PoE has an untypical currency system. We are used to the fact that in other games the main currency is gold, PoE has no gold at all. Instead there are more than 20 different currency orbs and scrolls. Each orb has a unique specific function and at the same time can act as a currency. This guide helps you understand the value of each orb and gives you some hints of using it and obtaining.
Scroll of Wisdom
Scroll of Wisdom is probably the most common item. This item identifies the desired gear, so use it only for potentially useful gear. You can receive it as drop from monsters or combining 5x Scroll Fragments that you will get by selling white items to a vendor. Do not waste it and collect it. If you do it right, during leveling you will reach thousands of Scrolls. This stack will come in handy if you want to buy good starting gear. In the late game you can trade around 300 Scroll of Wisdom for 1 Chaos Orb.
Portal Scroll
Same as Scroll of Wisdom, Portal Scroll is a very common item. With Portal Scroll you can invoke a portal that brings your character to the town of the current act and back. Portal Scroll is more valuable than Scroll of Wisdom, so you can trade 80 scrolls for 1 Chaos Orb. Collect it and you will be able to fill about 2 or 3 high level item slots just from the Scrolls.
Armorer’s Scrap
Armorer’s Scrap improves the quality of an armour. Based on rarity, it adds to an item 5% of quality (Normal), 2% of quality (Magic), or 1% of quality (Rare and Unique) accordingly, so wise players do not use it until late-game. You can obtain it as drops, trading with vendor, or selling any armor pieces with combined quality of 40% or more. Around 160 Armourer’s Scraps can be traded for 1 Chaos Orb.
Blacksmith’s Whetstone
It’s pretty much the same thing as the one above, but this one improves quality of weapons. Collect it or use it rationally to boost your DPS for leveling a little (only for physical and elemental damage, it does not improve affixes values). By the way, you can get Cartographer’s Chisel if you trade one normal quality hammer upgraded by four Blacksmith’s Whetstone. For 70 Blacksmith’s Whetstones you can get 1 Chaos Orb.
Orb of Augmentation
Orbs of Augmentation adds an extra affix (modificator) to a magical artifact. It can be only used on those items which have 1 mod. Also it can be used to craft modes on magic potions. This Orb comes in handy for Meta-Crafting in late-game. You can trade around 55-60 Orb of Augmentation for 1 Chaos Orb or 32 Orb of Augmentation for 1 Orb of Fusing.
Orb of Transmutation
It’s used to rebuild normal item into magic item. The new magic item can spawn with one or two mods. It’s a kinda tricky thing: it has multiple uses, so if you are lucky enough, after transformation, you can get a much more valuable item and sell it much better. If you are not lucky at all, store them until later on when you can trade them for Chaos Orbs or Orbs of Fusing. You can obtain it as drops, selling unidentified magic or rare items to vendor, also you can buy it for 7x Portal Scrolls from vendor.
Orb of Alteration
Similar to Orb of Transmutation or Chaos Orb, but lower quality gear — both results in a random magic item. It’s easy to obtain by drops and useful for late-game gear. However, the best way to use these Orbs is just for purchase of good armour or weapon and not to try to hightroll. 14 Orbs of Alteration = 1 Chaos Orb/ 16 Orbs of Alteration = 1 Orb of Fusing.
Silver Coin
A Silver Coin can be exchanged for prophecies from Navali. These prophecies foreshadow the character’s future. Unfortunately, this gamble with fate is usually not worth it. You can try to gamble for expensive Prophecies for sale or trade 11 Silver Coins for 1 Chaos Orb. Silver Coins can be dropped by slain monsters, chests, and destructible containers.
Chromatic Orb
It just changes current colors of the sockets. All sockets are recolored randomly, so sometimes it might take more then one Chromatic Orb. It’s a very cheap orb, so feel free to try your luck: correct colors of the sockets are important. Chromatic Orbs can be dropped by slain monsters, chests, and destructible containers. You can trade spare ones to vendor, 11 Chromatic Orbs = 1 Chaos Orb.
