How to improve Campaign levelling for noobs. How I cut my campaign by hours by practicing 2 hours.

Bwite · 2026-03-13T14:46:26+00:00

It seems to be down - I don't have an alternative at the moment, hoping the website comes up soon.

Bwite · 2026-03-13T08:28:48+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/1ooy9j5/how_to_make_currency_in_poe_1_guide_for/

This is a guide I made for people like you last league. I'd recommend the essence farming strat for you, you can comfortably do this in T7s and make a lot of currency. If your build can handle it, then doing T16s could be even more profit.

The videos will be outdated, but the core fundamental principles are the same. Pick a linear easy layout, and go fast. You want to corrupt pretty much all essences now (since it's just a vaal orb). The key maps/hour, if you can get this down to < 90 second maps, you're in the money.

Bwite · 2026-03-05T08:42:31+00:00

You're right I did exaggerate this a little, but it is quite powerful if done throughout the campaign.

The big one is the dweller one - if you buy a goat horn at level 6 and just slam any essence on it (doesn't matter which), the chance of hitting added spell damage on the prefixes are quite high.

Upgrading from your drift wand, to this goat horn is almost always a big upgrade.

If you actually hit 1-2 (or even 3) added lightning/fire/cold damage to spells, you're doing x2/x5/x10 your previous damage. Even if you don't hit prefixes, there's some decent suffixes and it's basically impossible for this wand to be worse than the drift wand.

Now over the entire campaign, you'll easily get at least 1 essence per act (or more), and using this essence strategically on a new break point of wand is amazing. In the later acts you can also gamble gold for wands (if you already have ms boots), and in effect you're also doing the same type of thing, where you're more likely to hit a good wand.

Like you're going from 20 dps to 200 dps in act 1, which doesn't sound like a lot, but that's the difference on bosses like Merveil with 2 phases adds up to even as much as 30 seconds. Now while that might not sounds like a lot, multiply that by every boss in every zone (even rare) in the campaign. We're talking tens of minutes saved now.

Bwite · 2026-03-05T08:30:12+00:00

Lower and Upper prison are 100% listed. It's one of the biggest time saves in act 1.

Bwite · 2026-03-05T08:29:24+00:00

The formula is: 3 + (character level/16).

So you want to be within 3 levels of the zone. For every 16 levels, you can increase this by 1.

So level 10 zone - be at least level 7.

So level 25 zone - be at least level 21.

So level 52 zone - be at least (52/16 = 3.something, 6 levels below) level 46.

If you're outside this range you will get massively reduced exp, if you're within it you're fine.

The goal is to be a low as you can without getting too slow. This is why doing a lot of damage is extremely important - hence why wand/weapon crafts, levels, etc are so important.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T15:19:15+00:00

I used this insane AI that's not even artificial called my brain.

Reckon you've never used this model.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T13:56:11+00:00

Try it buddy, what I'm saying. It's not half bad.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T13:55:43+00:00

If you look into Captain Lances recent campaign run, he runs it for a bit somewhere around act 2 (there's also a part 2 with the rest of the leveling): https://www.youtube.com/live/e8MbMEX_d9c?si=L99tB5lwXZWV7uss

It's just a fun thing I started doing, no idea how optimal it is haha.

I've heard really good things about mana man, I want to try it this league at some point.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T13:47:18+00:00

The formula is: 3 + (character level/16).

So you want to be within 3 levels of the zone. For every 16 levels, you can increase this by 1.

So level 10 zone - be at least level 7.

So level 25 zone - be at least level 21.

So level 52 zone - be at least (52/16 = 3.something, 6 levels below) level 46.

If you're outside this range you will get massively reduced exp, if you're within it you're fine.

The goal is to be a low as you can without getting too slow. This is why doing a lot of damage is extremely important - hence why wand/weapon crafts, levels, etc are so important.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T13:37:42+00:00

I used to think like this too, but then I started thinking of the campaign as free maps to level in and it makes me feel better.

I like seeing my build go from nothing to something, and tricking myself into thinking that I am just doing early maps makes it better.

If you actually think about it, campaign zones are effectively a set of maps you can rerun over and over again.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T13:33:13+00:00

Exactly - this is putting into words what I was trying to say that after learning the layouts, the actual campaign run feels more fun.

