Understanding the Value of Currency

Even though the currency system in Path of Exile is brilliantly done it can be quite confusing for new players. The game doesn’t follow the traditional “gold” system, instead players are encouraged and required to trade one currency for another with either vendors or other players depending on their needs.

Certain currency items are more or less difficult to obtain thus the different values and trading ratios are very important to understand. Once you remember all the ratios and start trading with other players it’s almost like a minigame within PoE in which you barter and haggle with others in order to get currency items you need at the best possible price.

There’s about 20 different currency items (frequently referred to as Orbs) in Path of Exile. I’ll list all of them below along with a short explanation of what they are used for. They are listed (more or less) by rarity, so the first ones listed are very common and easy to obtain while the bottom ones are very expensive and less likely to drop.

Armourer’s Scrap	Scraps drop frequently and are very inexpensive, up to the point where finding a buyer for these is even hard. Don’t fret though as you should still always pick them up and use them for Chaos Orb recipe on high level items. Using Armorer’s Scraps also increases your chance to 5 or 6 link gem sockets on an item so if you decide to go for it having a few hundred Armorer’s Scraps might save you more valuable currency later on. You can trade Scraps for Whetstones at vendors.
Blacksmith’s Whetstone	Same as Armorer’s Scraps, Whetstones are used to improve an item’s quality up to 20% and are easy to obtain. They drop often from mobs and aren’t used in high amounts. Nevertheless you should still pick them up whenever you can since like everything else in Path of Exile it has its value. You can only trade them for Armourer’s Scraps at vendors.
Glassblower’s Bauble	Glassblower’s Baubles are used to improve quality of flasks and typically players don’t need a large amount of them. You’ll probably use 100-200 of these at most throughout the game so once you have the best (Hallowed or Sanctified) flasks you won’t need these. They can’t be traded for anything of better value at vendors and I have yet to see a player buying Baubles.
Orb of Transmutation	Orb of Transmutation transforms a white (common) item into a blue (magic) one. Very common and mostly used on flasks, lower level maps (66-68) and strongboxes. Usually when I get over 100 of these I just trade them at vendor for Orbs of Augmentation or more often Scrolls of Wisdom.
Orb of Augmentation	Adds an additional stat to a magic item. Some magic items have only one stat and an Augmentation Orb is used to add an affix to them. Very easy to obtain in larger quantities and best traded at vendor for Alteration.
Chromatic Orb	Changes gem socket colors on an item. Easy to come by and you will need a lot of them (as in hundreds). I recommend keeping at least 150 of them at all times and trade the surplus for other orbs.
Orb of Alteration	Replaces current with new random stats on a magic (blue) item. It’s unlikely you will need many of these unless you’re really into crafting items, which you won’t be until very late endgame. I prefer to simply trade them to vendors for more valuable orbs. They are extremely easy to come by.
Jeweller’s Orb	Fairly easy to get, Jeweller’s Orbs are used to change the number of sockets on an item. When you get a better piece of gear you’ll surely want to add more sockets to it so you might want to have at least 100 spare Jeweller’s Orbs to spend. If you have extra trade them with vendors for Orb of Fusing.
Orb of Chance	This currency orb transforms a white item with no stats into a magic (blue), rare (yellow) or even unique item. Obviously the chances of getting a unique item are slim but it’s well worth using on certain endgame gear (especially Glorious Plates and Siege Axes, both of which can turn into extremely expensive gear). You can just hoard these, chances are you’ll be using all of them. If you don’t want to test your luck, you can vendor them for Orbs of Scouring and Orbs of Regret for fairly decent rates.
Cartographer’s Chisel	Chisels are used to improve the quantity and rarity of item drops on endgame maps. Even though you won’t be seeing Chisels drop in lower levels they are fairly common but always in high demand. Once you get higher level maps (70+) you will definitely want to improve them with Chisels so keep a few around; you can exchange the rest for Chaos Orbs or some other currency which will probably be more important to you earlier.
Orb of Fusing	A mid-value orb used to link sockets on an item. They are high in demand and you should always keep 50-80 of them in your stash to be able to link your own items if necessary. To get 5 linked sockets on a piece of gear you’ll need about 150 Fusings and an average of 800 for 6 links (rough estimate, can vary significantly) so players often purchase these in large quantities which makes them extremely easy to trade.
Orb of Alchemy	I tend to use all my Alchemy Orbs (and even buy some occasionally) to turn common (white) high level rings, amulets and belts into rare items. Those pieces of equipment typically don’t drop often and are hard to get sometimes so it’s best to simply pick up white ones with high rolls and turn them into rares, hoping for a decent item. If I don’t get anything good I just use them for Chaos Orb recipe at vendor. Most common use though is on maps.
Orb of Scouring	This orb removes all stats from a magic or rare item. It’s useful for crafting or rolling maps, but can be somewhat harder to trade with other players. I usually turn them into Orb of Regret at vendor (2:1), since Regrets are always easier to sell.
Blessed Orb	Blessed Orbs aren’t used very often but they can be very useful on high quality items. In most cases you’ll just trade them for Chaos Orbs. They are used to change the values of implicit (health on Coral rings, or resistances on Prismatic, etc.) stats on a particular item. Especially useful when rolling higher value Unique items.
Chaos Orb	Another mid-value orb and sort of considered the main currency of the game. They are somewhat easy to obtain later on in the game but also very quick to spend. Always in high demand, and any other currency item can always be traded for Chaos Orbs. Chaos Orbs often serve as sort of an anchor for trading, meaning most other currencies and their exchange ratios are just translated into Chaos Orbs.
Vaal Orb	Frequent drop with same drop rate as Chaos, Vaal is used to modify items randomly. It can turn unique items into rare ones, break socket links or even add Prismatic (white) sockets. Important to note that once you use a Vaal Orb on an item you can’t use any other currency on it, that includes Fusings, Jewellers, Eternals and even Whetstones and Scraps.
Orb of Regret	There’s always someone who wants to re-spec their passive skill tree and allocate a point or a few differently, thus Orbs of Regret are highly valued. Unless you really messed up your skill tree build you won’t need dozens of them (plus you get about 15 free respec points from quests), but do try and keep about 5-10 of them in your stash. You might need to allocate a point into resist after changing your gear or figure out a shorter path to a certain keystone passive after awhile so having a few extra Regrets doesn’t hurt.
Regal Orb	Regal Orbs are used for crafting, more specifically turning a magic item into a rare one. Do note that when using a Regal your now rare item will get one additional stat and will retain the stats from the blue item, but unless you have plenty of Exalted Orbs to spend to craft further don’t even bother with this. In a majority of cases you should just trade your Regal Orbs for Chaos. Definitely not recommended using on low level gear while you’re leveling.
Gemcutter’s Prism	High value orb and pretty darn rare as a monster drop, Gemcutter’s Prism (GCP) is used to improve the quality of a gem. Never use these on gems with no quality whatsoever, in fact make sure your skill gem has at least 15% quality before you try and improve it. Even then the Prism should only be used if you’re filthy rich and with decent gear already. Before you decide to spend these rare and valuable orbs make sure you know exactly what you’re getting by improving a gem (auras for example only add fairly useless range). Also most useful 20% (max) quality gems cost 1 Exalted Orb which trades for about 10 Gemcutter’s Prisms, thus the aforementioned 15%. Remember, there’s also a recipe for quality gems!
Divine Orb	Another high value orb used for crafting and as such unlikely an average player will be needing it early in the game. Feel free to sell it for GCP or Chaos. Divine Orbs are used to reroll explicit (as opposed to implicit; look under Blessed Orb above) item stats to random values, most commonly used on unique items: if you get a low-roll but still valuable unique item you can use a Divine and hope for better stats. High or perfectly rolled uniques are typically more expensive than those with average stat rolls so Divine Orbs can add quite a bit of value to them.
Exalted Orb	Extremely rare to find and always in demand. If you ever see this baby drop you better click like mad and hope the servers don’t crash. It’s used for adding additional mods (stats) to a rare item, something you should probably never do unless you have dozens or even hundreds of Exalteds to spend. You will have absolutely no trouble trading them for any other orb in the game. Some of the best and most expensive items in the game cost dozens and even hundreds of Exalted Orbs so don’t waste them ever, especially on low level items!
Eternal Orb	Eternal Orbs are used to “remember” stats, socket number and colors on a single item and later restore them if your crafting attempts don’t pan off. For example if you had a great 5-linked chest and want to try and 6-link it, you can use an Eternal Orb before you start and later on easily restore 5-links (which are hard to get as well). Eternals are expensive and very rare so don’t use them unless you really know what you’re doing!
Mirror of Kalandra	Extremely expensive and almost impossible to find, the Mirror makes an exact duplicate of an existing non-unique item. It’s pretty much worth as much as the most expensive item in game is, meaning it sells for over 100 Exalted Orbs in Standard league and if you get one you’re encouraged to donate it to me.

