Spiritwalker Companion Leveling Build

Build Introduction

The Spiritwalker Companion Build focuses on leveraging the power of the Azmeri Spirits to lead an army of fierce animal companions. You will be supported in combat by a Spectral Bear Companion, Wolf Pack, and even a powerful Unique Beast Boss! It will start out using the powerful Twister leveling strategy until Act 3, depending on unrevealed information where it will switch to a wholly minion-focused approach.

If you are looking for a Huntress build for the Endgame, you can find all of our available options on the Huntress Build Page!

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Strengths and Weaknesses

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Ascendancy

Select your first Ascendancy after completing the Trial of the Sekhemas in Act 2. The trial is not difficult, so complete it within the 20-30 level range. During the early access of Path of Exile 2, you have the option between Amazon, Ritualist, and Spiritwalker. This build will be utilizing the Spiritwalker ascendancy to allow you to have multiple Companions early, including taming a powerful Unique Boss!

Spiritwalker

The Spiritwalker focuses on empowering your abilities with boosts from your Azmeri Spirits and using Companions to improve your offense and defense. This ascendancy is new in Update 0.5, so these are our best guess at the most valuable nodes based on current information.

Allocate Spiritwalker Ascendancy points in the following order:

1. The Natural Order allows you to use Tame Beast on Unique Beast monsters, allowing you to capture some very cool, powerful Bosses.
2. Wild Protector summons a Spirit Bear to fight by your side, leaping at enemies, intimidating and maiming them.
3. The Catha’s Balance allows all Companions in your army gain added damage based on the damage of your main hand weapon, scaling their damage significantly.

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Progression Basics

Path of Exile II’s campaign is not meant to be taken lightly. The best way to get gear while leveling is by checking the vendors every time you visit a town after leveling up. The gear you can get from vendors scales with your level, making it a great option for finding upgrades, especially weapons. 

Check for the following items from vendors:

1. Spears with Added Flat Damage, %Physical Damage, Accuracy or Critical Strike/Damage.
2. Gloves and Rings with Added Flat Damage
3. Any gear with Maximum Life, Resistances, or Evasion.

Upon reaching Act 2, you will want to start keeping an eye out for Minion-related gear, specifically a Helmet with +Level of Minion Skills and a Scepter with these mods, in order of priority

1. + Level of Minion Skills
2. % Increased Minion Damage
3. + Flat Added Damage to Minion Attacks
4. % Increased Minion Attack Speed

Crafting currency can be used on decent gear, but keep in mind that you might be able to trade currency for better items. Consider searching the trade site to buy upgrades with your Exalted Orbs, especially for weapons.

Do not forget to pick up loot, especially Rare Items, and vendor it for gold. You can then use this gold to purchase gear upgrades from vendors, or to gamble if you haven’t found meaningful upgrades in a while.

Kill enemies in groups to gain experience efficiently. Skipping too many enemies can cause you to be under-leveled, putting you at a disadvantage later on.

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Leveling Passive Tree

The Passive Tree below can be followed all the way through the campaign and into early mapping, but you will need to decide on an Endgame guide to follow at that time. There are additional optimizations achievable through weapon set passives, but the overall gains are quite small. For simplicity’s sake, as this is a leveling guide, we have chosen to avoid some of those tiny optimizations.

When assigning your small travel passives, with a choice of attributes, you may need to make decisions based on which attributes are required, the gear you are wearing, and the support gems you currently have equipped. These can be changed by speaking to The Hooded One for a very low cost.

Before Minion Swap:

We’ve included images prior to our passive tree being updated for 0.5.

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Skill Gems

Listed below are all Skill Gems that should be used during the leveling process. There may be a slight variation depending on which Act you’re currently progressing. Notes for each Act will be listed below the Skill Gem tool.

Skills Before Minion Swap

Support Gem choices and Curses are a work in progress, check back in shortly after the league launches.

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Act I

Start your new character by picking up Whirling Slash from the chest in the first zone, and then craft Twister with the first Level 1 Uncut Skill Gem you receive in town. Cast Whirling Slash 3 times to build the maximum stage of Whirlwind, and then cast Twister to consume the Whirlwind. The build is not dependent on the damage of Whirling Slash, so you can keep its Skill Level lower to reduce mana consumption.

You can add Frost Bomb to apply exposure to help scale damage in Boss encounters, or to absolutely maximize your damage, you can utilize Parry and Fangs of Frost to create chilled ground, which will improve the damage of your Twisters. Getting used to using this combo will dramatically improve your potential damage output

Once you gain access to Ice-Tipped Arrows with your first Level 5 Uncut Skill Gem, and Herald of Ice, you will start consistently freezing enemies with Twisters, causing them to explode on death. This will improve your safety and damage significantly.

