Why this lesson matters
You'll be using orb currency well before you touch the Atlas — modifying gear as you level through the campaign. Several of these orbs work differently from what Path of Exile 1 veterans expect, and one PoE1 orb people go looking for doesn't exist in POE2 at all.
What actually exists, and one that doesn't
- Orb of Transmutation — Normal → Magic, adds 1 random modifier.
- Orb of Augmentation — adds a 2nd modifier to a Magic item that only has one.
- Orb of Alchemy — Normal straight to Rare, 4 random modifiers, skipping Magic entirely.
- Regal Orb — Magic → Rare, keeps existing modifiers, adds one new one. (The jump to a 6-modifier cap comes from becoming Rare-rarity, not from something the orb itself "expands.")
- Chaos Orb — removes one random modifier from a Rare item and adds one new one. This is not a full reroll, unlike Path of Exile 1's Chaos Orb — a targeted swap, not a reset button. Some stale guides still describe the old PoE1 behavior; don't trust them. Greater and Perfect Chaos Orbs do the same one-in/one-out swap, but force the replacement modifier into a higher level band — same mechanic, not a different orb.
- Exalted Orb — adds a new modifier to a Rare item that hasn't hit its 6-modifier cap, without touching what's already there.
- Orb of Annulment — removes a random modifier with no replacement, the inverse of Exalted.
- Vaal Orb — corrupts an item for a random outcome (good or ruinous), unmodifiable by ordinary currency afterward. (One narrow exception as of 0.5.4: Orb of Sacrifice can modify certain corrupted items in specific ways — a specialized tool, not a core currency; covered in the Endgame track's Fate of the Vaal lesson.)
- Divine Orb — rerolls the numeric values of existing modifiers within their ranges, doesn't change which modifiers are present.
- Orb of Chance — unpredictably upgrades a Normal item to Unique, or destroys it.
- Mirror of Kalandra — copies another non-Unique item exactly. The rarest currency in the game by a wide margin.
"Orb of Alteration" does not exist in current POE2. If you're carrying Path of Exile 1 knowledge, this is a real trap — it's a genuine PoE1 currency name, and it doesn't correspond to anything in POE2's current item list. Whatever role you're expecting it to fill (rerolling a Magic item's modifier), Orb of Augmentation and Orb of Alchemy are the actual current tools for shaping a Magic-tier item.
Live prices for these orbs are on Economy.
Practical tips
- If you're hunting for "Orb of Alteration," stop — it's not in this game. Augmentation and Alchemy cover that ground instead.
- Save Exalted Orbs and other high-value currency for items with high enough item level to roll strong modifiers — spending them on a low-iLvl base wastes their potential.
- Once you're deep enough into the game to be running the Atlas, see the Endgame track for Waystones, Tablets, and the Atlas Passive Tree — that's a separate, much bigger progression layer this lesson doesn't cover.
Sources: Official PoE2 Wiki — Currency · Maxroll — How to Craft in Path of Exile 2