Path of Exile 2 Runeforging Guide

Path of Exile 2 Runeforging Guide Quick Overview:

• Armor Runeforging - allows you to add a Runic Ward to any armor using Verisium
• Unique Runeforging - upgrades low-level uniques, making them more relevant
• Runic Ward - a new resource that acts as your second health pool or as a resource for Kalguuran skills
• Alloys - currency items used to replace item modifiers with guaranteed crafted mods
• Remnants - randomly appear on maps and can be used to craft runes or currency items

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Unlocking Runeforging

Runforging in the Runes of Aldur league is a system that combines armor and weapon upgrades with a whole bunch of new runes that can be obtained from Remnants. I find it easier to divide Runeforging into categories because you will gradually unlock the functionality of Runeforging as you advance through the main campaign and its acts and follow Farrow’s quest to research this ancient art. So, those categories or mechanics are:

Act	Mechanic	What It Does
Act 1	Verisium Runeforging	Adds Runic Ward to armor
Act 2	Alloys	Adds modifier-replacement crafting
Act 3	Unique Runeforging	Upgrades low-level Unique weapons and armor
Act 4	Ancient Runes	Unlocks weapon-specific rune bonuses
Endgame	More Runic Recipes	Expands the pool of runes, skills, supports, and advanced crafts

Now, there are quite a few components involved in runeforging that you need to understand before we continue. I’ll do a little blitz, but you can read more about them in my Runes of Aldur overview.

• Remnants - crafting stations that can randomly appear on maps, allow you to craft runes or currency items from a random list in each remnant by fighting packs of empowered monsters, depending on the chosen crafting recipe.
• Verisium - main resource used in Runeforging, first obtained in Act 1 in a dungeon under the Tree of Souls. Later drops from monsters raised by Remnants.
• Alloys - currency items used to replace item modifiers with specific mods. Unlocked in Act 2 and may drop from Remnant encounters just like Verisium.
• Runic Ward - new resource used as a second health pool or to power Kalguuran skills. More on that later.

Now, you’re more or less up to speed with what’s used in Runeforging. Now, let’s talk about what you can do with it.

Armor Runeforging

The first mechanic that you unlock as you follow Farrow’s questline in Act 1 allows you to upgrade any piece of armor to add some amount of Runic Ward to it.

In Act 1, Farrow gives you a side quest to locate 3 sights with Runestones. The third one is found in Orham Farmlands. After that, Farrow will ask you to go back to the Grelwood, where you will both uncover a secret passage into the Lost Catacombs under the Tree of Souls. Inside, it contains a door to the Runic Vault, where you will first encounter Verisium. This will also unlock the Verisium Anvil in the Clearfel Camp.

Note that Farrow gives you a side quest, which means you’ll either have to backtrack to some older zones, as in the case of the Act 1 Runeseeker quest, or go off the beaten main quest path in later acts.

This unlocks Verisium Anvil, which you can use to reforge any non-Unique armor to grant Runic Ward. Armors with level 55 and above will trade some of their regular base defense stats for Runic Ward. But those below level 55 don’t have that downside. By the way, this works with shields, gloves, shoes, and helmet slot items too. Example:

Stat	Hermit Garb	Runeforged Hermit Garb	Difference
Evasion Rating	16	16	No change
Energy Shield	16	16	No change
Runic Ward	0	29	+29
Base Movement Speed	-0.03	-0.03	No change

This upgrade will cost you 20 Verisium. As you can see, the low-level armor does not lose any stats on upgrade, but if you do this with a higher-level armor like Austere Garb, you’ll see some negative effects:

Stat	Austere Garb	Runeforged Austere Garb	Difference
Evasion Rating	248	236	-12
Energy Shield	76	72	-4
Runic Ward	0	86	+86
Base Movement Speed	-0.03	-0.03	No change
Required Level	80	80	No change
Dex / Int Requirement	67 / 67	67 / 67	No change

Upgrading this armor will cost you 470 Verisium, and you’ll lose some Evasion Rating and Energy Shield in exchange for more Runic Ward.

