Perhaps the most expensive item I've ever had in Path of Exile. I knew if I wanted to take the Delve build, I was playing to the next level I was going to need at least one high-end item. It turns out the runes for the enhancement I want on my weapon cost more than just buying one of the swords with it already on it.

Many times, if you know how to craft something in Path of Exile you can save quite a lot of grinding and exchanging currency just by doing it yourself. The one thing I was not going to be able to farm myself was all the runes I needed for quite a powerful enchant for my sword.

The enchant itself returns projectiles to me. This would mean once I fire my attack out, they would land and then come back to me and damage anything I was standing nearby. While it would not be quite doubling my damage according to any numbers, I was able to run. It would be quite a powerful upgrade.

The issue ended up being every time I'd check the price of the runes needed that only dropped in the current league would keep going up in price. They would end up costing something like 1024 chaos orbs a piece. The total enchantment itself would end up costing around 100 Divine Orbs when I started thinking about working towards getting the enchantment for my sword. It would later balloon to over 130 Divine Orbs before I even got close.

Some players were however quite lucky in squiring loads of the runes in question long before people realized just how rare and valuable they would become. Some even created the enchant onto weapons they then would use for quite some time.

While I would attempt to get the runes. They could only be acquired from shipments in Settlers of Kalguur. You can’t just go out and run a shipment either. You needed to farm lots of ores from running maps. Then ship those ores out and hope to get the rune.

In total, I only acquired two of those ruins in question. Due to their high price, I ended up just selling them off when I was getting close to buying a sword that had everything, I was looking for at a cheaper price than just buying all the runes I'd need and enchanting my sword.

Over time as players either switched to different builds or acquired upgrades to weapons they had the expensive enchant on. They would go to sell the weapon. They were however selling to quite a small marker. Even more so most could not afford such an expensive item. As a result, such items could sit for weeks if not longer as the single one is for sale with the seller wanting a large chunk of currency to make improvements to their build.

As a result, I was not shocked as I was getting closer to being able to afford to buy one of these swords that people were lowering or selling for around the cost of just recovering the more expensive runes that were used to make the enchant on the sword itself.

At this point, I had my farming routes locked down quite tight. I was just raking in the Divine Orbs like I have not for quite some time. I don’t think even in my best leagues ever I was pulling in the kind of loot value as I was this time around.

It still however never felt like I was making enough. Prices to do the enchantment myself would always skyrocket. There would sometimes be a week or longer when there was not a single sword with the stats I needed for sale.

I just knew at some point that moment would come and I'd have to be ready for it. I ended up switching over to doing quite a lot of late-night grinding season. While in the past when I was not playing Path of Exile, I had done a decent job at breaking out of my habit of grinding till three, four, or even six in the morning before just crashing for a few hours of rest.

I guess you could say Path of Exile brought the worst out of me in that aspect. I just knew if I wanted to reach my 1k depth goal I was going to be needing at least this sword upgrade. While other upgrades would be needed, I would not be reaching even close to that goal if I did not at least get this one. There were far more expensive upgrades that I just did not have any hope of getting unless I looted something insane.

Things also got to a point where I was starting to struggle yet again in Delve quite hard. Many times, I'd hit an area I'd fail to clear out a couple of times before having to backtrack and try a different path. This would slow down my progress and waste quite a lot of sulfate in the process.

Then the night finally came. I was still a decent amount off from the goal of 125 Divine Orbs I had set myself for. At the time I had 77 in the bank and I had just exchanged some Chaos Orbs for another one making it 78.

I went to enter into the maps to farm more sulfate to keep going in Delve and I got an alert on the marketplace that a sword with everything I was looking for had just popped up on the market.

At first, I was just too busy farming away to even take a look at it. I was expecting it to be listed for 125 Divine Orbs anyway. Then I looked and it was selling for 80. At this point, it was 2 AM and I rubbed my eyes thinking I was seeing things incorrectly.

I looked at the listing again and it said 80 Divine Orbs. My heart started to pump and then a Divine Orbs dropped. Putting me at 79. Shortly later before heading back into Delve I went and cleared the maven event and to my shock I got an Orb of Conflict to drop.

I sold the orb to a sell order for a little less if I would have wanted around. Then converted all the chaos orbs I had on me for another Divine orb. This put me at 80 in total.

I then refreshed the listing page half expecting the sword to no longer be for sale. If this had been during the day I'd fully expect it to have sold by then. While the sword was still listed it can sometimes take the API a while to upgrade.

I sent a message half expecting to not get a reply back. It was still for sale. I went over to trade with the player and I carefully checked the stats on the sword. The price just felt cheap to be real. It was however exactly as expected.

With my palms sweating and my heart racing I clicked trade. The sword was now mine and I saved a buttload on it as well.

Final Thoughts

Up to this point, I had put off quite a lot cheaper upgrades. I just knew the price of the runes I needed kept going up at such a rate I either had to go after this upgrade hard or just not think about getting it.

With the sword in hand, I switched out my skill gems and went right into Delve. I ended up clearing out quite a few spots I had to skip over in the past. Many of these were fossil nodes I failed to clear in the past. I quickly netted 5 Divine Orbs worth of fossils. This sword would more than make up for how much I spent on it in the coming weeks as the deeper and more challenging encounters I'd face in Delve and elsewhere in the game.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Path Of Exile.