Glassblower’s Bauble
It’s similar to Armorer’s Scrap or Blacksmith’s Whetstone, but only improves flasks. 1 Glassblower’s Bauble adds 5% of quality to a flask (normal), 2% quality of (magic) and 1% of quality (unique). Hargan (a vendor in The Sarn Encampment, act 3 and 8) can sell a Glassblower’s Bauble for 8 Blacksmith’s Whetstones. 1 Chaos Orb costs 14 Glassblower’s Baubles.
Orb of Alchemy
Orb of Alchemy upgrades a normal item to a rare item with a random amount of mods ( from 3 to 6 randomly). However, the best way to use this orb is to create high tier rare maps. Also you can improve the quality of strong boxes. Orb of Alchemy is a very valuable currency, so you can trade 2-4 of these for 1 Chaos Orb.
Orb of Chance
One of the best currency items for speedrunners. Orb of Chance transmutates a normal quality item into a random one. It means that you can try to reforge the Sorcerer’s boots into Skyforth boots — very useful and expensive boots. Use it for speedrun or trade 6 Orbs of Chance for 1 Chaos Orb. Orb of Chance is a common currency item that can be dropped by slain monsters, chests, and destructible containers.
Orb of Regret
An Orb of Regret is the only one currency item that gives you one extra passive skill refund point. It’s completely useless if you don’t make mistakes with your talents build having it planned from the very beginning. Do you? Although you can use it to change certain bosses or events. They can be obtained as drops and from certain vendor recipes. Ratio to Chaos Orb has almost always been 1 Orb of Regret : 1 Chaos Orb.
Jeweller’s Orb
A Jeweller’s Orb is a currency item that can be used to reroll the number of sockets on an item. Don’t waste it until late game, so you can roll six sockets on your item ( according to statistics, it will usually cost over 100 Jeweller’s Orb). Every six socket item can be sold to vendor for 7 Jeweler’s Orbs. Also you can buy it from vendor for 2 Orbs of Alteration or loot it from monsters.
Orb of Fusing
Orbs of Fusing are primarily used to modify the linked sockets on an item. It’s a random reroll and crafting 6 links would be a complete gamble ( you need around 836 to 1244 Orbs of Fusing). Obviously, it is a late-game orb. Orbs of Fusing can be obtained as drops, purchased from vendor in 3rd act for 4x Jeweller’s Orbs. Ratio tor Chaos Orb is usually 1 – 2 Orbs of Fusing : 1 Orb of Chaos.
Chaos Orb
The most commonly traded currency item in Path of Exile. It can randomly reforge any rare item. It has a lot of uses, one of them to reroll maps with negative effects into something suitable or to reforge Cartographer’s Strongboxes in high level maps. Obviously, Chaos Orbs need to be saved before the late-game where they are the most beneficial. At this stage you can buy most decent gear for 1-10 Chaos Orbs. You can order the desired amount of Chaos Orbs on Overgear.
Gemcutter’s Prism
Gemcutter’s Prism improves quality of any non corrupted skill gem ( DMG, AOE, duration and other specifications depending on the gem. Every prism gives only 1 % of quality. Gemcutter’s Prisms can be obtained from drops or by selling 1 Skill Gem with 20% quality to a vendor. 1 Gemcutter’s Prism cost 2-3 Chaos Orbs.
Orb of Scouring
Diffuse all mods from item and reroll it to normal (white). Sockets and links will stay there untouched. It helps a lot to restart failed craft. You can obtain it as drops or trade with vendor: one rare item with two mods equivalent 1 Orb of Scouring. You don’t need this a lot, so trade 2 Orb of Scouring for 1 Chaos Orb — it’s a good deal.
Regal Orb
Adds one mod and turn magic item into rare item. Can only be used on magic items. New mods can be useful for maps and strongboxes.Combine it with Exalted Orbs and Orb of Annulment. Use it only in late game for Meta-crafting.
