Path of Exile Ruthless Mode Guide

Welcome to the Ruthless Guide for Path of Exile. This comprehensive guide will navigate you through the challenging world of extreme item scarcity and intense gameplay. Whether you're a seasoned player seeking a new challenge or a newcomer looking for a thrilling experience, this guide has you covered. Get ready to embrace the brutality of Ruthless!

Ruthless in Path of Exile is a challenging game mode that introduces scarcity and heightened difficulty. It redefines the concept of endgame, making every milestone a significant achievement. Item drops are significantly reduced, making each discovery potentially game-changing. Rings, amulets, and belts are rarer, and crafting currency is scarce.

Finding rare items of desired base types feels amazing. Support Gems can only be found as random drops, adding excitement to their acquisition. Ruthless is a mode where overcoming difficulty feels highly rewarding, offering a nostalgic experience reminiscent of the early days of Path of Exile.

Read More: Path of Exile Classes Guide

Looking for a challenge that pushes your limits? Enter Ruthless, a mode that separates the dedicated from the casual in Path of Exile. If you're not intrigued by its intense gameplay, then the regular modes are your best bet. Ruthless shares similarities with Hardcore and Solo Self-found, appealing to players who relish the added constraints for an elevated gaming experience. However, it's important to note that Ruthless isn't a replacement for the regular Path of Exile.

It's a mode designed specifically for a particular type of player seeking a heightened level of difficulty. Changes made in Ruthless won't necessarily be implemented in the regular game; they cater to the distinct needs of this challenging mode. Ruthless follows the same rules as the regular game when it comes to microtransactions and is entirely free to play.

Contrary to what some might think, Ruthless hasn't diverted significant development resources. It's a passion project our senior designers have been nurturing during their spare time over the past 18 months, ensuring it doesn't impact the progress of the main game.

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Prepare yourself for a journey defined by friction, tension, and anticipation. Ruthless embodies brutal difficulty, yet the satisfaction derived from conquering its challenges is unparalleled. In a world where your items are consistently below par, every item drop holds the potential to become a game-changing breakthrough.

Reimagining the traditional concept of Path of Exile's endgame, Ruthless flips the script. The entire game becomes the endgame itself. Merely progressing through higher campaign acts, let alone venturing into maps, becomes a remarkable achievement. Items that were previously considered weak suddenly hold immense value, while high-level characters and exceptional rare items become symbols of prestige and accomplishment.

In the realm of Ruthless, items are a rarity. You might journey through Act Four without even equipping a pair of rings. But fear not, for every ring you discover represents a significant power boost, making each find all the more exhilarating.

Rarity takes center stage in Ruthless. Magic items are a rare sight, and even rarer are the coveted rare items. However, stumbling upon a rare item of the base type you seek is a truly thrilling experience, a testament to your perseverance in the face of scarcity.

Crafting currency is a precious commodity in Ruthless. It's not uncommon to find just a single Orb of Alchemy throughout the entire campaign.

However, this single orb can be a game-changer, allowing you to transform any base item of your choice into a rare item. Ruthless invokes a sense of nostalgia. Drawing inspiration from the early days of Path of Exile, we resurrected the name from its closed beta roots, as it was once the third out of four difficulty levels. The scarcity of items and the significance placed on support gems harken back to that bygone era, minus the frustrations of desynchronization.

I guess you’re all about playing Ruthless now. So, now let’s check how you can do that. Just to be clear, I’m not going to school you over literally “how” you can play Ruthless. It’s all the same except for a few complications and that’s exactly what I will show in the upcoming sections. So, Let’s check in detail what you’re up against in the Ruthless mode.

A notable and immediate alteration in Ruthless lies in the scarcity of items. The abundance of items and PoE currency present in the base game is significantly reduced. Jewelry, in particular, becomes exceptionally rare, and it's quite possible to progress through most of the campaign without acquiring any equipment in this mode.

Crafting undergoes a drastic transformation as well, with a substantial decrease in available currency and the absence of deterministic crafting materials like essences and fossils for fractured item crafting. Moreover, the absence of a crafting bench restricts the ability to add modifiers to gear through crafting.

Ruthless introduces a challenging dynamic where the majority of your items are acquired through monster slaying. Unearthing magic, rare, and unique items becomes a daunting task, and crafting them proves even more arduous.

Crafting, in this mode, assumes a position of considerable luxury, warranting prudent usage for select items. The drop rate of crafting currency items has undergone a substantial reduction. The acquisition rate of crafting currency shards through item vending has been significantly diminished.

Master crafting remains inaccessible, with no means to access the crafting bench or discover recipe plinths. Certain valuable items like Veiled Chaos Orbs, Orbs of Binding, Orbs of Dominance, Influenced Exalted Orbs, and Awakener's Orbs elude acquisition.

When an Influenced Item undergoes reforge or the Influenced Mod is removed, the item loses its influence. A significant portion of vendor recipes is unavailable, while a selection of new Ruthless-specific vendor recipes has been introduced.

Speaking of Items, if you’re interested in White sockets in POE, then our POE white sockets guide will come real handy to you.

Ruthless introduces significant alterations to the Atlas system, fundamentally reshaping the statistics of maps compared to the base game. Furthermore, the Atlas passive tree undergoes a redesign, reducing the rewards obtained per point invested.

Void Stones no longer grant a universal bonus to all maps, and each Void Stone does not elevate map levels. Additionally, the rewards from league content are noticeably less potent compared to those found in the base game. These modifications redefine the dynamics of the Atlas system, demanding a fresh approach to map exploration and progression in Ruthless.

Navigating the campaign in Ruthless, given the diminished strength of your character, necessitates a deliberate and cautious approach. Emphasizing the pursuit of upgrades and power-ups becomes paramount during this journey. Consider engaging in farming expeditions within the Dried Lake, targeting the vulnerable monsters and formidable bosses who boast increased rarity and provide improved odds of acquiring rare items.

Additionally, investing time in exploring the Reliquary in Acts 5 and 10 proves worthwhile, as the interactive chests housed within offer opportunities to obtain additional items. By adopting these strategies, you can enhance your chances of progression and survival in the challenging realm of Ruthless.

In conclusion, for those venturing into the world of Path of Exile as beginners, I hope this Ruthless guide has provided valuable insights and a glimpse into the challenging yet rewarding gameplay that awaits you. If you're looking for more guidance on starting your journey, check out our comprehensive Path of Exile Beginner guide for essential tips and advice. May your adventures in Wraeclast be filled with excitement and triumph!