If you are lucky enough to find a second Level 5 Uncut Skill Gem, get Barrage and add it to your combo whenever you would use Ice-Tipped Arrows

Here’s how the build is played during Act 1:

1. For very tanky enemies and Bosses, you can Parry, then cast Fangs of Frost to generate chilled ground to empower your Twister combo.
2. If you have flat added elemental damage on your gear, or are using the step above, cast Frost Bomb to apply Exposure.
3. If you have Barrage already, you can use it here.
4. Cast Whirling Slash 3x, then Cast Twister.
5. Return to step 1 when you no longer have Chilled Ground to cast your Twister Combo on.

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Act 2

Your first Level 2 Uncut Support Gem should be used to get Frost Nexus for your Twister, causing enemies it freezes to generate a patch of chilled ground. This lets you stop using Parry and Fangs of Frost, making the whole clearing process much smoother.

During Act 2 you will want to keep an eye out for any gear that can be used after swapping to the full Companion Focused setup in the middle of Act 3. This includes

• Helmet with +Level of Minion Skills
• Sceptre with:
  • + Level of Minion Skills
  • % Increased Spirit
  • % Increased Minion Damage
  • % Increased Minion Attack Speed
• Amulet with +Level of Minion Skills
• Evasion Buckler with good Defensive Stats

In Act 2, you will gain access to the Trial of the Sekhemas after traveling through the Traitors’ Passage. This build has no problem clearing the Trial early, so you can do it as early as you want to gain access to your first 2 Ascendancy Passive Points. For this build your first Ascendancy passives will allow you to use the Tame Beast to capture a Unique Boss Beast to start your Minion Army off with a bang!

When you get access to a Level 7 Uncut Skill Gem, you can cut your first Tame Beast skill gem, and assuming you have Ascended, you can go and tame your first Boss Beast! Options at this stage in the campaign are somewhat limited |and will require testing and theorycrafting.

NOTE: You can Disenchant a Companion: X Skill Gem to get a Tame Beast Skill Gem back, so feel free to test capturing various Beast Bosses yourself, even if you don’t have extra Uncut Skill Gems!

Cutting a Freezing Mark Skill Gem and adding Mark for Death will allow your Companions to break enemy armor, dramatically improving the damage of your physical damage minions during Boss fights.

As always, continue to check the Skill Gems section to make sure you are running all of the correct Support Gems, as these do change as you can gain access to higher level Uncut Support Gems.

Here is how the build is played after getting your Act 2 Skill Gems:

1. Cast Ice-Tipped Arrows on cooldown.
2. Cast Barrage for large packs, tanky Rare monster or Bosses.
3. Cast Freezing Mark on Bosses to apply the Mark for Death armour shred effect.
4. Cast Whirling Slash 3x, then Cast Twister.

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Act 3

Other than updating your Support Gems and improving your Gear, Act 3 will follow the same play pattern as Act 2 until you Ascend in the Trial of Chaos. Simply continue doing what you were doing, and make sure to check the Skills section of the guide to ensure you have the right Support Gems equipped.

After defeating Ignagduk in the Azak Bog, you will unlock an additional 30 Spirit, and get access to a guaranteed Uncut Spirit Gem. Use this to cut Wolf Pack.

In Act 3, you will gain access to the Trial of Chaos. This second Ascension is when you will be transitioning from a Twister leveling style to a pure Minion-focused approach. This will require you to change some gear, swapping to a Scepter instead of a Spear, and changing your Helmet for one with +Level of Minion Skills, as well as changing your passive tree slightly to better support the companion playstyle.

After the switch to the Minion-focused approach, you will want to add skills to support them. Adding Pain Offering allows you to sacrifice a Skeletal Warrior from a Rattling Scepter for a significant damage boost, |A Curse Skill will shred enemy resistances to improve your DPS, and Freezing Mark combined with Mark for Death will help shred enemy Boss armor.

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Act 4 and Interludes

Nothing changes that much between Act 3 and the Endgame for this build. You should, as always, continue to check the Skill Gem section to make sure you are using the correct supports, and continue to replace your gear with upgrades you find. The play pattern remains the same, and it should be smooth sailing through to the Endgame.

You can choose to complete Act 4’s Islands in any order. This build doesn’t specifically benefit from completing them in a particular order, so feel free to explore!

