Heist Guide in Path of Exile

Intro

Heist is a league mechanic in PoE 1 that’s great for generating currency. With the release of Patch 3.27 Keepers of the Flame, it’s getting a couple of really nice buffs in, making it an ideal choice for the league start and will likely become more popular than usual.

In typical PoE fashion, Heists can be extremely simple or incredibly complex, depending on how much time and effort you want to devote to it.

Heist Overview

Heist (also called “Door League”) is a mechanic in which you work together with a team of criminals from the Rogue Harbour to steal valuable items hidden behind locked doors at the end of long hallways. You can find treasure chests hidden throughout Heists, so it is a good source of raw currency for very little investment, with the potential to grant much more valuable rewards at higher levels of content.

Movement speed is very important in Heist, more so than damage. Serious Heist players will run unique items that grant tons of Movement Speed such as Seven-League Step, Queen of the Forest, and The Restless Ward to zoom as fast as possible!

Changes to Heist in Patch 3.27

Heist Rogues no longer have to be leveled up in their chosen jobs. Because Rogues’ ability speed is increased by their job level, this means they will open doors and reward chests much more quickly than they did in previous league starts. Heist will become a faster mechanic.

Patch 3.27 also added asynchronous trade to PoE 1, which is a major buff to Heist. Farming Contracts and Blueprints is simple and easy, but it requires running maps. Players who want to focus exclusively on Heist generally prefer to buy Contracts from other players. Bulk-selling Contracts and Blueprints was tedious and slow in the past, but asynchronous trade makes the process instant. Not having to interact with other players is easier, which means players are more likely to do it.

Heist Breakdown Video

You can find a video detailing the Heist mechanic here:

When Should You Run Heist?

Running Heist before killing Kitava in Act 10 of the campaign is a great strategy for stockpiling basic currency like Alchemy Orbs as you prepare to head into maps. You can buy low-level Contracts from Whakano, the Barber in the Rogue Harbour for Chance Orbs.

You also get to see everyone’s MTX (or lack thereof) in the Rogue Harbour!

Another good time to run Heist is after you acquire your first two Voidstones.

Why Should You Run Heist?

During the campaign and toward the beginning of mapping, Heist is an easy source of currency orbs. All you need is a Contract and some Movement Speed — damage is optional! — and you’ll be scooping up tons of Alchemy and Chaos Orbs.

Once you are well into endgame mapping, Heist is a source of special unique items, experimental base types, Trarthan Skill Gems, and raw currency. It’s a full-fledged alternative to endgame mapping that rewards speed and planning over raw character power.

Heist Rogues

Heist has nine important NPCs, called Rogues, who you work with while completing the content. They open locked doors and locked treasure chests. Rogues also fight enemies, but their combat prowess is pretty limited. They cannot take damage or die.

Each Rogue also grants a unique passive bonus within Contracts and Blueprints. The potency of these effects scales with each Rogue’s highest Job level. Here is a list of their passive bonuses:

• Karst – 40% Less Alert Level from Opening Reward Chests
• Niles – Can unlock 1 Chest After Lockdown, 10% Reduced Blueprint Reveal Cost, Discovers an Additional Blueprint Reveal upon Completing a Contract
• Huck – Grants 20% Increased Experience Gain & Combat Buffs
• Tibbs – Can unlock 2 Chests After Lockdown
• Nenet – Scouts Patrols, 20% Less Alert Level from All Sources
• Vinderi – 14% Chance to Duplicate Chest Contents, 30% More Alert Level from All Sources
• Tullina – 26% Chance to Find Additional Heist Targets from Reward Chests, 14% Less Alert Level from All Sources
• Gianna – 30% Reduced Blueprint Reveal Cost, Discovers an Additional Blueprint Reveal upon Completing a Contract
• Isla – 50% Increased Time Before Lockdown

Unlocking Heist Rogues

Upon entering the Rogue Harbour for the first time, you initially have access to Karst, Tibbs, and Isla. By successfully completing one Contract with a specific Rogue, you unlock another Rogue.

Here is the unlock order required to access all nine Rogues:

• Tibbs → Tullina → Nenet
• Karst → Huck → Niles → Vinderi → Gianna

Rogue Jobs in Heist

Each Rogue has several jobs available to them. There are nine Rogues and nine Jobs, so most Rogues have one skill in which they specialize.

Huck and Vinderi are the two exceptions to this rule. Huck is an all-rounder, with no specific area of focus, but he grants nearby players 20% Increased Experience Gain, Increased Damage, Increased Movement Speed, and Increased Attack and Cast Speed.

Vinderi compensates for Huck’s lack of skills by being level 5 in both Demolition and Trap Disarmament.

Heist Rogue Equipment

Rogues have four item slots in which they can equip Rogue-specific items.

These items can increase Rogues’ job speed and job levels, making them faster and usable in Contracts and Blueprints they would not have been by default. Some item pieces can reduce the amount of alert level raised by opening chests or increase the amount of loot dropped from chests.

Rogue weapon slot items can grant nearby allies (including you, the player) an aura, such as Haste or Hatred.

Smuggler’s Caches

You can find Contracts and Blueprints from random monsters while running maps. You can occasionally find Smuggler’s Caches in maps, as well.

Smuggler’s Caches are guaranteed to contain Heist Contracts and Rogue’s Markers, and have a chance to contain Blueprints.

The Dutiful Soldier in the Atlas Passive Tree makes clicking a Smuggler’s Cache in your maps spawn Huck, who will accompany you for the rest of the map. Huck will grant you all of his powerful bonuses and item auras, so this is a great way to add increased experience gain and Movement Speed in maps.

