Abyss Crafting — Desecration and the Three Liches
The core of Abyss crafting is Desecration — planting a powerful modifier that normally can’t roll onto a rare item. If you come from PoE1, it works quite differently than you’d expect. Abyss also has a second axis: the “Gaze” augments socketed into Augment Sockets.
This isn’t PoE1 — there are no Abyss Jewels or sockets
Clear up the misconception first. PoE2 0.5 has no PoE1-style Abyss Jewel and no Abyssal Socket. “Socket an Abyss Jewel” does not apply to this game.
PoE2 has two axes instead:
- Desecration — planting Abyss-exclusive modifiers onto a rare item (the main topic below).
- Augment Sockets + Gazes — you socket a Soul Core–class augment called a “Gaze” into a weapon’s or armour’s Augment Socket to apply its effect. The Darkness Enthroned belt provides two (hidden) Augment Sockets and boosts these augments, making it the signature enabler.
Desecration — planting modifiers with preserved bones
Desecration is performed with a currency called preserved bone. It’s not an orb or a bench — you right-click the bone and use it on a rare item.
- Use the bone on a rare item. If its affixes are already full, a random affix is removed first to make room.
- The added modifier is unrevealed (a line of green abyssal glyphs), occupying a prefix or suffix slot.
- Take the item to the Well of Souls in Act 2 to choose 1 of 3 and reveal it. If the item level is high enough (generally 65+), at least one option is a modifier that normally can’t roll.
A few rules:
- An item is limited to one Desecrated modifier by default (0.5.0 made Desecrated mods no longer count as crafted, but added the 1-mod limit). The exceptions are the Omen of Putrefaction below and certain uniques.
- Desecrated modifiers on jewels are the “Lightless” / “of the Abyss” families, and are not compatible with the Lich-specific Omens.
Kinds of preserved bone
Preserved bones are split by target item type. The top “Ancient” tier:
| Preserved bone | Target |
|---|---|
| Ancient Jawbone | Rare weapon or quiver |
| Ancient Collarbone | Rare amulet, ring, or belt |
| Ancient Rib | Rare armour |
Ancient tier is drop level 75, minimum modifier level 40, guaranteeing high values. Lower-tier bones also exist. Bones drop from Abyssal Troves and the Abyssal Depths.
The three Liches and targeting Omens
Desecration’s exclusive modifiers come from the pools of three Liches — Amanamu, Kurgal, and Ulaman. Which Lich, and which slot, you target with Omens, which drop rarely from Abyss monsters and the chests at the end of the Abyssal Depths.
| Omen | Effect |
|---|---|
| Omen of Sinistral Necromancy | Next Desecration adds only a prefix |
| Omen of Dextral Necromancy | Next Desecration adds only a suffix |
| Omen of the Sovereign | Next weapon/jewellery Desecration guarantees an Ulaman modifier |
| Omen of the Liege | Next weapon/jewellery Desecration guarantees an Amanamu modifier |
| Omen of the Blackblooded | Next weapon/jewellery Desecration guarantees a Kurgal modifier |
| Omen of Abyssal Echoes | Next reveal lets you reroll the 3 offered options once |
| Omen of Putrefaction | Next Desecration replaces all modifiers, creating up to 6 unrevealed ones and corrupting the item |
| Omen of Light | Next Orb of Annulment removes only Desecrated modifiers |
The Lich-to-Omen pairing is counterintuitive: Sovereign = Ulaman, Liege = Amanamu, Blackblooded = Kurgal. The Omen of Putrefaction breaks the 1-mod limit to push a whole item into Desecration, and the Omen of Light is used with an Orb of Annulment to strip only a badly-rolled Desecrated modifier.
The pinnacle boss Vessel of Kulemak always drops the Grip of Kulemak ring (Abyssal Signet base), which holds up to four of these Lich Desecrated modifiers. See Vessel of Kulemak.
Essence of the Abyss
Essence of the Abyss is a one-shot currency, separate from Desecration. Its effect is “removes a random modifier and augments a rare item with a new guaranteed modifier,” and that guaranteed modifier is the Mark of the Abyssal Lord (as a prefix or suffix on nearly every equipment class). It drops from monsters imprisoned in essences near Abyss pits.
Running the Abyss and earning currency
The content itself (following the spreading cracks and killing along them) is in Six Map Mechanics; here we focus on the currency angle.
- Fissures appear near monster packs; killing nearby closes them and spawns Abyssal monsters. Closing clustered fissures opens pits, and multiple pits connect into a network. Clearing a pit spawns an Abyssal Trove chest (rewards + preserved bones).
- Abyssal Troves have variants — Abyssal Armoury (armour + rib bones), Abyssal Arsenal (weapons + jawbone bones), and Abyssal Coffer (currency).
- A pit sometimes leads to the Abyssal Depths. Its end holds a Large Abyssal Trove with exclusive rewards — the Gazes (Amanamu’s, Kurgal’s, Tecrod’s, Ulaman’s) and lineage support gems.
- Omen-farming tip: a monster with the “Amanamu’s Void” modifier drops only the Omen of the Liege if killed inside the fog cloud, and the other five Omens if killed outside it.