Path Of Exile: What Is Corruption

While leveling up in Path of Exile, you will be able to choose from dozens of weapons and armor pieces that drop throughout the world, as well as purchase valuable pieces from vendors. For the most part, these weapons and armor are typical, with some being better than others.

From time to time though, you may encounter Corrupted gear in Path of Exile. Corruption is something that can affect certain gear, so you'll want to know exactly what it does. In this guide, you can learn all about the Corruption modifier as well as how it will affect your game.

What Is Corruption?

Corruption is a modifier that prevents your PoE items from being modified further. In the image above, you can see a Nitrate Greater Mana Flask that has the Corrupted modifier on it. If we were to use something like an Orb of Alteration on it, it would not work.

In the case of our mana flask, there are no downsides. The two current modifiers (besides Corruption) don't have a downside, which means you can basically use this flask like normal. If you want to upgrade it though, you are out of luck; this isn't always the case though.

How To Corrupt Gear

Using A Vaal Orb

You can corrupt your own gear by using a Vaal Orb on it. This is a type of POE currency that will corrupt an item while "modifying it unpredictably". Once the Vaal Orb has been used, the item cannot be modified again, which means that if you don't like the outcome, you are still stuck with it.

Using An Altar of Corruption

Altars of Corruption work just like a Vaal Orb, but you don't need the orb to implement the modifier. Instead, the real task is finding the altar. The main way to find an Altar of Corruption is to venture into the incursion area called the Locus of Corruption (within the Temple of Atzoatl).

When you use this Altar of Corruption, your item may be corrupted with one or two modifiers, but it may also be destroyed or have all sockets turn white. As with corruption in general, there is risk involved.

If you have no idea what the Temple of Atzoatl is, don't worry! You can also find a Corruption Altar within the Vaal Ruins, which is found in Act Two. This also works like a Vaal Orb, so you can start corrupting early.

How To Find Corrupted Gear

You will also be able to find corrupted gear throughout the world. As the world is mostly randomly generated, you may have a chance to find a Vaal side area, which has its own random modifiers. Each Vaal side area will have a guaranteed chance to spawn a corrupted gem, but you may also find other corrupted gear.

What Are Corrupted Gems?

As their name implies, corrupted gems have the corrupted modifier. These cannot be further modified in any way, but they provide unique (and sometimes superior) tweaks to the original skill. For example, in the image above, we have Ice Shot, which has been corrupted. Because of this, the skill is now Vaal Ice Shot.

This new skill has an added bonus, this new version of Ice Shot will summon Mirage Sharpshooters, which were not present in the original skill.