How to make orbs - PoE version

TL;DR - read this if you want to know WHY this works the way it does




I'm posting this in response to players who say that they don't have much in the way of high end currency to buy and sell items and/or got messed up by bad RNG.

This guide, while not claiming to compete with multiboxing methods, will at least make you some money on the side and allow you to afford things down the line.

Also note that this method is not intended as a substitute to getting a high level character up there with the rest to get what you want or need. This tactic is only a crutch if you aren't getting orbs or if your currency supplies have totally dried up.

Do note that this will also take out some time you can play on your main character. This needs some time to work.

The mechanics of making money:

Stack all the IIQ and IIR you can get on your gear when going to farm. When farming, you need as much of it as you can safely get without compromising your survivability or your kill speed.

Quantity trumps quality. Quantity means more drops on average, and this will mean that you will find more orbs and more quality gems to sell in the trade channel or forum.

Level of the character is important. Try to not be more than +2 levels in the zone that you are at. Otherwise you start acquiring a penalty of -2.5% to experience (unimportant, see below) and currency drops (orbs and scrolls) per level beyond level + 2.

Quantity and rarity are synergistic. If you have more quantity, you'll naturally get more magic/rare items to sell. If you have quantity and rarity you can get even more magic and rare items, possibly even uniques.

The nitty gritty:

Alteration orb farming

This is your primary method of acquiring money to begin with. If you identify items, you can eventually get hold of alteration shards or alchemy shards to keep and combine into alterations and alchemy orbs.

The alteration orbs can be sold on the trade channel for 1 chaos orb equivalent per 16 alterations. Any higher than that is merely a ripoff.

The higher level of a character you have reached, you will get better chances of finding higher end mods on magic and rare items, which will net you a nice number of both alterations and alchs over time.

What to do with those alterations if you can't sell them? Turn them into fusings! that's right, vend those alterations to a vendor for jeweler's orbs, and you can vend those jeweler's orbs for orbs of fusing, which are worth about an alch each. Do note however that they are worth less than alchs when calculated in bulk to most players, because they're so common. 48 alts should eventually turn themselves into 6 fusings when you're done.

Another note: if you're piling up augmentation orbs, you can sell them to the vendors too for alterations at 4 apiece.

This is how you can get a certain amount of income if you intend to stick to a single character.

The real deal - Lowbie farming

This method lets you use the fact that your level vs. a zone's level won't be so high that you won't see currency dropping very much until it gets normalized during the endgame of maps and highest level areas.

This is actually quite a simple method. You stack as much rarity and quantity as possible on your new character of choice (quantity if you can stack nothing else), and run act 1 normal from Strand to Merveil, and if preferred, act 2 normal from fields to Fellshrine.

Quantity is king in this method. If your equipment gives you rarity, then it's just a bonus.

I've observed that because of this, you seem to get more drops of orbs in lower level zones as opposed to higher level zones, especially noted once you get halfway past act 2.

Depending on RNG and my luck I can find the equivalent of 3-10 chaos in alch orbs and above on a single lowbie run. The other orbs you get are just gravy you can pile up and sell later in bulk at the usual rate. The occasional regal, gcp, divine, or exalted is icing on the cake, but not to be expected as a common occurrence.

Sometimes however, RNG will screw you over even with this method. So be prepared to get barren runs sometimes save for what low orbs you can find and sell in bulk.

Hard evidence that this method works, at least for me:



After several lowbie runs and minus my expenses this is my current net worth in orbs.

I will be prepared to post what orbs I get in a sample run today as soon as I get down to doing that.

DISCLAIMER: This is in no way intended to substitute for leveling a character as high as it can go, preferably a non gear-dependent build, and getting your high end stuff from there. It is meant as an alternative for those who cannot reach those lofty heights just yet.

So guys, have fun with this small piece of useful advice. Comments welcomed.

I'm not reading all that.

provide a tl;dr please

11 exalted from a few low runs even with IIR/IIQ gear?

calling bullshit :)

how about around a sample size of 70-75 odd runs. That's how long it took.

I found 3 exalted during those runs, and the same goes for the divine orb.

The rest were got by trading up lower currencies to higher ones.

Like I told you, this just works for me.

@Catacrom: tl;dr version - take a level 1 (or in this case a level 2) character, clear act 1 from Strand to Merveil without sticking around for long in one area (try to not go through each area more than once) by stacking IIQ and IIR gear, gain orbs and gems. profit.

Just started my new run. I'll post the data for one run from Strand to Merveil once it's finished.

I'm interested in seeing the gear being used. How much IIQ/IIR can you actually have, while still not having much trouble clearing act 1. Assuming this gear is being re-used by all your lowbie chars.

I miss my old perfect quantity and rarity set: at present here's what I use from full clear between strand to merveil in act 1 (that is to say my final set up at present)



It doesn't compare to my old CB set. I had rare equipment that each had perfect 8% quantity/10% rarity on helmet, boots, amulet, both rings, and a very nicely rolled Perandus blazon.

You will observe that all of this is quantity gear. No rarity on it yet because of no luck with finding it again.

youve convinced me lol. Time to buy iiriiq vlld gear before krip realises and price skyrockets...
quick pm me all future messages!

Now if i only had a strong enough pc to multibox 6 of these low level treasure hunters at once...

I'm assuming u play ranger, pick poison arrow and split arrow/rain?

yeah, that's how it rolls. And Kripp probably is already using the technique. It is actually not that little known among the playerbase, just not that well known in general.

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ExiledToWraeclast wrote:

I've observed that because of this, you seem to get more drops of orbs in lower level zones as opposed to higher level zones, especially noted once you get halfway past act 2.

I found this as well I thought it was probably because of races. I figured they made it this way so in races you get better orbs to use on equipment to get that edge.