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Path of Exile Multiplayer Guide: Coop, PvP, Trading, and More Explained


Path of Exile Coop Explained
Credit: Grinding Gear Games

Path of Exile is a complicated beast of a game with its many interlocking systems that have the tendency to overwhelm newer players. However, one of the best ways to have fun in PoE is to play with friends, which means you've got to understand how multiplayer works. Not to fear, because we're here to explain everything you need to know multiplayer in PoE from coop to PvP to trading and more.

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Path of Exile Coop Explained

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Credit: Grinding Gear Games

Path of Exile has a familiar, fairly traditional friend system. Via in-game names, you can add players as your friends from within these menus and invite them to a party. You can also trade or duel with other players. Once in a party together with someone, you can play with them as well as visit their hideouts.

You can play with random players, and sometimes, when looking for a group you'll see groups that note what they're doing, so you can jump onboard if you're interested. Of course, you can also play with your own friends, too.

Once you've invited your friend to a party, simply travel to the same area as your friend and you'll see each other, and you can start playing. However, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, there are level scaling options for parties that the party leader can select. You'll want the higher-level player to be party leader, and they can choose to either turn on scaling or turn it off.

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When scaling is off, the higher-level player will do significantly more damage, running through mobs on lower-level areas, though the lower-level party member will get less experience. If you turn scaling on, the higher-level player will get scaled down to the lower-level player, and the lower-level player will get full experience.

Lower-level areas give less experience than higher-level ones, as a rule, but more importantly, there's a level range. This means that depending on how many levels above or below your level a zone is will influence how much XP you receive. If a zone is more than a few levels above or below your level, you'll probably be getting less experience than you would otherwise.

You also can't simply bring players to areas they've yet to visit or discover, and they've got to get there themselves first.

Path of Exile PvP Explained

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Credit: Grinding Gear Games

PvP in PoE is a real thing. There's a variety of different modes you can play, and you can also duel others in a 1v1 match. There's a variety of damage scaling that goes on in PvP, and there are lots of different PvP builds you can create in PoE. In general, for a Diablo-style ARPG, PvP in PoE is generally considered the best there is out there.

Related: Path of Exile 2 Everything You Need to Know: Sequel vs. Expansion, Release Date, New Gem System, Platforms, and More

However, the PvP scene on PoE is not very active. The problem comes down to the type of game it is: ARPGs with a lot of build variety and customization are extremely hard, if not impossible, to balance in a competitive environment. This comes down to players with the right build being able to never die and one-shot opponents at will, which doesn't make for the best PvP experience.

If you just want to play around with some PvP in PoE, or if you want to try a PvP build for fun next League, you definitely can, and there is a dedicated community of PvPers, though small. However, just be careful not to take the experience too seriously, and don't pickup PoE if you're looking for a great competitive environment.

Path of Exile Trading Explained

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Credit: Grinding Gear Games

Path of Exile has a pretty robust trading system. See, there aren't really restrictions on what you can trade, so chances are, if you pick up a piece of loot, you can sell it if you'd like. However, most gear is tied to levels and attributes, so you won't be able to actually use anything you want at anytime.

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This also means that you can't really just make a new character and trade it a ton of high-level gear to jump-start its playthrough. You're also going to have to use a website outside of PoE to do your trading, like PoE Goods.

What you'll do is make your stash tab public so your tradeable items can be indexed, and then what you're selling will be searchable on PoE Goods. Once you find an item you want or somebody decides they want an item you're selling, you copy a whisper message including the information about the item that you paste in-game. This notifies the person selling that you want their item.

Once you've messaged someone, if they're online, they'll immediately send you a party invite if they aren't busy. Once you join the party, you'll go visit the seller's Hideout. Then, the seller will trade you, and you can complete the trade and then get back to playing. You can use PoE Goods to find anything you'd like, though powerful items will often be expensive.

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Lastly, it's important to remember that trading is tied to your League. If you're in a temporary League, the economy will be more flexible, and you'll generally find things to be cheaper and more accessible. In Standard, the economy is totally different, and items generally cost more.

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