Runic Ward

So, what the hell is a Runic Ward? Let’s start with the official description:

“Runic Ward is a last line of protection, absorbing fatal damage instead of your Life. If you take damage that would cause your Life to reach 0 while you have Runic Ward, you will drop to 1 Life, and your Runic Ward will take the remaining damage. You will still die if you do not have enough Runic Ward to absorb the remaining damage. Runic Ward does not protect against Life loss that is not caused by taking damage.

Runic Ward constantly regenerates at a default rate of 5% per second.

Monsters can also have Runic Ward. While a monster has Runic Ward, it cannot be Culled.”

I wouldn’t be able to describe this any better myself! One last thing before we move on. Runic Ward can also be added to your armor with Ward Runes. You can get those from Remnants as well.

Icon	Rune	Level Requirement	Armor Effect	Bonded Armor Effect
	Lesser Ward Rune	None	+15 to maximum Runic Ward	15% increased Global Armor, Evasion, and Energy Shield
	Ward Rune	Level 15	+20 to maximum Runic Ward	15% increased Global Armor, Evasion, and Energy Shield
	Greater Ward Rune	Level 30	+25 to maximum Runic Ward	15% increased Global Armor, Evasion, and Energy Shield
	Perfect Ward Rune	Level 50	+30 to maximum Runic Ward	15% increased Global Armor, Evasion, and Energy Shield

 

As soon as I saw that I could get the Lesser Ward Rune from the Remnant, I immediately went for it and then slotted it into my armor. That was even before I unlocked the Verisium Anvil later in Act 1. But that was a waste of an augment slot. You see, the problem is that 15 Runic Ward is never enough to save you from death. The attacks that kill you in Act 1 are rarely the ones that surpass your health pool by a measly 15 dmg. So, essentially, having only 15 Runic Ward is useless. This is how I figured that these Ward Runes are only needed when you’re really into Kalguuran Skills and want to stack as much Runic Ward as possible on top of armor runeforging that already gives you that.

 

 

Kalguuran Skills

But that’s just one use of Runic Ward. The other use of Runic Ward is as a resource for Kalguuran Skills. These are new (23 active + 8 Support gems) skills crafted from Remnants that use Runic Ward instead of Mana. They work like skill gems, but their resource is tied to the Runic Ward system. You can find out more on that by checking out the official 0.5 patch notes.

An interesting fact about these skill gems: they don’t have any requirements or color, meaning they’re not strength/dexterity/intellect based skills.

Alloys

The next big thing you unlock is after completing Farrow’s quest in Act 2. Find the three Act 2 runic markers in Keth, The Bone Pits, and Deshar, then use the caravan route to reach Skull of the Titan. Clear the Runic Vault there and interact with the runic object at the end. After this, Alloy currency items become available from Remnant encounters. 

Reddit and official forum posts report that Farrow doesn’t appear in Mystic Refuge because he is bugged, but that might have already been fixed in the recent patch 0.5.0b.

Unlike socketable augments, Alloys work similarly to crafting orbs. They let you directly craft new modifiers onto items, including modifiers that are not normally available.

There are 13 new Alloy currency items:

