Do you have problems sustaining maps in Path of Exile? Well, that is actually quite a common issue in the game. Keep on reading if you want to learn the secrets of how you can sustain maps so that you’ll never have to buy from the trade website ever again.
When a new expansion arrives in Path of Exile, you have the option to try out the new Challenge League, where you basically start from scratch. When you’ve defeated Kitava in Act 10, you’re now ready to tackle the endgame and most of your time will be spent completing a ton of maps to get the gears and upgrades that you need.
That said, if you have played the game for quite some time now, you probably have at least a few maps that you really want to run. Unfortunately, sustaining them early on can be difficult, especially if you don’t know what to do.
Here are some of the best tips to help you maintain a healthy amount of maps.
Get the Right Atlas Passives
The Atlas Passive Tree is quite daunting to look at, but if you know where to go and which nodes to take, it is actually quite easy. To help you sustain maps, you must get the small nodes that improve your chances of getting some. For instance, the “Adjacent Map Drop Chance” is a small node that increases your odds of getting a connected map during your run.
Map Drop Duplication is another node that you should get in the early stages of the Challenge League. You can remove them once you already have enough maps.
Put a Point in Singular Focus
One of the most important Keystone passives that you should get from your Atlas if your goal is to get a good supply of your favorite maps is Singular Focus. This greatly increases the likelihood of you getting one of your Favored Maps. The only downside is maps that are not on your Favored List will not drop at all. Instead, they are replaced with basic currency items. While the drawback may seem problematic at first glance, it is actually not a big deal. Remember that the reason why you’re getting Singular Focus is to sustain your maps early on.
Wandering Path
If you’re not comfortable using Singular Focus because you want to get a wide variety of maps, there is a pretty good alternative: Wandering Path.
Wandering Path is a keystone that essentially doubles the effects of small nodes on the Atlas Tree. However, this also disables the effects of all notable passives, which means that those bigger nodes on the tree will not work when Wandering Path is active.
The reason why this particular keystone is great for map sustain is that it boosts the effects of Adjacent Map Drop Chance, Map Drop Duplication, and Map Modifier Effect nodes. So, not only will you get at least one map per run, but the possibility of getting duplicates to drop is high as well.
Juicing
For those who don’t know, juicing in Path of Exile is a term used to refer to maps that have received a number of modifiers which improve monster pack size and item quantity. Now, you might wonder why juicing is important for map sustainability. The simple answer is that the more modifiers the map has, the better your chances of getting items and maps.
Juicing is actually quite easy to do. First, get some Cartographer’s Chisels to improve the map’s quality to 20%. Next, use an Orb of Alchemy to turn a normal map into a rare one. Then, the last step is to use a Vaal Orb to “corrupt” it, possibly giving the map more pack size or a completely different set of modifiers. You could add Delirium Orbs or Scarabs into the mix, but those are optional and only viable if you have enough of them lying around.
Keep in mind that juiced-up maps may contain modifiers that make the encounter hard to complete. Only run the ones you’re comfortable doing, otherwise, this particular strategy will be a waste of your time and resources.
There you have it! Hopefully, this guide has helped you maintain your maps, especially during league start.
Path of Exile is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
