PoE 2 Atlas Progression Guide

PoE 2 Atlas Progression Guide TL;DR

• The Atlas is the main endgame system in PoE 2, built around moving through map nodes using Waystones, Precursor Tablets, and progressing league and other endgame content for harder fights and greater rewards.

• Waystones open maps and control the map tier and affixes.

• Precursor Tablets are placed directly into the Map Device to add extra content to the map.

• The Fortress is your main Atlas Passive Point source, with its maps giving points for the expanded Atlas Tree.

• Masters of the Atlas act like flexible Atlas Ascendancies. Hilda focuses on boss hunting, Doryani focuses on Atlas map control, and Jado focuses on increasing your Unique rewards.

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How Atlas Progression Works in PoE 2

Atlas progression starts once you reach the endgame, unlock the Map Device, and begin using Waystones with it. The Atlas is made of connected map nodes, and each completed map helps you move farther into the endgame, unlocking new mechanics and progressing your endgame quests. First off, you want to build Waystone sustain, reveal more of the Atlas, decide which direction to progress, and start earning Atlas Passive Points to juice up your maps ASAP and get more loot.

If you’re a returning player, the current Atlas version has fixed objectives placed around the map. League mechanics now have clearer questlines that guide you through their content and toward their Pinnacle Bosses in a paved directional way. Pinnacle Bosses also have quest versions that can be reached in a guided way, alongside unlocking their harder repeatable versions for farming. Here’s how your early Atlas grind should look like:

Ideally, you want to tie as many of these goals together as possible. Even though Atlases have become more deterministic, each player’s map will still look a bit different, and create different choices and paths for you to take. Still, I’d say Towers, Fortress maps, clumped league hubs, and routes leading you to boss fights are the maps that move your progression forward the most. In the next sections, I’ll go over the individual mechanics in detail, especially the ones introduced in the most recent iterations of the Atlas.

Waystones Explained

Waystones are the items you use to open Atlas maps - if you’re a PoE1 player, these are Maps, essentially. The map node itself already exists on the Atlas, but you need a Waystone to activate it. Waystone just determines what the level of the zone will be and what affixes it’ll have. 

Waystones must be identified before you can activate them in the Map Device, as well as meddled with using the consumables such as alchemy orbs and so on. Early on, do not overcraft every Waystone. Safer maps are better for overall progression when you are still building your Waystone pool and testing your character’s capabilities. Once your build feels stable, you can start using harder modifiers for better loot. You should also get a good understanding of how your build works and which Waystone affixes are too hard for your setup to complete.

Precursor Tablets Explained

Precursor Tablets add extra content and bonuses to your maps. They are placed directly into the Map Device together with your Waystone. This is the current Tablet system; you no longer need to socket Tablets into Towers to affect nearby maps.

1. You can use up to three Tablets on a map, but the number of available Tablet slots depends on how many modifiers the map has. 

2. A map with six modifiers can enable all three Tablet slots. 

3. Tablets have 10 fixed uses, and each map run consumes one use from the Tablets you apply. 

4. Once a Tablet runs out of uses, it is destroyed.

The system is easy - if you want to run Breach, use Breach Tablets and so on. If you want Ritual, use Ritual Tablets. Empty unused tablet slots contribute to random non-tablet league content appearing in the area, so you won’t feel like you’ve missed out too much early on.

Towers and the Fortress

Towers are a utility part of the Atlas; if you played the first few patches, they are no longer the main system for juicing maps. Now they simply reveal more of the surrounding Atlas than your regular map completion and drop an extra Precursor Tablet when completed.

However, your first completed Tower is especially important because it makes the Fortress rise from the ground. From there, the Fortress becomes one of your biggest endgame goals - maps inside the Fortress grant one or more Atlas Passive Points, replacing the older way of earning Atlas points.

Not only are Fortresses a source of your endgame passives scaling, but they also contain several important mechanics and special bosses. The Burning Monolith and Arbiter of Ash are also inside the Fortress now, making it a major part of pinnacle boss progression.

Atlas Passive Tree and Fortress Points

Speaking of Atlas Tree, it now has more than 300 nodes, and completing all maps inside the Fortress gives enough points to fully allocate the tree. This is one of the best parts of the current system IMO - no more FOMO and obsessive tree optimization.

This also means that every Atlas point should go into content you can actually farm. If your build clears packs fast, Breach or Delirium can feel great. If your build is safer and better at standing its ground, Ritual or Abyss may yield you more gains. Or you can force the content you like the most; there’s no wrong way to do it.

Masters of the Atlas

Masters of the Atlas is one of the most important current endgame systems, introduced in patch 0.5. They work almost like Ascendancy classes for your Atlas, giving you special map bonuses that you can adjust before running content. Each Master has 12 abilities, and you can enable up to 4 at a time. You can also change your selection whenever needed - so don’t sweat about them too much, but don’t completely misplace the points either. There are three masters with distinct themes and objectives for you to complete:

You can unlock all three Masters and use the quick-select buttons before each map. Most of the time, you will swap to the Master that fits the map you are about to run. Here’s briefly what each master brings to your gameplay:

1. Hilda is the boss hunter. You find her camp southwest of your Atlas start, then she sends you after unique beasts in specific maps. Her bonuses can make Unique enemies much more rewarding. She can even improve Pinnacle Boss loot, make Azmerian Wisps target Unique bosses instead of rares, add extra Unique bosses to maps, and make mechanic-empowered bosses more dangerous and rewarding. 

2. Doryani’s whole thing is terraforming, which lets you change one biome into another after running maps. This works well with Atlas passives that buff specific biomes' loot. Doryani can also create Precursor Leylines after maps, helping you move across the Atlas faster. This is useful when you are trying to reach distant objectives, such as Citadels. He also has a Strongbox Construction option that lets you destroy a Strongbox and turn its parts into a rare construct, with the Strongbox mods becoming construct mods. That can create some very rewarding rare monsters for you to kill and loot.

3. Jado’s abilities are great if you want more Unique drops and Unique-focused content in general. Jado can help you find more Unique items, Unique Strongboxes, Anomaly maps, and special rewards tied to Reliquary Keys.

All three could be useful at certain times, so you should always consider which one’s better for the content you’re currently running. You can also look up a dedicated overview for more details.

League Hubs and Atlas Mechanics

If you haven’t been playing since the early versions of the game, league mechanics now have a much clearer and clumped placement on the Atlas. Instead of relying only on random appearances, you can now encounter several maps of a certain league grouped together and formed into clear boss routes. As I mentioned before, Atlas progression feels more directed than ever. Here is the entire list of mechanics you might encounter:

All of these mechanics reward you with Atlas points, so you probably would want to run them all at some point in your character’s progression.  BTW, here's a detailed Runes of Aldur guide for you to get all the info you'll need.

Pinnacle Boss Progression

Pinnacle Boss progression is more direct and understandable now because major bosses have quest versions and then unlock their repeatable farm versions. Quest versions help you progress through the endgame in a more direct way and understand how to get to the real juicy versions. Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Calamity Fragments are no longer part of the current boss access setup.

I think that’s the right way of introducing new players to the hardest content in the game. Quest bosses let you learn the encounter and move the system forward. Once your build is ready, you can return to farm the harder version for better rewards. The Fortress also has its own boss route. Citadel maps can drop keys for the Arbiter of Divinity, and killing Arbiter of Divinity five times can also complete different Fortress sections automatically for Atlas Tree points. That means that a boss-oriented playstyle is still one of the major ways of progressing your Atlas faster.

Check out more PoE2 guides:

• Trial of Chaos
• Trial of Sekhemas
• Best Classes