Two other notable items are Scrolls of Wisdom and Portal Scrolls. You’ll be getting tons of these are in majority of cases they are next to useless, however some players are lazy to constantly pick them up so I’ve managed to sell 100 Scrolls of Wisdom for 1 Chaos Orb several times so far. If you don’t mind picking them up you might get lucky and sell them.

Trading Ratios

As I mentioned already everything in Path of Exile has a certain value. The prices of orbs are determined by the frequency of their drops, vendor exchange prices and recipes, and player demand (probably in that order). If a vendor exchanges 4 Jeweller’s Orbs for 1 Orb of Fusing obviously the players exchange them in the same ratio; on the other hand if for some weird reason Jeweller’s Orbs started dropping in extreme amounts from now on chances are the prices would change.

The economy in PoE is basically based on supply and demand, therefore knowing the exact prices and exchange ratios of orbs is extremely important unless you want to throw away “money” for no reason.

Vendor exchange ratios

I briefly wrote on this topic in another post but I’ll repeat some of the key points here. Vendors can exchange basic currencies for you so for most low-value Orbs you don’t have to bother finding players to trade with. Here’s what vendors have to offer:

The basic system I use for getting rid of low value orbs is: Transmutation > Augmentation > Alteration > Jeweller’s > Fusing. Fusings are also easiest to trade with other players and the ratios are pretty standard (2 Fusings for 1 Chaos at the time of writing this). You can also vendor Transmutations for Scrolls of Wisdom, and then sell Scrolls to players.

Player exchange ratios

You can view currency exchange ratios here, I keep it updated constantly and it’s usually way more accurate than other resources. It’s based on “Standard” league and the prices are a bit different in other leagues such as Hardcore, so take that into account. Some currencies can’t be “downgraded” via vendors which also means that players may be selling them at a slight loss.

A small sidenote: prices often fluctuate slightly up to 15%. It’s especially important to consider that high value Orbs (especially Exalted) are often sold for a bit more than they’re usually worth (although technically they’re worth exactly as much as someone is willing to pay for them). You could spend days on end just trading one currency for another in Path of Exile and make a profit off of that.

Conclusion

The currency system isn’t overly complex and you’ll get the hang of it pretty fast. Just make sure you remember exactly how much an Orb is worth and what’s the best way to trade it. Take a screenshot of currency exchange values and set it as your desktop wallpaper if necessary (but remember, values and rates constantly change!).

And if you ever have any questions you can always simply ask me in the comments below.