How to Use the Blood Altar in Path of Exile (PoE)

Blood magic often gets a bad rep in fantasy settings, but it’s a very practical form of spellcasting! You spill a little blood here and there, and you get cool stuff! Who doesn’t like cool stuff? I like cool stuff, and I’m willing to bet you do too. If you like cool stuff, then here’s how to use the Blood Altar in Path of Exile.

How to Use the Blood Altar in Path of Exile (PoE)

The Blood Altar is a special utility in Path of Exile that allows you to sacrifice Beasts in exchange for a variety of useful services. With the Blood Altar, you can generate combat items like gear or practical tools like flasks and maps, upgrade and modify your existing items, or just create a big ol’ stack of cash for yourself. The only limits are your imagination and your capacity for mildly senseless bloodshed.

To gain access to the Blood Altar, you’ll first need the support of the hunter, Einhar. Starting in Act 2 of the campaign, whenever you go toe-to-toe with a pack of Beasts in the wild, Einhar may show up out of nowhere, join your party, and teach you how to trap them. Whenever a Beast has low health, Einhar will chuck a net to attempt to capture them, with any successful captures being automatically deposited in your Menagerie. You can also capture Beasts by defeating them in a Beast Burrow in certain dungeons.

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Using the Blood Altar

Once you’ve got some Beasts banked, press the Blood Altar button on your main menu to open the Blood Altar menu. You’ll get a big list of available recipes, as well as the Beasts they require. Some recipes require specific Beasts, while others only need a few Beasts from a certain category. If you have the right Beasts for the job, the little portraits will be colored in, otherwise they’ll be greyed out. Keep in mind that the level of the item you’re making will depend on the levels of the component Beasts. This goes double for unique items made with specific Beasts; the item will share the level of the Beast you used.

Here’s the tricky part: once you set the Beasts in a recipe and press the Craft button, both you and the Beasts you selected will be dumped into the Blood Altar Arena. Those Beasts ain’t giving up their blood without a fight, so you’ll have to kill all of them. If you can successfully kill every Beast you used, the Craft will succeed and you’ll get your prize from the Altar. If you get killed, though, the Craft will fail, and the Beasts will escape confinement. Make absolutely sure you’re ready for a fight before you try to make anything at the Blood Altar!

If you’re looking for more opportunities for fun and profitable bloodshed in Path of Exile, check out our guides for the best starter builds for the Ultimatum League, or the best place to farm currency. If you have a moment, give our Facebook page a visit, too!