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Path of Exile 2's Crafting System Hates You | Design Delve (Patreon)

Published:
2026-02-02 16:01:56
Imported:
2026-02

Content

This week's episode of Design Delve is now available!

Files

Path of Exile 2's Crafting System Hates You | Design Delve

In today's episode, J & Ludo delve into a crafting system that cares not for the players' needs nor their feelings. Music used in order of appearance: Intruder - Stray OST The Abyss - Hyper Light Drifter OST Checking in - Celeste OST The Notebooks - Stray OST Green Path - Hollow Knight OST Secret Lab - Stray OST Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SecondWindGroup Second Wind Merch: https://store.dftba.com/collections/second-wind https://sharkrobot.com/collections/second-wind

Comments

ParaParadox

I'm glad other people can enjoy different things, but I think this is the first Design Delve that has caused me to recoil from a game mechanic. The extra steps and randomness don't add enjoyment to me, it just prolongs the time I have to spend grinding the game. Maybe my opinion would change if I played to know just how much optimization is required to complete all content, but POE already has a massive barrier to entry with the skill Yggdrassil.

Ryan Young

One of the problems is that this game is always presented to people with these crazy difficulty mechanics as if they're required to play. You can absolutely enjoy the story and make fun builds and not touch most of this. The skill tree requires zero planning. Level up, stay on the main branch of your class and its perfectly playable. As you play you get plenty of loot drops to keep your character geared. All of these mechanics are there for replayability and endgame/post-endgame. And you can store drops for other characters in your stash. So if you decide to make a new class your already geared up.

Pyrian

Yeah, this sounds awful, lol.

Pyrian

"Friction" is an interesting term. Personally, I think it's kind of too generic, like any sort of challenge or even activity could be described as Friction. A book has friction. Some more than others (I'm looking at YOU, Faulkner). No, what we're talking about here is a specific kind of friction widely known as "grind".

ergotpoisoning

I have played Path of Exile since 2013 and have always thought that its interpretation of videogame currency/crafting is unique. Tying every currency directly to utility and having relative usefulness dictate exchange rates, having different content reward currencies that manipulate items in specific ways, layered levels of interaction with item types... I get it's not for everyone, but I personally believe it's the deepest and most interesting implementation of crafting in a game ever. Glad to see GGG get some love here - they have made a lot of design choices worthy of Design Delve eps imo! Please talk about the PoE1 Atlas Tree next time...

WillysCustomGraphics

Red Dead Redemption 2 s crafting is fun. Going outside to touch pretend grass to upgrade a Wild West man purse. lol. 🤣

Matt Harper

Having played a ton of POE and the sequel, I can say that it's a game of "too much is never enough" for the big fans. You can certainly dip your toe in now and then, but the number of systems a new player has to learn in the current version of the original game is pretty bonkers. Each season they introduce a new mechanic, and they often roll them into the base game. They seldom remove content, even from seasons where each start is fresh. The game has become enormous. POE2 is less so, although it has inherited many systems and mechanics from the first game already. The game could really benefit from a "less is more" voice in there on occasion. A rotation of core systems, with fresh combinations, might keep players more engaged season to season. For me and my wife, the wheels just kept coming off, though we both have hundreds of hours played for the two titles. People will always find their own breaking points with games that don't exactly have a fixed ending: maybe a new system rubs you the wrong way. Maybe someone in the player base pissed you off. Maybe the meta of the season just isn't your chosen playstyle. The original dev of the games, Chris Wilson, gave a talk about being able to run POE essentially forever. For better or worse, that's what they do. Iterate on the Diablo concept, their own way, constantly. It's a slot machine with new lights and gimmicks forever. We had a lot of fun with it, but it's now something we only dip into from time to time because we usually like the story.