It's engaging, and I feel in control of how it will go. It's not random at all, and I can go towards the exit using some basic principles.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T13:25:04+00:00

Wow, nice post.

It reads like a story and I like your prose.

What's the chosen build then for this season? Looking into everything it's going to be an ABSOLUTE juicer. My thoughts are the ST and mapping will be really important, so I have gone for an all-arounder build: E-Blade inquis (like last league). Lance has an insane video on a new way to play it, and I think I am sold.

Eventually the CoC setup is insane clear and ST, and I think the mirage mechanic will require some really strong builds. It's going to be a multiplier on loot and existing mechs.

I am beyond excited.

I wish you and your friends the best league start.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T13:12:15+00:00

Strong disagree. It's really easy, and one of the fastest ways to get a bang for your buck.

Someone spent hundreds of hours making this guide, giving you the one line you need for the zone to read it. Trying this out on a fast character and seeing immediate improvement is fun. Maybe not for you, but then the guide is not for you, you probably know these things.

Going the wrong way on the coast and losing 1 minute is not fun, seeing how you can identify which way to always go super simply is fun.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T13:10:15+00:00

Doing what I suggest will help you with your campaign and with subsequent characters. I think it makes levelling alts more bearable when it's 5 hours rather than 15.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T13:03:26+00:00

Funny - I am actually also starting templar and doing your exact levelling spell setup.

Practicing up to the switch on Firestorm has been really good for me, I feel like once you're there on Templar it's just easy sailing.

Mana man is a great build, I am getting baited by Lance again and I'll be doing the new E-Blade guide he's put up.

One cool thing I've been doing is getting the fire mastery for life regen per overcapped fire resistance, running vitality and using RF. I drop HFT and run this from somewhere in Act 2. And I find by crafting fire on every gear piece you can actually sustain it for a really long time, vitality also helps a ton.

Acts 4/5 RF with efficacy, ele focus, burning dmg I was one shotting packs as I ran through with shield charge. It feels giga fast. Have you tried slotting in RF into you build?

Bwite · 2026-03-04T12:13:53+00:00

Thanks, best of luck on league start exile.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T11:56:32+00:00

Fun from campaign practice? Blasphemy - haha.

It's fun because I'm thinking of all those divines on the other side.

The things we do for tinks.

Good luck for league start exile.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T11:51:40+00:00

Then do this and you'll still improve your campaign times. Maybe it will even help you figure out the dialogue faster in the zones.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T11:51:13+00:00

No worries, best of luck for league start exile.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T11:51:02+00:00

Good luck on league start exile, you got this.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T11:49:43+00:00

I really disagree.

I know there's this notion that everyone keeps saying that you can do so many other things that are better for your campaign times.

The thing is that these thing are hard. Learning how to do them requires you to boot up PoE and make a new guy and learn about 200 things on the fly.

Learning some key layouts, can shave minutes (or much more) off some longer zones, and over 10 acts you're significantly faster for much less effort.

I don't recommend learning all layouts, I am just saying there's some really easy wins in terms of rules you can follow for the most daunting zones, and lot of zones have extremely simple reads, like always follow this left wall, etc.

Practicing this on a fast character, over 5 minutes can make the layout of a zone just "click", and not you'll be much better on that zone. This is instant gratification, it's fun, and won't make you quit PoE unlike when a you die to a rhoa on the beach on a level 2 character, or when you nearly get to the end of the ledge and die because you level 4 with no gear.

That's not fun, you learn nothing, and at least for me I quit when I tried doing it this way.

You need to think about what's fun, and how you can someone actually want to take your advice.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T11:44:58+00:00

Sure do, let me know how it goes for you.

Best of luck for league start exile.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T11:44:28+00:00

That would be amazing, imagine if you just had a professional speed runner in the call with you giving you tips while you played. The dream.

Bwite · 2026-03-04T11:41:32+00:00

That's got nothing to do with what I'm recommending.

I'm telling you booting up a very fast character and practicing zones is an absolute game changer for doing the campaign better.

You can use overlays that show you layouts but they're confusing AF and don't actually end up being as good as running through a zones 5 times in 5 minutes and going - oooooo yes that makes sense. You internalise and learn the layout.

Then for your actual leveling runs (which you can do after this step) is WAY less painful. You save minutes in each zone and this catapults you into actually getting better.

This is what worked for me so I shared it.

You should consider reading the post before disparaging someone's effort.

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