Path of Exile 2: How to Get Artificer Orb PoE2
20.01.2025 - 02:15:00
Game Guides , Path of Exile 2
So you have been consuming tons of new content surrounding Path of Exile 2 Early Access lately, and you may have come across certain guides that showcase items that have sockets on them. As a complete beginner in PoE 2, you’re wondering how you can add sockets to your gear. Well, that is why we’re here!
In this article, we will go over a certain type of PoE 2 currency that lets you do just that. Come and join us! This is our ultimate guide on how to get Artificer’s Orb in Path of Exile 2!
What is the Artificer’s Orb?
The Artificer’s Orb is a type of currency in Path of Exile 2 that lets you add sockets to your gear. Unlike in PoE 1 where you can have as many as six sockets on a weapon, things are a bit different in the sequel.
You see, most of your pieces of gear can only have one rune socket each. This excludes the body armor and a two-handed weapon, which can have a couple. Another major point of emphasis here is that the Artificer’s Orb can only be used on a martial weapon, which includes any weapon that is not a wand, sceptre, or staff.
As to why the last three weapon types cannot have any sockets at the moment, there is no clear answer from Grinding Gear Games just yet. However, if we are to speculate, it’s probably because using a PoE 2 currency to add rune sockets on a majestic weapon like a sceptre, for example, just doesn’t fit in a thematic sense.
How to Use Artificer’s Orb
When you have an Artificer’s Orb in your possession, right-click on said PoE 2 currency and then click on the item you want to put rune sockets on.
That said, you can use the Artificer’s Orb on the following:
- Helmet
- Body Armor (twice)
- Two-Handed Weapon (twice)
- One-Handed Weapon
- Gloves
- Boots
- Martial Weapons:
- Bows
- Crossbows
- Maces
- Quarterstaves
- Axes
- Spears
- Flails
- Claws
- Daggers
- Off-hands:
- Shield
- Caster Focus
Once you have put sockets on your gear, what should you do next? Those sockets enable you to insert either a rune or a soul core. These are items that grant specific bonuses depending on the type you use. Here are some of the popular runes and soul cores used by Path of Exile 2 players:
- Soul Core of Azcapa
- Grants item rarity when placed on pieces of armor.
- Grants 15 Spirit when inserted into martial weapons.
- Soul Core of Tacati
- Mainly used to improve chaos resistance by socketing it into armor (7% per soul core).
- Soul Core of Citaqualotl
- Typically inserted into martial weapons for that awesome 30% increased elemental damage with attacks.
- Soul Core of Jiquani
- With the passive skill tree almost devoid of increased life modifiers, inserting Soul Core of Jiquani helps address your low health pool.
- Iron Rune
- Most attack skills in the game convert physical damage to a certain damage type. Therefore, increasing physical damage is one way to improve your character’s killing efficiency. This is why the Iron Rune is so popular.
- Elemental Runes:
- Composed of the Desert Rune (Fire), Storm Rune (Lightning), and Glacial Rune (Cold).
- Mainly used to address deficiencies in fire, lightning, or cold resistance. Each of these runes grants 12% increased elemental resistance depending on the type.
How to Get Artificer’s Orb
There is a reason why the Artificer’s Orb is part of a collective known as “upgrade currencies.” This is because putting sockets on gear allows you to improve your PoE 2 build in more ways than one.
Are you curious as to how you can get your hands on an Artificer’s Orb in Path of Exile 2? Well, this type of currency is a common drop from defeating monsters in the game. The harder the enemy is to kill, the more likely they are to reward you with this currency item.
Although you can farm Artificer’s Orb by eliminating plenty of monsters on the field, the typical way of acquiring this upgrade currency is to collect weapons and armor that already have sockets on them. After that, salvage them by using the aptly named Salvage Bench.
If this is still your first time creating a character in Path of Exile 2, the Salvage Bench can be unlocked by completing the “Finding the Forge” quest in Act 1. You have to complete several quests into the first act of the game before Renly, the blacksmith who resides at the upper right corner of the Clearfell Encampment, assigns this quest to you.
You only need to unlock the Salvage Bench once. When you create subsequent characters, Renly will no longer assign you the quest because the utility bench is already available in town.
After salvaging socketed items, you will be given an Artificer’s Shard. Collect 10 of these shards and they will automatically be converted into a full Artificer’s Orb, which is ready for use!
The number of Artificer’s Shards you get depends on how many sockets are on the item you’ve just salvaged. For instance, salvaging body armor with two sockets yields a couple of shards. Additionally, a helmet can only give you a single Artificer’s Shard since they can only have one socket.
You can easily get items that you can salvage for Artificer’s Shards by visiting the various NPCs in town. In the search box, type the word “Socket” and it should highlight any socketed item they have on offer.
If you are going to use that strategy, you have to have a considerable amount of gold with you because they do cost anywhere between 1,000-35,000 gold depending on the type of socketed equipment you purchase. The item level of a piece of gear is irrelevant if all you want to get from it is some shards.
Since the Artificer’s Orb is a type of PoE 2 currency, you can interact with Alva to bring up the Currency Exchange. When you’re presented with the menu, choose the Artificer’s Orb on the left side and the Exalted Orb on the right side.
PoE 2 Exalted Orbs are used as the primary currency for trading items in the game, so it stands to reason to set that on the “Items I Have” side of the Currency Exchange UI.
If you don’t have Exalted Orbs on hand, you can exchange some Chaos Orbs, Regal Orbs, and Orb of Alchemy for the Artificer’s Orb.
