Path of Exile is a multiplayer Action RPG, coming out of Open Beta. It’s completely free to play, and there are no gameplay-changing microtransactions. Keep in mind that this game is incredibly complex and deep. Therefore, the following ten golden rules you must respect if you want to be more powerful in game.

1) Get more life – Try to get life in every item slot (except for your bow). Replacing some items with unique without life is OK, but you need to compensate the HP. On hardcore or if you want to reach level 92+, consider using Kaom’s Heart.

2) Cap resistances – 75% fire/cold/lightning resistance are your goal. You don’t have to cap them while leveling, but if you will die in acts 5+, without some resistances. In the endgame, capping your resists is mandatory. On hardcore you want to overcap your resistances to be unaffected by the elemental weakness curse.

3) Invest into good items – I know this sounds silly – yet don’t be afraid to spend currency, you can buy items. Even overpay for something. If you see an item, that will be a guaranteed upgrade over your current one, just get it, even if it’s somewhat overpriced. You’ll be farming faster afterwards.

4) Know your weakness – Understand what effects are dangerous to you and put thought into minimizing risks. Optimize your flasks. You’re (likely) not bleed/freeze immune – enchant flasks to help with that. Keep distance from things that can burst you down, adjust the pantheon to help with stuns.

5) Prioritize evasion bases – That evasion can and will save your life. When upgrading your equipment try to use as many evasion bases as possible.

6) Don’t underrate finetuning – 20% quality on your bow, flasks and all armor pieces. Get enchants, bless your harbinger to give it 50% local crit chance, get your gems to level 20, with 20 quality. There’s this ongoing believe that “attack characters don’t scale with gems”.

7) Don’t neglect your attributes – Depending on your setup, you’ll want up to 155 strength and up to 155 intelligence. You can save valuable nodes by optimizing your equipment.

8) The crit and attack speed on your bow is local – The crit chance and attack speed on your bow is a local multiplier. That’s actually better than a global multiplier, because everything scales from the stats of your bow. When picking between the two, prioritize crit chance over attack speed.

9) Don’t go overboard on unique – Unique items often provide great advantages. Yet they come at a great cost: most of them lack defensive mechanics. Using too many of them WILL often get you killed.

10) Try to keep your accuracy at 90% or higher – This is absolutely important. Each critical strike checks your accuracy rating TWICE. Once to see if it hits and once to see if the crit hits. If you fail the second roll, your crit will be downgraded to a hit.