Path of Exile 2 Atlas of Worlds: How to sustain waystones and other tips

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(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)

PoE 2 Atlas of Worlds - Portals

Jump to:How to get waystonesAtlas passive treeMapping with intentTips and tricks

So you’ve rolled up your character, battled past innumerable horrifying monsters, and thrashed Doryani’s machine. Twice. You’ve got your free waystone, clicked on the map device, and opened up theAtlas of Worlds. Now what?

Path of Exile 2’s mapping can be intimidating, but after reading this you’ll have all the information you need to progress your Atlas, sustain your waystones, and reach the true endgame.

When we talk about sustain in Path of Exile, we’re referring to maintaining a healthy supply of waystones in order to keep progressing. Running out can be frustrating, but with these tools you should be able to keep mapping to your heart’s content.

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How to get waystones

(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)

PoE 2 Atlas of Worlds - Waystone

Starting at the beginning, you’ll need waystones to navigate the Atlas. You’ll first find them as random drops in Cruel difficulty, and get one for free from Doryani after you complete the campaign. Waystones are items that you’ll place in map nodes in order to move there and battle the monsters. Each one provides you one attempt—whether you clear the map or die horribly, you get one shot per waystone. If you’re able to kill all the rare (yellow) monsters, the map will be completed and you can move on.

As items, waystones can be modified with currency like most other items. This means they can have rarity and roll prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes are generally upsides; things like extra monsters, gold, or rarity. Suffixes are generally downsides; like cursing you or adding extra damage to the monsters in the map. However, these downsides also come with an increase to the percentage of waystone drops, which is key to looting enough waystones to keep progressing.

Waystones are divided into tiers from 1-15. Each tier corresponds with the level of the monsters inside, and they get harder as you go up the line. Clear enough maps of each tier and Doryani will award you with a skill book to add two points to your Atlas passive ree. This is like your regular skill tree, but instead of adding power to your character, it affects your maps.

The Atlas passive tree

(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)

PoE 2 Atlas of Worlds - Passives

How you spend the points you get on your Atlas passive tree makes a huge difference in whether or not you’re able to sustain your waystones and keep progressing. Here’s how I recommend spending your points:

With Deadly Evolution, that’s 20 points. You’ll get 30 all told, so this gives you a good foundation to progress your Atlas and still leaves you some flexibility. From here you can choose to lean into added content like Shrines, Essences, or Strongboxes. Alternatively, you can take generically helpful nodes like Lucky Pillage or Local Knowledge.

Mapping with intent

(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)

PoE 2 Atlas of Worlds - Hideout

Now that we’ve got a plan, it’s time to get moving. The first thing you’re going to want to do is find a map node that contains a hideout. Maps in Path of Exile 2 have all kinds of icons over them that indicate what kinds of additional content they contain, and there’s a legend in the top left if you click the info icon that tells you what they all are. The hideout icon looks like a fleur-de-lis, and will provide you with a cozy base of operations for your adventures.

Moving on from there we’re going to be focusing on two things: towers and bosses. The Lost Towers you’ll see all over the Atlas do a couple things for us. First, completing them removes a large area of the fog of war, and lets us see what’s going on. Second, completed towers have a slot in them where we can put precursor tablets.

Clear towers close together and you can overlap these tablets, creating a zone of super juicy maps ripe for big loots and excellent waystone returns. As you progress higher, be sure to use lower level waystones to clear the towers themselves—they don’t have too many monsters, so using your best waystones is a waste.

After we’ve got an area all juiced up, it’s time to farm for big returns. Use your highest tier waystones on maps with bosses in them, preferably with one or more tablets in the area. Bosses almost always drop a waystone, and with good suffixes and tower setups, you can get multiple higher tier waystones that will really get you going.

Tips and tricks

(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)

PoE 2 Atlas of Worlds - Reforging Bench

Here are some additional tips and tricks to keep in mind that will help you sustain your waystones and keep movin' on up to tier 15:

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How to get waystones#

The Atlas passive tree#

Mapping with intent#

Tips and tricks#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

How to get waystones

The Atlas passive tree

Mapping with intent

Tips and tricks

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals