Waystones play a crucial role in your endgame journey through Path of Exile 2, acting as the gateway to new and challenging maps within the Atlas of Worlds. These items not only open portals to maps but also influence the monsters you face, the loot you gather, and the overall difficulty of your exploration. Whether you're new to the endgame or refining your approach to map progression, understanding how Waystones work—and how to enhance them—will be essential to maximizing your rewards.

How Waystones Work in Path of Exile 2

Waystones are pivotal to your progression as you venture into the endgame content of Path of Exile 2. You'll encounter these items early in your journey, and by the time you're ready to explore the Atlas of Worlds, they will become integral to your map-based adventures.

16 Tiers and Rarities: Waystones come in 16 distinct tiers, and they can be Normal, Magic, or Rare. As their rarity increases, so too do their power and modifiers. Higher-tier Waystones unlock access to more difficult and rewarding maps, making it essential to level up your Waystones as you advance.

Placing Waystones: To use a Waystone, simply select a map node in the Atlas of Worlds. Upon selecting the node, a box will appear where you can insert the Waystone. This will open a portal to the corresponding map, which will be influenced by Waystone's effects.

Waystone Effects: The Waystone alters the attributes of the map, which could include increased monster difficulty, additional modifiers, and changes to the loot you encounter. You can easily view these effects by opening the minimap and checking the top-right corner of the screen during your map traversal.

Enhancing Your Waystones

To maximize the potential of your Waystones and increase the rewards you get from your exploration, you can enhance them in several ways:

1. Enhancing with Orbs

Orbs of Enhancement: Like many other items in Path of Exile 2, you can use Orbs to enhance your Waystones. These orbs apply modifiers that alter the difficulty and rewards of the maps. Some examples of modifiers include:

Monsters are Evasive: Monsters become more difficult to hit, but the loot becomes better.

X% Increased Pack Size: Increases the number of monsters in the map, improving loot drops and map clear efficiency.

These modifiers increase the Waystone Drop Chance stat, which affects the likelihood of Waystones dropping from monsters during your map runs. The higher this stat, the better your chances are of finding more Waystones in future maps.

2. Enhancing with Distilled Emotions

Delirium and Distilled Emotions: You can enhance Waystones by using Distilled Emotions obtained during Delirium encounters. These emotions are consumed to add special effects to your maps. You can use up to three Distilled Emotions on a single Waystone, each offering different bonuses, such as:

Ire: Add 20% more magic monsters to the map for each emotion used.

Additional emotions provide enhancements like more monster density, stronger bosses, or increased monster rarity.

Distilled Emotions are a great way to make low-tier Waystones more rewarding, as they can boost the map's difficulty and, consequently, the loot you can obtain.

3. Reforging Low-Tier Waystones

If you find yourself with a surplus of low-tier Waystones that you're not using, you can Reforge them. At the Reforging Bench, you can combine three Waystones of the same tier and rarity to create a new Waystone that is one tier higher. This is a great way to increase your access to higher-tier maps and maximize the rewards from your Waystone collection.

Maximizing Waystone Efficiency

Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your Waystones:

Farm Higher-Tier Maps: As you unlock higher-tier Waystones, focus on farming those maps for increased rewards and higher drop rates for rare and magic items. Enhance the maps as much as possible to increase your Waystone Drop Chance.

Use Strategic Modifiers: When enhancing your Waystones with orbs or Distilled Emotions, choose modifiers that suit your playstyle. For example, if you prefer a fast and efficient map clear, increasing pack size or adding more magic monsters can boost the loot drop without significantly increasing map difficulty.

Reforge Strategically: Don't let low-tier Waystones go to waste. Reforge them at the Reforging Bench to get higher-tier Waystones that will lead to more challenging and rewarding content. This will become even more important as you progress to the endgame.

Keep an Eye on the Map Effects: Always check the top-right corner of the minimap to understand what effects your Waystone has on the current map. Make sure you're prepared for any changes in monster behavior or difficulty before entering the portal.

Conclusion

Waystones are key to unlocking the true potential of your endgame experience in Path of Exile 2. Whether you're progressing through the Atlas or looking to farm high-tier maps for better loot and PoE 2 items, understanding how to use and enhance your Waystones is essential. Enhance your Waystones with orbs, Distilled Emotions, and reforging, and tailor your map experiences to maximize your loot and rewards.

By following these strategies, you'll be able to efficiently farm valuable PoE 2 currency and PoE 2 items, ensuring your character stays strong and prepared for whatever challenges lie ahead in the Atlas.