Best Way to Farm Experience

Leveling up in Path of Exile 2 lets you unlock new skills, improves your stats, and helps get ready for endgame content. This guide will show you the best ways to farm XP quickly, covering quests, farming zones, party play, and more.

How XP Works

You gain experience by killing enemies and completing quests. To get the most XP:

• Fight enemies close to your level. If they are too low, you will get less XP.
• Struggling with tough enemies? Farm in areas 1-2 levels below you for faster kills.
• Higher difficulties slow you down because enemies take longer to kill.

Best Ways to Farm XP

1. Complete Quests

The easiest way to gain XP is to play through the campaign. By the time you finish the story, you should be around Level 45, and close to Level 60 after playing through Cruel difficulty when you hit endgame. If you are behind, pick up and complete side quests for extra XP.

2. Farm Enemy-Dense Zones

To level up fast, you will need a build and farming strategy that work well together. Builds with strong area-of-effect (AoE) damage are great for clearing groups of enemies quickly, and movement skills help you get through zones faster. But do not forget about defense! Staying alive means less time wasted on deaths.

Some areas are packed with monsters, making them great for farming:

• Hunting Grounds: Full of enemies and ambushes, with a boss at the end.
• Dreadnought or Dreadnought Vanguard: Full of enemies and bosses.
• Jiquani’s Machinarium: A maze-like area loaded with enemies. Be careful, it is easy to get cornered. There is also a boss here.
• The Aggorat and Utzaal: Huge zones with lots of enemies.

These spots are also great to earn gold, so you can combine both XP and gold farming at the same time. To reset an area and respawn enemies, press CTRL + Left Click on the entrance and select “Reset.”

3. Focus on Speed

• Use movement-speed gear and skills to move faster.
• Do not waste time picking up useless loot.
• Combine questing with farming when possible.

4. Fight Optional Bosses

Grouping up with party members and hunting down all the optional bosses on the map can be a good way to gain experience fast. Doing this in a group will make the fights faster, and those bosses reward a lot of XP, among passive points and other useful items.

Advanced XP Farming (Endgame)

Once you hit endgame, these are the preferred methods:

• Run Maps on the Atlas (aka “Mapping”): Maps have lots of monsters and great XP rewards.
• Boss Rush: In maps, skip straight to bosses for big XP bonuses.
• Breaches: Super dense with enemies, perfect for quick XP farming.

Leagues and Events

Farming XP with Abyss (Third Edict – Patch 0.3.0)

The Abyss mechanic in Path of Exile 2 revolves around fissures opening in the ground, spawning waves of monsters. These encounters are extremely XP dense and drop valuable loot such as Gnawed Bones (crafting currency) and endgame keys. Since every fissure forces you into combat against large packs, Abyss is one of the best ways to grind XP while also stockpiling crafting materials.

Abyss Basics

• Every zone can contain fissures leading to Abyssal Pits.
• Defeating monsters around fissures seals them and progresses toward opening the Pit.
• The type of Pit encounter depends on which enemies were killed to close the fissure:
  
  • Normal monsters → Standard Abyss mobs, fast clears.
  • Magic monsters → Tougher packs with higher XP value.
  • Rare monsters → Dangerous, inherit Abyssal modifiers, but give top-tier XP and loot.
  • Rogue Exiles → Transform into Lichborn variants; dangerous but rewarding with unique jewel drops.
  • Bosses near Abyss → Can summon giant Abyssal Larvae (good XP but slow kills).
  • Essence monsters near Abyss → Always drop an extra Essence.

Tip for XP farming: Focus on Rares and Rogue Exile fissures whenever possible. They take longer but give significantly more experience.

Rewards and Scaling XP

Clearing all Abyssal Pit monsters spawns an Abyssal Trove, containing loot and Gnawed Bones.

• Gnawed Bones are used in the Well of Souls for crafting (see below).
• The sheer monster density inside an Abyssal Pit makes it one of the most XP-efficient mechanics in PoE2 during 0.3.

For XP per time invested, Abyss is competitive with Breach and Delirium, especially in zones with multiple fissures.

Crafting with the Well of Souls

Unlocked in Act 2 (Lightless Passage), the Well lets you turn Abyss loot into gear upgrades:

• Use a Gnawed Bone to desecrate and create an Abyssal-infused item.
• Cast Desecrated Gear into the Well.
• Pick one of three hidden modifiers to lock in.

Exclusive affixes include:

• Crossbow: +1 Maximum Summoned Ballista
• Staff: +X Spirit
• Quarterstaff: % chance to build extra Combo on Hit

These modifiers do not help XP directly, but upgrading your weapons here can speed up clears, indirectly boosting XP/hour.

Waystone Infusions

Using Preserved Vertebrae at the Well, you can infuse Waystones with Abyss modifiers. These can drastically change farming efficiency:

• Increased Rare monster count → more XP per encounter.
• Abysses spawn 7-9 extra Pits → more fissures, more XP.
• Areas overrun by Abyss monsters → density spikes for XP grinding.

Endgame Abyss Content

Finishing Abysses might lead to the Dark Domain: the Abyssal City, which acts as the endgame form of the mechanic.

• Filled with Abyssal-modified Rares.
• Ends with a Lichborn Rare.
• Exclusive drops
• Hidden areas contain Abyssal Commanders, pinnacle fights dropping powerful uniques and items like Kulemak’s Invitation, unlocking further crafting at the Well.

XP Strategy: These endgame Abyss zones are harder and slower, but they give absurd monster density and are ideal for farming high-level XP once your build can handle the modifiers.

Abyss is one of the best XP farming mechanics in PoE2 0.3 thanks to its guaranteed monster waves, scaling difficulty, and synergy with crafting. You should always check fissures during mapping, especially when hunting for Rare/Rogue Exile Abysses to maximize experience per run.