- |
What do pros do? |
Improve the quality of a level 20 high-quality gems (around 17-19%) in order to max it, and try to Vaal Orb the gem for a chance to even further increase its' quality or level |
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Orb of Scouring |
Removes all properties from an item. Basically turns the item into a Normal quality item with no properties. However, sockets and links are not considered properties of an item so those will stay there untouched. There are not many uses for this Orb except for meta-crafting. Unless you feel like you will be eventually doing that, feel free to sell literally all of those |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 2 Orbs of Scouring |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
- |
What do pros do? |
Remove properties from failed crafts, letting you restart the whole process from scratch |
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Regal Orb |
Upgrades a magic item into a rare item. There are no efficient uses for this orb early game. It can be only used in meta-crafting. It might not be a bad idea also to craft rare jewels with this, as long as you happen to find a decent blue jewel with good affixes and want to try your luck to get something valuable (usually it won't be, but it's not the worst idea) |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 2 Chaos Orb for around 3 Regal Orbs |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
Craft a decent to valuable rare jewels (as long as you already have a proper blue magic jewel) |
What do pros do? |
Meta-crafting, where you regal a perfectly rolled blue into a rare, and Scour it right after. That's the harsh reality. |
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Vaal Orb |
Corrupts an item. While able to completely ruin a valuable item, it possibly can give it very powerful properties. This Orb is mainly used to corrupt high tier maps to maximize their potential, and to corrupt the most expensive items for even more powerful results, being an extremely expensive gamble. There are certainly quite popular items you can Vaal, like Tabula Rasa and Drillneck. In most cases, Vaal Orb will not have a negative effect on the item at all, while giving you a slight chance to improve them greatly. Tabula Rasa will benefit from the +1 to socketed gem levels attribute, while Drillneck that can potentially increase the number of arrows by 1 is worth several Exalted Orbs. As it can increase level or quality of a gem it is also often used to corrupt level 20/quality 20 gems, as well as Enlighten or Empower Gems to level them up even further. Those take a very long time to level up, and those gems with level 4 are extremely valuable |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 1 Vaal Orb (I suggest sticking to this option to all casual players) |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
Improve the level and quality of gems beyond their normal maximum |
What do pros do? |
Craft high-tier maps with extremely rewarding properties Craft metagame items, worth in some cases even hundreds of Exalted Orbs |
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Blessed Orb |
Not a very popular Orb because of its' very limited usage. It randomizes the numeric value of the implicit properties of an item. Implicit properties are the ones that are on items no matter its' rarity - and are shown before the additional modifiers. One of the most common implicit modifiers is found on rings and amulets, for example, the "added physical damage" on Iron rings. Usually, the Blessed Orb will be only able to slightly modify an item. This makes the Orb somewhat irrelevant for casual players. It's commonly used by high-level players to maximize the value of these modifiers on endgame items, but even then, usually a few of them is enough. Considering their drop rate, these Orbs are usually not worth much |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 5 Blessed Orb, and I wouldn't suggest doing anything else with this Orb |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
Slightly improve endgame items by maximizing their implicit modifier value |
What do pros do? |
Slightly improve endgame items by maximizing their implicit modifier value |
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Cartographer's Chisel |
Used to improve map quality. Commonly used by high-level players to improve mid and high tier maps quality for more and better loot. There is a high demand for Cartographer's Chisels so it's rather easy to trade them, and not exactly worth it to be used by low-level players. |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 1 Chaos Orb for around 2 Cartographer's Chisel |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
- |
What do pros do? |
Improve mid and high tier maps quality |
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Divine Orb |
Randomizes the numeric value of a random property of an item. It is a rather expensive Orb Allowing you to trade it for 16 Chaos Orb each, which is what most of the players should do. High-level players can use it to increase values of properties on very good endgame items. This should be only considered doing on items which value exceed several Exalted Orbs |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for other Orbs. You can get 16 Chaos Orb for 1 Divine Orb, or you can get an Exalted Orb for 6 of those. |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
- |
What do pros do? |
Improve endgame items by maximizing their properties values. This is extremely expensive, so should be done on appropriately expensive items |
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Exalted Orb |
Adds a random property on a rare item. This Orb is very rare and valuable, but can basically drop to anyone no matter the level they are playing. It is advised to not use it on your own unless you know exactly what you are doing. I also suggest not using it on rares that even with perfect affixes added by the Exalted Orb will still not be worth over 10 Exalted Orbs. Supposedly, the majority of newbies and beginners find this Orb but rather than making help them reach higher levels and complete the campaign fast, they waste it on a random worthless piece of gear or trade with abusive players and get nothing in return |
What should beginners do with it? |
Trade them for Chaos Orbs and get proper gear. You should get around 100 Chaos Orbs for 1 Exalted Orb |
What else can beginners consider doing? |
Buying higher-quality gear |
What do pros do? |
Improve endgame items by adding additional properties. This is extremely expensive, so should be done only items that are already great, and still have a visible chance to improve |
New Orbs added in Path of Exile 3.0 Patch
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I hope you liked this article, and thanks to it you can remove some of your bad habits when casually playing PoE :) Also if you are a more experienced player and have some other ideas and efficient usages for the Orbs above please let me know in comments.
Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.