Tips
Now that you know the value of Artificer’s Orb in helping you unlock your PoE 2 build’s true potential, here are some practical tips on how you can farm and maximize the said upgrade currency:
Get to Cruel Difficulty
Despite being a random drop, the Artificer’s Orb becomes a lot more common when you are playing Path of Exile 2 in Cruel Difficulty.
If you’ve heard of the difficulty level before but you’re unsure what it is exactly, Cruel Difficulty is just a way for GGG to have you run back the entire first half of the campaign, with relatively stronger monsters than before. The reason why the company’s doing this is that Acts IV to VI will only be available in Path of Exile 2’s full release.
Anyway, taking on more challenging content is met with an equally rewarding experience. Not only do the other upgrade currencies like the Armourer’s Scraps and Blacksmith’s Whetstones become more prevalent in Cruel Difficulty, but your chances of getting an Artificer’s Orb to drop are increased as well.
Open Those Chests
Why do you think GGG placed a lot of treasure chests in the campaign and in the endgame of Path of Exile 2? Well, because these chests may contain valuable Path of Exile 2 currencies, such as the Artificer’s Orb and many others.
So, whether you are in Act II in search of the entrance to Keth or finding your way to the boss area of Vaal Factory in maps, do not forget to open any chest that you will come across. Who knows, you might get lucky and have a PoE 2 Divine Orb drop as well!
Fight More Rare Monsters
Rare monsters are similar to rare items in Path of Exile 2 in that they come with several modifiers that make them more challenging than, say, fighting against normal or magic enemies.
The thing about rare monsters that you have to understand is that they have a better chance of dropping valuable loot. They’re almost up there with the map bosses in terms of what you can get in return for defeating them successfully.
Having said that, you can influence the number of rare monsters that appear in maps by taking the appropriate Atlas Passive Skills, such as Rising Danger and Twin Threats. The small node that connects the two also adds a 5% increase in rare monsters in maps.
Aside from that, you’ll be happy to know that PoE 2 Patch 0.1.1 has increased the rate of rare monsters found in maps considerably, so be sure to download the update if you haven’t already.
Run Juicy Maps
The tier of Waystones you use while mapping is not important for the purpose of farming Artificer’s Orbs in Path of Exile 2. All you need to do is use a Waystone that is improved by crafting currencies like the Orb of Alchemy and Exalted Orb.
If you don’t have plenty of the aforementioned currencies, you can go for the more traditional Transmutation, Augmentation, and Regal Orb to at least have a rare Waystone with a few modifiers.
Now, the reason why you want to run a juiced-up Waystone is that any challenging content in PoE 2 that you complete successfully does not go unrewarded. If anything, you can go mapping as much as you want and get numerous Artificer’s Orbs just by doing this one strategy.
Take Increased Item Quantity Nodes
The Atlas Tree in Path of Exile 2 is more impactful than you think because it can amplify certain effects while mapping. For instance, you can have a bit more currency items to drop by taking the “Lucky Pillage” node on the Atlas Tree. This is situated on the right side from the starting point, which you can get by spending at least six points.
In addition, there are a few small item quantity nodes located on the lower right portion of the tree. You might assume that the measly 2% increase per node is negligible, but keep in mind that it is amplified by item rarity modifiers on your gear as well.
Improve Item Rarity
If you don’t know, certain pieces of gear in Path of Exile 2 can roll a mod called “Increased Rarity of Items Found.” This is also referred to as increased item rarity or simply IIR. This modifier, according to GGG, is not actually bugged because it functions in the way that it should.
Anyway, the reason why putting IIR mods on your gear is great is because it influences the frequency of better loot to drop. Since the complete Artificer’s Orb is relatively rare compared to socketed gear, having equipment with increased item rarity modifiers certainly helps get you more of said currency from defeating monsters.
If a full orb is still quite uncommon for you, at least items that already have sockets on them drop at an increased rate when you have 100% to 150% IIR. This is the most comfortable item rarity threshold without heavy compromises.
Save Them for Later Use
Ideally, you use an Artificer’s Orb to address any problems you have with your PoE 2 build. Do you need more fire resistance? Insert a Desert Rune or two to get a considerable amount. Do you lack elemental damage to make Lightning Arrow hurt more than it does currently? The Soul Core of Citaqualotl can certainly rectify that.
Although this currency can be utilized on almost all pieces of gear, it is best to save your Artificer’s Orbs for later because early-game items are easily replaced with better ones during the campaign. Once you are in the endgame, you can use the Artificer’s Orb as you see fit.
Use Them Before Vaaling
The term “Vaaling” is used to refer to the act of utilizing a Vaal Orb to corrupt an item, which may result in a random modifier if you’re lucky. While this is a common practice in Path of Exile 2, it is important to note that you have to apply any of the upgrade currencies before you use a Vaal Orb. Why? Because currencies like the Artificer’s Orb can no longer be utilized if an item is corrupted.
For example, you used a Vaal Orb on a Pillar of the Caged God and you got a bonus in critical damage. That’s great, right? Of course, it is! However, in your excitement, you forgot to put rune sockets before Vaaling, leaving you with a powerful weapon that has no sockets whatsoever! Don’t make this mistake because it is a costly one with no way to reverse it.
Buy Artificer’s Orbs
Farming Artificer’s Orbs in Path of Exile 2 requires time; time that you may not have. Trading for it also needs currency, which you might not have enough of at the moment. If you’re out of options and you really want to upgrade your gear, then don’t worry. We’re here to help you!
Our PoE 2 Store provides you with heaps of Artificer’s Orbs at a very affordable price. So, what are you waiting for? Put sockets on your gear now by heading to our online shop and buying the said Path of Exile 2 currency today!