Introduction to Delve League
Delve League was introduced into Path of Exile in 3.4, it introduced the NPC “Niko, Master of the Depths” along with a whole new endgame for POE, delving. Delve introduced a new dungeon called The Azurite Mine, this mine scales infinitely, granting greater rewards the further you delve whilst also substantially increasing the difficulty, Delve can be so rewarding that many players choose to focus on it rather than the Atlas itself.The Basics of Delve
Sulphite and Azurite
In delving you will need to find Sulphite and Azurite, but what do they do? Sulphite is essentially your minecarts fuel, if you do not have any Sulphite you cannot delve, Sulphite can be found inside maps containing Niko, you can also use Sulphite Scarabs on maps to gain increased amounts of Sulphite than you’d usually get from a normal Niko mission.Azurite is the currency you farm to upgrade your mine to take you to even further depths, it can also be used to buy resonators that you can craft items with, Azurite can predominately be found in nodes marked with “Azurite Cavity”, there are also veins you can open along paths when you’re delving that will give you small amounts of Azurite.
Dynamite & Flares
When you’re inside the mine you will have dynamite and flares that you can drop on the floor to help you. Flares will save you from the darkness damage for a brief period of time, they can be used when you’re searching the crevices around the mine cart.Dynamite is used to destroy fractured walls to find hidden loot or hidden nodes, they can be used to damage enemies but you shouldn’t use them this way.
Upgrading your Azurite Mine
As you descend further into the mine you will need to upgrade certain things using your Azurite, usually, the first thing you’ll want to upgrade will be Sulphite capacity so you can do multiple maps with Niko missions before reaching your cap, the cost of upgrades will increase every time you make one.
Here’s a list of upgrades you should probably make in order:
- Sulphite Capacity
- Light Radius
- Flare Maximum Quantity
- Flare Light Radius
- Darkness Resistance
- Flare Duration
- Dynamite Maximum Quantity
Fractured Walls
Fractured walls can be found all over the Azurite Mine, they contain hidden loot chests or fossil remains. Fractured walls can be destroyed by dropping dynamite in front of them, it can be tricky to figure out the location of a wall if you don’t know what to look for so we’ve put an example below on how you can find that pesky fractured wall to reach the node you’re trying to reach.
As you can see from the image there’s a currency we’re trying to get to – if you’re new you won’t have a clue how to get it. Basically in the mine, you cannot have a node with only 2 paths its got to be 1, 3 or 4, remember this as it is very important – using the power of deduction this will be the node where you will find the wall to the currency:

Delve Biomes & Fossils
Delve contains many different biomes, these biomes can contain specific “fossil” rewards based on which biome you are in.Fossil Types
Below are all the fossil types in Path of Exile and their uses:Fossil Name | Fossil Effect |
---|---|
Aberrant Fossil | More Chaos Modifiers, No Lightning Modifiers |
Aetheric Fossil | More Caster Modifiers, Fewer Attacks Modifiers |
Bloodstained Fossil | Has a Vaal Modifier |
Bound Fossil | More Minion, Aura or Curse Modifiers |
Corroded Fossil | More Physical Ailment or Chaos Ailment modifiers, No Elemental modifiers |
Dense Fossil | More Defence modifiers, No Life Modifiers |
Enchanted Fossil | Has a Labyrinth Enchantment |
Encrusted Fossil | More sockets, Can have white sockets |
Faceted Fossil | More Gem modifiers |
Fractured Fossil | Creates a mirrored copy |
Frigid Fossil | More Cold modifiers, No Fire modifiers |
Gilded Fossil | Item is overvalued by vendors |
Glyphic Fossil | Has a corrupt essence modifier |
Hollow Fossil | Has an Abyssal socket |
Jagged Fossil | More Physical modifiers, No Chaos modifiers |
Lucent Fossil | More Mana modifiers, No Speed modifiers |
Metallic Fossil | More Lightning modifiers, No Physical modifiers |
Perfect Fossil | Improved Quality |
Prismatic Fossil | More Elemental modifiers, No Physical Ailment or Chaos Ailment modifiers |
Pristine Fossil | More Life Modifiers |
Sanctified Fossil | Numeric modifier values are lucky, High Level modifiers are more common |
Scorched Fossil | More Fire modifiers, No Cold modifiers |
Serrated Fossil | More Attack modifiers, Fewer Caster modifiers |
Shuddering Fossil | More Speed modifiers, No Mana modifiers |
Tangled Fossil | Can have any Fossil modifiers |
Biome Fossil Locations
Below is a cheat sheet for all of the locations of fossils you can find in biomes.
Special Biomes
Delve contains 3 special biomes, The Vaal City, The Abyssal Depths & The Primeval Ruins these biomes are called “cities” & they have different layouts to the rest of the delve biomes, they can each contain a rare unique boss.
Delve Bosses
Delve contains 3 different unique bosses, they are:City | Node Name | Boss Name | Minimum Depth | Chance to Encounter |
---|---|---|---|---|
Vaal | The Grand Architect’s Temple | Ahuatotli, The Blind | 83 | 2% |
Abyssal | The Lich’s Tomb | Kurgal, The Blackblooded | 150 | 1.9% |
Primeval | The Crystal King’s Throne | Aul, The Crystal King | 220 | 0.83% |