Once you reach the Interludes, you should complete the third Interlude first, as one of the rewards you will get early is +40 Spirit permanently from Lythara, the Broken Spear.

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Rotation

Utilize the full Skill Rotation to maximize Twister count for coverage while mapping and damage output against bosses before your minion swap:

1. Cast Ice-Tipped Arrows whenever its available.
2. Cast Barrage for large packs or very dangerous enemies.
3. Cast Freezing Mark
4. If you are using War Banner and have the Glory, use it whenever it’s available during Boss fights.
5. Cast Whirling Slash x3 and then Cast Twister, ideally on patches of Elemental Ground.

Once you are fully transitioned into the Companion-focused approach, this is your play pattern:

1. Cast Pain Offering on Skeletal Warrior Minions or Skeletal Cleric Minions for a damage steroid.
2. Cast |A Curse Skill to shred enemy resistances, based on the Tamed Boss you are using.
3. Cast Freezing Mark with Mark for Death to help shred armor on Boss monsters.

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Gearing Progression

The Twister Huntress build equips item upgrades to enhance damage and survivability during the campaign. Damage output is completely reliant on your equipped Spear. Equipment with Evasion base types are ideal to increase survivability.

Offensive Gear

The most important item equipped during the first 3 Acts is your Spear, followed by your Gloves and Rings. Flat added Damage is particularly valuable. Here is a list of affixes you should keep an eye out for:

1. + Flat Added Damage to Attacks (Spear, Rings, Gloves)
2. % increased Physical Damage (Spear, particularly when combined with +Flat Physical Damage to Attacks)
3. % increased Attack Speed
4. + Level of Projectile Skills (Spear, Gloves)

After swapping to Companions, make sure you keep an eye out for Scepters, Helmets and Amulets with +Level of Minion Skills, and these affixes on the Scepter:

1. + Level of Minion Skills
2. % Increased Spirit
3. % Increased Minion Damage
4. + Added Flat Damage to Minion Attacks
5. % Increased Minion Attack Speed

Defensive Gear

Prioritize the following stats on armor and jewelry to increase survivability:

1. +# Maximum Life
2. +% Resistances
3. +# or %increased Evasion Rating

Augments

Socket Runes, Soul Cores and Idols into your gear to help bring your missing resistances to the base cap of 75%, or to help with meeting attribute requirements.

You can Salvage gear you would otherwise vendor that has sockets at the Salvage Bench to obtain Artificer’s Orbs to put extra sockets on your gear. This will allow you to frequently use these orbs to add sockets to your best gear pieces, and socket more resistances to make the campaign even easier!

Leveling Uniques

This build is entirely League-Start / no-budget viable. But if you do have extra currency, pick up these uniques for a twink leveling character.

Boots

• Wanderlust – Excellent boots with Move speed and immunity to slows, usable from Level 11.

Helm

• Goldrim – Tons of resistances, usable from Level 10.

Chest

• Foxshade – Grants Movement speed and Evasion, usable from Level 4.

Amulet

• Surefooted Sigil – Increases dodge roll distance, and Evasion after dodge rolling. Usable from Level 8.

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Return of the Ancients Mechanics

With the Return of the Ancients update, and its accompanying Runes of Aldur League, there are a ton of new tools being introduced that will dramatically change up itemization. One of the additions is the introduction of powerful runes available at low levels that grant powerful stats for specific builds.

If you are struggling with your character or are running low on currency, you should consider engaging with this mechanic often to earn targeted rewards to help boost your power.

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Campaign Buffs

• Valley of the Titans Altar (Act 2)
  • 30% increased charm charges gained
• Venom Draught (Act 3)
  • 25% increased Mana Regeneration Rate
• Eye of Hinekora (Act 4)
  • Resistances from all 3 Tattoos
• Solitary Confinement (Act 4)
  • % increased recovery from Life Flasks
• Qimah Pillars
  • These can be changed at will, so you can choose Resistances to help early and later swap to global defenses, movement speed, etc.

For more details, check the guide on Campaign Difficulties and Permanent Stat Bonuses.

Flasks and Charms

Throughout leveling, you will frequently find various charms and flasks. Make sure to swap them out for upgrades.

Prioritize the following Flasks and Charms:

• Health and Mana Flasks
  • Prefix: Increased Amount Recovered
  • Suffix: Increased Charges or Increased Charges Gained
• Charm: Thawing Charm, Staunching Charm, Stone Charm

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Changelog

• May 25th, 2026: Guide created for Path of Exile II, Early Access.