What to Farm in Path of Exile
Admin
August 25, 2026
There is no single best farming strategy. There is only the one that fits what you can spend, what you want to earn, and what you can survive.
How to choose a farming strategy
Four things decide it, and they pull against each other.
Some setups cost a single chaos. Others cost around eight divines every map. Some farms are one item and a portal. Others need an atlas tree, a scarab list, and a routine you follow every map. And the strategy that pays the most is very often the one most likely to end your run in ten seconds.
The safest farm is rarely the richest. The richest farm is often the one that kills you. So pick the thing you care about most, then take the best option in that column.
- Setup cost
- What one run consumes. This is the wall most players hit first, and it is the easiest one to get around.
- Profit per hour
- What the run is worth once you have paid for it. The biggest number is rarely the right pick on its own.
- Difficulty
- How likely the encounter is to kill you. A death mid-run turns a good rate into a bad one.
- Complexity
- Atlas trees, scarab lists, things to remember every map. Separate from difficulty, and often the opposite of it.
Here are the four short answers.
~38div/h
One chart, about a chaos. The voyage is a hard fight.
~27div/h
Four fragments and nothing else. One of the two hardest fights here.
The most profitable farming strategies
If you want the biggest number per hour, start here. Read the setup cost and the difficulty next to it before you commit.
| Strategy | Profit per hour | Setup cost | Difficulty | Complexity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low Budget Chart Voyages | ~38 | ~1c | 4 | Some setup |
| Fubgun's Ethereal Allflame Scarab Farming | ~36 | ~1,700c~8 div | 4 | Some setup |
| Uber Maven Farm | ~27 | ~530c~2.5 div | 5 | Simplest tier |
| Simulacrum | ~26 | ~100c~0.5 div | 4 | Simplest tier |
| Strongboxes Beyond Demon Farming | ~21 | ~130c | 3 | Some setup |
| Uber Sirus, Awakener of Worlds | ~21 | ~10c | 5 | Simplest tier |
| Abyss Rare Monster Stacking Scarab Farm | ~20 | ~120c | 4 | Some setup |
Low Budget Chart Voyages tops the list off one chart worth about a chaos. Charts have gotten very cheap, and that is most of why it sits where it does. The voyage itself is a hard fight, so bring a build that can take a hit.
Fubgun's Ethereal Allflame Scarab Farming earns almost as much, but you spend roughly 8 divines every map to get there. Most of that is three Ethereal Allflame Embers, and they have kept climbing. This one suits a player with currency already cycling, not a player building a stack from nothing.
Uber Maven Farm pays around 27 divines an hour for a couple of divines in Reality Fragments. It shares the hardest difficulty rating with Uber Sirus. If you are not already comfortable killing her, your real profit is far below that number. Simulacrum is close behind off a single item, and it will punish an unfinished build in the late waves.
The gentlest way into the top of this list is Strongboxes Beyond Demon Farming, at middling difficulty for under a divine in Ambush scarabs. Uber Sirus matches it per hour for under ten chaos in fragments, which is the best return per chaos on the list. You just have to survive Uber Sirus to collect it.
Why the top pick is also the cheapest.
The Coral Forest Chart has fallen to about a chaos, which is roughly as low as a price goes. That flatters the profit figure and it will not last. If charts recover, this strategy drops back down the list.
Budget farming strategies (cheapest setups)
If you are starting from very little, these are the ones you can actually afford. All of them make money at the moment.
| Strategy | Setup cost | Profit per hour | Difficulty | Complexity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low Budget Chart Voyages | ~1c | ~38 | 4 | Some setup |
| The Maven Farm | ~6c | ~10 | 4 | Simplest tier |
| Budget Essence Farming | ~9c | ~18 | 1 | Some setup |
| Uber Sirus, Awakener of Worlds | ~10c | ~21 | 5 | Simplest tier |
| Infamous Mercenary Rushing Farm | ~11c | ~14 | 2 | Simplest tier |
| The Shaper Farm | ~16c | ~19 | 3 | Simplest tier |
Here is what the three cheapest actually ask you to buy.
Budget Essence Farming
Essence Scarab ×3
~5c
Essence Scarab of Ascent ×1
~3c
Essence Scarab of Stability ×1
~1c
Budget Essence Farming is the one to start on if you are new and nervous. Under ten chaos buys around 18 divines an hour and the safest farm on the list. The Maven Farm is cheaper still at a handful of chaos, and the regular Maven is a much softer fight than the uber version, so it is the cheapest way to learn her. Once essences start to bore you, Infamous Mercenary Rushing Farm is about eleven chaos a run at low difficulty.
If you have divines rather than chaos.
Put them in one of the cheap setups above anyway. Every one of them earns back its setup cost in minutes. Spending more up front does not buy you a better rate. It buys you a bigger loss when a price moves.
