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PoE Best Leveling Uniques & Leveling Gear

PoE Leveling Uniques

Leveling uniques are like trusty sidekicks in Path of Exile! They pack a punch without breaking the bank and help you blaze through the campaign until you graduate to endgame gear. Here are some top contenders for different stages of your journey:

Early Acts (1-34):

  • Tabula Rasa: This iconic 6-linked body armor lets you unleash the full potential of your skill gems, even at low levels. Corruption can increase its damage potential further.
  • Lifesprig Amulet: This budget-friendly option offers life, mana, elemental resistances, and even some offensive stats.
  • Goldrim Helmet: A must-have for its generous all-elemental resistances, keeping you alive against early elemental bosses.
  • Seven League Steps Boots: Movement speed is king for leveling, and Seven League Steps delivers in spades.
  • Stibionne Rings: Decent life, resists, and a damage boost for specific elements make these rings reliable early friends.

Mid-Game (35-60):

  • Darkness Enthroned Belt: With power charges and bonus movement speed, it fuels your offense and mobility.
  • The Blood Reaper Axe: High base damage, life leech, and bleed effects make it a potent melee weapon.
  • Ngamahu's Flame Axe: Another strong contender for melee builds, offering both fire damage and life gain on hit.
  • Windscaller Amulet: A great choice for casters, boosting mana, regeneration, and elemental penetration.
  • Seven-League Boots: Still invaluable for zipping through maps and dodging boss attacks.

Late Game (61+):

  • Chin Sol Bow: This unique shines for its barrage of arrows, ideal for clearing maps quickly.
  • Belly of the Beast Belt: For melee builds, its monstrous life bonus and additional stats make it hard to beat.
  • Shavronne's Wrappings Body Armor: For energy shield builds, its chaos immunity and energy shield recharge are game-changers.
  • Starforge Axe/Sword: A top-tier weapon for melee builds, scaling damage through physical and elemental conversions.
  • Presence of Chayula Amulet: For elemental casters, the aura-like effects boost damage and elemental penetration.

Remember, the "best" leveling unique depends on your build and playstyle. Consider your skill gems, ascendancy, and what stats you need most when making your choice.

Bonus Tips:

  • Look for corrupted uniques on the trading market, as they can have powerful modifiers like increased damage or reduced mana cost.
  • Utilize vendor recipes to upgrade some leveling uniques, like the Goldrim helmet's +1 to all elemental resists enchantment.
  • Don't be afraid to swap out your leveling gear as you find better options throughout your journey.

I hope this guide helps you navigate the exciting world of Path of Exile leveling uniques! Feel free to ask for specific recommendations or advice based on your build and current progress. Happy slaying! ⚔️

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Unique items

The following gear is helpful while leveling during the Acts, as they are cheap Unique items that provide significant boosts, and can be worn from a low level onwards. These are not necessarily required, and players with no currency can simply use the gear that drops during the Acts, and linked gear purchased from town vendors.

Slot Builds Item Benefits
Helmet All Goldrim Elemental resistances
Body All Tabula Rasa Ability to 6-link your main attack ability
Gloves All Lochtonial Caress More damage and and charge generation
Boots All Wanderlust / Nomic's Storm / Shavronne's Pace / Victario's Flight / Seven-League Step Faster movement
Belt Melee/Ranger Meginord's Girdle / Perandus Blazon / Belt of the Deceiver / Wurm's Molt More damage and elemental resistances
Spellcaster Perandus Blazon Easier leveling
Rings All 2 Praxis / 2 Perandus Signet / Kaom's Sign / Blackheart / Le Heup of All Reduced mana cost of skills / Increased XP gain
Amulet Melee/Ranger Karui Ward More damage, faster attacks
Spellcaster Atziri's Foible More mana, improved mana regeneration
Weapons Melee 2 The Screaming Eagle / 2 Dreadarc / Limbsplit / 2 The Princess High damage output with low level requirement
Ranger Silverbranch / Roth's Reach, along with Asphyxia's Wrath / Hyrri's Bite
Spellcaster 2 Lifesprig / 2 Axiom Perpetuum / Fencoil / 2 Abberath's Horn
Poison 2 Goredrill / 2 Bloodplay

Self-crafted items

Players can use vendor recipes to easily craft weapons that are required for leveling, if they have no currency to purchase items, or if they are playing in SSF mode (solo self-found).

To do this, simply sell the items in the "Recipe" column to any vendor at any town, in order to receive the item in the "Result" column.