Icon	Alloy	Item Type	Guaranteed Modifier
	Runic Alloy	Ring	+(37–49) to maximum Runic Ward
		Amulet	(6–10)% increased maximum Runic Ward
		Belt	(15–20)% increased Runic Ward Regeneration Rate
	Adaptive Alloy	Staff	Gain (42–52)% of Damage as Extra Fire Damage while missing Runic Ward
		Wand	Gain (21–26)% of Damage as Extra Fire Damage while missing Runic Ward
		Sceptre	(30–50)% Surpassing Chance to gain a Puppet Master stack when using a Command Skill
		Gloves	(10–15)% increased Attack Speed while missing Runic Ward
	Protective Alloy	Belt	Recover (32–45) Runic Ward when a Charm is used
		Weapons	+(51–74) to maximum Runic Ward
		Shield or Buckler	Recover (10–15) Runic Ward when you Block
	Expansive Alloy	Gloves	Remnants can be collected from (40–50)% further away
		Body Armour	(40–50)% increased Presence Area of Effect
		Helmet	(15–20)% increased Mana Cost Efficiency
		Boots	Temporary Minion Skills have +1 to Limit of Minions summoned
	Swift Alloy	Gloves	(8–10)% increased Cast Speed
		Ring	(7–9)% increased Attack Speed
		Belt	Flasks gain (0.75–1.25) charges per second
		Shield or Focus	(25–50)% increased Totem Placement Speed
	Cyclonic Alloy	Body Armour	(15–30)% reduced Slowing Potency of Debuffs on you
		Boots	(15–19)% increased Skill Effect Duration
		Gloves	(20–25)% increased Duration of Damaging Ailments on Enemies
		Helmet	(35–42)% increased Archon Buff duration
	Prismatic Alloy	Gloves	Damage Penetrates (9–15)% Elemental Resistances
		Martial Weapon	(20–30)% increased Magnitude of Ailments you inflict
		Focus, Staff, or Wand	(40–50)% increased Exposure Effect
		Sceptre	Minions have (40–49)% increased Magnitude of Damaging Ailments
	Mystic Alloy	Caster Weapon	+1 to maximum number of Elemental Infusions
		Helmet	Spell Skills have (10–15)% increased Area of Effect
		Gloves	(10–15)% increased Area of Effect for Attacks
		Quiver	(25–35)% chance to Chain an additional time
		Boots	+(10–15) to Spirit
	Sovereign Alloy	Weapons	(20–30)% increased effect of Socketed Augment Items
		Armour	(24–30)% increased Runic Ward
		Jewellery or Belt	(20–30)% increased Explicit Resistance Modifier magnitudes
	Celestial Alloy	Staff or Wand	+(142–188) to maximum Mana and +1 to Level of all Spell Skills
		Martial Weapon	+(327–427) to Accuracy Rating and (5–8)% increased Attack Speed
	Transcendent Alloy	Focus, Staff, or Wand	(39–47)% increased Cast Speed and Gain (11–16)% of Elemental Damage as Extra Cold Damage
		Martial Weapon	(15–20)% increased Physical Damage and +(7–10) to all Attributes
	The Runebinder’s Alloy	Staff	(25–50)% chance to gain Nature’s Archon when your Plants Overgrow
		Wand	+1 to Limit for Elemental Skills
		Sceptre	+(4–5) maximum stacks of Puppet Master
		Crossbow	+2 to maximum number of Summoned Ballista Totems
		Bow	(40–50)% increased Effect of your Mark Skills
	The Runefather’s Alloy	Mace	(60–75)% chance for Skills to retain 40% of Glory on use
		Quarterstaff	Tempest Bells are destroyed after an additional (4–5) Hits
		Spear	+(8–10) to Weapon Range
		Talisman	Lightning Damage from Hits also contributes to Flammability and Ignite Magnitudes

You use these on a Rare item to remove 1 random modifier and replace it with the one that comes with the Alloy, depending on the item type.

Note: Each item holds only one crafted modifier. Using an Alloy will overwrite any existing Essence mod — plan accordingly.

Unique Runeforging

Unique Verisium Runeforging unlocks in Act 3. Once unlocked, it lets you upgrade the base type of Unique weapons and armor that dropped below level 55. Weapons gain more serious damage, while armor gains higher base defenses and Runic Ward. Unique Armors above level 55 can still be Runeforged to modify their defenses to include Runic Ward at the cost of reducing their other defenses, similar to the base types.

