Path of Exile is one of the biggest ARPGs available today.
This game is massive and includes so many complex elements that take a while to discover and understand.
One of the most important features of Path of Exile is identifying items.
If you’re new to the game and wondering how to identify items in Path of Exile, then this guide is for you.
Why Identify Items in Path of Exile?
As you level up through Path of Exile you will come across various types of items, weapons, and gear with different rarities.
Among such loot, you will come across some items with a tag that says “Unidentified”.
These are high-level items but you can’t equip them.
Unless you identify the items, you won’t be able to use them.
As you can imagine, identifying these items is the only way you can use them. And, when you identify them, you will discover new modifiers appear for that items. These will make the item more powerful.
How to Identify Items in Path of Exile
Now that you’re aware of what identifying items is all about, let’s see how exactly the process works. It’s actually fairly simple.
Step 1: Find Scrolls of Wisdom
To identify an item, you need to find Scrolls of Wisdom.
You need one scroll of wisdom to identify one unidentified item. These are very easy to come by as enemies drop them quite often. Be sure to collect them.
Or, if you don’t have one, you can buy a scroll of wisdom from a Town vendor.
Step 2: Apply The Scroll Into The Item
Make sure you have both your unidentified item and a scroll of wisdom in your inventory.
Now right-click on the scroll of wisdom, bring it over to the unidentified item, and left-click on that item.
You will now see that the previously unidentified item now appears as a fully equipable item with lots of great modifiers.
How to Craft or Upgrade Items in Path of Exile
Learning to upgrade your items is another important part of refining your gear. This allows you to make your items stronger as well as add resistance modifiers.
For example, if you’re constantly getting killed by enemies that deal fire damage, you can try improving your fire resistance by adding a fire-resistance suffix to a piece of armor you’re wearing.
Here’s how it’s done.
Step 1: Unlock Your Hideout
You need access to your hideout to be able to forge and upgrade weapons.
You can unlock a hideout in Act 2 by freeing Helena in Act 2. Then you can access it from any waypoint.
Step 2: Prepare Your Gear
If you want to craft fully customized gear, you should start with a piece that doesn’t have any prefixes or suffixes. You can easily pick these up from a vendor.
Or you can remove existing modifiers to upgrade them with better ones.
You will gain access to better prefixes as you level up.
Step 3: Upgrade Your Gear
Now go to your hideout and find the Crafting Bench.
Place the item you want to upgrade on the crafting bench. And search for a prefix or suffix that you want to add to the item.
For example, if you want to add fire resistance, search fire resistance. Then it will show you what resources are required to craft that upgrade.
If you already have the required resources, you can craft the item. If not, you can go for a loot run or buy from a vendor.
Conclusion
There’s a lot more involved in crafting items in Path of Exile. But I kept things simple and light so that beginning players don’t get confused and overwhelmed. I will try to cover a more detailed guide in the future.