Beginners Guide for Path of Exile: Learning to Loot

Learning to Loot

It can be very tempting to pick up every item that falls out of the fallen enemies. Sometimes it can be difficult to leave those shiny yellow Rare items on the ground – it feels like leaving candy from a piñata on the floor.

There is something you need to come to terms with very quickly, however, in order to play the game effectively. You need to learn to leave the loot behind, or at least loot less. This is no exaggeration; there is far more to be sacrificed if you are looking to play efficiently or even optimally. As a starting point, however, we need to acknowledge that many pieces are not worth picking up.

This is particularly true while we are leveling up. Think of it logically; the best drops in the game come from high level enemies. If you are leveling, chances are you are in a pretty low level zone. You already know everything you pick up is going to be garbage, at best. Jewelry and Accessories, however, can still be worth identifying, as they can have nice combinations even at lower item levels. This means Rings, Amulets, and Belts.

You can and should still loot Rare items that you can use. If you are level 10 and you are using a White/Common chest, you should definitely pick up that Blue chest lying on the ground. It can even be worth it very early on in the league to pick up every Magic or Rare item, to help bolster your Scroll of Wisdoms.

Once your exile is up and running and you are past the first handful of levels, however, it is time to start leaving some of the items behind. If you know you’ll be making a trip back to town shortly, fill up your inventory. If you are setting out, make sure you keep some space for the whole journey ahead.

The exception to this rule is Solo-Self Found leagues, especially Hardcore variants, as you will want to identify as many pieces that are useful to your build as possible, in the hopes you find an item worth holding on to.

Supplying Yourself with Scrolls of Wisdom and Portal Scrolls

One major difference between Path of Exile freshmen and seasoned veterans is this: newer players find themselves running out of scrolls left and right. In contrast, the experienced players do not even bother picking them up. But how can you sustain your adventure without picking up these most essential of items?

The answer is the Orb of Transmutation. This orb is commonly dropped throughout the game and has little use on its own, save for a few niche instances. Trade a Transmute to a vendor, however, and they will offer 4x Scroll of Wisdom in return.

Though all players should pick up Portal Scrolls and the Scroll of Wisdoms they find early in the game, especially on league launch, you can quickly create an infinitely sustainable supply using this trick.

Portal Scrolls can be bought from vendors for 3x Scroll of Wisdom, which means that every Orb of Transmutation is also worth 1.25 Portal Scrolls. Players can also acquire a Portal gem to eliminate the need for Portal Scrolls entirely.

Installing a Loot Filter

There are thousands upon thousands of items and currencies in Path of Exile, and it would be impossible to teach a fresh exile every single one to keep an eye out for. Fortunately, a Loot Filter is a great way to highlight the best and rarest drops while filtering out items that are not worth picking up. It only takes about two minutes to do, and is absolutely necessary at higher levels, where so much loot is dropping that it can obstruct your screen entirely. Take a look at this comparison below, showing the same loot with no filter (top) versus a basic loot filter (bottom).

To get started installing a basic loot filter, take a look at the following steps.

1. Go to https://www.filterblade.xyz/

2. Log in with your PoE account

3. Set your basic options. We recommend “semi-strict” for new players.

4. Name and download your filter or upload it to your account.

If you downloaded your filter, put the filter file in your Documents/My Games/Path of Exile folder.

5. Log in to Path of Exile. Press Escape, then Options, and navigate to the UI tab. The last option on the page will allow you to select a Loot Filter in-game.

Another option that also works for console players is subscribing to Neversink’s filters via the Link here.
Log in to your account, you should be able to click follow on any of the filters, NeverSink-2semistr-softcore and NeverSink-3strict-softcore are recommended to begin with, and go to step 5 from above.

This has the bonus of getting updated automatically when Neversink releases a new update for the filter, but comes with the downside of not being able to customize the filter to your liking.

Having a Loot Filter will greatly reduce confusion for both new and seasoned players, as it highlights the rarest and most valuable items with colors, sounds, and more visible text. Most of the useless items are filtered so that they are no longer visible, and this level of strictness can be adjusted later if necessary. Higher level players, or those with greater wealth, often choose to run stricter filters, only stopping to loot items that are “worth their time”.