As you venture through the campaign of Path of Exile 2, you’ll encounter a variety of bosses, quests, and side activities that can provide valuable upgrades to your character. These upgrades often go unnoticed, as many of them are optional or easily missed.
Whether you’re struggling with difficult content later on or simply want to make your journey easier, knowing where to find these permanent buffs can significantly impact your gameplay. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the most important permanent upgrades available throughout the campaign, ensuring you don’t miss out on these crucial boosts.
Permanent Upgrades in Act 1
1. Beira of Rotten Pack (Clearfell)
Located early in Act 1, Beira is an optional boss that drops an item granting you a 10% permanent increase to cold resistance. Although elemental resistances have a cap, they are penalized as you progress through the acts. This makes Beira’s bonus particularly useful in helping you mitigate increasing elemental resistance penalties.
2. Crowbell (Hunting Grounds)
In the Hunting Grounds zone, you’ll find Crowbell, a boss with multiple stages. Defeating Crowbell will reward you with a book that grants you two weapon set specialization points. These are essentially two extra skill points, which can be used to enhance your weapon sets or further improve your build.
3. King in the Mist (Frey Thorn)
This boss is located in Frey Thorn and offers a vital upgrade: +30 maximum spirit. This is the first increase to your spirit pool, which is essential for unlocking persistent buff skills. It’s crucial to find and defeat this boss early on, as it opens up new strategic possibilities.
4. Una’s Loot (Ogum Farmlands)
In Ogum Farmlands, Una’s Loot can be found and delivered to Una in Clearfell for a reward of two additional weapon set passive skill points. This effectively grants you two more permanent passive skill points for your character, enhancing your build.
5. Smithing Tools (Ogum Village)
In Ogum Village, you can find smithing tools that unlock the Salvage Bench. This is a highly useful function for item crafting, as it allows you to salvage items with quality and sockets, giving you crafting materials for future upgrades.
6. Candle Mass (Ogum Manor)
Inside Ogum Manor, an interactable plaque summons Candle Mass, a boss who grants you a permanent increase of +20 maximum life. While not the most game-changing upgrade, the additional life helps to improve your overall survivability, especially during tougher encounters.
Permanent Upgrades in Act 2
1. Ascend (Traitor Pass)
By completing the Traitor Pass, you’ll unlock your Ascendancy and two Ascendancy skill points. This is a pivotal moment in the game, as Ascendancy classes significantly alter your playstyle. Make sure not to miss this optional boss fight.
2. Kabala, the Constrictor Queen
Defeat Cabala to earn another two weapon set specialization points. Additionally, the Kabala Relic can be combined with the Sunclan Relic at the Valley of the Titan Alter to grant you one of two permanent bonuses: increased charm charges or improved mana recovery from flasks.
3. Fallen Dekhara (Deshar)
While progressing through Deshar, you’ll encounter a quest that lets you choose between three permanent buffs: increased stun threshold, elemental ailment threshold, or mana regeneration rate. Choose wisely, as this upgrade cannot be undone.
4. Sisters of Garukhan Shrine (Spires of Deshar)
In the Spires of Deshar, interact with the shrine to receive a permanent 10% lightning resistance increase. This can be crucial as you progress through harder areas that feature more elemental damage.
Permanent Upgrades in Act 3
1. Mighty Silver Fist
This boss drops a weapon set specialization book, granting you two more passive skill points for your build. It’s an essential upgrade that allows you to further fine-tune your character’s progression.
2. Bog Witch (Bog Zone)
The Bog Witch offers a significant upgrade by increasing your maximum spirit by +30, bringing your total to +60 spirit. This opens up further potential for spirit-based skills, increasing your combat flexibility.
3. Mektul (Molten Vault)
After defeating Mektul in the Molten Vault, you’ll unlock the reforging bench, a valuable item crafting tool that allows you to combine multiple items to create a new one with improved properties. This bench can drastically improve your gear over time.
4. Sacrificial Heart
In these zones, you can find the Sacrificial Heart quest item, which grants you two additional weapon set passive skill points when combined with a ritual dagger. This is another vital upgrade that will enhance your character’s skills permanently.
The permanent upgrades scattered throughout Path of Exile 2 are crucial to your character’s development. Many of these are easy to overlook, but they can make a significant difference in your gameplay, especially when facing harder content. Whether you’re boosting your resistances, increasing your spirit, or unlocking extra passive skill points, these upgrades ensure that your journey through the game is more manageable and enjoyable. Make sure to revisit zones and optional bosses to claim all these upgrades, and don’t miss out on any of the game-changing benefits they offer.