To unlock Unique Verisium Runeforging, continue Farrow’s The Runeseeker quest in Act 3. Look for the three Act 3 runic stones in Jungle Ruins, Venom Crypts, and The Azak Bog. After interacting with all three, head to Infested Barrens and enter Mystic Refuge. Clear the area, reach the runic chamber, then speak to Farrow or interact with the final object. This upgrades the Verisium Anvil and unlocks Unique Runeforging. Here’s an example:

Version	Cost	What Changed
Radiant Grief Lace Hood	None	Base Unique item
Runeforged Lace Hood	Lace Hood, 35 Verisium	+Runic Ward (35)
Runeforged Lace Hood with Ignite bonus	Lace Hood, 590 Verisium, 1 Vorana’s Crest of the Scythe	+Runic Ward (72) +(30–50%) increased Ignite Magnitude

Radiant Grief is a good example of how Unique Runeforging can go beyond simple stat scaling. The basic Runeforged version adds Runic Ward, which makes the item more durable while keeping the same low-level requirement. But, using a new Crest item when Runeforging adds a new modifier to the unique. Crests are another currency used specifically in unique runeforging to add new modifiers to them. There’s a total of 4 Crests, each of which can be stacked up to 10 times in your inventory:

1. Medved’s Crest of the Circle
2. Vorana’s Crest of the Scythe
3. Uhtred’s Crest of the Chalice
4. Olroth’s Crest of the Sun

As of right now, I don’t have the information about where these come from, but I suspect you can find them in Expeditions and Sea Exploration in the Atlas.

Aldur’s Legacy Runes

If you have unwanted uniques, you can destroy them using Aldur’s Legacy rune to create a rune that contains some of the uniques’ properties. This rune can then be used on any item of the same type to add those properties to it. So far, poe2db lists over 60 runes which can be extracted from unique items this way.

You get access to it at the same time or shortly after you unlock Unique Runeforging in Act 3.

 

 

Ancient Runes

Ward runes aren’t the only type of runes that got added in this league. I’d like to also shout out the Ancient Runes, which are weapon-specific socketable runes that unlock after Farrow’s Act 4 quest. There are 13 of these runes so far, one per weapon type.

Ancient Rune	Item Type	Main Effect	Bonded Effect
Ancient Rune of Splinters	Bows	+50% Surpassing chance to fire an additional Arrow	30% increased Projectile Speed
Ancient Rune of Dueling	Bucklers	30% increased Parried Debuff Magnitude	15% increased Block chance
Ancient Rune of the Titan	Two Hand Maces	10% chance for Slam Skills you use yourself to cause an additional Aftershock	15% increased Area of Effect for Attacks
Ancient Rune of Shattering	One Hand Maces	40% increased effect of Fully Broken Armour	Break 50% increased Armour
Ancient Rune of Prowess	Spears	30% chance when you gain a Charge to gain an additional Charge	30% increased Endurance, Frenzy and Power Charge Duration
Ancient Rune of Control	Quarterstaves	50% increased Immobilisation buildup	30% increased Damage against Immobilised Enemies
Ancient Rune of Discovery	Staves	30% chance to create an additional Remnant	+1 to maximum number of Elemental Infusions
Ancient Rune of Decay	Wands	25% increased Withered Magnitude	15% chance that when Volatility on you explodes, you regain an equivalent amount of Volatility
Ancient Rune of Witchcraft	Foci	40% increased Area of Effect of Curses	15% faster Curse Activation
Ancient Rune of the Horde	Sceptres	Minions have 8% increased Attack and Cast Speed	Minions have 10% increased Movement Speed
Ancient Rune of Animosity	Talismans	Gain 2 Druidic Prowess when you Heavy Stun a Rare or Unique Enemy	40% increased Stun Buildup
Ancient Rune of Detonation	Crossbows	Grenades have 10% chance to activate a second time	40% increased Crossbow Reload Speed
Ancient Rune of Retaliation	Shields	8% increased Attack Speed if you have Blocked Recently	+3% to maximum Block chance

In Act 4, you need to find four map scraps, unlock Plunder’s Point, complete the Expedition-style encounter there, enter Deserted Post, then interact with the final object to unlock “Runic Inscriptions,” which includes Ancient Runes. After that, these runes will start appearing in Remnants.

Check out more Path of Exile 2 guides:

• Druid Guide
• Huntress Ritualist Guide
• How to get uniques in PoE 2

F.A.Q.