Recipe Result
  • Normal Boots
  • Quicksilver Flask
  • Orb of Augmentation
Magic Boots with 10% increased Movement Speed
  • Magic or Rare Boots with +X% Movement Speed
  • Quicksilver Flask
  • Orb of Augmentation
Magic Boots with (X+5)% increased Movement Speed
  • Normal or Magic Weapon optionally with Adds x Physical Damage
  • Orb of Augmentation
  • Granite Flask
Magic Weapon with Adds x Physical Damage
  • Normal or Magic Weapon optionally with Adds x Fire Damage
  • Orb of Augmentation
  • Ruby Flask
Magic Weapon with Adds x Fire Damage
  • Normal or Magic Weapon optionally with Adds x Cold Damage
  • Orb of Augmentation
  • Sapphire Flask
Magic Weapon with Adds x Cold Damage
  • Normal or Magic Weapon optionally with Adds x Lightning Damage
  • Orb of Augmentation
  • Topaz Flask
Magic Weapon with Adds x Lightning Damage
  • Magic Sceptre/Wand/Rune Dagger
  • Magic or Rare Ruby Ring
  • Orb of Alteration
Magic Weapon with Adds x Fire Damage to Spells
  • Magic Sceptre/Wand/Rune Dagger
  • Magic or Rare Sapphire Ring
  • Orb of Alteration
Magic Weapon with Adds x Cold Damage to Spells
  • Magic Sceptre/Wand/Rune Dagger
  • Magic or Rare Topaz Ring
  • Orb of Alteration
Magic Weapon with Adds x Lightning Damage to Spells


  • Normal Rune Dagger/Sceptre/Staff/Wand
  • 2 or more quality Skill gems with a combined total of 40% quality & the Physical tag
Magic Weapon with +1 to Level of all Physical Spell Skill Gems
  • Normal Rune Dagger/Sceptre/Staff/Wand
  • 2 or more quality Skill gems with a combined total of 40% quality & the Fire tag
Magic Weapon with +1 to Level of all Fire Spell Skill Gems
  • Normal Rune Dagger/Sceptre/Staff/Wand
  • 2 or more quality Skill gems with a combined total of 40% quality & the Cold tag
Magic Weapon with +1 to Level of all Cold Spell Skill Gems
  • Normal Rune Dagger/Sceptre/Staff/Wand
  • 2 or more quality Skill gems with a combined total of 40% quality & the Lightning tag
Magic Weapon with +1 to Level of all Lightning Spell Skill Gems
  • Normal Rune Dagger/Sceptre/Staff/Wand
  • 2 or more quality Skill gems with a combined total of 40% quality & the Chaos tag
Magic Weapon with +1 to Level of all Chaos Spell Skill Gems


Manual crafting

Additionally, for several builds that rely on spells that scale extremely well with levels - for instance: Absolution, Wintertide Brand, Exsanguinate, Corrupting Fever and others, the player should attempt to craft a wand, dagger or an INT-based shield of as low iLVL (You can view this by holding ALT while hovering over the item) as possible (recommended 1-11) by first using Orb of Transmutation and then using Orb of Alteration alongside of Orb of Augmentation to try and roll one of the following mods on these items:

  • x to Level of all Physical Spell Skill Gems - wands, shields
  • x to Level of all Fire Spell Skill Gems - wands, shields, daggers
  • x to Level of all Cold Spell Skill Gems - wands, shields, daggers
  • x to Level of all Lightning Spell Skill Gems - wands, shields, daggers
  • x to Level of all Chaos Spell Skill Gems - wands, shields

Players should be aware that only ONE of these mods can roll on the item, as they all share the same mod group. Trying to gain, for example - x to Level of all Physical Spell Skill Gems and x to Level of all Cold Spell Skill Gems together is not possible, and the same is true for any other combination with the notable exception of x to Level of all Spell Skill Gems mod which is not available until iLVL 55 of the item, but at this stage it also becomes FAR less likely you will get both mods.

The average number of tries to hit one of the above mods is higher at lower iLVL and much lower at higher iLVL items. By crafting either one weapon and one shield or two weapons, you stand to have +2 to a specific gem, which is a massive boost to your power during any stage of the game, even in maps.

1. Harvest

We’ll be taking a look at which uniques are most-used by players across different level brackets and game modes.

We’ll look at level 70+, level 90+ and all levels of characters.

