What is Basic Currency?
Basic currency items can drop anywhere, from any mob, without a specific drop restriction. They are used across Path of Exile as the main trading currency and for crafting. In this section we’ll be showing you all of the different basic currency items and their uses, most of these items are commonly dropped just from playing the game. Most basic currency items have a specific vendor recipe which will be shown below. The rarer currency drops are Annulment orbs, Divine Orbs & Exalted Orbs, the rarest possible basic currency drop is the Mirror of Kalandra. If you get a Mirror drop, buy a lottery ticket, because the odds are supposedly less than 0.0001%.
Socket Modifying Currency
There are several currencies you can use to modify the sockets on your gear, these orbs can give you more sockets, link them together or change the socket colours. They are as follows:
Jeweller’s Orb
The Jeweller’s Orb is used to modify the number of sockets an item. The maximum number of sockets an item can have depends on the base of the item, see the list
here.
The vendor recipe for Jeweller’s Orbs is any 6 socketed item that is not 6 linked.
Orb of Fusing
As the name suggests, the Orb of Fusing is used to fuse the links on an item. The maximum links an item can have is dependant on the number of sockets it has, the maximum number of fused sockets is six.
There is no vendor recipe for Orb of Fusing’s, however, you can exchange 4 Jeweller’s Orbs for 1 Orb of Fusing from the NPC “Yeena” in act 2 or 7.
The odds of hitting specific links with Orb of Fusings are noted in the table below.
| Number of Links | Average Probability For Desired Outcome |
|---|
| Two Links | 1 in 2 |
| Three Links | 1 in 3 |
| Four Links | 1 in 5 |
| Five Links | 1 in 150 |
| Six Links | 1 in 1500 |
Chromatic Orb
Chromatic Orbs are used for changing the socket colours of your items, which are more likely to roll a colour that corresponds with your items stat requirement, strength is red, intelligence is blue and dexterity is green. The higher the attribute requirement on your gear, the higher the chance of hitting that colour. It is not possible to roll white sockets with chromatic orbs, this is a result of a Vaal Orb or
Vorici’s crafting bench in research.
The vendor recipe for a Chromatic Orb is an item with less than 6 sockets that has 3 linked sockets of each colour.
Example:
Crafting Currency
There are a ton of ways to craft items in Path of Exile, the easiest way to craft an item is to use basic crafting currency items. Here we’ll go over each type of currency that can be used in crafting.
Orb of Transmutation
The Orb of Transmutation is the most common of all crafting currencies, it simply changes a normal item into a magic item with 1 modifier.
Though there is not a vendor recipe for an Orb of Transmutation, selling items unidentified to vendors will grant you 5 Transmutation shards, 20 shards make one Orb of Transmutation.
Orb of Alteration
The Orb of Alteration is a very useful currency, it re-rolls the modifiers of magic items. It is typically used in end-game crafting when the player is looking for one specific modifier from an item, players will burn through these quite quickly whilst crafting so despite being one of the more common currency items, its value remains high throughout the league when selling in bulk.
There is no set vendor recipe for an Orb of Alteration, however, selling any identified item regardless of rarity will grant alteration shards. The higher the rarity and more modifiers an item has will be worth more alteration shards.
Orb of Augmentation
As the name suggests, the Orb of Augmentation augments a new property onto a
magic item, a magic item can have a maximum of 2 modifiers. They are typically used alongside Orb of Alterations in end-game crafting.
There are 3 vendor recipes for an Orb of Augmentation but only one is worth doing: 1 rare item with 6 suffixes.
Orb of Alchemy
The Orb of Alchemy is a currency that is used quite a lot, it upgrades a normal item into a rare item with anywhere between 4-6 modifiers on normal items and 3-4 on jewels. Near the end-game, Orb of Alchemys will mostly be used to upgrade normal maps into rare maps, they aren’t typically used for crafting gear as much.
There are quite a few vendor recipes for Orb of Alchemy:
| Outcome | Recipe |
|---|
| 1 Orb of Alchemy | 2 Identified rare items with the same name and 20% quality |
| 1 Orb of Alchemy | 3 Identified rare items with the same name |
| 1 Orb of Alchemy | 1 normal, 1 magic & 1 rare item of the same base type with all having 20% quality |
| 2 Orb of Alchemy’s | 1 normal, 1 magic & 1 rare unidentified items of the same base type with all having 20% quality |
Orb of Scouring
An Orb of Scouring removes all modifiers from an item and turns it back into a normal item, like almost all currency in Path of Exile, they cannot be used on unique items.
The vendor recipe for an Orb of Scouring is any rare item with exactly 2 modifiers
Chaos Orb
The Chaos Orb is used to reroll the modifiers on rare items, it is also the most common trading currency in the game.
There are multiple vendor recipes for Chaos Orbs they all require a full rare set (amulet, belt, rings, weapons, armour)
| Outcome | Recipe |
|---|
| 1 Chaos Orb | Full set, item lvl 60-74 |
| 2 Chaos Orbs | Full set, item lvl 60-74 all unidentified or 20% quality on all parts |
| 3 Chaos Orbs | Full set, item lvl 60-74 all unidentified and 20% quality on all parts |
Regal Orb
The Regal Orb upgrades a magic item into a rare item, adding one new modifier.
Vaal Orb
The Vaal orb is an orb that carries a lot of risk for reward, it corrupts an item modifying it unpredictably, corrupted items cannot be changed in any way unless specified otherwise. You can modify corrupted items socket colours, sockets and gem links still through the crafting bench, however, you will have to pay a number of Vaal orbs equal to the cost of the craft. Click
here to see a list of potential changes from a Vaal Orb.
Annulment Orb
The Annulment Orb is used to randomly remove one modifier from an item
Divine Orb
Divine Orbs re-roll the explicit values of an item, this can be used on any uncorrupted item that has a modifier including unique items.
The vendor recipe for a divine orb is any 6 linked item.
Exalted Orb
The Exalted orb is a rare currency that augments a rare item with a random new modifier, this is effectively end-game crafting and considering one of the best currencies in the game for this reason. The Exalted Orb is crucial in the economy as it is used to trade for high-value items which would usually cost thousands of Chaos Orbs.
The only Exalted Orb vendor recipe is trading a Mirror of Kalandra for 2 Exalted Orbs, 5 Regal orbs and a Divine orb. You should never do this.
Mirror of Kalandra
The Mirror of Kalandra is the rarest drop in Path of Exile, you could play this game for over 5,000 hours (like me) and never have one drop. They are used to duplicate perfectly crafted best-in-slot items, these are usually done via a “Mirror Service” where the buyer would typically trade their Mirror and a fee to obtain a copy of their item. If you do this ask for collateral unless you completely trust the person you are trading to ensure you are not scammed.
There is no vendor recipe for a Mirror of Kalandra.
Quality Currency
Quality currency increases specific pieces of gear overall quality up to a maximum of 20% there are 5 basic quality currency items:
Blacksmith Whetstone
Increases the quality of a weapon which increases the weapons DPS.
Armourer’s Scrap
Increases the quality of an armour which increases their specific defence attribute, be it armour, evasion or energy shield.
Glassblower’s Bauble
Increases the quality of a flask, increasing duration.
Gemcutter’s Prism
Gemcutters Prism increases the quality of gems, each gem has a unique quality effect that you can see by holding alt when you are looking at a gem.
Cartographers Chisel
Increases the quality of a map which increases quantity.
When using quality currency it is most efficient to do it on normal bases as each one will increase the quality by 5%, for magic items it increases by 2% and 1% for rare/unique items.