Vaal Orb
Vaal Orb corrupt high tier items or maps to enlarge their potential. Vaal Orb can change color of sockets to white, change implicit property to certain property, change level and quality of gem, add or subtract one level to map. Also, using it on strongbox, Vaal Orb corrupts all the items inside the strongbox, that can be corrupted. As you can see it’s very useful orb, so collect it and don’t waste. By the way 1 Vaal Orb cost 1 Chaos Orb.
Blessed Orb
A Blessed Orb rerolls the implicit modifier of an item. They can be applied to items of any rarity. New players usually ignore this currency, skilled players improves endgame items by maximizing their implicit modifier value. That’s why Blessed Orb not popular orb. Instead of 5 Blessed Orb you can get 1 Chaos Orb.
Cartographer’s Chisel
Used to improve map quality for more and better loot. Can be found starting at item level 50. Also, Zana, Master Cartographer (NPC in the epilogue questline) will sell 20 Cartographer’s Chisels in exchange for 12 Chaos Orbs once daily.
Divine Orb
1 Divine Orb cost 16 Chaos Orbs — it says a lot. Divine Orbs are used to randomly reroll values of mods on items. Divine Orbs are extremely rare currency items that can be obtained by selling a six linked item to a vendor. Use it only on expensive items. You can get any amount of Divine Orbs on Overgear.
Exalted Orb
An expensive currency item that can be used to improve any rare item. Adds one extra random mod. This orb is very valuable, so don’t use it on random items. It can be obtained only by drops, so don’t waste it and collect until late game. 1 Exalted Orb cost around 70 Chaos Orbs. You can buy any amount of Exalted Orbs on Overgear.
Mirror of Kalandra
A Mirror of Kalandra is a currency that can replicate any non-unique item or map. It means that you «ctrl+c — ctrl+v» any non-unique item. Obviously you should duplicate only perfect gear that is worth more than Mirror itself for pure profit. Mirror is the rarest and most valuable currency item in the game, but you can obtain it by drops, chest and destructible containers (very low chance). 1 Mirror cost more than 150 Exalted Orbs.
Ancient Orb
Ancient Orb can change the base type of any unique item. It does not change the inventory size. The best way to use it is just sell or try to reforge the Headhunter belt or Tukohama’s shield.
Orb of Annulment
The Orb of Annulment is a currency item that can remove a random modifier from a magic or rare item. They are used to remove unwanted mods. But it’s random, so trade them for Orbs. 1 Orb of Annulment cost 40 Chaos Orbs.
Engineer’s Orb
Engineer’s Orb increases the quality of a strongbox (Arcanist’s Strongbox, Cartographer’s Strongbox, Diviner’s Strongbox and unique Strongboxes) in high tier arenas. Engineer’s Orbs are obtained by combining a full stack of Engineer’s Shards, which can be obtained from Harbingers ( a type of immortal monsters). 10 Engineer’s Orbs you can trade for 1 Chaos Orb.
Orb of Horizons
Orb of Horizons is a currency item that can replace a map with another map of the same tier. An Orb of Horizons doesn’t obey the player’s Atlas of Worlds rules, which means that the new map may not be unlocked yet. In any way you don’t need it a lot, so trade 3 Orbs of Horizons for 1 Chaos Orb, for example.
Orb of Binding
Orb of Binding upgrades a normal item into a rare item with up to four linked sockets. In that case you use it on an item with more than four sockets, you will lose all extra sockets. It’s a good item for early game, use it for better leveling or trade 6 Orbs of Binding for 1 Chaos Orb.
Harbinger’s Orb
Similar to Orb of Horizons with one difference — this orb upgrades a map into a map of a higher tier. It can be found as a drop from Harbinger or Immortal Syndicate Fortification safehouse if Cameria is placed there. One Harbinger’s Orb you can trade for 15 Chaos Orbs.
At Overgear you can find any currency for PoE!
