Temple Crafting — Corruption and Vaal Temple Currencies
The crafting theme of the Temple (Fate of the Vaal) is corruption — the last gate of normal crafting. Using a Vaal Orb to corrupt an item can be a big upgrade, but a corrupted item can no longer be modified by normal currency. Atziri’s temple is where you get the currencies that push corruption a step further — adding a second corruption to an already-corrupted item (twice-corrupting), or gambling on Soul Cores, gems, and Tablets.
Corruption basics — the Vaal Orb
A Vaal Orb “modifies an item unpredictably and corrupts it.” The outcomes depend on item class.
- Non-unique equipment — 25% each: No change / reroll up to 3 modifiers into new ones / add a Vaal enchantment / add a socket (for jewellery, this outcome is No change).
- Unique equipment — 25% each: No change / apply a 0.78x–1.22x multiplier to explicit modifier values (0.5.0 changed this from a full re-randomisation) / add a Vaal enchantment / add a socket (jewellery = No change).
- Gems — 25% each: No change / gem level ±1 (can exceed max) / add or remove a socket / quality ±10% (up to 23%).
- Flasks/charms — 100%: quality ±10%.
- Waystones can go up or down a tier — the main way to make a Tier 16.
Two key points. There is no “turn into a rare” outcome for normal equipment (that’s the PoE1 model). And after corruption, normal currency won’t work — but you can still insert or replace runes/Soul Cores in sockets.
If you hate the No-change result, activate the Omen of Corruption: it makes your next Vaal Orb always result in change, removing “No change” from the pool. It doesn’t stop effectively-no-change cases like adding a socket to jewellery.
In Act 3’s Jiquani’s Sanctum, the Paquate’s Mechanism corruption altar replicates a Vaal Orb on an item once per character.
Temple-exclusive corruption currencies
Rooms inside Atziri’s temple each hold a bench that performs a specific corruption, and that action can be itemized into a currency. Alternatively, these currencies drop from the Royal Trove after you defeat Atziri.
| Currency | Effect |
|---|---|
| Architect’s Orb | Modifies corrupted equipment or a jewel, or destroys it — 50% add a second corruption enchantment / 50% destroy. Only ever adds enchantments; can’t roll the same group twice |
| Core Destabiliser | Modifies a Soul Core (risk of destruction) — duplicate it / transform into another Soul Core of the same tier / transform into an Ancient Soul Core / destroy |
| Crystallised Corruption | Modifies a corrupted skill gem, or destroys it (twice-corrupts the gem) |
| Ancient Infuser | Modifies a Tablet unpredictably and corrupts it — add a random tablet mod (ignoring the limit) / add up to 10 uses / transform rerolling mods / destroy |
| Orb of Extraction | Destroys an equipment item, returning the recoverable augments (runes / Soul Cores) socketed in it |
| Vaal Cultivation Orb | Replaces up to 2 modifiers on a corrupted Vaal unique. Replaces other uniques with a corrupted unique of the same item class |
| Vaal Siphoner | Adds a kill threshold to corrupted rare jewellery — on reaching it, siphons a random modifier and improves the values of the others |
What these share is that the target is already corrupted (or corruption-class). Architect’s Orb and Crystallised Corruption are “twice-corrupt” tools, Core Destabiliser is Soul Core gambling, and Orb of Extraction recovers well-made runes/Soul Cores from gear.
The Orb of Sacrifice family
The [Name]‘s Orb of Sacrifice comes in four target-specific variants. The shared effect is “upgrades a Corruption Enchantment on a rare [type] and removes a random modifier.”
| Currency | Target |
|---|---|
| Kamasa’s Orb of Sacrifice | Rare amulet, ring, or belt |
| Kopec’s Orb of Sacrifice | Rare armour |
| Yaomac’s Orb of Sacrifice | Rare weapon or quiver (new in 0.5.4, Royal Trove drop only) |
| Yugul’s Orb of Sacrifice | Rare jewel |
So they push an already-enchanted rare’s corruption enchantment to a higher tier, at the cost of one random modifier.
Running the temple and earning currency
The content itself (Energised Crystals, placing rooms, destabilisation, reaching Atziri) is detailed in Atziri, the Red Queen. Here we cover only the currency angle.
- Use the room benches directly, or itemize the action. Tier-3 rooms like the Locus of Corruption hold a twice-corrupt bench, and you can itemize that action into an Architect’s Orb (etc.) to use later.
- The Royal Trove after Atziri drops the temple-exclusive currencies. Don’t leave right after the kill — take Atziri’s Medallion to the entrance checkpoint to open the vault and Royal Trove (see the Atziri guide).
- The temple appears at Lira Vaal, northeast on the Atlas, and maps in that city always contain Energised Crystals.