The Endgame Activities Atlas Progression in Path of Exile
Understanding Atlas Progression is essential for maximizing your PoE experience. In this guide, we'll walk you through the Atlas mechanics, Endgame Activities, and tips for navigating the Atlas to increase your rewards, unlock powerful content, and level up your character's power in the most efficient way possible.
The Atlas of Worlds: What Is It?
The Atlas of Worlds is a vast map that encompasses the final tier of Path of Exile's progression. After completing the main storyline, players gain access to the Atlas, which is represented as a literal world map that players can explore. It consists of multiple interconnected regions, each offering different content, challenges, and rewards.
As you venture through the Atlas, you will engage in various Endgame Activities like Mapping, Shaper and Elder fights, and other powerful encounters. Progressing through these activities is vital for obtaining high-quality loot, unique items, Path of exile currency, and leveling up your character in preparation for even more difficult content.
The Basics of Atlas Progression
Progressing through the Atlas involves several key concepts, including Map Completion, Map Tier Progression, and Influence Mechanics. Understanding how these elements work will help you maximize your rewards and get the most out of your time in the Atlas.
1. Map Completion and Tiers
Maps in Path of Exile are divided into tiers, with each tier representing a more difficult version of the map. As you complete a map, you gain completion towards the Atlas and progress through the tiers. Each region in the Atlas contains multiple maps of different tiers, and you will need to complete these maps in increasing difficulty.
Low Tier Maps (1-3): These maps are generally easy and are great for farming currency, leveling, and unlocking more difficult content.
Mid Tier Maps (4-7): These maps provide better loot and can be used for advancing to higher-tier content.
High Tier Maps (8-10): High-tier maps are the most challenging and provide the best rewards. Completing these maps is essential for obtaining high-level loot and for accessing the most difficult endgame bosses.
2. Influence Mechanics: Shaper, Elder, and Conquerors
As you progress through the Atlas, certain regions become influenced by different entities, such as the Shaper, Elder, and the Conquerors of the Atlas. These influences provide additional content and challenges that directly affect your mapping experience.
Shaper and Elder Influence:
The Shaper and Elder are powerful entities that influence specific regions of the Atlas. Once you've encountered the Shaper or Elder on the Atlas map, these bosses will begin to appear within your maps, creating Shaper-influenced or Elder-influenced areas. These areas provide more challenging fights and unique rewards, including Shaper/Elder-specific items.
The goal here is to push the Shaper and Elder to their final fight while managing the influence mechanics, which can change map modifiers and increase the difficulty of encounters. Beating these entities rewards players with powerful loot, including endgame gear, crafting materials, and even access to higher-tier content.
Endgame Activities in Path of Exile
Once you've completed the initial stages of the Atlas and have unlocked its core mechanics, several key activities await you that will help you progress through the endgame:
1. Mapping
Mapping is the bread and butter of the Atlas and serves as the primary method for progressing in Path of Exile's endgame. The primary goal of mapping is to complete maps of different tiers, and each completed map moves you closer to unlocking more difficult areas and increasing your rewards.
Map Modifiers: Each map can have modifiers that change the difficulty and rewards of the encounter. These modifiers are added by Sextants, Zana Mods, and other factors, and can increase the challenge of a map while also improving its loot drops.
Altering Maps with Scarabs: Using scarabs allows you to enhance the difficulty and rewards of your maps. Different types of scarabs provide additional content, such as extra bosses, rare monsters, or more loot.
Elder and Shaper Maps: As you progress through the Atlas, you'll be able to access special Shaper/Elder Maps. These maps are the culmination of your progress and feature difficult bosses and high-level loot. Clearing them will lead you toward the final stages of endgame content.
2. Endgame Bosses: Shaper, Uber Elder, and Searing Exarch
The endgame bosses in the Atlas are some of the most difficult encounters in the game. These bosses reward players with high-end loot, including Unique Items, Crafting Materials, and the chance to advance in the story. Here are some key bosses you'll encounter:
The Shaper:
The Shaper is a recurring boss in the series and one of the primary endgame encounters. After influencing the Atlas regions and completing specific objectives, you will face the Shaper fight in his domain, where you must defeat him and his minions.
Uber Elder:
Uber Elder is an even more challenging version of the Elder encounter. It requires players to complete a series of maps and unlock the Uber Elder fight, which involves navigating multiple phases and dealing with the presence of both Elder and Shaper. Uber Elder is notorious for its difficulty but provides some of the most lucrative rewards in the game.
The Searing Exarch:
Introduced with the Conquerors of the Atlas, the Searing Exarch is another one of the final endgame bosses. As with Elder and Shaper, the Searing Exarch's fight requires preparation and knowledge of its mechanics to successfully defeat it.
3. Delirium, Legion, and Other Endgame Leagues
Path of Exile often adds League Mechanics that overlap with the Atlas to provide additional endgame content. Examples include:
Delirium:
This league mechanic introduces the Delirium Fog, which covers entire maps and causes monsters to become much stronger. The reward for clearing these difficult maps is the chance to obtain Delirium Orbs and additional loot.
Legion:
The Legion league introduces Legion Encounters, where players free trapped warriors from different factions and fight off waves of enemies. Each encounter brings increased rewards, and completing these battles within time limits can yield some of the best loot in the game.
Maximizing Atlas Progression
To make the most of your Atlas progression, you'll need to manage your resources and focus on the activities that yield the best rewards. Here are some tips for efficient Atlas progression:
Optimize Map Farming: Use divination cards and scarabs to increase map drops and loot chances. Farming specific cards can help you gather materials for crafting or completing your Atlas objectives more quickly.
Complete Atlas Objectives: Focus on completing specific objectives for each region. These objectives unlock higher-tier content and lead to increased rewards. Also, ensure that you're completing map tiers efficiently to reach the Shaper, Elder, and Conqueror bosses.
Crafting and Currency: Keep an eye on currency crafting and Essences, as they can improve the power of your gear. Use orb crafting to manipulate item modifiers and build high-value loot. You can buy POE currency to get quickly.
Group Play: Some endgame content can be much easier to complete in party play. Grouping up with other players can speed up map clear times and provide shared rewards.
Conclusion
Path of Exile's Atlas progression system offers an expansive and deep endgame experience that is unrivaled in many RPGs. By completing maps, defeating powerful endgame bosses, and navigating various mechanics like Shaper/Elder influence and the Conquerors, you can unlock some of the most rewarding and challenging content in the game. While the Atlas can seem overwhelming at first, taking it one step at a time and focusing on optimizing your map drops, gear, and boss encounters will make for a rewarding and satisfying endgame journey.