Easy farming strategies for safe, low-risk play
If you die a lot, or your build is not finished, start here. Difficulty is what matters in this section, not profit.
| Strategy | Difficulty | Profit per hour | Setup cost | Encounter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget Essence Farming | 1 | ~18 | ~9c | Essence |
| Stacked Deck Ritual Farming in Jungle Valley | 2 | ~16 | ~180c | Ritual |
| Infamous Mercenary Rushing Farm | 2 | ~14 | ~11c | Mercenaries |
| Strongboxes Beyond Demon Farming | 3 | ~21 | ~130c | Strongboxes |
| The Shaper Farm | 3 | ~19 | ~16c | Boss |
| Sirus, Awakener of Worlds | 3 | ~16 | ~20c | Boss |
Only two strategies carry the lowest difficulty rating, and one of them is losing money at the moment. That leaves Budget Essence Farming. There is no boss. You crack essence monsters in maps you were running anyway, and nothing in the setup asks you to stand still while something big charges you.
Stacked Deck Ritual Farming is next for safety, because rituals let you reroll and walk away. Five Divination Scarabs of the Cloister cost under a divine, so it is cheap to get into as well. Infamous Mercenary Rushing Farm is cheaper still at about eleven chaos, and is the best mix of cheap and safe on the list.
A step up in difficulty, The Shaper Farm pays around 19 divines an hour for about sixteen chaos in Guardian fragments. The Shaper is a fight with a known script. Learn it once and it stays learned. His fragments have come down in price lately, which makes this a better deal than it was.
Watch the scarab price.
The Divination Scarab of the Cloister has roughly quadrupled since that strategy was written, so five of them now cost close to a divine a map instead of a quarter of that. It is still cheap enough to be worth running. It is also the number here most likely to move again, so check it before you commit to a night of ritual.
Simple farming strategies with minimal setup
For players who do not want an atlas tree rebuild and a scarab checklist.
| Strategy | Complexity | Profit per hour | Setup cost | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uber Maven Farm | Simplest tier | ~27 | ~530c~2.5 div | 5 |
| Simulacrum | Simplest tier | ~26 | ~100c~0.5 div | 4 |
| The Shaper Farm | Simplest tier | ~19 | ~16c | 3 |
| Sirus, Awakener of Worlds | Simplest tier | ~16 | ~20c | 3 |
| Breach Dunes | Simplest tier | ~15 | ~70c | 4 |
Uber Maven Farm is four Reality Fragments, open the map, fight. Nothing about the setup is complicated. Everything about the execution is. Simulacrum is the same shape for half a divine, with no atlas work at all, and it will still kill you in the late waves.
If you want a simple setup without a lethal fight attached, The Shaper Farm is the pick of this section. Four Guardian fragments and a portal, around 19 divines an hour, and a fight you can learn. The non-uber Sirus is similar and even more forgiving.
Breach Dunes is one map and one mechanic for well under a divine. Breaches get dangerous when you let them run long, so pace yourself.
Simple is not the same as safe.
Most of the shortest setups on this list attach to the hardest fights. That is not a coincidence. A boss you buy a key for needs no atlas planning, which is exactly why the planning is not what stops you.
Farming strategies to avoid
You would finish the hour with less currency than you started.
| Strategy | Profit per hour | Setup cost | Difficulty | What went wrong |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uber Eater of Worlds | ~ −56 | ~770c~3.6 div | 4 | Fragments cost more than the fight returns. |
| Vorana Logbook Expedition Farming | ~ −28 | ~1,500c~7 div | 1 | One logbook a map, and the run does not return its price. |
| Uber Elder Farm | ~ −11 | ~280c~1.3 div | 4 | A hard fight that no longer covers its fragments. |
| The Eater of Worlds Farm | ~ −6 | ~190c~0.9 div | 3 | The smallest loss here, but still a loss. |
These four are losing money at current prices. That is not a small margin or a rounding error. One of them, Vorana, is rated the easiest difficulty on the whole list, which is exactly why it is worth naming. Cheap to survive is not the same as worth running.
One more to watch.
Uber Shaper Farm is still in the black, but only just, at around 2 divines an hour against a setup of nearly 3 divines. It takes over an hour of farming to earn back one run's setup cost. A small price move in either direction puts it in the table above.
How to read these numbers
- Profit per hour
- Divines per hour at the current Divine Orb price of 212.32 chaos. If the divine price moves, every figure here moves with it.
- Setup cost
- What one run consumes, priced at the current value of each item in the setup.
- Difficulty
- Rated 1 to 5. How likely the encounter is to kill you.
- Complexity
- How much setup and bookkeeping a strategy needs, rated 1 to 5 and kept separate from difficulty on purpose. The two disagree often, which is why they get separate sections above.
- Accuracy
- Prices move every day, and item prices come from the most recent recorded value rather than a live trade search. Every figure here is rounded and frozen at the date on this post — treat it as a guide to the size of a number, not a quote, and check the market before you buy a stack of anything. Live figures for every strategy are on the top strategies page.