Orb of Alchemy vs Other Currency: When to Use It

The Orb of Alchemy occupies a unique and essential place among the many currency items in Path of Exile, and knowing when to use it versus other types can greatly impact your crafting success and resource management. Understanding its role compared to other currency helps you decide the optimal moments to deploy or save it.

An Orb of Alchemy is primarily used to upgrade a normal item into a rare one with random affixes. This transforms a base item into a more valuable and powerful tool or piece of gear, providing significant power upgrades early and mid-game. The key strength is giving you multiple affixes at once, which other orbs do not provide — making it a must-have among poe 2 currency options.

In contrast, Orbs like Chaos Orbs are used to reroll affixes on existing rare items rather than creating them from scratch. Chaos Orbs are excellent for tweaking and improving items that already have desired implicit stats or base types, but they cannot upgrade a normal item to rare. Therefore, use Orbs of Alchemy when you want to create a rare item from base items, and Chaos Orbs when refining existing rare items.

Exalted Orbs, on the other hand, add a new random affix to an already rare item. These are best used when you have a rare item with desirable stats and want to further enhance it. Since Exalted Orbs are very scarce and valuable, it’s wise to use them only on high-level endgame gear, whereas Orbs of Alchemy are more commonly used earlier in the upgrading process.

Other currency like Orbs of Augmentation add a single affix to magic items and Orbs of Scouring remove all affixes, assisting in crafting but not directly upgrading from normal to rare. These have their place in fine-tuning and crafting but don’t replace the initial power boost that an Orb of Alchemy offers.

Use the Orb of Alchemy when upgrading normal items to rares, especially during early gear progression or crafting base rares for enhancements. Transition to using Chaos Orbs for re-rolling affixes and Exalted Orbs for adding affixes to premium items. The Orb of Alchemy’s unique function is its value in the initial leap from basic to powerful rare, while other currencies specialize in refinement and enhancement. Balancing when to use each currency based on your item’s state is key to efficient crafting and progressing in Path of Exile — especially if you supplement your supply through buy poe 2 currency strategies to maintain crafting flexibility.