Are you coming back to Path of Exile for the 3.20 Forbidden Sanctum update? If so, you're probably looking for a good way to make some currency early on in the League. The good news is that there's a reliable method you can try out that doesn't require much investment: Essences. In this article, we'll tell you everything you need to know about how to farm currency fast in Path of Exile 3.20 with essences.
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How Much Money You Can Make
Of course, it's all about those dollar dollar bills, y'all. And when it comes to essences, you're looking at about a Divine Orb an hour. Of course, this will change depending on your efficiency, what maps you run, how you spec your Atlas tree, and whatnot; however, a Divine an hour is totally realistic.
Plus, what's more is that this is talking about essences and raw currency drops. When it comes to gear you might want to sell or other useful currencies or even currencies you can simply sell for more Chaos, you can even push out those numbers further to closer to 1.5 Divines an hour.
But how much do you need upfront to get into that currency-per-hour range? The good news is that you don't need much. You'll need the currency to afford your basic starter map gear that can push you through yellow maps, for the Atlas points, and you'll need some currency for your maps, but that's about it.
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This strategy relies on running white maps, so you won't have to spend either too much on gear or too much on maps. Generally, you can find white maps for 2 Chaos or less per map. Depending on if you find a deal or buy in bulk over on the TFT Discord, you may be able to find your maps for a Chaos or less.
You can run any map you like, but you will want to focus on those with the simplest, most direct layouts, like Strand. And you may not find white Strand maps for sale in bulk on TFT, so in general, you're probably going to be looking at the listings on the bulk/currency exchange portion of the trade site.
In general, while this will vary build-to-build, a Divine or Divine's worth of Chaos is probably all you'll need to get started with your gear and to buy a starter set of maps to run, though your personal mileage may vary.
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How to Make Currency Fast and Easily With Essences in Path of Exile
Once you have some decent starter gear, you need to clear out your white and yellow maps for the Atlas progression. You'll also need to run a few unique maps (or red maps if you dare) to clean up the last few Atlas points you'll need to turn this strategy into something truly efficient.
What you want to spec into with your Atlas are all the essence nodes and strongbox nodes as well as the nodes that cut out other content from appearing in maps. It's much easier to sustain this strategy if you can manage to complete a T16 map, unlock a favorite map slot, and spec into the node that makes it so map drops are almost exclusively your favorite map.
If you like, you can spec into shrines as well for some extra speed and efficiency running through your maps. This may not be necessary though depending on your build and on what map you plan on running. However, it can speed up the process and make taking down those essence monsters easier. Though, this whole practice is much easier in 3.20 now that Archnemesis is gone.
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Once you've spec'd into the appropriate Atlas nodes, you are ready to pick out your maps and start farming. In general, a T1 Strand is the best you can do. Strand is basically a straight shot from point A to point B, and you can get through a Strand map in under a minute, no problem, once you get the hang of it, especially since fighting bosses isn't necessary for this strategy.
However, a map like Atoll is also a good choice, and really, you can run whatever maps you like, though it's going to be faster and more efficient for you to pick maps that don't have long winding layouts. You're trying to rush through to your essences and juicy strongboxes as fast as possible.
Basically, the idea is that you run through each map and get all the essences you can. In general, you want to corrupt essence patches when there's a good number of essences on offer or if you see purple essences or essences of Loathing.
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In terms of selling, you generally want to upgrade all your essences to shrieking, and if the price for a particular shrieking essence isn't great, you can upgrade that to loathing. This is generally the best in terms of maximizing profit. Your highest earners will be rare essences of Hysteria, Insanity, etcetera.
In terms of strongboxes, you want to look for Arcanist and Cartographer boxes above all else. Arcanist boxes can drop currency, while Cartographer boxes will drop maps. If you spec into the favorite map node in the Atlas tree, you can drop upwards of 10 or 20 Strand maps at once, for example, to keep your sustain going.
Keep repeating this process until you run out of maps, then mark your essences to be sold and see the trade offers start pouring in. Considering the essence map mod craft is gone in 3.20, you do get fewer essences per run, but you will generally make more money per essence, so it balances out.
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