All Levels 70+ 90+
Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa Thread of Hope Thread of Hope Thread of Hope Thread of Hope
Thread of Hope Thread of Hope Watcher’s Eye Watcher’s Eye Watcher’s Eye Watcher’s Eye
Watcher’s Eye Watcher’s Eye Atziri’s Promise Atziri’s Promise Primordial Harmony Primordial Harmony
Atziri’s Promise Atziri’s Promise Lion’s Roar Lion’s Roar Rumi’s Concoction Rumi’s Concoction
Lion’s Roar Lion’s Roar Primordial Harmony Primordial Harmony Atziri’s Promise Atziri’s Promise
Primordial Harmony Primordial Harmony Rumi’s Concoction Rumi’s Concoction Cinderswallow Urn Cinderswallow Urn
Goldrim Goldrim The Wise Oak The Wise Oak Lion’s Roar Lion’s Roar
Wanderlust Wanderlust Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa The Wise Oak The Wise Oak
The Wise Oak The Wise Oak Cinderswallow Urn Cinderswallow Urn Primordial Eminence Primordial Eminence
Rumi’s Concoction Rumi’s Concoction Primordial Eminence Primordial Eminence Glorious Vanity Glorious Vanity

Looking at All Levels, we can see multiple uniques that are generally considered to be “leveling unique items” in Goldrim Goldrim and Wanderlust Wanderlust. What’s interesting here is how popular Thread of Hope Thread of Hope is. The Harvest The Harvest update introduced Glancing Blows as a keystone on the passive tree, which just so happens to be in a great position to take advantage of a “Very Large Ring” Thread of Hope Thread of Hope!

In the level 70+ bracket, Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa starts declining drastically in popularity, as players transition away from their leveling gear and into stronger choices. Two Primordial jewels show up here, displaying the popularity of Golem builds.

Finally, in the level 90+ bracket, we see Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa has dropped out of the picture entirely, with Glorious Vanity Glorious Vanity being a newcomer to the fold. Thread of Hope Thread of Hope reigns supreme as the most popular choice, while there is very little fluctuation among the rest of the uniques.

2. Harvest Hardcore

Here, we’ll mainly be comparing how the Hardcore choices look relative to the Standard choices.

All Levels 70+ 90+
Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa Thread of Hope Thread of Hope
Wanderlust Wanderlust Thread of Hope Thread of Hope Glorious Vanity Glorious Vanity
Goldrim Goldrim Lion’s Roar Lion’s Roar Watcher’s Eye Watcher’s Eye
Lifesprig Lifesprig Spreading Rot Spreading Rot Rumi’s Concoction Rumi’s Concoction
Blackheart Blackheart Rumi’s Concoction Rumi’s Concoction Spreading Rot Spreading Rot
Karui Ward Karui Ward Lioneye’s Remorse Lioneye’s Remorse Primordial Harmony Primordial Harmony
Kaom’s Sign Kaom’s Sign Conqueror’s Efficiency Conqueror’s Efficiency Lion’s Roar Lion’s Roar
Lochtonial Caress Lochtonial Caress The Jinxed Juju Forbidden Taste Forbidden Taste
Araku Tiki Araku Tiki Witchfire Brew Witchfire Brew The Jinxed Juju
Survival Instincts Survival Instincts Crown of the Inward Eye Crown of the Inward Eye

One key difference that is immediately observable when looking at the All Levels bracket is how almost all of these uniques are squarely in the “leveling unique items” bracket. This is significantly different from Standard, where many of the unique items were certainly not your typical leveling uniques.

In the level 70+ bracket, Thread of Hope Thread of Hope once again makes an appearance, one notch below Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa. Given the difficulty of obtaining this jewel, it’s reasonable to expect its use to be lower given there will likely be reduced availability, yet it is quite popular! Notable newcomers include Spreading Rot Spreading Rot, Lioneye’s Remorse Lioneye’s Remorse, and Witchfire Brew Witchfire Brew, with two of those uniques being very useful to Essence Drain Essence Drain / Blight builds.

In the level 90+ bracket, we see Forbidden Taste Forbidden Taste coming into the picture. This flask is extremely useful for characters with very large life pools, allowing for instantaneous life recovery when it is most needed. Worthy mentions in this bracket are The Jinxed Juju (a commonly used unique in Spectre builds) as well as Crown of the Inward Eye, both of which do not show up in Standard.

3. Harvest SSF Standard

Let’s move on from trade leagues and take a look at how unique usage varies when players have to find their own uniques, starting with Harvest SSF Standard.