Casing the Joint in the Atlas Passive Tree grants 100% increased chance for Smuggler’s Caches to contain Blueprints (doubling the base chance, not guaranteeing that they drop) and gives all Blueprints a 10% chance to drop fully revealed. Fully revealed Blueprints can be valuable. Farming and selling Contracts and Blueprints without setting foot in the Rogue’s Harbour can be an effective currency strategy.

Contracts

Contracts are simple. You run through a long hallway full of locked doors and steal an item. The item only serves one purpose: you sell it to Faustus for Rogue’s Markers, which are the currency used for everything related to Heist. The Heist Contracts can be rolled with modifiers just like maps, but they do not increase the value of rewards at the end of the hallway, so rolling them up for maximum difficulty is generally not worth doing. Scour and go!

You must hire a Rogue to accompany you on each Heist based on the skill required to complete it. Generally speaking, you want to hire the Rogue with the highest skill level for the specific job. The only exception to this rule is Gianna, who is worth hiring any time she is an option.

Once inside the Contract area, make your way to the reward room at the end, grab the Heist target item, and get out as quickly as you can. You can open chests along the way to the reward room, but doing so will fill up the alert meter at the bottom of the screen by a set amount. Your Rogue will be able to unlock side rooms throughout the Heist Contract area that contain reward chests. These chests can grant more valuable items, but opening them takes time and builds up a larger amount of alert level.

Deception Contracts are the most valuable type for two reasons:

1. You can hire Gianna.
2. No doors lock behind you once the area goes into lockdown. You can grab the loot and run to the entrance without stopping.

Even if you never want to run Heist, picking up Deception Contracts to sell them to other players who will use them is a good idea.

Alert Level

If you completely fill the alert meter, you will receive a countdown timer until the area goes into lockdown, which will prevent you from taking the target item in the reward room at the end of the Contract. Grabbing a Heist target will also send an area into lockdown. Once an area is in lockdown, guards will patrol the area and wait at doors to ambush you. The only course of action is to leave as quickly as possible.

Speed is king in Heist Contracts. Move through them as quickly as you can, clicking caches along the way to the final room and ignoring most reward chests (currency chests, indicated by the Chaos Orb icon, are the lone exception).

Quest Contracts

As you open Smuggler’s Caches in maps, you will find a series of untradeable Quest Contracts with names that show up in green text. These Quest Contracts are one-time Contracts (they can be repeated if failed) that have slightly different objectives from standard Contracts and usually require a specific Rogue to accompany you during the Heist. You will also need to speak to the appropriate NPC in the Rogue’s Harbour before taking on each Quest Contract.

Upon completion, Quest Contracts reward a large amount of Rogue’s Markers, so they are worth doing if you intend to run Heist during the league. If not, you can toss them on the ground in a map or campaign zone to clear them from your inventory.

Unique Contracts

After completing all of the Quest Contracts, Unique Contracts will begin dropping in their place. Unique Contracts all start off in lockdown and have a Heist-specific boss at the end, but otherwise work similarly to Quest Contracts. Unlike Quest Contracts, Unique Contracts are infinitely repeatable, allowing you to farm boss-specific uniques such as Leadership's Price.

There are five different Unique Heist Contracts, each with a different boss at the end.

Blueprints

Blueprints (also called Grand Heists) are Heist’s endgame mechanic. Functionally, Grand Heists work like three or four regular hallway Contracts merged together. The reward room at the end of each hallway is different, and significantly more rewarding.

Revealing

Grand Heists have a revealing phase. You can reveal wings and rooms of Blueprints at Whakano, the Barber. Completing Contracts grants one Blueprint reveal with Whakano. Revealing areas costs Rogue’s Markers, and the price of revealing sections of a Blueprint increases with each subsequent reveal. Because of this, you will want to compare the price of buying a new Blueprint with the Rogue’s Marker cost of unveiling a new wing. You can also use the Split Beast craft from Bestiary (Fenumal Plagued Arachnid) to split a single Blueprint into two separate Blueprints, just be sure to check the prices first. Revealing reward rooms is almost never worth the cost.

Completing Contracts with Gianna also grants a Blueprint reveal with her, and she reduces the cost of revealing areas by 30 percent. Running Deception Contracts with Gianna early in a league is a great way to set yourself up to run Grand Heists later.

Planning

Blueprints also have a planning phase, and you can choose up to three Rogues to work with you in each wing. All three Rogues’ bonuses will apply to each wing they are present in, so you always want to choose separate Rogues whenever possible, even if they are not the most skilled Rogue available for a given job. Three Rogues are better than two!

Reward Rooms

Grand Heists have a reward room at the end of each wing. Unlike Contracts, which grant an item that can be sold for Rogue’s Markers, Blueprint rewards are items that can be bought and sold with other players for currency (sometimes the reward is just raw currency), and are only available from Heist.

Reward rooms can contain replica unique items, experimental bases, Trarthan Skill Gems, and Thief’s Trinkets.

Thief’s Trinkets are equipable items that can improve your drops throughout Heists, such as giving Regal Orbs a 4% chance to drop as Divine Orbs instead.

Conclusion

Heist is a mechanic with a lot of depth. If all you want is to do is get currency at league start and never return to the Rogue Harbour, selling Contracts and Blueprints to other players can still be a steady source of currency. For players who love Blueprints, Heist is an alternative endgame to maps that rewards speed over pure player power. Many of the rarest items from Heist can be worth an enormous amount of Divine Orbs.

There’s always currency to be made with Heist!