What To Spend Gold On First

Gold is a precious resource in Path of Exile 2 which can be used to purchase items from vendors or pay for meta character progression refunds, like respeccing Passive Skill Points. Gold can be hard to come by at the start of the game, but it’s not necessarily something you should avoid spending – some of the most useful things in the game can be purchased with Gold.

Some things you can buy with Gold are available at all times, like Scroll of Wisdom consumables or the Refund Passives system (once the Hooded One has joined your town). But others, like gear with specific modifiers or Flasks and Charms, will rotate every time you level up.

Ultimately, the best thing to buy first in Path of Exile 2 is the thing that will help you the most, whether that be bonuses from Movement Speed, a particularly large upgrade over your current weapon, or Scrolls to identify items before the Hooded One arrives.

But Not Too Many

When starting out in Path of Exile 2, you will not have access to The Hooded One for free Magic and Rare Item identification. Until you bring The Hooded One to town, all Magic and Rare Items must be identified with Scroll of Wisdom items. These are essential if you want early-game upgrades and items, and you may not find enough in the early game as world loot to identify everything you want to equip.

Later in the game Scrolls of Wisdom drop constantly, and with The Hooded One in town able to grant free Item Identification services, these items will start to pile up. But after creating your first character, make sure to stop by the Disenchantment vendor in the camp of Act 1, open trade with her, and buy a few Scroll of Wisdom items to carry you through to that point in the game. Scrolls of Wisdom cost 25 Gold each.

2 Boots With Movement Speed Modifiers

Your Primary Means Of Improving Movement Speed

One big frustration many players have with Path of Exile 2 is the game’s relatively low Movement Speed, especially considering how large the maps can be. Getting Movement Speed Boots early in Path of Exile 2 can drastically speed up your clear time, making it one of the most important things to buy first in PoE 2.

Keep an eye out on vendor inventories for Magic and Rare Boots with the “+ Movement Speed” modifier. Vendor inventory updates every time you level up, so if you don’t see any options, wait to level before you check again. Boots tend to cost less than 1000 Gold, but can increase in price drastically if the other Magic or Rare modifiers are good.

3 Magic & Rare Gear With Good Modifiers

Some Vendor Gear Pieces Are Major Upgrades – Check Regularly

In addition to Boots with the Movement Speed modifier, you should keep an eye out in vendor inventories for Magic and Rare equipment for your build and playstyle. All vendor equipment items can come in Magic or Rare Rarity, and have modifiers that are listed on the item (and don’t need to be identified). When you level up, the trade inventory for all vendors updates with new items for purchase which stay relatively current to your level.

The modifiers on vendor items are generated the same way that modifiers are generated on world loot and can be just as powerful, but instead of hoping for a drop, you can just purchase it with gold. Be sure to check all of the inventory for vendors whenever you level up in PoE 2 to see if there’s anything worth buying – vendor upgrades are a major source of gear progression in Path of Exile 2.

4 Higher-Tier Flasks & Necessary Charms

Better Healing, Better Mana Recovery, Better Resistances & Survivability

In town, the equipment vendors and gambling vendor will sell Flasks and Charms that come with modifiers just like other equipment items. There are several tiers of both the Life and Mana flask, and each tier restores an increasing amount of the associated resource.

If you are struggling to maintain your Life and Mana in combat, it may be time to head to a vendor and purchase one of a higher tier. You may find better Flasks as drops in the world, but when you reach the level associated with each tier and haven’t found an upgrade, vendor inventories will automatically gain that tier for purchase.

Compare the Flasks that vendors offer to your currently-equipped ones to make sure it will be an upgrade, as the names can sometimes be confusing and modifiers on a lower-tier Flask may make it stronger than a high-tier Flask with bad modifiers.

Vendors may also offer certain Charms for purchase, which can be useful for a variety of situations. If you are facing difficulty against a boss that deals mostly Lightning damage, for example, you can purchase and equip a Topaz Charm to mitigate Lightning damage automatically.

Charms operate on a trigger and effect system, and usually grant resistances or cancel certain damage types when inflicted. If you’re having trouble against a certain element or Ailment in Path of Exile 2, the first thing you should buy upon returning to town is a Charm to counter it.

5 Respec Passive Skill Points

If Your Build Isn’t Working, Try Again

Though you can (and should) spend Gold in Path of Exile 2 to purchase tangible things and gear, like Movement Speed, better Flasks & Charms, and upgraded equipment, you can also use Gold to re-spec Passive Skill Points.

You will get one Passive Skill Point at every level, but if you ever want to go back to the drawing board and try a different path on the Passive Skill Tree, you can use Gold to refund Points one by one.

It costs around 250 Gold to refund a Skill Point in Path of Exile 2, which can only be performed once you have unlocked the Refund Skill Points option for The Hooded One in town. This can add up quickly, especially if you want to re-do your whole Passive Skill Tree from the ground up.

But spending Gold to respec Skill Points becomes a very necessary purchase if you hit a metaphorical wall in the game, like if your build is struggling against a required boss, or if you aren’t satisfied with the way your character feels to play.