All Levels 70+ 90+
Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa Thread of Hope Thread of Hope
Wanderlust Wanderlust Spreading Rot Spreading Rot Atziri’s Promise Atziri’s Promise
Spreading Rot Spreading Rot Atziri’s Promise Atziri’s Promise Rumi’s Concoction Rumi’s Concoction
Goldrim Goldrim Thread of Hope Thread of Hope Cinderswallow Urn Cinderswallow Urn
Assassin’s Haste Assassin’s Haste Conqueror’s Efficiency Conqueror’s Efficiency Spreading Rot Spreading Rot
Survival Instincts Survival Instincts Rumi’s Concoction Rumi’s Concoction Lion’s Roar Lion’s Roar
Survival Secrets Survival Secrets Lion’s Roar Lion’s Roar Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa
Atziri’s Promise Atziri’s Promise Assassin’s Haste Assassin’s Haste Crown of the Inward Eye
Karui Ward Karui Ward Cinderswallow Urn Cinderswallow Urn The Wise Oak The Wise Oak
Blackheart Blackheart The Wise Oak The Wise Oak Victario’s Charity Victario’s Charity

One of the first things that you can see when going down the All Levels bracket is that Spreading Rot Spreading Rot is quite popular. You’ll recall that this didn’t show up in non-SSF Harvest Standard, but likely shows up in SSF given that this is a quest reward in Act 5, therefore players can reliably make Essence Drain Essence Drain / Blight builds. We see a trio of quest reward jewels in Assassin’s Haste Assassin’s Haste, Survival Instincts Survival Instincts and Survival Secrets Survival Secrets here as well, with players making do with the readily-available options.

In the level 70+ bracket, Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa and Spreading Rot Spreading Rot remain very popular choices, as is expected. Impressively, Thread of Hope Thread of Hope is relatively popular even in SSF leagues!

As we tighten things up by looking at the level 90+ bracket, one key difference is that Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa actually sticks around, where in trade leagues, it was nowhere to be seen. This isn’t overly surprising given the increased difficulty of obtaining a six-link when you can’t trade, but interesting nonetheless. We do see Victario’s Charity Victario’s Charity for the first time, suggesting that Minion builds are a popular choice in SSF leagues.

4. Harvest SSF Hardcore

Finally, to wrap up unique statistics, we’ll take a look at Harvest SSF Hardcore.

All Levels 70+ 90+
Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa Spreading Rot Spreading Rot
Wanderlust Wanderlust Spreading Rot Spreading Rot Thread of Hope Thread of Hope
Blackheart Blackheart Lioneye’s Remorse Lioneye’s Remorse Lioneye’s Remorse Lioneye’s Remorse
Goldrim Goldrim Lion’s Roar Lion’s Roar Tabula Rasa Tabula Rasa
Karui Ward Karui Ward Thread of Hope Thread of Hope Rumi’s Concoction Rumi’s Concoction
Lifesprig Lifesprig Bated Breath Bated Breath Lion’s Roar Lion’s Roar
Araku Tiki Araku Tiki Conqueror’s Efficiency Conqueror’s Efficiency Glorious Vanity Glorious Vanity
Kaom’s Sign Kaom’s Sign First Snow First Snow Forbidden Taste Forbidden Taste
Spreading Rot Spreading Rot Belt of the Deceiver Belt of the Deceiver Soul Tether Soul Tether
Lochtonial Caress Lochtonial Caress Rumi’s Concoction Rumi’s Concoction Bated Breath Bated Breath

We’ll begin by looking at All Levels. If you recall the Harvest Hardcore stats, you’ll note that the entirety of this list is identical with one exception; Spreading Rot Spreading Rot shows up in place of Survival Instincts Survival Instincts, another nod towards the reliability of Essence Drain Essence Drain / Blight builds.

In the level 70+ bracket, we see Bated Breath Bated Breath, First Snow First Snow and Belt of the Deceiver Belt of the Deceiver as newcomers. Bated Breath Bated Breath slots into any Energy Shield build quite well, while Belt of the Deceiver Belt of the Deceiver is a fantastic unique belt for life-based characters, providing ever-important life and resistances. First Snow First Snow is specific to Freezing Pulse Freezing Pulse builds, which is rather unexpected to see as one of the most popular choices, though given that this is also a quest reward and has a limit of two, it might explain its popularity.

Finally, in the level 90+ bracket, we don’t see Watcher’s Eye Watcher’s Eye at all, where it was also missing in Harvest Standard as well. It’s certainly a very powerful option, suggesting that acquisition of Watcher’s Eyes is relatively difficult (both in terms of rarity and perhaps also encounter difficulty). The final newcomer here is Soul Tether Soul Tether, a relatively rare unique belt which allows Life Leech effects to not be removed when you reach Full Life.

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